Week in Review

Things are changing at work, and that's had a knock-on effect of causing a great deal of stress in the lives of most folks in the office. This, in turn, has led to me "shutting down" when I'm not at work. In short, I don't allow myself to think when I'm not at work, which limits what I can do outside work. Add in a nasty virus, and the last few weeks have been less than pleasant for me.

Things are sort of evening out... or at least I'm getting more used to the stress. I'm not sure which. So this past week I've felt like I'm coming out of a fog.

I'm not sure I can catch up with events, despite wanting to tell everyone how things have been going and the strange events that happen. For example, I got a reflective vest, had the word "MEDIA" printed on the back of it ($7 and 10 minutes at the local print shop)... and the very next day I followed a car chase and caught images of the perp being arrested by officers while wearing the vest for the first time.

I also nearly started a riot at a middle school, for which I am terribly sorry. I wanted to get a shot of some kids throwing balls at a particular teacher during a dodgeball tournament, but all the kids wanted to join in because the guy joined a team and threw the balls so hard that kids were knocked down when he hit them. Kids being kids, they ignored my instructions and went crazy and mobbed the poor man. I will never, ever do that again. And I didn't even get the shot.

We changed the way we do mileage to the standard method of recording start and end mileage as on the car's odometer. To make it really easy for me, I'm just writing down the mileage every single time I stop the car, whether I'm working or not. The upside is that I've got a detailed log of how much I've driven, and where I've gone. I did have to switch from a pen to a pencil because the ink kept freezing.

Snow in the Lower Valley meant a meeting I was scheduled to go to Thursday night was canceled. I heard the publisher talking about how there were still open seats at the local theater for Star Wars. After consulting with Eric, I bought tickets and we went to the 7 p.m. showing (about the time I would have been leaving the meeting!). Amusingly, when we got into the theater I looked for the perfect seat, about halfway up and in the middle. My publisher was sitting right there. So I sat next to him. Can't avoid my boss, even at the movies!

I'm still doing the usual writing. I sometimes have to cringe when I read my own writing. Bob was a fantastic copy editor who made everything I wrote stronger. We no longer have Bob as the safety net... and I feel my writing is still working its way up to how good it was when he edited it. The new publisher/editor also has different ideas that will make my writing much stronger, but it's very hard to adjust. At times I feel like I'm just setting up targets and having them shot down before I can even get them all up. I think I do something well, then I'm told by the way, this is a poor writing habit you need to break.

If I survive, I'm going to be a great writer. But I'm still not sure if I'm going to survive this process.

Anyway, I apologize for the lack of content here. I'm afraid my priorities go first to mental health, and that means turning off when I'm not at work.