So, I live on Long Island, which is in New York.  On Wednesday, we received a ‘present’ from Canada.  That would be the wildfire smoke, which made it hard to breath for those of us with asthma.  It turned the world a creepy yellow that reminded me of disaster movies after a volcano explodes.  There was some level of panic and annoyance by those who had to go out in the mess.  Through it all, many of us jokingly hummed or sang the South Park song above.  Best way to remain calm while hacking up a lung.

All that being said, I hope Canada can get the fires under control and save the land, animals, and people in their path.

This was another exhausting week, but I knew it would be.  Last full week of classes always leads to a lot of work, especially on the parental front.  Took every opportunity to help my son study and relax for finals, which start next week.  It wasn’t easy to do since we don’t have guides for all of the tests.  I made sure he had all of his homework done too.  I’m glad that there’s a place for parents to see what their students owe, so I was using that every afternoon.  Thankfully, my son may be forgetful at times, but he’s been quick to make up work.  No major headaches beyond an ELA test on ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and a science test.  As far as I know, he aced both.

Speaking of academic successes:

My son had an academic awards ceremony on Monday.  As you can see, he ended up winning three awards.  One was for his Lego Robotics team coming in 3rd, which was a small surprise.  Another was a Presidential Gold Award for being on the honor for 7 quarters.  I expected him to get something like this, but I didn’t realize he had hit the honor roll that many times in a row.  The final award was the ultimate surprise and a local one.  It was a special recognition made in memory of a former student.  It was given to a student who always gives 100%, is seen as dependable, and always happy.  This was probably the biggest win for him because it was entirely unexpected.

I’d like to say that other things happened this week, but nothing that reached the same level of importance.  Work, parenting, and resting for another day of those things was basically it.  I kind of met all my goals because I made them simple.  Even finished the September posts and started planning the monster posts for October.  Nothing really exciting there.

This week did start the Do I Need to Use a Dragon? posts though.  Less than a month before it goes live.  It’s still up for 99 cent preorder.  It’ll stay that price for the first month, which I hope will give it some traction.  The posts/teasers have gotten a little bit more attention than others.  Although, I’m seeing some weird comments that go to spam and only respond to the book title instead of the topic.  They appear to be automated and always push for me to visit another site.  Not sure how I triggered a bunch of spambots, but maybe that’s a good thing?

My big goal for this weekend is to finish the Darwin & the Beast Collector outline.  I had hoped to tinker with it throughout the week, but too many things were going on for me to get to it.  Be nice if I can finish it today after my doctor appointment.  I’m doubting it only because I’m rarely in a creative mood after those.  Always feels like I get bad news and have to decide on if I should keep my current level of suffering or trade it in for a medication-induced one.  I’m still trying to get the diet to improve by reducing sodium, which is harder than one would expect.  Before anyone starts throwing out suggestions, I’m a slightly picky eater and my lunch options are limited at work.  This paragraph took an odd turn.

The week coming up won’t be that bad.  Classes end on Tuesday for me and my son, which means we get half days.  He’s been studying hard, so we won’t have to cram before the tests.  He’ll have a 3-day weekend to study for his ASL benchmark, so we can focus on the other ones.  Doubt he will have any other homework too.  We’ll be at graduation day before we know it . . . Both for him and one of my students who is aging out.  Still not fully accepting that next school year will be the first one I’ve been in life skills without this student there.  Definitely going to tear up at some point.  Guess it’s going to be a crazier week than I realized.  At least on an emotional level.

Television-wise, I finished watching ‘FUBAR’ and thought it was fun.  Had some iffy parts when it tried to be serious, but I have a soft spot for comedic action that involves Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Why can I write his name correctly on the first try, but I get the names of friends I’ve had for years wrong at times?  Anyway, I decided to re-watch an anime called ‘Log Horizon’ since I didn’t know how things would go for the next few weeks.  I didn’t want to start anything new and have to stop for a while.  Makes for decent background noise while I finish the book outline.  Might be able to start writing Darwin & the Beast Collector by the end of the month too.  Fingers crossed.

Goals of the week:

1. Finish Darwin & the Beast Collector outline this weekend.
2. Doctor appointment . . . Crying afterwards?
3. Help son study for finals.
4. Help son relax for finals.
5. Possibly get tickets to ‘The Flash’.
6. Finish puzzle.
7. Start doing October posts just to stay active.
8. Tinker with ‘Phi Beta Files’.
9. Buy more fruit for lunches.