Feeling Unsettled

I woke up in the night to loud cracks of thunder, a dry line from the sound of it. By the time I was up at 6:00 a.m. the rain had started, and it continues now, as I type this in my personal time before the workday starts. My office doesn't have a window, but from the sounds it must be a fairly heavy rain coming down. Rain usually perks me up, but today I feel...unsettled.

Yes, that's the only way I can describe it: unsettled. It seems like many things are underway, but nothing is finished. I could list them all, but that would probably bore you. Last week, of course, was a partial vacation from the office, as we babysat our three grandchildren, ages 6, 3, and 1. That was a joyous time, though it interrupted most things I have to do. I actually got a little writing done, when I rose early and worked either at the computer or manuscript.

I think I just need to finish something. I'm going to find a couple of small tasks and get them done. That's what I'm going to do. I'll leave this post for the moment, publish it, and come back and edit later to report how it's going.

Well, it's now Friday morning, in my pre-work hour at the office. I feel a little less unsettled than I did yesterday. At the office I completed a recommendation for a former colleague, for her registration with the national accreditation board. That only took 15 minutes. The safety meeting I had to attend and then the patched-together vendor lunch & learn went much better than I expected: good attendance, good presentation, lots of interest. The afternoon saw a few people come through my office needing help or advice on difficult project situations, which I handled. And near the end of the day one of the VPs came in to discuss a ticklish training situation. It was all good.

In the afternoon I got back on my technical paper on erosion control. It's due today, August 8, even though it's not to be presented until next February. I had outlined the paper previously, and done the research needed, but sitting down to write it had eluded me. Yesterday I managed to do that, even with the many interruptions. By end of the day I had over 900 words (on the way to somewhere around 3,000, I think). Can I finish it today and turn it in? Probably not. I'll e-mail the coordinator and ask for a few days grace, and try to get it in by Monday or Tuesday.

I also got closure on a couple of things at home in the evening. When Lynda left the laptop for her iPad, I grabbed it, pulled up Excel, and did the checkbook addition. I also checked on-line and entered a couple of late debits. Then I headed to The Dungeon. I typed what I had written on chapter 5 of Documenting America: Civil War Edition, and added to it, finishing the chapter. That now gives me chapters 1-6 completed (subject to editing, of course). That's roughly 1/5th of the book. In only a month or so. I'm pleased with that progress. I also, later in the evening, did some reading for research into chapter 7. Chapter 8 is also started.

But the other thing I did, which feels really, really good to have finished, was to do the year-to-date accounting for out stock trading business. I mainly wanted to get it started and make some progress on it. But as I worked on it, going from our brokerage statements, it all went fairly quickly. I came to having only June and July left to do, but was tired. However, we made almost no trades in those months, so it was mainly a couple of dividends and interest to record. So I got it done. Almost surprisingly, we are profitable. I thought we were, but we're farther ahead than I expected. That's before accounting for expenses. I still have some of that to enter in the spreadsheet. But that puts me way ahead of where I've been on this accounting in any year since we've been stock trading.

So all in all, I feel better about things today. I still have many balls up in the air, juggling too many things. This weekend will be a time to make some other major progress. I'll get back to Headshots, and begin to consider edits from my beta readers. I don't have many comments yet, but I have enough to get going. I also hope to finish sawing one batch of logs from the tree trimming. I do this manually, sawing them into fireplace length, which I'll take to Oklahoma City for the kids to burn and enjoy. It would be nice to also complete the next to chapters for DA-CWE, but that's not a goal.

Maybe by Monday the unsettled feeling will have left me completely, and I'll be able to report, "Several small missions accomplished."