At arm's length...

Stepped away from the novel this morning to work on a new short piece and make a few overdue submissions. In short, a quiet day.

Smoke rolled in again from the border fire, and hit as hard as anything we’ve had in a couple of weeks. Went to the gym to work out, and had a pretty productive time despite not pushing myself too hard. Tried skipping rope for the first time in three months and had to quit owing to the biceps. Shoulder’s coming along, but the arm still feels like it did pre-operation. Doc says that’s normal, and to keep pushing.

Might go for a drive in the mountains tomorrow. We’ll see. Meanwhile, gonna hang back and take it easy.

Read a couple of good short stories today.

Astonishingly, didn’t win the lottery.

Getting a groove on...

Another early rise.

Made it to the end of the new novel this morning, then went off to jog the stairs at the park. Arm was sore as hell today, but everything else was clicking.

PT mid-afternoon, then home again for more work at the keyboard.

Want to get into a new story tomorrow. Catch up with correspondence. Read a couple of new short stories.

Feel like I made a pretty smooth transition back to work after the long weekend with the boys. Hope I can keep the momentum going.

Nice cool day, in the sixties. Felt good to get outside and not have to face any smoke. Warmer tomorrow, I guess. Will have to wait and see.

Anyway, good day.

Easy peasy...

Did it again. Up early, wrote well.

Abandoned the keyboard around nine and drove out to the orthopedic’s office to have the shoulder examined. Ahead of schedule. Doc expects I’ll be back in good order by December. Meanwhile, new exercises.

Worked out this afternoon, came home and wrote two N reviews.

Looking forward to quiet night.

Coming around to it...

Put together a decent day.

Up around 5:30, and off to work in the cottage. Made a nice run at the long piece. Took a break around noon to climb the stairs in the park. Four plus miles up and down.

PT this afternoon. Still a little stiff in places, but the worst is the biceps. Maybe I can get a few questions answered when I see the ortho-doc tomorrow.

Home in time to catch up with submissions, and get a couple of bits of correspondence out the door.

Cooking tonight. Omelettes. After that, settling in to watch the debate.

Home again...

Flew into DIA a little after seven. Spent a long weekend with the boys in Pittsburgh. After all the soul-crushing events of the year, I finally got something to smile about.

Had a terrific time all around. Went fishing on Saturday in Canonsburg. Matty caught his first fish—a bluegill. Went out again on Sunday—this time in a row boat—on Raccoon Lake. Didn’t catch any fish, but had a great time casting and trolling the lake. Playing on the beach afterward, too.

Needed that. Boy did I need that. Can’t wait to see them all again.

Tired. Gonna have to turn in early and come back hard tomorrow.

Sent back the proofs for Rock Mountain Sweetheart Murder Ballad this afternoon, but didn’t do much in the way of work otherwise. Need to send in my N reviews, get back at the keyboard.

Worked out this afternoon, then came home and cleaned the cottage offices. Hope this unexpected spurt of energy carries into the rest of the week.

Leaving...

Leaving for Pittsburgh in the morning. Long day at the keyboard. Lots on the mind.

Had some PT this afternoon, trying to catch up from the missed session earlier in the week. Spent a little time on the elliptical, too, but by a little I mean a little. As in half an hour. Need to revisit this workout stuff when I get back. Fires through me off schedule with the stair jogging in the park and I never quite got it back. Guess that isn’t much of a surprise, but even so it’s still a drag.

Gotta get packed. Not worried about rest—I’ll manage that on the plane.

Taking a short breath...

Up at the crack of dawn, strapped to the keyboard the entire day. Got the script out the door, but just barely when the client moved the presentation up by half an hour. Haven’t worked a project as massive as this on deadlines as short as this for longer than I can remember. Hope they pay fast.

Way behind on my correspondence, N reviews and everything else. Need to pick up a few more fishing supplies too, before I get on the plane. Can’t believe I’ll be in Pittsburgh the day after tomorrow.

Looking forward to getting few things done tomorrow, but tempering expectations with PT moved to the middle of the day. We’ll see what the morning brings. Might get lucky.

Wondering about D lately. Been forever since we’ve seen one another. Forever since I’ve seen anyone, come to think of it, but a helluva long time since he and I have even talked. Need to remedy that when I get back.

Nice day today, despite the smoke. Air was a little cleaner. More like fall.

On the hump...

Working late tonight. Big meeting tomorrow to present the video script I’ve been banging away on all day.

Got an email from the San Antonio Review. They’re nominating one of my stories for a Pushcart.

Was supposed to have PT, but it got mis-scheduled. My bad, I think. No matter, I used the time to write and it wasn’t wasted. Arm hurts, but I have another session on Thursday, before I leave.

Nice day, I think. Didn’t see much of it, but the sky looked blue this morning.

Calling it a night in expectation of a very early rise. Fingers crossed it all comes together in time tomorrow.

Different kind of week...

Different kind of Monday.

Up early, wrote well on the new novel, then stood in on a shoot for a couple of old buddies. Didn’t manage the gym, or a nap, but made good headway on the research I’ll need for tomorrow’s script work. Got to talk to Jack and Matt on FaceTime, too. Their rods arrived today, and they’re looking forward to the weekend fishing trip we’ve got planned.

Proofs for two new stories also showed up in the mail. One for the San Antonio Review, the other for the Red Rock Review. Who knows, maybe things are taking a turn for the better.

A couple of N stories need to be written up in the next day or so, but the biggest part of the next couple of days is gonna be carved up for the video script. Good way to go into the week.

PT tomorrow. Arm’s feels better one day, useless the next. Don’t mind the pain, but want to get back to a decent workout routine again.

Beautiful fall day, or would’ve been if the smoke hadn’t been so bad. Still, colors are coming. So is snow.

Can't quite get it all in...

More progress on the new novel, but won’t quite make it to the end of the revision cycle owing to script work due mid-week.

Busy day tomorrow, too. Shoot at the house. Full day. Have a lot to juggle in the meantime.

Wish I could shake this thing that’s got hold of me,

Maybe tomorrow.

Tired...

Hard night, late rise. Made up for the slow start with a good morning at the keyboard. Coming close with revisions of the long piece.

Smoke yesterday, smoke today. Air quality awful, no relief expected anytime soon. Trying really hard to beat back the blues.

Long meeting this afternoon, and short deadlines staring me in the face this coming week. Not sure how I’ll get everything done, but know I will.

47 Days...

Tough night with the arm. Tough morning having it worked on.

Made more good progress with the book. Three quarters through in this round of revisions and hoping for a strong run to the end.

Sky smudged with a brown film again, and no relief in sight. Winds are blowing the smoke this way pretty steadily these days.

Video crew stopped by today to scout locations. Shooting on Monday. Friday, I’m off to Pittsburgh for a long weekend.

Things’ve been creeping in lately. Need to start pushing back.

There it is...

Better night’s sleep. Made it nearly till dawn. Wrote well this morning and only gave up the keyboard to get in time at the gym. Only a few people working out indoors these past couple of weeks and hoping it stays that way for a while. Arm improving, but still a long way from lifting anything.

Smoke from the fires boiled back over the peak. Sky a bluish brown all day. Looking forward to another snow in the high country to tamp things down. Afraid California’s a long way from being in the clear.

Lots on the mind. Most of it hopeful. Tired of this goddamned pandemic, but isn’t everybody. What I wouldn’t give for a week in the mountains, on the water.

You know how it goes...

Beat.

Up early, banging away at the keyboard. Worked until a little after one, then went to have m teeth cleaned. Whiled away the rest of the afternoon buying a new Jeep. Sorry to say goodbye to the old Liberty, but breakdowns were becoming more frequent, and repairs more costly. A lot of great memories in that baby, a lot of great memories.

No gym today. Not much of anything other than paperwork. Weather was nice, but missed most of that, too.

Back to normalcy tomorrow. Or what’s passing for normalcy nowadays. We’ll see what’s in store when the sun comes up. Tonight, back to pizza and a celebratory bottle of wine.

Almost forgot. Got an acceptance yesterday. Number seven, I think, for the year.

A breath (or two) of fresh air...

Good night’s sleep. Up a little later than usual (but before seven) and at the keyboard most of the morning.

Got in three FaceTime sessions with Jack and Matt, but still managed some pretty good output with the new novel.

Took off for the gym a little after one, then home again to pick up some fishing gear at Pro Bass Shop followed by a trip downtown to Terra Verde to get the boys and advent calendar. (A nifty wooden sculpture of a snowy toy shop. Open a door, it plays a carol.)

Weather came back to respectability to day. Blue sky, soft autumn sun. Cool temps. Wish the rest of the west was doing as well. Fires still blazing out of control all along the coast.

Grilled cheese and soup tonight.

An early rise tomorrow. Maybe a walk to the park to jog the stairs again, now that the smoke has pulled back. We’ll see.

Your guess is as good as mine...

2020 continues with its foibles.

Nonetheless, made decent progress with revisions on the long piece.

Labored all day under the assumption it was Saturday, so tomorrow ought to come as a kind of pleasant surprise.

Finished mending the big tree, putting in additional bolts and sealing the damage with pruning gunk. Then went off to the gym.

Read the bike while re-reading A Moveable Feast for the millionth time. Why does that piece hold up so well?

Weather finally returned to normal and I won’t lie and say I didn’t miss it. Air was clear, skies were blue, and all the rest. Probably won’t stay this way, but plan on enjoying it for as long as it lasts.

Got a lot to think about.

A lot.

This is it, this is what I do...

Woke to a chilly morning without snow, and was happy to discover the locust in back still standing. Put in a good couple of hours of writing before going off to PT. Toughest session I’ve had in a while, but productive. Range of motion is getting better all the time.

Came home, worked a little longer, then put in for a short nap. Cool, dreary weather made the bed a little more inviting.

Worked more on the long piece this afternoon. FaceTimed with Jack, too.

Gonna kick back this evening with a bowl of homemade chicken soup.

Would like to see the sun again, and soon, but willing to put up with a few more cool, overcast days if it means tamping down the fires.

Have dreams of fishing this weekend. We’ll see what happens.

If a tree falls in the forest...

Looked out the window early this morning and was heartened to see there wasn’t much snow. Enough to tamp down the fires, but not so much to make a mess of things. Then I went out back to the cottage and saw one of the locusts had split in half.

Spent the rest of the day working with ratchet straps and ladders trying to repair the damage. Got it the halves back in place a little after twelve with the help of our friend Solomon, and bolted them together. Everything’s upright again, but we’ll see if the surgery works. Gonna leave the trunk strapped throughout the winter, and hope the graft takes. Meanwhile, gotta look after the bad arm, which was put through more gymnastics today than I would have liked.

Crept ahead with the novel. Too distracted to get much done, but was able to put in some decent revisions. Hope tomorrow goes better.

PT in the morning. Already wincing at the thought of it.