Goal Post: First Week of Summer in the Books

You know I’ve had a week if I’m writing this post on Saturday instead of the night before. I could have done that, but I was tired when I got home yesterday. Soooo tired. Summer was supposed to be relaxing and allow me to get my energy back. I’m the same amount of exhausted as I was when I worked. So, what happened?

First, the idea that I can sleep in isn’t entirely true. I spent the entire school year waking up at 4:30/5 AM. That’s before my alarm, so my body is clearly used to doing it. Some times I can fall asleep again, but the other times I’m just fidgeting in the bed. The heat we had for most of the week didn’t help even with the air conditioning. So, I certainly didn’t catch up on rest. We’ll see what happens down the road.

I didn’t get any writing done this week. No editing or outlining either. The reason is because I had my son the whole time. A few nights he went to his mom, but I was already drained after a day of adventure. There were plenty of those:

Sunday– Father/son trip to the Bronx Zoo. It was really hot and crowded. Lots of people without masks, which wouldn’t worry us too much if we didn’t keep seeing people sneeze or cough into the ether. Guess the whole hygiene thing went away once the mask mandate was lifted.

Monday– I had the dentist in the morning, but a Mario Lego Set first. I came back to lunch then Lego DC Super Villains before family came over. Visited my grandparents’ graves, which we don’t do a lot. My son spoke of vaguely remembering the area because it’s been a while. A big accomplishment for him since he doesn’t typically remember these things.

Tuesday– Walk along an oceanside park with friends and then hanging out in a library when it got too hot. My son hadn’t seen my friend’s daughter since last summer, so it was great seeing them hang out. Got to socialize myself too. Then it was ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ for lunch followed by another Mario Lego set and then Lego DC Super Villains for a bit. Way too hot to do more.

Wednesday– Not much different from before. Only we played Pokemon Snap like I had promised. It wasn’t the hottest day, but it kept threatening rain or being too hot. We were tired from the previous days too. Got a haircut on this day too.

Thursday– No video games! Mario Lego Sets were made. We watched a Hong Kong movie called ‘Dynasty Warriors’ and my son made another drawing. Slowly getting back into the art, so I might be able to do another of those posts in August. He starts art camp next week, so we’ll see what he comes back with. He invited the entire block to his birthday party too. Eep!

Friday– Made the last of the Mario Lego Sets. I’m going to post pictures of them and video of the whole collection on my Instagram in a bit. We did video games too, but it was mostly just hanging out because of appointments and being sleepy. Oh, I had to help my dad move furniture back into the house too. That took up the morning and we didn’t even finish. After my son went to his mom, I did errands and got together with high school friends, one of which is visiting from out-of-state.

That brings us to today when I’m going to be heading into NYC soon. Hanging out with a friend I haven’t seen since before the pandemic. We have no real plans beyond trying to stay dry and avoiding large, suspicious crowds. More than likely, I’ll get lost in finding our new meeting place since I can’t hang around Penn Station these days. One final adventure before I dive into editing War of Nytefall: Anarchy.

Speaking of books, I’m not sure when I’m going to publish again. Need to make contact with the cover artist for War of Nytefall and see what’s possible. The series might spill into next year instead of ending in December. Do I Need to Use a Dragon? is still missing an artist. With summer camp expenses, I’ve taken another hit that makes this one very difficult. So, everything is up in the air. With my son in camp, I’ll be able to get more done. My hope is to edit the book in a week and then start writing the first ‘Slumberlord’ volume. I considered tackling Ichabod Brooks instead, but I might start on his second collection if I finish the other book before the end of the summer. Again, we have an issue with cover art if any of these finish.

Blog-wise, I got everything set up for July and August. Have a topic list for September too, so I might whittle that one down during when I have only 20-30 minutes. This would be when my son is taking a shower since it doesn’t give me enough time to write a book section. Guess I’m going to be busier than I realized during the summer. Makes all the people suggesting I’m sitting around doing nothing look rather foolish.

Did I watch any TV that wasn’t with my son? I watched the new episodes of ‘Seven Deadly Sins’. It was fun, but the show jumps around events a lot. So, I got a little lost during the moments I turned away from the screen. Began watching an old anime called ‘Heat Guy J’ and might try ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ after that. Not sure how much TV time I’ll have now that I’m trying to write a bunch. Also, there’s plenty of drama continuing to keep me drained.

Goals of the week?