My week started with my car trying out for the Olympic ice skating team on the way to work.  Things went downhill from there . . . So, I didn’t get as much editing done as I expected.

To elaborate, I was driving to work and planned on stopping at the mall for a short walk first.  My car hit some black ice, which I saw, but couldn’t avoid.  Nobody was around me and it I hit it rather slow, which resulted in a ‘safe’ 360′ spin.  Plenty of time to go ‘no, no, no, fuck, fuck, no’ several times.  No damage or injury, but I had to stop at the nearby mall just to give my nerves time to rest.  Didn’t catch any decent Pokemon and no food places were open, but at least I calmed down.

The rest of the week was highlighted by people getting sick and a few crazy incidents at work.  Can’t go into the details, but I can say that I didn’t get the best of the situation on a few days.  My neck and back are still aching from what overdoing things and not being able to rest at home.  I’m going to be moving slow for a while and my stress levels are going to need a few weeks to go back to normal, which is still high for others.  At least I only have this week and then a break . . . I just know next week is going to be mayhem on a few days.

Another incident has been going on outside of work, which is stressing me out.  This is tied to the life event, so I can’t go into details.  I will say that it is getting to my son, who I’m trying to help through things while he also handles schoolwork.  The juggling act is getting hairy because his autism makes controlling his emotions difficult.  Thankfully, he isn’t a violent or wordless screaming kid, so he can talk about what is bothering him.  Just turns into rants that I have to let him get out of his system.  As a parent, it hurts to hear what he’s saying and know that I can’t do much to clear the problem.  Telling him that things will get better one day isn’t useful, so the whole situation has left both of us rather punchy and tired.  Glad to have Pokemon Go, which lets us leave the house and talk about things while catching fictional creatures.

Plus side, I did get to start editing Darwin & the Beast Collector.  I only got through 1.5 chapters though.  At first, I thought it was because I was going out for Pokemon Go too often.  That was probably the case on Saturday since I had so many errands and chores to do anyway.  Yet, that’s when I finished the full chapter.  Sunday was more difficult because I had a few surprise errands, but I was moving slow with the editing.  Took me a while to get through pages because I was cleaning up a lot.  Nothing had to be totally junked, but I needed to shore up some information, eliminate a lot of repetition, and check things later in the story to create foreshadowing.  This is going to be a tough book because I changed things so close to the finale, so I need to rework the foreshadowing and clues to aim at the next direction.  This also means I’m maintaining a list of notes for me to read before every session to make sure I keep an eye out for certain situations.

I’m taking a solo trip in April when I don’t have my son, so I can definitely get editing done during that period.  Might have been able to get more done down here because I lose two days to traveling, but I need to get away.  I wouldn’t have done this if I didn’t stumble onto a great deal for hotel room prices.  Besides, I’m not going away for the break in February, which gives me 5 days to edit.  I could get 5 chapters done if I push hard.  There are two weekends in March where I don’t have my son AND there isn’t a massive Pokemon Go event, which can net me 2-4 more chapters.  Honestly, I don’t know why I plan things like this when I know I’ll probably finish by end of June and use the summer to type everything in.  Is it possible that I’m so scared about writing my first new book in years that I’m delaying it?

This is Super Bowl weekend and I have my son, so there isn’t going to be any editing.  We are doing the end of a Pokemon Go event today since we couldn’t do much this week as well as go over math for a test.  Tomorrow is more studying, an afternoon PoGo event we have tickets for, and then the party.  As much as we want to do other things, we know that preparing for the party will make it difficult to do stuff around the house.  I’d say we’re looking forward to the game, but I’m not that invested.  At least it isn’t Buffalo vs Philadelphia because then I’d be rooting for a meteor strike.  Bad enough that Buffalo beat the crap out of the Islanders during the first game I’ve gone to since the 90’s.  Just not into Buffalo teams lately.

Goals of the week:

1. Stay warm and drive safely.
2. Work on April blog posts.
3. Help son study for math if he wants.
4. Get Pokemon Go in on Tuesday with son since it’s only chance to play with him this week.
5. Continue watching ‘Ranma 1/2’ and maybe start a live-action afterwards.  Thinking of ‘Warehouse 13’ since I never finished that.
6. Order 2-3 CD’s for my next road trip.  Thinking of INXS, but can’t think of a second one.
7. Get through a series of inevitable headaches.