What Happened to the Summer?

By Jeff Salter

This week and next week are both about summer, but while next week reveals what I DID during these summer months, today’s column is all about what I left un-done or never got around to.

Yeah, the summer is over in Possum Trot. Here, school begins in the first week of AUGUST, so everybody is already in full Autumn mode by the time Labor Day finally lumbers along.

Previous summer

In the summer of 2014, for which I had high hopes – it felt like I spent the entire time dealing with a crew which was working on several projects related to our house exterior. They were here nearly every day for some six weeks and while they were here I couldn’t concentrate on anything I needed to do inside.

The summer just ended

So I began the summer of 2015 with great anticipation of all the projects I hoped to accomplish. And long is the list of things I neglected (or otherwise left undone).

Outdoor

First of all, because of an unseasonably rainy summer, hardly any outside task was accomplished. So I did not work on my fire pit — a project I’ve carried forward for seven summers! [Angie’s post this week reminded me of my forlorn fire pit.] Also did not make it to the county fair (again). Didn’t go to the lake, nor the pool, nor the creek. Didn’t even get wet outside, except a couple of times I was caught in a thunderstorm. Did not get my garage cleaned out or straightened up.

Indoor

Did not get my study cleaned up. [I’ve been trying to find a series of detailed maps I created for my fictional town of Verdeville TN – which I need for some new stories – but I can’t find them.]

My novel SOC8 (would be my eighth to be published) with one publisher was scheduled for release, but didn’t appear yet, after all. [There were unanticipated delays with editing and the cover.]

Edits did not yet begin for my 9^th novel – DofE – to be released by a different publisher (though they are slated to start this month).

Did not get through my 5^th draft of my 11^th novel (NEBA) not yet contracted.

Was not able to return to two or three other novels (possibly novellas) which already have many thousands of words each.

I shouldn’t complain

Though I still think of summertime as a time reserved for some sort of concentrated effort, in all truthfulness, my summer weeks don’t vary much from my other 39 weeks except for my schedule on Wednesdays.

I have very little control over things like when the various stages of edits arrive, so I basically need year-round flexibility to deal with deadlines as they’re tossed my way.

Oh, nearly forgot: I lost large chunks of three consecutive days when my computer glitched out on me in late August.

Question:
What about you? Did you successfully complete most of your task list for this recent summer?

Next Week
Next week, we’ll be discussing the things we DID complete during the summer just passed.

[ JLS # 243 ]