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Tuesday. The Exhaustion continues. Reread three weeks ago and man, August has been heavy. Mentally okay. (I have a reminder in my phone for Aug 1 to beware rage and depression issues. Those hit in June.)

Just pooped, and haven’t had a “normal” week since July to recover. Might also be coming down with something. Or getting over it. Nothing bad again, just temperature issues this morning.

Got up yesterday and gave myself permission to fuck the day off. And did. Usual Monday stuff, so breakfast, then meet the boys to game. Ended up hanging out with Jon all day, running more errands, and then dojo.

Except that dojo is weird right now. There is a bridge connecting Buckley (Pierce County) and Enumclaw (King County) and it is old and narrow. Iron bridge. Been hit several times. Got hit again.

Closed. Next closest car bridge is about a 40 minute drive, into Auburn. Folks are freaking.

HOWEVER, after years of the Buckley side bitching about taxes and refusing to support a new and expanded modern bridge, a private Rails-to-Trails consortium built a foot bridge nearby. Better, it is rated for fire engines (I know a bunch of fire people these days). People are parking a car on one side and walking to the other to get to work or whatever. LOTS of bikes and scooters. A few folks even polite about pushing their motorcycles across (laws say no vehicles with engines, and cops have been watching, but pushing means safe for pedestrians, which is the point.)

So Sensei and I walked across the bridge to meet the rest next to the river. Full class of folks, in the grass and shade, working. Gonna do this for a few more weeks, then a long break where Sensei is out of town for three weeks. One of the other black belts might do something. Or we might just work at home. Dunno. Don’t gotta know, as I’m not in charge.

Just gotta practice. And be Sensei’s sounding board and training dummy. Which helps me learn because he worked out last night’s training on me in the afternoon.

But tired. Got no spoons, and trying to keep the rage monster mostly chained. Mostly successful.

Writing proceeds. Been working on Ollie 4, but I’m gonna have to go back and do a hard pass at some point because of the long breaks in writing it. Usually, I just go. This time, I have had to pivot off several times. Or take a week off for the con. No writing, come back and try to remember where the hell I was.

Getting close. Think I’m past halfway at this point. Close to 45k if I recall. Got two more major chunks to tell to wrap up everything.

Also working on more Zach. More Altansarnai. More Motley. Most Tasker. Most stuff.

For now, more coffee. Then dive in and try to push Ollie closer to the finish.

Gonna be a long day.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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