#238 - Procrastination Thriller

The magnesium glycinate and cherry juice influenced my sleep quality last night. I woke feeling great. The absence of pain and grogginess was the most noticeable. I didn’t feel tired after plenty of sleep.

I stayed in bed a got a bit more sleep, getting out of bed around 10 AM. Robyn made us a small breakfast in bed and then we watched a few shows. We started the Dutton Ranch spinoff series on Paramount and enjoyed it enough to watch another.

I spent some time cooking in the late afternoon while Robyn and the kiddo went out for groceries. We had a sirloin tip roast, chicken thighs, pork chops, and two striploin steaks in the fridge and some needed to be cooked this weekend.

I fired up the sous-vide machine and put a basic rub of garlic, salt, pepper and thyme on it before vacuum-sealing it in a bag. The roast will be a thirty-hour cook. And since I had the water bath already there, I did the same thing for the pork chops. They’ll only need a one-hour cook time, though.

For the chicken thighs, I prepared the Chicken Ruby marinade and left it in the fridge to marinate overnight.

With that done, I thought I may as well make makhani sauce to go with it. It’s a bit more of a time commitment, but I knew I’d appreciate having it done later.

I left the steaks in the fridge for another day since they had more time before they reached their best before date.

I spent some time looking at the opening sequences of the Slow Horse series. I watched the beginning of all the first episodes to aid me in my writing today. Not sure if it will help, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.

Robyn and I took a quick nap before heading off to our various jobs. She has her one hour of personal support work to do and I have to get to writing a spy thriller.

I gathered all my things and headed for the basement. It took a few trips to get everything I needed in order, but this is always how it turns out.

I thought I’d start with a little blogging to warm up my fingers and my brain. I find it helps me get into the writing flow if I start with something less crucial and taxing on the brain.

When Robyn went out for groceries, I asked her to bring me back some kiwi fruit to try for the sleep experiment. Not sure it will work tonight as I will be up until early in the morning trying to finish my story. But the kiwi’s she brought back are of a type I have never seen before.

The meat inside is reddish pink and sweeter and softer than usual. It tasted nice, but I am not sure if these will have the same effect as the regular kiwi fruit we are familiar with. A quick google search tells me that all kiwi strains contain the same serotonin and antioxidants that naturally support healthy sleep cycles.

So now the only issue for tonight is when will I get to bed. I have a feeling this story may go long because it will have multiple points of view and more complexity, which means more words being typed and a greater creative output needed. Going to need my speed typing to be on point tonight.

I am watching a few videos about CSIS as I warm up to start writing.

Once again, I have left things far too late. This is something I need to remedy.

It’s about nine thirty and I am having trouble getting into my story. Everything I write feels like it’s not heading in a spy thriller kind of way. I think I’ll try starting with something that can only happen in a spy thriller and see how things go from there.

I have waffled back and forth a few times and now I think I have homed in on what I need to do to get the story rolling. The idea of having an actionable event seems to have helped me get going. But it is ten forty-five and I have no idea if I can the story done in time.

Just coming up on twelve thirty and I am starting to pick up momentum. This is when all the fun stuff happens. Your brain starts to come up with all kinds of things from out of the blue. It feels like its coming from outside of you.

It’s an hour later, and I have written a total of 1300 words on the story. Things are still moving slower than I would like. The bad guy has just made an appearance, and that is feeling really good. The second viewpoint was something I was aiming for in this story.

The time is now three thirty-five and things are moving along much faster now. The story is taking shape and things are happening. I’m sitting at a little over 2500 words.

It’s six forty-five in the morning, and I finally finished my story.

If I’m lucky, I might get two hours of sleep.

Strangely, I am feeling really good at the moment.

That’s all for now.

Until today!