One of the best features of ROW 80 is that it is a challenge that acknowledges that sometimes, “Life happens.” Such has been the case for me of late.
The past week has been rather taxing on my ability to get any writing done. And I mean any, at all.
My father, a World War II veteran, has been living with my wife and me for over three years now. At the age of 89, we know the days behind him vastly outnumber the days in front of him. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with when something happens that reminds you he could leave us sooner than later.
Last Friday, day slipped getting out of the shower due to losing consciousness; it meant calling an ambulance and a trip to the hospital, though they released him a few hours later.
Then on Sunday, normally a productive day for me writing-wise, Dad fell asleep on the couch in the living room. My wife heard a change in his breathing and tried to rouse him, but he began throwing up instead of waking up. Scary moment.
Fortunately, ambulances in this area are fast and we had paramedics in our apartment a second time in less than 48 hours. This time, they categorized it as an unknown cardiac event and hospitalized through Tuesday for observation.
We’re now trying a change in his medication, to see if that keeps him stable. So far, it’s working.
But it all added up to a lot of stress and not much working getting done. Sometimes, life interferes with writing. Sometimes, you need to let it.
This was one of those times.
With a NaNoWriMo-style event, my goose would be cooked. Instead, I just re-shuffle the cars, bear down, and start over working toward my goals. Again.
So, I have no progress, really, to report at this time. The only upside to the past week is that my shiny new Dell desktop PC arrived. It’s a lot more stable and powerful and I’m a happy camper on that score.
Hopefully that means I’ll even-keel out soon and get back to writing shortly.
