Despite the last guy with the axe, this week was reasonably productive

I have long felt this Billy Graham cover for Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #6 is a good metaphor for life, which is why I’ve posted it before. You think you’ve got a handle on everything but you don’t see the armored axe-man coming up behind you.

The first axe-man was taking our dogs for their twice-yearly exam at Quartet Rehab Monday morning. We knew about it in advance but still, coupled with the pups’ regular weekly rehab session, it took up the entire morning. That’s a chunk of time out of the workweek.

Wednesday we had a minor emergency, dealt with promptly but it threw me off my game the rest of the day. TYG also took Plushie in for his eye exam, even though it looked like the problems from last week were over. Nope: as usual she was right when she suspected a problem. Ulcers in both eyes, now treated (though he’ll get more eventually). That and the new set of exercises we got from the vet have added to the distractions.

This morning Trixie woke up a little after midnight with an urgent need to go out … except she didn’t do anything. It still through my morning routine completely off (having barely four hours of sleep didn’t help, obviously).

Still, I managed to get a fair amount done. For The Local Reporter I wrote one story about local artist Aliyah Bonnette and another about the Chapel Hill/Carrboro school district budget. At Atomic Junk Shop I got in an article about the last issue of the original Challengers of the Unknown (with a Neal Adams cover) and the demise of several once popular series as the Silver Age wound down.

I didn’t get any fiction written but I wrote a lot on Jekyll and Hyde (as well as some research reading) and got some rewriting done on Savage Adventures. Under the circumstances, I’m pleased. Oh, and I wound up reading another section of Jekyll and Hyde to the writing group and got some good feedback. One part of it was that the book was more interesting when I offered my own opinions rather than just going over the plot, visuals, themes, etc. I thought I was offering my own opinions about all that so I’ll have to parse out what they’re talking about.

Somewhat less satisfactorily, my exercise program flatlined this week. Most days, breaking it down into short five minute bursts is the only way to do it. When I get really busy, though, it’s much harder to get up and deliver on that than when I have time blocked out for it. In my head-canon I’m ending the week a flabby blob whose heart’s going to give out at any minute — don’t worry, I know that’s bullshit but it’s still frustrating.

On the whole, though, I’m still satisfied.