My outlook seems to have undergone a bit of a change of late. I’m starting to feel that there might indeed be a light at the end of the tunnel. The only change I’ve knowingly made that might be responsible is to keep what I’m calling a ‘Positivity Journal.’ At the end of the day, I write down all the successes I’ve had during that day. The point is to counter the feeling of complete failure that accompanies only being able to see the mountain of things that weren’t accomplished, rather than the, albeit few in number, things that were actually some sort of success.
I’ll never be able to get everything done, which is something I’m going to have to be okay with. What is important is taking a moment to recognize what I actually did get done.
It’s not as if I’m one of those ‘YouTube Influencers’ who always pitch their videos with the ultimate best answer to a problem I never knew I had. Look at my attempts at being productive – I’ve tried bullet journaling and calendar blocking, but found that neither of them quite fit with how I have to engage my world.
It’s also not as if my environment has changed, it’s just the same as it was before, with the same disasters, the same chores, the same number of hours in the day, and the same ever increasing pile of tasks needing my time and effort.
It’s more a question of a change in attitude, I suppose.
For instance, the Oven of Darkness. I got the thermal fuse in, then turned it on and tried to roast a joint, only to find the thing won’t heat up. Well, I’m here on my own most of the time and I’d prefer someone here when I’m taking a 240 Volt appliance apart to troubleshoot it. That’s a problem in itself, since my wife seems to be the only reason her department is able to scan any patients, what with half of the staff having quit or been asked to do so within the last few months.
So it had to wait until she was home. Just in case I got electrocuted, so someone could call the life insurance company and get the claim started as soon as possible.
One thing I didn’t do after fitting the thermal fuse was the very next step in the troubleshooting guide, run an auto-test to see if the oven could find any faults by itself.
Guess what. It did.
The thing needs a $400 (once tax and shipping are included) control card. Of course it’s out of warranty.
Normally all this, in the run up to needing to cook a Thanksgiving turkey in just a few weeks, would be incredibly depressing.
Right now it’s almost water off a duck’s back: if I can get it fixed, great, if not, we’ll figure something out. It’s not the end of the world, even if I can’t roast a turkey for Thanksgiving.
So, that’s been my week.
What Else Did I Get Done?
The Black Box Factory.
I didn’t post last week because I spent the time putting my Decade of Betrayal notes online. I still need to get the Infamy notes up too, but one thing at a time.
I’m still brainstorming for the plotting and outlining phase. For the most part I have what I think is the skeleton of the story, but I want to let ideas form and gel a little longer before I try to take it to the next step, which is developing a formal plot outline.
The Old Man.
I now have three accepted invitations on CritiqueMatch, so there’s some progress there. It’s still not enough for a concerted Beta process, especially since it’s unlikely all three would be available at the same time, so when my brother-in-law asked if he could read it, I sent him the latest iteration of The Old Man, although I’ve already decided that it’ll go through one last edit cycle before Beta.
I’ve changed my mind about The Old Man being set in the same world as the Black Box Factory stories, and there are a few elements I want to introduce, so at the end of the month, when hopefully he’ll have some feedback, I’ll push on with the final revision and draw up Beta questions as I go.
Meanwhile, if my workload stays low enough, I might see if I can find someone who needs a Beta reader and see what the process looks like from the other side.
Up Next…
This coming week is moving week for the lambs, which I’m looking forward to since my experiment of keeping the lambs and chickens together hasn’t been as successful as I’d hoped – the lambs are curious about the chickens and want to play with them, which the chickens don’t seem too enthusiastic about.
Once that’s done, provided the weather is cooperative, it’d be great if I could get another delivery of fill dirt to finish grading the minibarn. I need that grading job complete before I can move forward with the rest of the siding, the trim and then moving equipment and livestock into it.
I still have the Oven of Darkness to contend with. There’s a chance the part will be covered under a parts warranty, but Whirlpool have the serial number of our oven as having been installed in 2012, which makes no sense since the house wasn’t even built then. If I can convince them we bought it in February of 2017, perhaps they’ll cover it, but there’ll be some associated charge with it.
I’d much rather do the work myself.
Beyond those irritants, I’d be happy if I could report next post that I’ve either started or I’m in a position to start the Lock Out Tag Out plot outline, if I can’t line up someone to Beta for.
I won’t be doing any work with The Old Man at all this week, in fact I think I’ll leave that alone until Black Friday (29 November) which will give my brother-in-law four weeks to get me some feedback. That would give me perhaps enough time for this one last revision while developing Beta questions, and be ready for the New Year.
It’s barely November and already New Year’s Day is looking like a very tight deadline.
It’ll be Christmas before we know it…
…and with that cheerful thought, I wish everyone a safe, productive, and above all happy week!
Categories: Beta Phase, Beta Readers, Critiquematch, My Life, The Old Man
Andrew Wellington 
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