#214 - April Word Challenge Completed!

A bit of a rough morning.

Actually, it feels like I haven’t even gone to bed. Was more of a nap and less of a sleep. Today is my penance for skipping my word count goals all the previous day before. And it’s a busy day even without all the word challenge things going on.

But we both managed to leave the house on time and at the moment I am feeling better than I expected to. Usually I get a lack of sleep headache like I’ve been out binge drinking all night, but feel good all things considered.

The roadways were nice and clear for us on the way to the station and a light rain fell down on us. We made it to the station faster than normal. Thursdays can be quieter for the train, not sure why, but I don’t mind it.

As we pulled into the station a train was just pulling away. We got a parking spot right up at the front as if we were arriving an hour earlier. At this point I am starting to wonder if things are going to just go my way today.

And then we hear the announcement that another train is inbound, and the board tells me it’s an all-stops train and I silently thank the universe. The all-stops is a longer ride and there are usually plenty of seats. The train is all but shunned by the Toronto bound commuters, making it the perfect writing train for me.

We boarded the second car from the front, usually to packed to even consider and had our choice of seating. The car was all but empty. I had my preferred seating, so I whipped out the laptop to get started right away. Every single moment counts today, and the universes blessing won’t last if I waste the opportunities given.

My goal today is to get at least five hundred words on the way to work and another on the way home. This will get me back to the number I would have been at if I had made it to six thousand words last night.

But with this being an all-stops train, there is an opportunity to get even more than that done, and I have to think about the possibility that the train home will not be conducive to writing.

My back is feeling much better. Nights spent on the recliner writing seem to have helped as well as all the other things I did. We’ll see how a day spent sitting in an uncomfortable studio chair makes me feel. At least I can sit properly on the train this morning. One battle down and won.

My writing instructors, the ones who are running the 2026 word challenge, just announced another one today. The idea is to tell them the word count you want to write per day and then submit your achievement every Monday. This time you can only count fiction. No rewrites or non-fiction. It’s limited to twenty-five writers and there is a cost to participate in the challenge. They are doing this because we are in what they call the Time of the Great Forgetting. These spring months are so full of distractions and family gatherings that writers often let their writing slip and then wonder what happened to all their plans when July finally rolls around and they have achieved nothing.

This is something they noticed after years of teaching, this reoccurring pattern of forgetting.

As a result, they run these fun challenges and often offer discounts on their courses. This is when I would traditionally opt into a course or challenge, sometimes at up to sixty percent off.

I won’t be joining this challenge, at leasto freet i this year. The 2026 word challenge is keeping me on my toes well enough for now. I do like the fiction only restriction as it really focuses down on the thing we are here to do. Write stories.

But I am not one of the writers lost in the time of great forgetting, but it could easily be the case next year or somewhere down the road. I can see myself signing up for another challenge next year when this one finishes running its course.

One of the benefits of having no free time this week is that we have bunch of things to watch this weekend when we have a moment. Friday night and Saturday are looking like our best bets. I may be writing a short story come Saturday, another attempt to write my last assignment.

The train has filled up with all kinds of commuters. People are standing in the isles right beside me. I think this is more due to the fact we are sitting in the second car from the front. A popular car for people who want the quickest access to Bay Street. And standing in the aisle secures your position in line for when the train doors eventually open and the mass migration of workers begin. And yes, you should have completely read that in David Attenborough’s voice. Because it I like watching one of those nature documentaries.

Human nature is on full display as the masses strive for the available resources of time and space, jockeying for the better position. Impatient with the slower and weaker of the species

Not that I am any better than the rest of them.

If you prick me, do I not bleed?

Commuting turns the sweetest people into raging lunatics.

It’s funny, at the airport everyone turns into mindless cattle. We do reall stupid shit when we travel, like we left our brains at home to go on vacation. Which is kind of the point of a vacation, right?

But where the vacationing commuter is bovine, the working commuter is a vicious predator. Sharp teeth and claws at the ready.

Well, my goal for this train ride was to hit five hundred words. A goal that assumed I would be on an express train. I was able to hit just over a thousand words, getting me all caught up from last nights deficit.

The temperature was cool and refreshing once we disembarked the train. The old entrance/exit I have used for the past few years changed as the construction was finally done. The new entrance is so much nicer than the construction one that it feels like my commute got a little upgrade. It’s amazing how used to the crummy environment you can become accustomed to over time.

We stopped at the Tim Hortons on the way to work and picked the absolute worst time to be there. By the looks of it, an entire construction crew came into order their breakfasts. We weren’t in a rush to get to the studio, so it wasn’t a big deal. But of course, as soon we got our order the line had vanished.

It’s all about the timing.

I tried their new hazelnut latte and thought it as just okay, but not really to my taste. I wouldn’t order it again.

We strolled the rest of the way to the studio and got to powering up our machines.

My supervisor arrived a little later with a bag of thick chewy chocolate chip cookies in her hand. She stopped at the Rooster’s Café on her way to work. These are some serious cookies, and they helped the hazelnut latte go down easier.

It was a bit of a sad day today, as it was our friend and colleague, Vanessa’s last day in the studio. We arranged to grab some lunch and then we all got to work.

The day was a good one by all accounts. Some more designs were finalized and others were approved. I got to mostly work on my own painting when I wasn’t revising or handing out revisions to the other painters. For a while I listened to the orchestral versions of U2 songs that I stumbled upon last night. It got my foot tapping and put in a good mood.

I played a Bastille album for a while too, and it had been some time since I’d heard it.

When lunch time arrived, eight or ten of us went around the corner to the Kenton Ramen restaurant. It’s not too expensive and it was nice and close. We had a nice meal; I always enjoy their Ramen and stayed for about an hour.

It was more of the same at work. There was some confusion with uploading that had us scratching our heads for a while until we figured it out. I ended the day by sending out some more revisions for the artists to do tomorrow.

We walked to the station. It was sunny and mild out, and the movement felt good to a body that has been sedentary all day.

I need to work off some calories anyways to make room for tonight’s pizza.

We arrived at the station, through the fancy new entrance, and a train heading our way was just boarding. I glanced at the sign board and was happy to see the train was an all stops. And you know that means plenty of writing room and more time for my stubby little fingers to mash those keys.

The train was only about half full as we left the station. Unfortunately, there was a guy dressed in construction overalls that decided to conduct all his phone calls to his doctor on the upper floor using his EarPods. We all got to learn about his prescription needs and the trouble he was having when filling them.

I wasn’t heart broken when he got up and exited the train at the second stop.

The kiddo was able to sign for Robyn’s new Wacom stylus today. Which removes any worries about working from home on Monday for me.

My new lawnmower battery arrived as well. Now, I’ll get to finish cutting the lawn before my family arrives on Sunday. And I am secure in the knowledge that I’ll be covered for power for the rest of this season.

Our friends have already preordered the pizza. The are getting a shawarma pizza and something else. Not sure what the other thing is. The shawarma pizza is good, but ever since we had the hot honey, pepperoni and jalapeno pizza, that is all I want.

My plan is to write as much as I can while the show is on. Any words I write there will be less words I need to write when I get home. I am very much looking forward to tomorrow, when I only have to write two thousand words instead of six thousand.

If all goes well, and so far, the day has been generous with its gifts, I’ll have two thousand words in the can by the time we get to our friend’s house. And that might actually mean that I’ll have less words to write between the hours of nine and three AM then in the last three days. As Rocky from The Hail Mary Project would say, “Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!”

I’m looking forward to curling up beside my wife tomorrow night and watching some television. It feels like a while since we had enough time together. And if this last week didn’t instill some sense into me about making the time each day to write then nothing is ever going to.

The effort and exhausting this week as taught me things and maybe I needed to do this to get to the next level in my writing. It was an intensive week of concentrated effort and determination. And that is something I can add to my bag of tools and carry forward into my future.

One small worry I have tonight is the effect the hot tub might have on me. I’ve had about four hours of sleep, and the warmth of the tub might knock me off my butt. I think that’s the only real concern I have about making the word quota tonight and by definition for the month.

The last few nights have taught me that I can do this when I am forced to. And once you’ve done it, you know from that point on you could do it again.

I made my two-thousand-word goal for train writing. We are almost at our stop. I am going to pack things up and give my hands a little rest.

A quick trip home to freshen up and grab some cold beverages.

My lawnmower battery was waiting for me on the front porch. I opened it up while Robyn went into the house and was pleased that the battery was fully charged. I popped it into the lawn mower and tested it out. It worked perfectly, and I was able to finish cutting the front lawn. I put it back on the charger to top it up so I could tackle the back lawn tomorrow.

I ran inside to freshen up and grab a couple of diet cokes for Robyn, a Dr. Pepper and a Pina Colada Perrier for myself.

After merging onto the highway, the traffic started to back up. I got off at the next exit, preferring to go through the city instead.

Our friends already had the pizzas in hand. They had ordered two pies from Blondies. The honey, pepperoni and jalapenos and one called the “Drake.” It had pineapple, bacon and maybe barbeque sauce. It was okay, but I still like the honey pizza the best.

We spent ten or fifteen minutes catching up. Jody made Robyn a crocheted flowerpot filled with yellow flowers for her desk. You can pull the flowers out and they become a coaster for your hot mug. Jody is a very creative person who always makes interesting and personal gifts and crafts for the people in her life. We are lucky to be some of those people.

We dug into the pizzas; I took two of the honey and one of the Drake and took our seats. You know it’s good when the conversation dies down. I ate like there was a timer involved.

Jody had a plate of oatmeal, lemon and short bread cookies on the table as well as some Miss Vickies Chips. I partook of it all with joy in my heart.

We started the show and I got caught up in the spectacle that is Survivor for fifteen minutes before I remembered to pull out my laptop. I got about four hundred words written before we took our hot tub break.

The hot tub is my biggest worry as I said. If I get too sleepy after all that heat, the challenge could come tumbling down around me.

The water was sitting around one hundred and three degrees. One crucial degree less than usual. It’s a palpable degree of heat. You can feel the difference between three and four. Having the water at the slightly lower temperature is a boon for me. This day has really been good to me. The lower temp means I am less likely to turn into jelly after I get out of the water.

John and I had a good chat as always about all kinds of things. The topic of sleep came up, probably because I haven’t had much of that this week. We talked about its function with healing the body and what hours we like to wake up.

The ladies were off talking their walk around the subdivision and likely having their own interesting conversations.

The timer stopped the jets and the girls walked back into the house. I stood outside to cool myself down a bit more before coming back inside to change clothes.

One of the other things we discussed was Non-Sleep, Deep Rest meditation. I stood outside feeling the cool air on my skin, closed my eyes and rested for a few minutes. Every little bit of a recharge I can get is only going to help me out this evening to cross the finish line.

Survivor, Mr. Beast appeared with a suitcase filled with a mystery advantage. Tensions and machinations are running high amongst the players.

They did one of those Survivor auctions were sometimes you had to eat giant grub worms to get the burger. Fun to watch, gross to have to do. Not sure what I would do in that situation.

But I do love food.

And speaking of food, I missed another chance to eat at the Patrician Grill once again. With lunch and pizza plans today, a third big meal was out of the question. But the diner closes near the end of May. My chances are dwindling and soon the grill will be gone forever.

We said our good nights to our friends and left for home. I ate too many slices of pizza again, but it was good.

The Youtuber I watch, who is living on his solar boat with his girlfriend recently decided to add outrigger pontoons onto his monohull boat to make it more stable. He will be able to add extra solar panels with added area as well. It looks like the boat will look pretty cool after he does his Gerry rigged addons. Considering he built the boat himself out of plywood and fiberglass it looks pretty good and it got him all the way from Norway to the coast of Spain.

It’s amazing what you can do with some hard work and a little planning. He did some rough calculations to see what effect the new pontoons would have on the boat drag, water line and other things. All in all, the pontoons are a net positive to all aspects of the boat. With the increase in solar power the extra drag on the boat becomes negligible.

It’s awesome that he can mod these things as much as he wants while living on the boat for free. And because he has his own power generation, he rarely needs to dock at marinas.

The new stabilizer makes working and sleeping on the boat more comfortable and because the boat will roll less, the solar capacity will increase. He estimated that he could see an increase of 300 watts just from stabilization.

After last night’s discovery of Orchestral U2 songs I found one for Led Zepplin that’s pretty funky too. It makes for good writing background noise. Combining orchestra instruments with rock and roll is just a no brainer. Perfect for writing on the last night of the April 2026 words per day challenge.

Listen to it hear: https://youtu.be/j5cVNN-H76o?si=VjeeJMP7EoxFJk_L

It’s eleven thirty and I have about four thousand words left to write before my head can touch a pillow. It’s hard not to reflect on this month’s challenge as I get to the end of April.

Work was incredibly stressful and not something I had factored into my calculations when I decided to start this challenge back in January. At that time I was laid off and there was no guarantee of a call back. The challenge was an exciting new opportunity to push the boundaries of what I was capable of in the realm of writing.

With the return to work, and to a show that wasn’t quite ready for me and my team to start, the stress quickly piled on. This also meant making the dreaded three day a week commute into the city. A loss of at least nine hours of my free time each week.

And I had purchased some tickets for events that were close together, never even thinking that might be a problem later. Add in all the family events like birthdays, and holidays as well as just your run of the mill invitations, my free time evaporated in no time.

 

And when I started the challenge, I had some longer form stories in the mix. A heist story htati have yet to finish, and a sci-fi story that I did finish, but still needs some polish.

I experimented with dictation and even wrote some of the sci-fi story that way. I sort of stopped using it somewhere along the way. But I would like to do more with it again. I even built the writing cave to increase the sound quality and the bravery of the writer.

And then I found I didn’t like being down there while my wife was upstairs alone. We started to miss each other. It was then that I switched to writing while in bed. I purchased some lapdesks and a better pillow for sitting up in bed. And I liked writing that way.

And then I started to get behind when I finished the sci-fi story.

I think it was at that point that this blog became the vehicle for getting my word count numbers up. I found it easier to write posts than make things up. And I could do that while in bed with the misses. I could write while the tv was on without too much bother.

It seemed like a good thing to do at the time.

But as time went on, it started to feel like this was cheating. The main purpose of the challenge is to help you create a habit, to get your butt in front of your writing computer, but most of all to help write.

What I want to get good at is fiction. And I am not doing that everyday sadly.

Before joining the challenge, I started a mentorship with KKR. A unique chance to have a seasoned author, editor and publisher help me become a better writer.

And at times, my word count came from writing stories from the prompts she sent me. These were very challenging and great fun. It felt great to have created something. I don’t get that same sense of accomplishment from writing this blog.

But I do get something from it. It’s not all doom and gloom.

I’ve talked about the increase in typing speed, the ease of writing two thousand words a day. It was once something I thought I couldn’t do. Sure, I could write a ten-thousand-word story over the weekend, but then I wouldn’t write anything again for weeks or months.

Doing it every day is a completely different beast.

It’s a whole other mindset.

I’ve learned when push comes to shove, I can write more than I thought I could.

I learned that I’m not very good at writing things well before the deadline. And it’s not like I enjoy the stress that comes from the looming deadline. Just the opposite.

But I’ll push things until it seems like failure is eminent. It gives my wife anxiety when I leave things to the very end to start.

A deadline does motivate me. Eventually

I don’t like that about myself.

As I sit here, there isn’t a moment I didn’t wish that I had put in the time ever day so that all I had to do today was an easy two thousand words.

I;ve learne that the world will try to take your writing time away from you if you let it. And sometimes there is nothing you can do about that.

I’ve learned that you can hedge your bets by writing in all the little dead spaces that exist every day. Waiting for an appointment, commuting, lunch breaks or the time before a movie starts playing the pre-show.

I feel like I’ve gotten away with something every time I pull something like that off. It feels good to know that you are making something when everyone else beside you is thumbing through their phone in search of dopamine.

Writing on the train feels like stealing the crown jewels and getting away with it. I can easily get most of my daily quota while riding back and forth to work. Assuming I can get a seat, of course.

I can sneak in four or five hundred words during a half an hour lunch break.

I am sure I’ll discover more ways as this challenge continues.

But what I need to do is make sure I commit to completing the quota on a daily basis. This monthly thing is a road that leads to crazy all nighters.

On another note, I received the funds from my tax return today. I got a decent chunk thanks to my writing expenses and the contributions to my RRSP. I made a bit of money back in May and put half the proceeds into my RRSP to defer the taxes.

I’ve earmarked about half the return to pay for our week at the cottage this summer. My car needs to get the intercooler fixed. I am tired of driving without the added acceleration the turbo unit produces.

About a thousand of it, I want to gift to my stepson if he sets up a Wealth Simple TFSA trading account. I did this for his sister when she was about his age now. I wanted to give them the tools to grow their money now when they still have plenty of time to benefit from compounding interest in a tax-free vehicle.

I hope they catch the bug when they see the money coming in every month in the form of dividends. The money I give them today to invest might help them but their first house one day or get them through a financial emergency of some kind.

Now that they have both had jobs and have some of their own expenses like phone bills and air fares, I think they have gained enough appreciation for how hard it is to earn money in this world. And that almost everything in the world is designed to part you from it as quickly as possible.

I have to say, I am surprised at how well I feel considering the little amount of sleep I had last night and the early wake up time. I took an Advil after leaving our friends because I felt a lack of sleep headache coming on. A few minutes with my eyes closed also seemed to help as well.

I was expecting my eyes to be drooping and my mouth to be machinegun yawning.

I can feel the energy drain happening though and I’ll likely need to shut my eyes for ten minutes at some point to recover some of that energy loss.

Today marks the two hundredth day of my 2026 words per day challenge. Two hundred days since the first of January to get me to this point. Four months. A third of the way through the challenge already. Time sure does pass by fast.

By the end of this writing session, I will have written approximately two hundred and forty-three thousand words this year. Double the amount I wrote in 2024 and almost five times my 2025 output. Proof that these challenges are effective.

As I start to plan the second third of this challenge, I want to focus on writing more fiction and getting the word count completed on a daily basis. There will be times when I can’t make the quota due to unforeseen circumstances, but on the whole, I want to hold myself to a professional standard. Professionals write everyday almost exclusively.

There are some exceptions, sure, but if you look at those writers’ output, they usually aren’t very prolific. It’s the ones who grind through every day that are able to keep this up decade after decade.

Learning to “Write in the Dark,” as some writer’s call it is one way I think I can become a daily fiction writer. It makes the process of writing more fun to do and removes some of the stress of the blank screen. Learning the seven point plot outline is another great way to break through writer’s block and a great way to write a compelling story.

The seven point plot outline is as follows:

1.      A character

2.      In a setting

3.      With a problem

4.      Try/fail

5.      Try/ Fail

6.      Climax.

7.      Validation.

This is an idea that came from the pulp writers who wrote vast quantities of novels and stories. They were paid by the word and could make heaps of money of they were fast.

It’s basically how the old Doc Savage books were written.

You can do a lot by just learning how to do those two things. It really changed the way I approached writing a story. Made it easier to understand what I needed to do and made it more fun to do.

One of the other things I’d like to do more of this quarter is to publish more of my work on my website as well on sites like Amazon.

By the start of the final third of the challenge, I want to start writing a novel a month. And then self-publish it the following month.

I am well aware of the indie publishing algorithm that says you need to have 20 books written and available for sale before your readers will start to find you. At that point you are likely to be able to make about fifty thousand dollars per year (US).

I’d like to get four of those twenty done before the end of this year is out. And the next year I will likely enter one of my teacher’s novel challenges. They have one that asks you to write and publish a novel every month for a year.

That sounds like a fun challenge, doesn’t it?

I know there are many people who would scoff at the idea of anyone writing a book a month, particularly if that someone was me. But authors have been doing this for ages. Most of them did it under pen names because their publishers didn’t want them to put out too many books at once.

Stephen King says he writes six thousand words per day. If he wrote a book that was one hundred and twenty thousand words long, it would take home all of twenty days.

Anne Rice wrote An Interview with a Vampire in eighteen days, sure she holed herself up in a hotel room and worked long hours, stopping only to eat, drink and defecate.

Nora Roberts writes books under the name J.D. Robb. And in fact, her real name is not Nora Roberts.

There is this myth that a good book must take years to write and cause the author all kinds of hardship and inner turmoil. And that’s just not true. It’s just easier to sell books if the reader thinks these things. Many authors and publishers just leaned into this idea because it got books off the shelves faster.

Many of the new indie publishers are publish books at an astonishing rate. And I am not talking about AI generated crap. These are real people who publish twenty-six to one hundred books in a single year.

And they have avid fans who buy every single one of their books they can lay their hands on. There is a market for the fast release author out there.

I’m not worried about how quickly I can release book after book, but I’d like to break from the myth that I can only write one or two books per year. I feel that these limitations have run their course. And it will be fun to try and achieve these kinds of output levels.

And speaking of levels. The time is nearly two AM, and I have just under eighteen hundred words to write. I think that could take me another two hours at this rate. My typing speed gets worse as time goes on. And I have to think of things to talk about and the longer this goes on the less I have left to say.

And someone who does have something to say is the artist Banksy. A large statue of a man in a suit, his face covered by a flag, is moments away from stepping off a plinth. Considering the difficulty of installing such a large statue in a public place amongst other military statues must have been difficult to pull off.

It’s a good example of the power of art. The image is striking and the message is both clear and open to interpretation. It seems to be talking about the risks of nationalism and maybe a blind faith in any one group. I’ve not been much of a fan of Banksy’s past work, but this one was a good one in my humble opinion.

Woods, Art Critic for the world!

I lost my chess game today, due to what people refer to as a mouse slip. I played the game on my laptop, and I didn’t have my Microsoft Arc mouse handy. So, I used the track pad and made a placement error twice in one game. My opponent showed no mercy and after two slips on the track pad I resigned from the game.

I hate to lose that way.

There used to be an option to forgive your opponent’s move if you suspected their move was made in error because of the mouse slip. I’ll have to check to see if that is still a thing you can do on the Chess.com site.

I’ve played a game of chess every day for one hundred and five consecutive days. Not bad. I even have the app messaging me every day to tell me that I am on an awesome streak and I should play some more before I ruin my streak.

Even the chess app understands the power of a good streak.

Kiddo #2 is still thinking about returning home from Halifax now that she knows the work is drying up at the studio she works at. The funny thing was she said she wanted to take the same courses as Robyn in youth services but was put off when she found out Robyn was applying to the same course. It ruined it for the kid somehow. Like she couldn’t take the same course to enter the same field as her mom. I thought this was a weird reaction. If you set your sites on obtaining a goal, then don’t let anyone stop you from pursuing it.

Hopefully the kid will figure out what she wants to do or find work in Halifax. I think she likes living there with her group of friends. Why would you want to move back in with your parents unless you had no other choice.

Truth is, she has an open invitation to return to the retirement home she worked at here before she left for the coast. And she would have free room and board if she moved back.

Not a terrible prospect for a twenty-six-year-old.

The terrible truth about the animation industry is that it is starting to die. There is a brain and talent drain that has been underway for a couple of years now. I’ve even heard rumors that a Hamilton studio is pursuing the use of AI to create their animation for clients. Not a good sign. I suspect their desire to replace all and any employees will eventually bankrupt them. Morally and financially.

But it seems every day another one of us if announcing that they are leaving the industry for good. Not because they wanted to and not because they were bad at it, but because they had no choice but to look elsewhere for work.

Same thing is happening in the VFX world. The people who make tv and movies look awesome. Editors and comp artists too. There is a belief out there that people will no longer be needed by these companies to do the work. But who will need these companies products if people don’t have the money to buy your products.

I don’t think humanity will welcome the next wave of entertainment if it is produced by an artificiality. We’ll know it for what it is when we see it.

Even music streamer Spotify has started adding badges to artist to say this artist is not AI.

And I think the problems with the modern entertainment industry are not the artists who were making the shows. It’s the same people who don’t think they should have to pay people that make all the bad decisions about the work they don’t really understand.

But that’s enough about that. Rant over.

Just about three AM and I am about an hour away from completing my word count goals.

The desire to just quit and go to bed is strong, but luckily, I have a bit of a stubborn streak that is serving me well today. And after the kind of day, I had, where everything seemed to be going my way, it would be an insult to the universe to give up when I am so close to the finish line.

I will admit that my eyes are getting a bit blurry and I am starting to see doubles.

Oh doubles! Around three o’clock Robyn and I took a short walk around the studio to get some air. We walked towards an area I have never been to. Never had any reason to go there before, but we ended up stumbling across a restaurant that sells “Doubles.”

We first encountered these while attending my sister’s wedding in Trinidad. They have Double Men selling them from carts like we have hotdog carts here.

A double is Trinidadian street food made with two fried pieces of flat bread filled with curried chickpeas. Sounds too simple to be good, but you’d be wrong. They are delicious. The texture and flavors of the bread and chickpeas work really well together and it’s a bit like Trini comfort food.

There was a place not too far from our house that sold them, but they weren’t great. Hopefully, the one we found in Toronto has a good family recipe that will take us back to our time on the island.

One of the highlights of our trip to the islands was the day we went to karakas beach. It was a perfect day, and they had little huts along the beach. One of the famous things they sold there was bake and shark. A fried fish sandwich on a fried flat bread and a creamy coleslaw.

It was a tasty treat to have on the beach. Something I will remember for a long time.

The other thing we did there was visit the zoo, which just happened to be within walking distance to the Air B&B we were staying at. There was this large lion in the middle of the place and zoo had constructed a large platform for the animal to lie on giving it an overview of the area. Tarmac paths surrounded the lion enclosure and led off to different parts of the zoo. As we approached the lion, it became alarmingly clear that there wasn’t and enclosure, or at least not the type we were used to. It seemed that all the separated us from the wild beast was what looked like a thin fishing net.

And since we were now close the lion leapt of its perch and started making a heart clenching noise. It thought for sure we were about to become its lunch. I couldn’t get away from the thing fast enough. It circled its enclosure sounding pissed off.

All I could think of was, if it got out there was nowhere in the zoo that was safe enough to protect us from the hungry beast. We definitely felt its raw animal power that day.

Well, this week has been a doozie. I am looking forward to a relaxing evening tomorrow night and five Pm cannot come fast enough. I plan to do some reading and watching some television with my wife in bed. I may even order some food because I probably won’t want to do any cooking. We’ll see about that though. There are two tuna steaks defrosting in the fridge and they don’t take very long to cook.

I suffered through the majority of the last two weeks with back pain that wouldn’t quit. I still managed to get all my work done during the day and even though I was sorely tempted, I never called in sick to work. I could have used that extra time to get a bit ahead of the writing quota, but I knew the team needed all hands-on deck this week and I didn’t want to let them down.

Robyn was accepted into her program of choice at the college, not that I thought there was any chance it would go otherwise. The kiddo returned from his trip to Halifax and there was leftover Tres Leche cake to greet him.

It’s been a good week, even if it was a tiring and busy one. Not goinginto the office is probably what saved me the most. Both my back and the extra few hours of sleep made all the difference in my ability to get this far.

We are at the end of this month’s challenge. There will plenty more to come, hopefully not as mismanaged as this one was from my end. I learned some hard truths about procrastination and maybe the fear of starting. I’ve more than paid my dues for the infractions I may have committed.

I’ve learned my lesson and I have a feeling that it’s going to stick this time.

I can’t see me spending the last week of May going through all this again. It was too much of a strain. And it was completely avoidable.

One the plus side, writing only two thousand words a day is going to feel like childs play from this point onwards. I may have developed a writing superpower.

My hands and fingers are really tired.

They need a break from me before they break on me.

It took until four AM to get to the finish line and not a single drop of coffee was consumed.

I really don’t understand how it is that I am still conscious.

Maybe I am so tired that I have moved beyond yawning.

Well, if you have read this far, you are a daft mad bastard just like me.

Thanks for sticking in there with me and….

Until tomorrow my friends.