Ugh

Last week was…not a good week.  Monday, both kids were home, and Daniel spiked a low-grade fever (lethargic and flushed).  Which meant he was home Tuesday, getting into stuff, and hanging about under elbow (he felt pretty much all the way better, but school rules keep him home for 24 hrs after fever breaks on its own).  I got a couple things done on Wednesday, and then he came home broken-hearted: his girlfriend (yes, girlfriend–never mind that he’s 10 and she’s 9) was moving out of the school with her family.  So I wound up with a weepy boy in my lap for a lot of the evening.

Friday, I triggered a CFS flare.  Kinda came out of nowhere–hit fast, hard, and nasty as I was finishing up the grocery shopping.  Spent the rest of Friday out of commission; spent a lot of Saturday like that, too, because there are always things that need done on a daily basis and I can’t take a day off of everything.  Kept pecking away at writing, but longhand, mostly, and longhand on Sunday.  I still need to transcribe what I got done.

Like I said: I did get a couple things done, even transcribed and finished, early in the week.  Gods and Monsters is sitting at 72,000 words.  4,000 words more than it ended the previous week at.  I have no idea how much I have to transcribe sitting in my draft book.  And I’m working today.  I still hope I can finish the first draft within the week (or two).   Cross your fingers for me, please.

New laptop

I got my new laptop yesterday.  Spent some time setting it up and getting it usable, and tightening down the privacy settings (shutting Cortana off to the extent that I can–the stupid thing always runs in the background, and I can’t totally kill the program so that it doesn’t eat memory).

I got a tiny bit transcribed today–it was a family visit day, so I took the laptop up to my mom’s and did a little bit (both file/folder organization so I can find the stuff I’m working on, and transcribing from draft book to novel file).  The thing was telling me that I had thirteen hours of battery life.

Got home and started re-downloading my music from Amazon (all I can do until later–the one jump drive I can currently use has irreplaceable photos and files, so it won’t get used).  On battery.  For the past two or three hours.  And it’s saying I still have 7.5 hours left.

I’m impressed.

The keyboard is comfortable and responsive, and the up/down arrows are half-size keys, set between the left/right arrows.  The shift key is your standard itty-bitty-bit longer than your enter key.  Which makes for comfortable, more accurate typing.

Next week, my kids go back to school.  Not Monday (teacher in-service day) but on Tuesday.

Currently, I have 68,000 words, with another 10K planned between here and the end of the book.  I have maybe another 10K-15K words planned to flesh out some of the side plots and characters, and weave it into the main plot.  And then, the first draft will be done.

I think I can get it done in the next two weeks, but I’ve thought that before, damn it.

However.

This time.  This time, I have the tools for the job: a laptop with a good keyboard, good headphones, writing music, pens, paper, and ink.

Mildly irritated

I got this laptop, a Lenovo IdeaPad, in July of 2017.  Right away, I had a mild complaint: the shift key on the right side is half-sized.  And there’s an up arrow right next to it.  I got an ergonomic keyboard (that I shouldn’t have cheaped out on, because I have several complaints about it), and used that while getting used to the stupidity that Lenovo did with the keyboard.

I’ve had another complaint for the past two months: the case around the monitor has cracked, and is getting worse.  Despite being incredibly careful, and no longer closing the laptop at all, it’s gotten to the point that the monitor will reposition itself, and the plastic case around the monitor separates when I try to move it back.

I’d gotten fifteen months’ use out of the damn thing.  And this is beyond the irritation with Windows 10, the keyboard, and Office setting itself up as a rental rather than a purchase.

When I was using Acer laptops, I usually got at least two years’ use out of them before things started going tits-up.

I have an Acer Aspire on order from Amazon.  It’ll arrive on Friday.

In the meantime, I’ve been fighting wave after wave of chronic fatigue flareups.  Four months ago or so, my endocrinologist reduced my thyroid meds, and I started having issues.  I’ve been put on a different one,* and I’ve started feeling better.

I’m irritated that a slightly high level of thyroid hormone, to the point my doc’s concerned about it, seems to be best for the chronic fatigue, and that I feel awful when the doctor’s happier.

I’m hopeful that the new meds don’t wind up with my doc hyperventilating and shoving me back on the synthetic T4 replacement without listening to my preferences because it’s what she thinks is best.

I have been still writing, but I’ve been having to back up almost as much as I’ve been going forward.  When brain has the dumbs, the words just don’t work right.

That seems to be, finally, fixing itself as I get used to the new meds.  Crossing fingers.

 

*I’m on natural thyroid replacement, which includes T4 (inactive) and T3 (active), rather than just the T4 that my body’s supposed to convert and maybe doesn’t do properly.