Well, it’s the end of August and I went through the first two days of school to confirm that summer is over.  At least, it will be when this post goes live.  Right now, it’s Memorial Day weekend in May and I thought it would be funny to write this and see if I was right about what happened.

Honestly, I spent most of the summer working.  Our Life Skills program continues for 6 weeks in the summer to prevent regression.  So, I signed up to be a TA for that, which meant working from July 8th until August 16th.  That gave me about 1.5 weeks at the start of the summer and 1.5 afterwards.  A lot of changes had been going on too, so the weekdays were rough.  Field trips every Thursday were kind of fun, but I couldn’t exactly relax on them.  This meant I spent weekends either cherishing the time I got with my son or editing while regaining energy for the next week.

On the plus side, I got through all of Darwin & the Avenging Elf.  I was able to begin Darwin & the Demon Game when I was in Oswego for a few days to get away for a bit.  Couldn’t bring my laptop, so I’ll get to the hand edits of the former this weekend since I have time.  Still, made some decent progress with 2024 being a big editing year.  I might even start writing Darwin & the Joy Path by December.  Won’t hold my breath considering this school year is set to be a doozy.  Not only for me, but my son has a crazy schedule with a lot of work.

Non-editing free time was the big Lego sets I was saving.  DnD 50th Anniversary, Gotham City, and Barad-dur gave me some good challenges.  I only worked on them when the weather was bad and the evenings.  If I wasn’t working and the weather was good, I went out to do some Pokemon Go.  As long as I got an hour of fresh air, I was happy since it cleared my head when I needed it.  Still getting the hang of the game and they have so many special events on the weekends that it risk being a big distraction when I don’t have my son around.  Thankfully, my goal isn’t to do great against other trainers.  All I want is to get one of each Pokemon and complete the whole collection.  That and get some exercise because the biking was getting boring.  Probably have to get back to that once the cold weather returns.

The time with my son felt very limited, so I tried to make the most of it.  I spent July 4th with him, but there weren’t any big shows in the area.  Seems they do that the weekend before if the holiday lands on a weekday.  I didn’t have my son during that time, so the local fireworks and drone show wasn’t that appealing to me.  Maybe I’ll get lucky and have him for the show next year even though I don’t get the holiday.  Since we did a trip in April, we didn’t do one in August.  Only had a week together too and I wanted him to see his friends or see my parents.  Trips are fun, but he needs to socialize with people other than myself.

Speaking of trips, I took a solo journey to Oswego at the start of the week.  (At least, I hope I did since I’m still looking at hotel rooms.)  It was fairly nerve-wracking since I never made that trip on my own.  Nobody to talk to in the car or eat with when I make a stop for food really wears on a person.  It was nice to be up there on my own and get together with friends, but I’m still not comfortable doing it.  A few times I felt like I was in over my head and should turn back, but the hotel room was booked.  Will I do a trip like this again?  I don’t know.  Definitely go back with my son, but I haven’t decided if I would do another solo trip.  It is nice to get away to a place I know enough to be comfortable, so I can get some writing done.  Oswego definitely has a more relaxed vibe than Long Island, which helps with the creative juices.

That was my summer . . . Or not since I’m writing this in May.  😀