In the swamp

Saturday
      It always starts some small thing. An idea or a simple project. You think, "This won't be hard. I can do this." You should remember that moment. Fix it in your mind before you set off on your happy journey. It will be ironic later when you're in the swamp surrounded by hungry gators in a sinking rowboat while battling frantically to reach some part of solid ground that won't bite or drown you. Before you sink in the dank water, you will remember what you thought earlier and you will realize with a complete understanding usually only granted to prophets that you were a dolt.
      This seems to be story of my life. I always start out with such good intentions, but eventually I find myself in a basket hurling toward a warmer clime. I'm always perplexed, of course, since it doesn't seem any of my actions would lead to this sudden drop, but they do. I know this says something about my lack of foresight, but I think I'm going to refuse to figure out what it is.
      I had a busy day. I cleaned house, put up Christmas lights, worked on my family newsletter, did laundry, went Christmas shopping, ate at Chinese buffet, watched part of the original War of the Worlds and worked on reading/editing Darkness, Oklahoma.
      I'm pleased to report that Darkness, Oklahoma is not crap. I had worried about it during NaNo. I had to write so fast that I couldn't really get a picture of how the book was shaping up. So reading it was interesting. A lot of it is rough. Very rough, but there are the bones of a story there. And some of the scenes are written exactly as I saw them in my head. That is cool. After I finish this reading/editing, I will go back and add more words, fixing errors, changing characters, and in one instance, removing a character completely. (She didn't pass the interesting test. If I'm bored by her, you can bet my readers will be.)
      Blogger isn't letting me post so I'll just save this as a draft.

Sunday
      I woke up today feeling a cold coming on. I immediately took Advil, drank a half gallon of orange juice, chewed on some vitamins, and went back to bed. I'm feeling better now, but not healthy. I am going to take it easy today.
      I'm writing this on Word because my cable internet is down. I tried calling my provider's 24-hour service, but I waited for 30 minutes on hold -- never speaking to a real person -- and finally gave up.
      I intended to keep working on my Christmas cards and the family newsletter, but I'm going back to bed now. I'll try again later.

Sunday evening
      Internet is still down. Arrggggghhhhhh. I hate that. Who knows what interesting things are happening? I don't. I tried the support line again. This time the recorded message said there was an outage in my area. At least a lot of people are suffering with me. Somehow that's not comforting.
      So far, I'm holding off the cold. Go immune system go! I don't know if cheering helps, but it couldn't hurt.

Sunday evening later still
      Still no service. I'm calling it a night.

Monday
      Work was particularly grueling today, but some good things got accomplished. It was a successful day.
      I had to rush home after work to start putting together the program for the theater group's play this weekend. I should have done it Sunday. I had to be at the theater at 7:30 p.m. to take a cast photo for the program, and I wanted to take a rough draft of the program with me. I barely made it but I did.
      The program looks good. Nice, clean design. I'm pleased.
      Internet connection is dicey. It goes on for about five minutes and then cuts off. Once again, I can't get through to the support line. I'm not happy at all. And Blogger is apparently having problems, too.
      I got to watch a little of The Triangle on SciFi Channel. So far, they've got me interested. I want to see where it goes.
      My Christmas tree is up with lights on, but it's not decorated yet. I'm going to do that tomorrow night, I hope. And finish the family newsletter. And my Christmas cards.
      Well, it's late, and I can't post this anyway so I'm going to bed. Maybe tomorrow I can go early to work and post it from there. Or post it during my lunch hour. We'll see you soon. I hope.