That’s pretty much how I finished the week.  Sure, my birthday was in there, but I didn’t do much for it.  Stayed late at work to help with basketball and got home in time for dinner and Pokemon Go with my son.  That was pretty much it.  One ankle had already taken a tweak at this point too.  The other one went the wrong way on me yesterday and was followed 1.5 hours later by me hitting my head on the bottom of a freezer door.  So, it wasn’t a stellar week.  A ton of personal drama that is carrying into next week happened too.  Really, really, really wish I could talk about that, which should tell you what arena it stems from.

On the plus side of things . . . Surprisingly, I’m not being sarcastic.

My phone decided that retaining a predictable charge was for suckers on Monday.  It didn’t die, but it couldn’t give me a straight answer on how it was doing.  This happened to my last phone, so it was time to get a new one.  Of course, I’m in New York and had to wait for the solar eclipse to end.  Got to watch that with my son, parents, neighbors, and I invited my son’s mom to join us as well.   That was fun for what it was, but you can only stare at an eclipse with the right glasses for so long.  Once it was done and dinner was eaten, my son and I were off to Verizon.

I usually only get the cheapest phone, but they had a good deal on the iPhone 15 Pro Max along with a nice bundle of accessories.  This included an iPhone 15 for my son, which I got him since he could use a faster one.  It also puts our devices on the same upgrade schedule, so I can get us deals in the future.  After the activation fees, I’ll only be spending an extra $20 per month for both phones combined.  This was what I was paying for my son’s phone alone last time, so I’m happy with it.  Taking me a while to get used to not having a home button and having to swipe for various things.

Got to test out the camera when we went out to the park on Tuesday.  There’s a pond we walk around for Pokemon Go.  Everyone does it, but we saw a bird flying around with a fish in its talons.  There are red-tailed hawks, so we didn’t think anything of it.  At one point, it must have dropped the fish and went hunting again.  I was watching as it rose high and did a dive for the water that wasn’t like a hawk.  It missed and fly close enough for everyone to see it was an osprey.  Managed to get these pictures as I tried to use my camera for the first time:

The rest of the week was a crazy slog through mayhem and chaos.  I got no amount of editing done, but I did manage to finish the May blog posts.  I’m hoping to get through a few chapters of Darwin & the Halfling Hunt this weekend.  Got a little of chapter 9 to finish and then I’ll try to get through chapters 10-13.  That leaves me 5 more chapters to hopefully work on this coming week.  If I can get through more than I’m in the clear to print Darwin & the Angry Elf for the father/son trip.  Need something to work on when we’re relaxing and he’s drawing his video game creations.

This coming week is going to be rough at the start.  Basketball is Monday and Tuesday, which isn’t too bad.  Got appointments on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday too.  So, editing is going to be a challenge before the weekend.  I have to start packing for the trip too.  Should get an idea of the weather and can get tickets to a bunch of things we want to do.  Lots of little things to do while editing and resting up.  Shouldn’t be a problem if I get a bunch done today.  Then again, I want to binge ‘Fallout’ on Amazon Prime before one of my friends watch and spoil it.  So much to do.

That’s really it for this week.  Some bright points, but there is a personal storm brewing again.  Not sure if it’s better or worse than what I survived earlier this year.  Just once I’d love to catch a break and have something really good happen to me.  Sell a few books.  Have someone reach out to turn one of my stories into a show/comic/movie/something for more press.  Win a $500 Lego gift card.  Get more time with my son since the next 1.5 months is going to be sparser than I would like.  2024 really isn’t turning out very good and I’m kind of done with it.

Goals of the week:

1. Help son with pre-break schoolwork.
2. Edit more Darwin & the Halfling Hunt.
3. Reserve trip events.
4. Start packing for trip.
5. Help with basketball at work.
6. Make a few June blog posts.
7. Watch ‘Fallout’ on Amazon Prime.
8. Biking if possible.
9. Probably something else I’m forgetting.