Musings & Thoughts for Monday, November 20, 2023, or: Weekend Update Wrap-Up (No Hay Novedad….)

Late Morning, Monday, November 20, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Hi, folks. It’s a somewhat warm late autumn morning in the Tampa Bay area. As I write these lines, the temperature outside is 76°F/25°C under sunny skies. With the wind blowing from the east at 4 MPH/7 KMH and humidity at 77%, the heat index is a summer-like 86°F/31°C. Today’s forecast calls for high humidity, sunny skies, and a high of 84°F/29°C.

In sharp contrast, my future town of residence, Madison, New Hampshire, is the picture postcard of a New England fall day on Thanksgiving Week: the temperature there is 34°F/1°C under mostly sunny skies. (The feels-like factor is 32°F/0°C…brr.) The forecast for this penultimate Monday in November 2023 calls for mostly sunny skies and a high of 38°F/3°C.

Weekend Update, Part the Second

My Sunday was quiet and uneventful. Indeed, if it weren’t for the fact that I’ll be moving soon and that most of my stuff is in a lot of moving boxes, I’d have said it was an unremarkable Sunday. A bit duller than most of my Sundays, but underneath the ennui there was a pervasive sense of melancholy and the inevitable feeling that time is running out for me here.

No packing was done yesterday.

No work on the novel was done, either. I could have tried to add a few more emails to the epistolary chapter, yes, but my heart and mind were not in it. I’m too worried about packing the last few things that need to be put away in boxes, for one thing. For another, since I’ve already decided to go “on hiatus” with Reunion: Coda till I’m all set up in Madison, there is no longer a “get the novel ready for publication in December” imperative driving me to write.

Like I said yesterday, though, since I will still be in Lithia till December 12, I will probably do edits and revisions to what I’ve already done in the manuscript when I feel compelled to. After all, I don’t like the idea of just sitting at my desk gaming, listening to music, or spending too much time on social media between today and M-Day. I hate indolence and forced inactivity, for one thing, plus I think that the more copy editing I do now, the fewer mistakes and other flaws will appear in the finished novel.

So, what did I do yesterday, besides the usual gaming, listening to music, or spending way too much time on social media?

I:

• Watched most of All the President’s Men and all of The Post on Amazon Prime Video. I have both of those movies on Blu-ray, but the discs are in moving boxes now, so I had to stream them
• Went for a quick walk to the nearby park and came back home right away

And, that’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

If I weren’t moving out in 22 days, this is where I’d start the On Writing & Storytelling: Action This Day section of my “workday post,” but, alas and alack, I am moving out in 22 days (give or take several hours), so…this is where you and I part company, at least until tomorrow.

So, until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.