When I sat down last Sunday with my bullet journal to plan my week, I knew I was going to be dealing with a high degree of unpredictability. Instead of listing out my usual weekly to do list, I instead listed out a few goals that I hoped I’d be able to get around to, along with an overriding goal: “Be Flexible!”
That willingness to be flexible and hold my goals loosely turned out to be a real asset in a week full of misadventures that included (thankfully brief) power outages, learning to use our kerosene heater (which didn’t come with a manual), exploding Pyrex, 2 AM hikes through the snow in sub-zero temperatures, getting lunged at by our new neighbor’s cranky, arthritic old pit bull, not a lot of sleep, and becoming reliant on baby wipes and dry shampoo. But despite all of that, we were a lot better off this week than a lot of people, so I have no complaints.
By the way, I’m praying for you, Texas. ♥
I did manage to get around to a few of my goals this week, including pitching another potential client, updating my pet blog, posting some articles to my Medium account, and applying to write for a publication there. As for the pet blog, I wrote a detailed content marketing and SEO guide for pet businesses, but the advice applies to any type of business (and to writing for the internet in general), so if that’s something you might be able to use, be sure to check it out.
As for making progress on the novel, that didn’t happen this week. A general rule for me and the way I’m wired is that novel writing just doesn’t happen when I’m in survival mode, and this week was primarily about surviving with all of our digits and our sanity intact. There were some touch-and-go times when losing said sanity was a greater danger than frostbite, but we managed to keep it along with all our fingers and toes.
As I write this, it’s a balmy 30 degrees outside, and melting snow is dripping from the roof. We’re in for one more night of single-digit temps, and then it’s supposed to start thawing out tomorrow. To say I’m looking forward to it is an understatement. I’ll just say I’m so, so very glad to live where this sort of cold is an anomaly (and Lord willing it will stay that way) and, when it does happen, it’s usually short-lived. Somebody remind me that I said this when it’s 100 degrees in July and I’m tempted to complain about the southern humidity.
Next week is bound to be another week requiring a high degree of flexibility, for reasons pertaining to one of those decisions I mentioned last week (if not to both of them). Probably not a lot of writing will get done, but I’ll give it a valiant effort. Hopefully, though, you can look forward to a big reveal by this time next week.
How are you coping with this week (or was it business as usual where you live)?
We were in the deep freeze here in Oklahoma, but we are home bodies at heart anyway. And I work from home full time anyway. However, the Texas power outages knocked out my companies VPN servers which prevented getting work done, but only temporarily. Fortunately, the client we support has their own VPN service to which I also have access. I was able to use that to continue working, albeit cut-off from my corporate network.
However, I’m somewhat apprehensive about my next natural gas bill. The state-wide shortage means the unit price has gone from $3 to $300. How many units did I burn this month at the latter rate? Yikes!
Everything’s the same at our home. Instead of snow, we received a lot of rain. I think I’ve lived here too long, however, as the 30* F temps are starting to feel very cold. Glad you and yours are getting along okay. 🙂
Before last week I thought 30 degrees was plenty cold. I’m glad the winterpocalypse missed you. We’re still without running water and I don’t even want to think about how long it’s been since I showered, but otherwise things here are getting back to normal.