I didn’t finish my draft of the solo trip last weekend. Partly because I wasn’t feeling well and partly because the temperature outside was so low. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself. My computer desk is located next to the window and so is naturally a bit colder than the couch. Although, for some reason, I often get warmer sitting there than sitting on the couch.
Whatever excuse I might give myself, the draft is not yet complete, though I am well into day 5 – the last day. Writing about it still makes me smile. I love looking at the pictures. I go back through my memories and chide my past self for not taking pictures of parts that I now find I wish I had recorded – the nearly invisible trail up to Observation Peak, for example. At the junction where I crossed it, the trail was indistinguishable from a rut, but I didn’t take any pictures of it.
I know that I’m going to have to bring a good deal of focus and concentration to my writing this next week. I would very much like to be done, or nearly done, by New Years. It would be best if I could finish before and keep the book in the same year as the trip was done, but I can handle it if that doesn’t happen. I’m not the best at resisting procrastination, especially when my husband tempts me away from my work computer with movies and hikes. Perhaps I’ll enlist his help in this scheme.
He has recently decided that to help us eat less sweets, all sweets come with penalty laps. I decide how many laps his treats may be bought for and he decides my price. For example, a pastry left over from an office party can be bought for four laps. A small piece of chocolate only costs two laps. So far, it’s been an effective deterrent from eating extra sweets. It isn’t that the laps run will balance out the calories from the treat, but that the thought of having to do laps prevents us from eating them – sometimes.
So maybe I’ll have to do a similar plan for my writing work over the break – something like, one hour at the writing desk equals one movie. And the television viewing would get more expensive as the week went on, forcing me to spend yet more time at the desk – like 2 hours – in order to watch just one 44 minute episode of Deep Space Nine with Ambrose.
I might have something here!