Writers Night Out: Late

So I slept in this morning (as if nobody guessed) due to staying up late at our weekly writer's night out. Pictured above is my fellow writer, Cherri, on the left...and Lauren, one of the ever so patient and wonderful servers there  who both put up with us and became our friends as well. Here, Lauren joins us after getting off her shift and decides to have a dinner of her own.

Writing wise, I'm still jammed up on every single project I'm working on. Cherri offered some advice about plotting forward so I might try that. She also suggested I rework the cover for Shades: Wind and Dark Waters, as she felt it was a little weaker than the covers on the other two stories of the series. I can see what she is talking about, so I might toy around with that too. There is always room for improvement.

I got a lot of the laundry done over the weekend, but there are still some baskets sitting on the couch and glaring at me. I suppose I ought to do something about that too. Sigh.

Tonight is Cub Scouts night for Sheridan. It's been a while since his last meeting due to the holidays, now I need to get caught up with whatever is going on in that quarter. The holidays are over and life is beginning to sputter back to normal. Just got to pick it back up one piece at a time.

Cheers!

Sofa Weekend

The exertion of adapting to these new braces have made what muscles are left in my legs stiff and very sore. So today I'm going to be doing things I can do on the couch...sorting laundry and stuff like that. That means there aren't a whole lot of things to report, unless I get more mobile later.

I seem to have written myself into a corner on every project I'm working on at the minute anyways, so maybe focusing on housework (the sitting kind) will let me refocus.

So that's my weekend.

Heres hoping all of you out there have more adventurous ones...unless you don't want them that way, of course :)

Good Grief

As many of you know, I wear leg braces due to having CMT. I generally wear the type of brace you see on the left in the above picture. It's lightweight, simple, and correctly positions and supports my feet and ankles. It's design is elegant and efficient, and on my good days I can use them without even needing a cane.

But there was a time when it looked like the CMT was going to cause my knees to not be able to work without support as well. At that point they designed the brace you see on the right for me. It is made of a titanium alloy and is extremely strong and light. But it is also very awkward, and has a tendency to lock up at the most inopportune times. It takes practice and skill to use it. It's like the difference between an automatic transmission and a stick. Since I'm lousy with things that take practice and skill, I didn't look forward to transitioning to those metal monsters.

But my legs actually improved slightly, and it turned out I didn't need the larger braces. So they were relegated to the closet, and I went on with the braces to the left. Then yesterday I had the small brace for my right foot come apart on me. (Naturally, it happens when I'm putting my daughter on the bus) So it was with some relief that I realized that at least I had a backup and fished the old brace out of the closet.

The problem is that now I'm sort of like a rowboat with one oar in the water. The braces operate very differently from each other and it's going to be hard to adapt to that. Apparently I'll just have to be patient and occasionally settle for suddenly tottering in circles when the right one locks up. So if you see some crazy man pivoting in place in a parking lot somewhere, waving his arms wildly for balance, and cussing at his leg...just ignore me and walk on by.

On the bright side, my campaign of early to bed and early to rise is beginning to bear fruit. It's still going to take work to make it a natural schedule, but I'm starting not to feel so drug out all morning.

So Happy Friday, Folks! Get those weekend plans formulated!

Blowout!

Okay, it isn't exactly what you think.

Actually, what happened is that I had one of my braces come apart on me while getting the kids onto the bus this morning. Due to my CMT I wear leg braces which stabalize my ankles and feet. These are white plastic affairs that surround my feet inside my shoes and extend up to my knees. They allow me to walk, so when one of those go out I've got a bit of a problem.  I still had one functioning brace which allowed me to get the kiddos on the bus and slowly gimp my way back to the house, so everything worked out okay.

Fortunately, I do have a pair of backup braces but they are these big titanium affairs that go all the way up to my hip. So now I'm hobbling around the house looking like one of Jerry's Kids.

Sigh.

Naturally, this happens on the day I need to get shopping done. Not that it matters because it will probably take a while to get a prescription so I can get a new brace anyways. So it looks like this is my new brace for the near future. At least I write sitting down, but housework just became a real problem. I'll have to plan accordingly. I'll have to put the haircut off till this weekend.

On the bright side, I am now three thousand words into The Mushroom Man and it seems to be beginning to take on a life of it's own. That's always a good sign that the story is going to be finished. I have several aborted beginnings lying around because they just never came alive. I can definitely tell that the gfcf diet is beginning to work as my head clears and focus increases. Hooray!

Oh well, have a happy Thursday out there, folks! And wear a jacket, it's cold!

Good Morning, Humpday!

So I got 1,300 words written on a short story yesterday.

I've done more words in a day, but this was the first actual writing I had done since before the Christmas break. And it was on Tuesday which is one of my half days that I have to leave at noon to pick  up Rowan and take her to her therapist. So it was really a whole lot of writing done considering the circumstances. Anyways, I'm pleased with it and take comfort knowing I can still do it.

I'll try to get a ltitle more written today, but I do have some other things I need to get done while the kids aren't home. I was thinking of getting a haircut. I may have once measured my hair in feet, but those days are long behind me. Now I find that my hair is getting kind of "frowzy" and wear a hat in self defense, when I usually just wear it because it makes me look awesome. So a haircut is in my near future, if not today.

Karla had to leave to go to the dentist early this morning, so it's up to me to get the kiddos off to school. I'm working on it right now, and have about twenty minutes until Rowan's bus gets here. Karla has already got the kids dressed and ready to go. All I have to do is get them fed, and Rowans lunches packed. Pretty easy stuff, really.

So here's to getting things done. A little here, a little there. Not to mention the lady who cleans my house is coming today so that's a bonus! Hooray! And it's not really that bad in the first place! Double bonus, because that means I don't have to clean it up some so I won't be embarrassed for her to see how bad it can really get.

Oh, and I bought a new hat.

Yep, this day is starting swell :)

And School Returns

Hallelujah!

The kids are once more safe and secure in the loving embrace of our public school system. It wasn't easy, since there seemed to be some problem with the bus and it didn't arrive today,  but we neighborhood parents weren't about to be foiled and carpooled the kids to school with a couple of moms. And now sanity returns.

I still have the wife home for another fifteen minutes or so, but then she's off to work and glorious solitude will fall upon me.

I have a little housework to do, but nothing serious. Then I shall try to write. I need to flex those mental muscles and get them back into shape. The only writing I've been doing since the kids have been home is on my blog. The hope was that would at least keep me a little in form but I know I'm going to have to get back into writing shape again. I can do it...it's just like falling off a bike.

So I'm looking forward to a peaceful morning. I hope everybody else has a good one too!

Early Steps and Stumbles

So, my quest to put as much distance between me and the first subject above has started with mixed results. Having that much fat around your internal organs can't be good for you. I've been eating low carb and gluten free the past few days, although I stumbled a little at Denny's last night. I know that you aren't going to see any results this early, at least not weight wise, but at least my head was starting to clear up from the gluten. I think I'm going to have to be more careful at Denny's though because a little bit after the french fries, I felt that gluten fog increasing again. Cross contamination is a real issue with serious gfcf diets, and it makes eating out very problematic. But I need to do it so I can get back to writing effectively again. I just hate giving up all the good food everybody else takes for granted.

I'm playing around with mindfulness meditation as well. I don't really expect anything from it, but anything that gets me more in the here and now can't be a bad thing...right? Cutting out the gluten helps with that too. I noticed I was starting to sharpen up again today after avoiding gluten since Tuesday. I made a stumble in that regard, but I'll just stay on that wagon and hopefully I haven't lost too much ground. I've been extra good and been avoiding the casein as well.

So if I don't get skinny, at least I'll be fat and clear headed soon.

The other thing I need to work on is sleeping. My schedule is currently all messed up. Sunday, I went to bed at noon and slept till seven thirty in the evening. Yeah. That can't last. But hopefully with the kids starting school on TUESDAY, BECAUSE THE SCHOOL WON'T OPEN ON MONDAY LIKE ANY ORDINARY SANE PERSON WOULD EXPECT THEM TO AFTER ALL THIS TIME (twitch...twitch), that maybe that will force me to fix my schedule which will help me be more clear headed as well.

So things are going forward....right now in a "two steps forward one step back" sort of way...but it's all good. As long as things are going forward.

Bringing Order out of Chaos

The house is in decent shape for once.

It's not great...far from it...but at least it's not embarrassingly bad. There is a lot that needs to be done, and I'm starting to work on that. The first and biggest step is making a real effort to spend more time where I am at the moment. To actually stop and pay attention to my environment. It's amazing how you can get used to your surroundings and then the mess creeps up...and you get used to it...and it creeps further...and you get used it...and so on until you literally don't see what's right in front of you. So I'm trying to take a fresh look at things right now, and get an idea of what would make things better.

Alas, the same thing goes with getting fat. I knew in an abstract way I was gaining weight, and even joked about it, but I really wasn't aware of how much. I bought a brand new digital scale at Walmart and decided to get myself a starting point for tackling my new diet. I stepped on and when it stopped whimpering it gave me the bad news. I'm not going to give a precise weight, but I will just say that I'm right around a hundred pounds heavier than when I got married seventeen years ago. And when you stop and consider that back then my legs were muscled from meter reading and nowadays are nowadays shunken from CMT...well, the picture is even worse. Yeah, I need to lose weight...bad. But now at least I've taken the first steps in that too.

Next on my list of things to improve, is my whole approach to writing. I will not check novelrank or Amazon DTP today. As a matter of fact I will not check it all week. I am going to get marketing, sales, and promotion out of my head for a while. It's interfering with my writing. Instead, I'm going to only focus on writing itself. Look forward instead of backwards.

Which is part of the whole new approach to this year...live in the present. I spend too much time in the past or future. Time to change gears. We'll see where that gets me. I know it ain't going to be easy because that is simply not the way my brain is wired. But it's worth a try.

Oh well, Happy January Second!

UPDATE: I'm hungry. This sucks.

And So It Begins

Happy 2011!

Or 1-1-11!

It's a new year, and it comes bearing all the hopes and promise that all new years bring...all shiny and fresh and brimming with resolutions that haven't failed yet.

Well, I'm giving mine a serious go.

I will be trying to manage my time better. Mondays and Fridays are days that should have at least four hours set aside for nothing but writing. That still gives me time to do some housework, and even relax a little. But I need to set four hours on each of those two days and devote them exclusively to writing. On Tues, Weds, and Thurs...I need to set my Starbucks time to writing. At least get one solid hour of writing in at the coffee shop each day, and one hour at home. That would give me six hours. Fourteen hours doesn't sound like a lot, but if it's devoted just to writing...no research, no internet, no editing...then I can accomplish quite a bit with that.

So theres that.

My other big thing is losing weight and getting strict with the GFCF diet again. All wheat products will be ejected from the house this weekend. And my writer's nights out will consist of drinks and omelette's and eggs and bacon. No more gluten for me...I'm getting serious. I need a sharp, clear head again. And going low carb is also a way to reduce exposure to gluten as well...not to mention get skinnier...so I'll be working on that. All the bags of potato and corn chips will be leaving the house as well. One of the best ways to lose weight is only eat freshly cooked food. No more fast food for me!

I can do this!

So those are my two main resolutions this year. Manage my time better to increase my writing, and eat better to lose weight and feel better. Anything beyond those two things is a bonus.

So I hope everybody out there has their own plans of self improvement ready, and I wish you all the best luck in the world carrying them out. I think this is a really good year for it.

Happy New Year!