I didn’t get as much writing done this week as I had hoped.  Have only myself to blame since I only got 1.75 chapters of Darwin & the Demon Game edited.  I thought I would have more time during the week, so I indulged in more of the Pokemon Go event than I should have.  I got some great catches, fresh air, exercise, and a new dislike of arctic winds, but it meant I only did editing during my lunch breaks and evening.  Guess my time management wasn’t great here.

To be honest, I should have seen it coming.  I had to sacrifice Saturday evening to cooking and baking for two Thanksgiving events.  It was penne with vodka sauce for a Tuesday celebration at work with the other TAs and 3 ice cream breads for the Life Skills Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday.  By the time I finished all of that, I was exhausted and couldn’t edit more than 2 pages.  Monday evening was when I cooked dinner for the family and then helped my son with schoolwork.  In other words, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen.

Some surprise training wiped out some editing time at work on Tuesday.  Probably could have squeezed a bit in after training and the lunch, but I couldn’t figure out a place to go for solitude.  Wednesday evening was originally going to be for editing, but I finally pushed away my anxiety and bought a new laptop.  It’s a Lenovo Ideapad, which is working really well.  Spent the entire evening setting it up, transferring files, installing necessary programs, and then just trying to figure out all of the new stuff.  The volume controls are different and now I have Windows 11, so I’m still trying to get used to all of that.  Not a fan of how the new version of Word insists on only autosaving to OneDrive and not my Dropbox.  Hoping to figure out how to change that before I get back to full writing.

Add a major storm during Thanksgiving and family coming over yesterday to create an exhausted me.  I hit last night with my eyelids feeling heavy around 9 PM, which is when I started writing this post.  Thinking back, all of the appointments that go on during the week certainly don’t help.  With any luck, a weekend focused solely on hanging out with my son to play video games and relax will help.  Got 3 full weeks of school before 2 weeks of break, so it’s going to be a rough slog.  My hope is to still get the last 3.25 chapters edited before the break.  Fingers crossed there.

Oh yeah, there was the other issue that turned up around Monday night.  At least I think that’s when it happened.  I woke up with a 94.6 body temp and my heartrate going over 100 bpm.  The temperature did drop, but this created a really rough night where I began shivering soon after I fell asleep.  My body temp eventually got up to 96.6, but that was 5 minutes before my alarm went off.  Thinking back, I’ve been sporting a 96.7-97.3 body temp ever since I had Covid in the spring.  It occasionally gets higher or drops lower, but that’s the area it tends to stay.  Means I can have some really bad nights, which don’t turn up on my CPAP readings.  Tossed an extra blanket on to prevent it from happening again, but it’s hard to get around the house.  My hands get cold fast even when typing and my energy drains by the end of the day.  Had issues with the winter before, but now it’s downright terrible.

This week is going to be shaky in terms of editing time.  I believe I can get through the rest of chapter 14 and maybe into 15 before next weekend.  There are a few appointments where I’ll just be sitting in the waiting room.  My usual Friday one will finish early as well, so I can edit while doing laundry that night.  Next weekend has a 2-5 Pokemon Go event each day, but I don’t have to be there for the whole thing.  Just go out long enough to complete what I have to and come home.  I’m getting back to the exercise bike as well since I can’t go walking around much.  Parks close around 5 PM and I don’t get free most days until 4/4:30.  Really hate aspects of my weekly schedule.

So, what are the goals of the week?

1. Stay warm!
2. Finish chapter 14 and move into 15 of Darwin & the Demon Game.
3. Deal with blitzkrieg of appointments.
4. Finish watching ‘Legend of Vox Machina’.  Maybe start ‘Arcane’.
5. Bundle up to do some Pokemon Go each day.  Fresh air does help stave off the brain fog.
6. Brave the mall for a little present shopping.
7. Continue getting used to new laptop.
8. Schedule a few February posts if time allows.
9. Stay warm!
10. Sleep.

Here’s a few Pokemon Go pictures from last weekend.  The event revolved around these really strong Pokemon and various shinies.  A shiny Pokemon is one that is an alternate, harder to find coloration of each Pokemon.  Not sure if anyone will fully understand, but some are rare and powerful: