Hello, my friends and the occasional relative!

This week finds me breaking out of one funk, and cognizant of another.

First, I have been doing a close reading of the manuscript, and have been noticing the little things that need to be addressed: small fixes for flow. Read 90 pages today, found one misplaced ‘and’ where a ‘had’ should be. This is a good thing. I have a couple of continuity things to remedy, but it is half a sentence here and there, not wholesale reconstruction. I’ve fixed a few, left others to resolve once I’ve read forward a bit more and have proper context. So, fair progress has been had on one of my many ‘final’ read-throughs. The road really does go ever on and on.

Second, and I am about to sound like every boring old person at parties I only ever went to because of the prospect of free booze before going out with my own people later: property taxes are a pain in the arse. Yes, I’ve become that guy. Been him for a while, truth be told. Desiderata, baby, I’m trying to kindly take the counsel of the years and gracefully surrender the things of youth. I can’t lie—I petulantly rebel against the counsel of the years sometimes.  Then I pay my taxes, and sulk.

Anyway, good old property taxes along with my tires (tyres) action of last week, and my beloved’s birthday this past month, have left me rather stretched for funds. First world problem acknowledged. I am tremendously lucky to have this life. The upshot, however, is that I don’t have spare funds for any vendors right now anyway, so rushing through the book feels less urgent if I can’t pay a cover artist or formatter until next month anyway. So I’m not pressuring myself. I know I should be working fiendishly, attacking the to do list so I can move on to the next project, the next hamster wheel, but I’m giving myself time to work my way thoroughly back into that mindset. I jumped into exercising too hard recently, promptly pulled something and had to step back. Having learned that lesson, I’m not going to push hard and burn out on this book when so close to completion. The finances will return to normal in the next month or two, and I’ll be done well before then. All will be well.

A short one this week, I think, after last week’s that just ran on, full of spiders and vampires. And tyres (tires). I’ve made progress, not the best, but better than nothing. And sometimes that has to be enough, to keep the ball rolling down the long road. Plus, I’m now reading the grammar section of the Trivium: learning a new approach and new terminology adapted from a very old Aristotelian source. Probably need to read it twice, and take notes the second time around! (I’m reading everything multiple times nowadays, except comics – and the Grant Morrison Batman I could probably read again and enjoy, but I’ve moved on to early Frank Miller Daredevil.) After that—Latin for beginners—1980s textbook style. I found the book I once studied (and its sequel) online, bought them and feel like starting again from scratch!

Today’s blog brought to you by a very random listen to the Rolling Stones. Waiting on a Friend to finish, how appropriate! I very rarely listen to those guys. Sometimes you have to take a deep dive into the old music library. Take care my friends, until next week!