Musings & Thoughts for Saturday, July 29, 2023, or: Weekend Update, Part the First

Early Afternoon, Saturday, July 29, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Well, here I am at my desk – which is where I usually am, regardless of whether I am working on something or just trying to keep from being bored out of my skull – and still trying to figure out how to spend my Saturday.

Clearly, going out is not an option. As I write this, it’s a scorcher of a high summer day here in the Tampa Bay area: the current temperature is 92°F/33°C under partly sunny skies, although when you add certain variables that include 62% humidity and a slow 4 MPH/6 KMH breeze barely blowing from the east-southeast (a “land breeze”), the heat index is 102°F/39°C.  I don’t tolerate heat as well as I used to, so I prefer not to risk heatstroke or a heart attack and stay in the house. (I also have no friends that I can go out anywhere with, so going to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – the one movie I wanted to see in theaters this year – is not happening.)

Inside the house, I have way more options. I can:

• Read any of my books out in the family room or even out on the front porch
• Watch a movie or TV show, either in my room or out in the family room
• Listen to music (either in my room or the family room)
• Play games on my PC
• Work on my novel on either this PC – in my room – or on the laptop I have out in the kitchenette
• Kill time on social media (Facebook, X – formerly known as Twitter – or Instagram

I could also take a nap, but even at age 60, I’m not much into naps.

On Writing & Storytelling: A Change of Plans

I did plan on working on Reunion: Coda today, but even though I slept well last night, my heart is not in it. Besides, the weather might deteriorate and if thunderstorms form – despite a forecast that only predicts rain around 5 PM or so – I don’t want to be in my “writer’s zone” only to be interrupted by lightning strikes that force me to turn off my PC in the middle of a sentence or paragraph.

And, if I am to be totally honest, I didn’t wake up this morning with a bunch of good ideas for Chapter 11. That’s usually my brain’s way of telling me, “Dude, take a damn break. Having a good work ethic is great. Writing your first novel is also a big deal. But neither of those is important enough to sacrifice all your free time for.”

Of course, there is a part of me that feels guilty about taking the day off, especially since I want to finish the first draft of the novel sooner rather than later, but I am tired, especially on the mental side of things. Yesterday I had to figure out how to set up the payment to my Norton Anti-Virus subscription (which I’d forgotten about) without screwing up my other obligations – rent being the top one – for August.

I almost had an anxiety attack over that bill – I truly had forgotten about it, and I had to dig into my Norton account’s billing information to even see which credit card I’d chosen to pay my subscription with. I needed that info to arrange three monthly payments rather than pay the whole amount at once. Once my anxiousness wore off, I was able to deal with the bill calmly and rationally. But I think if I wasn’t tired and extremely anxious about my long-term future, I would have resolved the issue with little or no angst.

So, my plan for today is to rest. If I feel like writing later, I’ll do that. If I don’t…I won’t.