Musings & Thoughts for Saturday, July 22, 2023, or: Weekend Update, Part the First

Afternoon, Saturday, July 22, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Another weekend – another scorching Saturday in July.

It’s early afternoon here in my corner of Hillsborough County, and we are in a “heat advisory” situation until 7 PM Eastern Daylight Time. The current temperature – outside, anyway – is 93°F/34°C under mostly sunny conditions. With no rain in the forecast and with humidity at 54%, the heat index is 102°F/39°C, which is not safe to be outside in unless you’re well hydrated, physically fit, and not exerting yourself too much.

Part of me wishes I could go out for a walk, but as I grow older I find that my tolerance of hot weather is not what it used to be. Thus, most of me is content to stay indoors on this sunny but scorching Saturday afternoon.

Action This Day

I am writing this post later than usual because, as I stated in More Musings, More Thoughts for Friday, July 21, 2023, or: My Unexpected Mental Health Break Day, I had to make up for lost time since I didn’t work much on Reunion: Coda yesterday.  I’ve been advised that trying to cope with depression – which, frankly, is what ails me lately – deliberately merely makes matters worse, and that it’s better to just allow myself to relax or vent or whatever.

I don’t want to get into an even more depressive state, but at the same time I don’t want to get too far behind on my novel’s progress, so I started working on revisions and edits after I had my coffee this morning.

First, I read parts of Scenes from a Long Goodbye, one of the chapters in Reunion: A Story (the first half of the Reunion Duology) to confirm that some details from that story are not contradicted by the stuff I’m writing now. To my satisfaction, “facts” that are common to both stories so far match up and I don’t have to retcon or rejigger the existing novella again.

Second, I re-read the complete first scene from Reunion: Coda’s Chapter 10 just to see if it needs to be rewritten. I’m not sure if I posted that section on Google Drive for my Beta reader to look over – probably not, now that I think of it – but even though I think it’s okay, I need a “second opinion” and maybe some pointers on how to improve the scene, if necessary.

To be honest, I kept my workload unusually light today because I’m still not feeling all that perky. I revised a few things here and there, yes. But…I didn’t add any new content. (Sorry, Jim and Maddie, but your phone chat will have to wait till Monday!)

Still, some work is better than no work at all.

I have no idea what else I’m going to do on this sunny but hot Saturday. I should read for a while, and maybe I’ll do just that.

And on that note, Dear Reader, I’ll take my leave of you. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.