This week really got away from me.  Didn’t get as much writing or blog prep done as I had hoped.  I should really hunker down on that second thing because my scheduled posts only go through June.  Wonder why I got nowhere . . . Oh yeah, the exhaustion.

Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend, so a lot of activity was happening.  Family came over one day, including the baby niece.  My son was with me too, so it was a lot of laughing and playing.  Going from lifting an 11-year-old to picking up an 8-month-old always throws me off because it’s like going from a boulder to a feather.  Nice way to start the weekend though, but it was pouring.  BBQ ended up being done indoors, which wasn’t that exciting.

Moving furniture and biking nearly every day this week is another reason I kept ending the day tired.  Not the biggest reason, but my body isn’t used to that level of exertion.  This is on top of lots of stuffing going on at work, helping my son prepare for finals this coming week, and other dramas that always show up when I’m at my weakest.  I swear, some people in my life lurk in my shadow and wait for me to be at my limit before they rush in to give a solid shove.  Felt like I was flailing wildly most days and didn’t get to stop until around 9 PM.  Hence, writing and blogging taking a major hit.

Truthfully, most of my time wasn’t spent doing anything of interest.  This is the last month of school, which means my son is taking finals and I’m preparing to run a few.  We’re both done on the 25th.  It’s strange that it feels like a long ways off, but I know that it’s going to get here fast.  I think this coming week is going to be the roughest though.  My son having so many tests and needing to study is going to be a struggle, especially with other factors in his situation.  Make it to next weekend and we can rest a little . . . Well, he can while I continue helping with the furniture moving that is making me wish I had cybernetic limbs and spine.

I did get a little outlining done with Tales of the Slumberlord.  I finished the penultimate outline last night.  Gave me some trouble because my notes made no sense and the villain isn’t supposed to be clear in regards to his true goal.  Darwin bounces around a lot since there are threats all over the place and then stumbles along like he usually does.  I can’t figure out if this worked out or I’m a hack, but the depression I fought didn’t help any.  The whole series is strange in that Darwin wanders into trouble and then stumbles into victory, so the scope of this and the next adventure are playing tricks with my brain.  I’m so used to Luke Callindor and Clyde knowing what they’re doing that I have to stop myself from making Darwin too on the ball.  Anyway, this leaves me with the finale to work on this weekend.

Ever have an idea that worked great as a trilogy, but the character is the type to get it done or lose interest if it stretches for that long?  This is the problem I’m having.  My notes on this idea has tons of characters and a winding plot.  Does seem stretched in a few areas, but I may have to condense or change the structure.  Darwin stories seem to go to about 15-16 chapters, so he may end on one that hits 18-20.  I’m thinking having it be a three act story to utilize my notes and the flow, but increase the speed of events.  For some reason, I can’t shake the doubt on this one.  It’s frustrating.

In non-writing news, my son and I started playing the new ‘Pokemon Snap’.  I’ve had it since the end of April, but we couldn’t get any time to play until last weekend.  Only did the first area to get used to the controls and it was a lot of fun.  The picture quality isn’t as good as the N64 one, but the challenge of having to get 4 different types of pictures of each Pokemon is great.  You can only pick one picture of each Pokemon too when you finish a level, so it takes longer to do.  There are requests such as getting a Pidgeot (giant sparrow) to grab a Magikarp (flopping fish) then take a shot.  This one was tough because it requires a lot of timing.  Promised my son we’d play again next weekend once finals are done.  I’d say we play during the week, but a lot of studying is in our future.

Television-wise, I binged the newest half season of ‘Lucifer’, which was great.  I was surprised to read that they’re getting another season, so this wasn’t the finale.  I moved on to an anime called ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’, which had season 3 come out.  I’ll finish that today.  It’s okay, but the pacing isn’t fast enough to keep me engaged the whole time when I’m tired.  Not sure what I’ll watch next.  I saw that ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ gets its final season at the end of the month though.  Means I shouldn’t get into anything that will take too long to finish.

The plan for next week is survival as usual.  The goals will go like this:

1. Help my son study for all of his tests.
2. Finish Tales of the Slumberlord outlines.
3. Get back to the Windemere agent notes if possible.
4. Work, which is a given
5. Try to do 15-30 minutes of biking per day
6. Move furniture (Not a choice)
7. Pokemon Snap after tests
8. Buy the Pride Month Lego set for my son
9. Sleeeep
10. Start the ‘My Hero Academia’ puzzle that my son wants on his wall eventually.
11. Get further into the July blog posts.
12. Decide if Teaser Tuesday will come back for the summer or I’ll do character interviews.