I am a postal worker. It’s my primary career while I work on my writing and, when the fancy takes me, learning a new trade skill. You’d think that when I’m off-duty, I’d avoid everything to do with the USPS.
But you’d be wrong, in a depressing but hilarious way.
Always back into your parking spot, people!
That is a computer game called “Lake”. It’s a postal worker simulator, and my God, it is so relaxing. I’m tempted to stream it while playing and go over points about delivery and the postal process during (I have some complaints about what the carrier does, but then again, I’m a Union man and she’s a computer character so I don’t know if I should defend her career) but really, I just like to drive around this tiny town with easy and simple routes.
It’s very calming, and I wonder if I have a problem.
Thanks to having a grueling day-job that requires me to be awake by 5:30AM, and the kids who like to wake up around that time anyway, it’s rare for me to still be in bed past 6. When it does happen, it’s accompanied by moments of panic as I figure out what day it is and what needs doing before leaving for work.
Today, I was spared that turmoil, but replaced it with confusion. Why in the world was I still in bed after 8? How much of a toll did the past work week take on me? If the children are awake, how badly did they destroy the kitchen?
Why did you fail me?!
But no, I did not go into a near-comatose state as a result of walking 90 miles last week. Or rather, I did, but it was a manageable coma. It was Sunday, so I could forgive myself for sleeping in. The kids had figured out how to use the TV remote (and we set up the Parental Controls a while back) so I could hear the television playing cartoons.
I had forgotten about Daylight Savings Time, and I felt like the morning had been wasted. But again, this is Sunday. I’m supposed to relax and just handle a few chores on Sunday. If I can write in my stories, I will. If not, I can’t be frustrated with myself. Now I just have to spend the day reminding myself to check the watch and re-train myself to accept going to bed an hour earlier than usual.
That, and cleaning the house/tackling strange chores. Such as cleaning up the doghouse and fixing broken toys.
I admit, I find it adorable that the kids took to the doghouse as a new art project, but until I can get the cover for the dog pen repaired (one good storm too many) they’ll need something to get into when the weather turns foul. They prefer being outside during the working day, but this is Louisiana; you never know if a storm will suddenly show up.
Follow that up with the usual “Daughter puts a broken toy on my desk” routine, and my Sunday is pretty much mapped out.
Do I know what I’m doing? Nope. But if I can fix an electrical outlet, I can fix a toy. Surely.
Now, I’m getting requests from readers to work on the “Sherlock Holmes: Wizard” story as well as the “Star Wars: Sidewinder” story, so I’ll be bumping my writing up in the priority list. That and finally starting my book reviews.
With that, I’m off to house-spouse. Happy Sunday, folks.
I tried to do a scheduled posting of the page for Chapter 2, but it appears I still have a lot to learn about how to properly link the pages before they’re loaded.
But now, since I’ve made it home and could look it over via the tablet, I can say it’s up and ready for reading!
(At least, it’s ready for reading before my editing friends start texting me)
It’s time I started telling that story. I’ve been holding on to the project until it would have completely finished, but I’ve realized that it’d be a long while before I would have the First Arc fully written. Hell, Adventure 1 is taking a while, since I can only write in little 10 minute moments.
So, I’ve thought to put the first chapter up.
Granted, I posted the page via the Mobile version of the app, so of course I’m going to have to go over it on the computer and make it more presentable. That’s unavoidable, but an easy chore. Hope y’all enjoy it.
To the players who’ve joined my campaign and agreed to be in my stories: thank you. Y’all have made some epic tales already. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
It was an easy day for the Swift Ranch. It’s nice to know that the universe sometimes aligns and lets us have a day to relax, even if just a little.
I have been taking my own advice and making Sunday my (mostly) day off from writing, if just to not stress myself out too much over making my daily word count or getting a project rolling. Chores still have to be done, but that’s a given and they’re easy to handle. The family saw to the needs of the household, and we even managed to get a round of groceries taken care of. Now that it’s evening, I’m taking a few moments to get my thoughts together and put notes down on what I’ve thought about over the day.
I have decided that I would be writing an essay of thoughts about the Russian invasion. As much as I avoid politics, here and everywhere else, that isn’t something I can ignore. If I’m lucky, I’ll have it written by the end of tonight and it’ll be up in the morning.
I also decided that I would, in fact, review the Star Wars Expanded Universe stories! Those reviews will take time to go through, since I have to either find my copy or buy one, read it to refresh my memory, then write up my opinions. But they’ll be put up here when I can.
With that, I have an evening or writing and meal preps to do, so here’s a picture of Apollo being strangely affectionate for all that he is still a feral cat who decided to adopt me.
He does like to cuddle, but he tells me by biting my wrist until I pet him. Progress is progress, at least.
It’s been a pretty hazy day, thanks to sinus medication, but I did manage to get a few pages written as well as chores, so at least it was somewhat productive in both writing and house-spousing.
I’m pretty sure “house-spouse” isn’t a real word, but dammit if it doesn’t cover the bases, so it’s a word in this household.
There were some long moments of me just sitting at the desk and staring off into space, which must have been amusing for the dogs. I avoid taking sinus medication for this reason; I’m useless when it hits my system. I even planned out last night for taking one dose of Benadryl: get everyone to bed, take care of animals, take Benadryl, make ready for the coma.
(This didn’t pan out as well as I’d like, as the Benadryl hit while I was sorting my mail at my desk at 9PM, and suddenly I‘m sitting up in my chair at 2AM)
With luck, I’ll either finish todays writing goal before the sinus meds knock me out tonight, or I’ll be sensible for once and take the tablet to the bed and type until I’m ninja’d by over-the-counter medicine.
It’s certainly an adventure in Swift’s world, folks.
It’s a personal frustration to see the NaNoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month) every time it starts, which is in November. It always looks like a very inviting challenge, and the online writing community is pretty supportive during that month. Every time I check out my various social media platforms during the month, I see updates from other writers about their projects and their successes.
I am happy for them and their successes. But November is a terrible month for me to write. The winter season is a bad time for me to write. In the Post Office, winter is known as the Heavy Months.
It’s always so quiet during the nighttime deliveries
It’s a consequence of how the holidays fall. We have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and several other holidays following right after. Once they’re over, it’s followed by the USA tax season. This is the season that makes or breaks a new-hire, and if they fall out, the rest of us pick up the slack. From October to about April, my average work shift is between 9 and 14 hours. I barely see my family during these months, and on the off-chance I do see them, it’s for maybe 5 minutes. Trying to write after such a shift is an exercise in futility.
I have been better about the effort this past heavy season than I have in previous years. When I had first started in this career, I didn’t even try to write during those months. I would just come home, shower, and fall asleep (in the bed if I was lucky and remembered to walk in that direction). Now, with a decade under my belt and a family to see to, it’s strangely surprising that I have any energy left to try to whack away at a story.
But I am making progress, just not every day like the NaNoWriMo challenge demands of me. I’m tempted to try the challenge during a different month, like May or July, when the mail is light and all I have to worry about is heat prostration.
With all of that said, I’ve actually made decent progress in some of my stories. I’ve almost finished with the first Star Wars RPG adventure, but I’ve realized a different kind of snag in writing: I wasn’t expecting the story to be a real novella. Almost 40 pages so far and I’m not even to the climactic fight.
I’m going to have to break it down into chapters before I post it.
So, it’s back to the late-night attempts to get another 600 words down before exhaustion knocks me out. I’ll be fighting the temptation to just enjoy the fire and read a book.
When it hits below 30 in Louisiana, the humidity just makes the fire necessary
It seems like I’ll have to test out the new dental insurance, as my crown fell out while on the mail route. As inconveniences go, I have to give it top marks for timing.
I did manage to get to a nearby dentist (2 are on the route) and have it put back in, but with that comes planning for future dental appointments and possibly redoing the root canal.
Yay…
With that, the walking pace was noticeably slower than normal, thanks to the low-level but ever-present pain of having a crown reattached. As a result, I went another day without writing. As soon as I was home, I wanted nothing more than to have an evening of quiet and mindlessly trying to help a settlement in Fallout 4.
Thankfully, the dull pain has lessened, and I’ve been trying to take small moments throughout the day to work on my ideas. I’m making progress on the Star Wars RPG stories, and hopefully will be posting such soon, as well as working on an idea that I want to try. If it’s publishable, I’ll be happy. Otherwise, it’ll be another story I can enjoy.
That’s the shutoff valve for the cold water to our washing machine. It broke while I was attempting to move said washer because it, too, broke today.
It’s been a long, long day, readers. It’s past midnight here and I’ve only just finished meal prep for the week. I’m exhausted and I didn’t get to handle any writing today. Either that means I have twice as much work for tomorrow, or I start telling myself that Sunday is my personal day off.
Swift's Corner 