On the plus side, I did manage to finish preparing all of the posts for December.  The rest of the week was a lot of bouncing around due to holidays, work, and it being the last week of the quarter.  Not to mention a lot of meetings and stuff.  I’m genuinely surprised I accomplished anything creative like a few blog posts.  Looking back, Wednesday was the only normal day.  I’m surprised I’m even functional, but those last 3 chapters of Darwin & the Beast Collector won’t write themselves.  They would have done so by now instead of the outline collecting dust.

Work was where most of the busy stuff happened.  We go through Crisis Prevention training every Election Day, so I didn’t get the time off.  It’s not the most exciting thing after you’ve done it before.  This year was slightly better since there were some changes on no more awkward videos from the 80’s.  Still, it was a long day with a lot of reading, quizzing, sitting, and listening.  Left me fairly tired for the rest of the day, which wasn’t much since I didn’t get to spend time with my son until 5:30.  Thanks to Daylight Savings Time, that didn’t give us much of a chance to do anything fun.  Going to be like this every year going forward too.

The other big work event was an unexpected field trip.  Our school had a Unified Basketball team, which is a combination of general education and life skills students.  A nearby high school was having a Special Olympics Summit, so we were invited to do a presentation.  I ended up going with two of my class’s students and we managed to make it through all of the speeches and presentations.  Not an easy feat for these kids.  Maybe it was the promise of free pizza.  Nice final work day of the week since we had Friday off for Veterans Day.  That was just a day of Pokémon Go with my son and a break to watch ‘Diamonds are Forever’.

Monday was parent/teacher conference night at my son’s school.  Not as much time as I would have liked, but it was in-person for the first time since 2018.  The ex-wife and I had to work together on this one instead of it being every parent for themselves.  That was such a bad appointment system for anyone in a co-parenting situation.  My son got glowing reports all around.  His grades aren’t as high as they were last year, but high school is more difficult.  I’m not surprised they drooped, especially since he was never the strongest test taker.  He makes up for it by never being afraid to participate and doing all of his homework, which is good.  His teachers love him too, so I think he’s going to end on a very high note.

Can’t say anything else exciting happened.  I’m still chugging along with the CPAP machine, which has had a wrinkle.  Seems Daylight Savings Time really messes with a person when they’re in the middle of developing healthier sleeping habits.  The CPAP has allowed me to get really deep, quality sleep.  I was feeling more energetic and healthier until the clocks went backwards.  Now, I’ve gradually started to get more exhausted earlier in the day and not feeling great when I wake up.  My hope is that I can reset things this weekend by sleeping a bit longer and not push myself too hard.

So, what is the weekend plan?  I’m aiming to get 1.5 or even 2 chapters of Darwin & the Beast Collector completed.  This is going to be tough.  The next chapter is a big chase with the plan to solve part of the problem.  After that, it’s the big revelation chapter with a complicated fight scene.  Doesn’t help that I’m not really sure how to pull some of that second chapter off.  Been jumping around with clues and ideas throughout the writing, which could mean things don’t really work.  I think I may have made a mistake at one point, which makes part of my notes useless . . . Okay, I think I just fixed it by changing a small detail that appears a few times.

The rest of the week is going to be a busy work week.  With Thanksgiving so close, we need to start preparing for the usual Life Skills feast.  So, we have to work extra hard at our work sites as well.  Not that we don’t, but this week always feels busier.  If I have any writing left to do on the two chapters, I might have to attempt some broken nighttime writing.  Not something I enjoy, but I don’t want to leave it hanging for 2 weeks.  I think I can pull most of it off though.  Didn’t get any writing done last night due to being so sleepy, but we’ll see.

Goals of the week:

1. Finish two chapters of Darwin & the Beast Collector
2. Help son with homework and studying.
3. Play a little Legends of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
4. Start getting the January posts ready.
5. Continue improving sleep.
6. Use the exercise bike more.
7. Cut back on eating leftover Halloween candy.
8. Tinker with ‘Phi Beta Files’.
9. Continue reading ‘Fairy Tail’.
10. Make a more interesting goals list next weekend.