Personal Update

My life has been so topsy turvy for the last month or two. I'm sure some of you have noticed that I basically dropped off the face of the earth. Well, here's an update on why.

I finally started my original novel after have a revelation about the initial primary POV character. It was going really well and I have intentions to post it on Write On when I got to 10k words. But then I got to an emotionally charged section and have let writing slide because I'm trying to figure out how to untangle a few knots and fortify my mental state to write it. I think it'll be cathartic for me once I do get it done like much of my most powerful writing.

But in the meantime I don't have the willpower to focus on the writing. I've been assigned for an out of state job in Stewart Co., Georgia to help with a massive project. I even had to sign an NDA regarding the nature of the project. I was originally going to start living in an apartment down there on August 22nd, but as with many giant jobs, things have been delayed due to both paperwork issues and the possibility of an archeological site being discovered on the location. Currently I'm supposed to go back the week of September 19th to finalize preparation of my work station. Then return on October 3rd to start working full time.

The schedule I have while in Georgia is extremely long. I get up at 5am to be able to travel to the work site so I can make the 7am safety meeting. Then we work all day until 6pm. Then, assuming I don't get distracted, it takes me about an hour to an hour and a half to get back home which is roughly 7:30pm. If I want 8 hours of sleep that means being in bed by 9pm which I haven't done on a regular basis since I was like seven.

The work rotation is typically 10 days of work followed by 4 days off. So I have the option to drive 8 hours home to see Jeremy and my friends which I'll do unless the weekend is cut short due to holiday issues.

In the meantime I've been sent down to Tennessee for most days to help them with the soil assignments they've been receiving. They have qualifications that my hope lab doesn't so they can work off site. I do have a lot of time I could be writing, but I've discovered Pokemon Go and literally been using every minute of my free time to play.

I realize on some level that the game is pointless. The whole point of leveling is so you can level some more. But I love the discovery aspect of the game. I've seen so many amazing sites and locations I never would have found on my own. I've been posting tons of photos on my Facebook page for those who might be interested.

We also went to Indianapolis at the beginning of August for Gencon. Which was not super exciting because I was getting over having a case of MRSA and two different strains of E. Coli, but still a lot of fun.

Now the bad news. My little brother was admitted to the ICU this last Wednesday. He's been diagnosed with Hypertension Stage 2, congestive heart failure, and double pneumonia. He's currently on a ventilator. With that in mind, I came home to KY to be near him.

Thankfully, he's looking stable and they hope to have him off the ventilator by today. The primary issue is that he's extremely active when they start to wake him up - kicking, moving around, etc. - so they had to resedate him after the first attempt. I'm hoping he'll be awake by Monday.

If he is, then I'm back to Tennessee to continue soil classification work for the Georgia project.

As I said, it's been topsy turvy. Thanks for reading.