Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Summer plans

So, one month after our latest drama and how do things stand? Well, I'm working, so that's a good start.It's not permanent at this time, so things aren't perfect. But it's a good job, I'm grateful to the people who rode to my rescue and gave me the opportunity, and there's the potential for it to turn into something more, so we shall see how that goes.

Still, it's a bit rough. Right about now, if all had gone according to plan, Cathy and I should be in San Jose, Costa Rica. Just for the night. Tomorrow we'd be on our way to Puerto Jiminez for a week of beach and tropical rain forest. And then other adventures in the following weeks. Instead, I arrived back in Iqaluit yesterday. I flew over hills still covered in snow, the bay still has a healthy amount of ice in it and a community a few hundred kilometres to the north of us got a heavy snowfall warning for today. About 30 cm of snow is going to hit there...on July 2.

Fortunately not in Iqaluit, though. As Cathy said on the phone tonight, if that much snow hit Iqaluit today I'd probably be on a flight down south. Not entirely sure that's true, but I would be a decidedly unhappy camper.

And yes, Cathy on the phone. Due to the circumstances we're going to be spending longer apart this summer than normal. We often spend about 3-4 weeks apart. Being a teacher she just gets more time off. But this summer we'll be spending about seven weeks apart. She's in Mount Pearl and I'm here. Which kind of sucks, really.

Anyway, I try not to grouse about it. Sort of like when things went bad with the last job. Give yourself a day or two to feel bad about it and then move on. I've been back in town for a day. By the weekend I'll be fine.

However, that does leave seven weeks to fill. Yes, there's work and I'll probably increase how often I go to the gym from four times a week to five. And yes, I have a bunch of TV shows and movies that Cathy hates that I can sit down and watch. But just doing that for seven weeks strikes me as a bit of a waste of an opportunity. So what to do...

Well, I've decided to write again. I've badly fallen out of the habit. The last job was far more management than writing. Which was nice and all, but it's just like going to the gym. If you don't use those muscles on a regular basis, they're going to weaken. Also like the gym, the first few weeks you start going again hurts. And really rather sucks. So if this seems rambling and incoherent, well, hang in there. It should start getting better sooner or later.

Still, it's a thing that needs doing. I've already done some writing. Although the articles aren't online, I have a 12-part travel series running with The Packet, my old newspaper back in Newfoundland, about my travels over the past year. So that's kind of cool. I also had a brief piece in the Globe and Mail about my weight loss over the last year, which has gotten a lot of kind comments.

As for more, well, I think I'm going to take up blogging again. We'll see what form it takes and how often. I'd like to do it every day, but perhaps like the gym, we'll see how much it hurts if I just do it five days a week.

I also think I'll take one last, desperate swing at the novel. The damn thing is 80 per cent complete and has been that way for the better part of seven years. I have seven weeks with few distractions. Let's see if I can do it. If I can finish the book this summer, well, perhaps all the chaos of the last month will be worth it.

In the meantime, enjoy the ramblings. I suspect I'll be venturing all over the place in the next few weeks, but I have ideas on things I'd like to write about, which is more than I've been able to say in quite some time. So let's see what happens.

Last Five
1. Piledriver waltz - Arctic Monkeys
2. My hometown - Bruce Springsteen*
3. There is a reason (live) - Allison Krauss and Union Station
4. Heart to heart with Lionel - Joel Plaskett Emergency
5. Blood red moon - The XX

2 comments:

Sara Dorman said...

Yay!! welcome back

John, Perth AU said...

Use this opportunity to catch up on Doyle. Really, the last season wasn't that bad.