Tuesday, August 31: Week 5

Goddammit! My calf is really messed up. I made it as far as the mutant mushroom (about 300 yards from my door, wish I got a pic of it before it started decaying, it's a little larger than a basketball and getting ugly) on my way to the gym, and I had to bail. It's not enough to immobilize me, but it can't take minor stresses. I'm crossing my fingers this is the worst of it. Dammit.

This day, in general, has sucked. I was awake waaaaaay too late, and only got about six hours sleep, which in my dotage really takes it out of me. Then I had to get the truck inspected, and it passed, but I was annoyed I had put it off till the last minute. Got back, and went back and forth about giving the calf a rest, then suited up and headed to the gym, and that frustration just screwed my mood. I'm in an ill-humor, tired, frustrated. I'm going to draw for the next two hours then will put the calf on heat and not move the rest of the night, and hope I'll pop out of bed a new man.

Monday, August 30: Week 5

Started a new schedule today, both in workout as well as daily routine, and while this was going on I realized it's pointless till Wednesday anyway. Pointless in that I'm meeting friends for a "bon voyage" happy hour tonight, and need to get my truck inspected tomorrow which will blow the basic pattern of the days. But, in theory, what I've done with my schedule is to shorten the time between my morning and afternoon workouts from six hours to three. I've noticed that when completed with my afternoon workouts, I was pretty much "done" for the day. And, one of my big goals for this whole Odyssey period was to lengthen my alertness through the day, so being done at six wasn't really making that happen.

The right calf is still feeling a little funny, well, more than a little. I think I'll need to bail on the calf workout tomorrow and hope for the best come next week. Yikes, it's almost 2:30 and I need to skeedaddle to miss the HOV restrictions on 66. I'm meeting everyone around 5:30, and am going to take advantage of the spare hours to look for some new shirts, check Best Buy for a wireless network card for my box, then hit the bookstore to soak up the ambiance of suburbia.

Sunday, August 29: Week 5

Ouch. And double ouch. I went up to Key Elementary to shoot some hoops for the first time in a few years, (well, more like throw a basketball in the general vicinity of the backboard). Thankfully, the courts were deserted (it was crazy hot, which I'm sure lead to the empty space) and I was able to hobble and stagger around without an audience, well, except by the kids on the playground who were nice enough not to point and laugh. But, after a period of brick-laying, the shots started to drop and I was getting all cocky running and cutting on my shattered glass ankles. After an hour or so of trying to find a consistent shot, and not succeeding to any great degree, I headed by to the homestead. I was randomly flipping the ball between my palms, dribbling in my white boy way from time to time, and a few yards short of my courtyard lost control. I made a very quick cut to grab the ball, and felt a twang in my left calf, and calves aren't made for twanging. I'm hoping this is nothing more than the random anguish of a poorly treated body, and not the harbinger of "things to come". I'll be sure to whine if it gets any worse.

Oooh, and I watched "Inspector Morse" on "Mystery", I'm so pumped they're re-running those things, absolutely one of the best t.v. series ever, EVER! And strangely, the Morse books are pretty lame, so it's even more of an achievement.

Saturday, August 28: Week 4

Oh my god, just finished "The Great Gatsby", and I'm just blown away. I must admit, Gatsby is better seen through adult eyes, at least eyes shaded with experience of lost love. Having read as much modern fiction as I have, some of which can be quite good, I can't encourage you enough to check out writers like Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Chandler and Hammett. These guys rock, and rock at a level I simply don't see much in contemporary writers. Certain exceptions such as Josephine Hart's "Damage", and James Ellroy's "L. A. Confidential" I rarely find myself moved either emotionally or by awe of the authors craft, as I do when in the hands of the masters who came of age in the 20's and 30's. And I'm not just talking about the snooty stuff, the genre fiction kicks ass too. I'm reading Hemingway's "In Our Time", his first collection of short stories, and evidently the volume that "announced" him to the public. Although, all this "high art" is giving me a hankering for a new Perry Mason. However, they've apparently gone out of print again, which is really pissing me off. Oh well, football season's almost here, so I'll have all the low culture I can take!

Friday, August 27: Week 4

I've had a good couple of days of imagination through drawing, nothing staggering, but I'm getting past my fear that I've simply lost the capacity of imagine. That may sound silly, but these past few weeks have really wigged me out in how little I could lose myself in creation. I'm doing some background research for the book, having run across a couple of things that weren't sounding legit, I wanted to speak from more knowledge.

Thursday, August 26: Week 4

Had lunch with my old pal Pierre today, and was delighted to see he was doing well, and his company was well appreciated. He and Jenny need a little muscle to move their stove on Saturday, and I'm more than happy to help out, and it sounds like I'll get some breakfast out of it (and if it's free, it's me baby as Mikey McCarthy used to say).

Wednesday, August 25: Week 4

Okay people, daddy here has to take a checkpoint and fix some process issues. Things aren't going as swimmingly as I would have them, and I'm not happy with myself. I won't bother you with the details, well, yet. If the fixes I put in result in greater productivity I'll probably yammer on and on about how excellent things are going, but lets cross that bridge when we come to it. One thing that needs serious attention is my diet, I've been a zillion times more active over the past four weeks than I've been in a zillion years and I've lost two pounds. When you're shooting for 50 that's not great news. Whatever, need to get this posted so I don't miss my crazy ISP connection cut off (for some reason, my connection to the net mysteriously zaps out around six, which is profoundly annoying, but not so annoying that I'm going to pay for a more robust service).

Tuesday, August 24: Week 4

I finally got around to having my cable service terminated, and none too soon. I haven't shaken the habit I developed during my "working" days of vegetating in front of the cathode ray tube, which, if I was actively watching brilliant programming wouldn't have been too bad. But frankly, I was passively flipping through channels hoping something would entertain me, and usually wound up watching "Law & Order" and "South Park" as well as random popular culture schlock on VH1 or E!...what the hell was I doing?

Anyway, good lift today, though I was feeling a bit wobbley toward the end. This is the last week of this particular phase of a three month program and I won't miss the back exercises, never quite got the pump I was shooting for and my back needs some width. Actually, my belly needs less width.

Monday, August 23: Week 4

Two realizations.

I haven't moved the Odyssey from my mind to my belly, and it has to go there, I have to become hungry. It's in me, I think perhaps that knowledge of old hunger made me complacent. I did my first lift over 200 lbs today, this wasn't a big deal at a certain point in my life, in fact it was the rare power movement that was below the 200 mark. I was hungry for strength then, I spent an amazing amount of time chasing it and I was on fire all day. This is the place I need to live, to accomplish what I need to, and memory of old successes need to fade and be replaced by new ones.

Second, I'm being sloppy with the novel, there are a number of plot points that are fairly complex and I haven't imagined them through. The young woman, Heather, I spoke to yesterday made mention of her process and it included detailed profiles of each main characters and a well documented story arc. She said it helped her through a number of tough spot in her book, and that's what I'm doing now. I'm doing the character bio's, as well as a linear spine for the narrative. I should be finished by the end of the day tomorrow and will resume work on the body of the novel on Wednesday.

Sunday, August 22: Week 4

Dude, what a beautiful day. I did all of the mundane little chores (cleaning, laundry, etc.) that needed doing, then just hung outside. Spent an hour or so chatting with my unbelievably cute neighbor Rozi and her friend (also cute) Heather, who herself recently finished a fiction novel. Historical fiction, and its premise sounded very interesting, I hope I get a chance to read it at some point. Then I took off for a longish walk through Georgetown, hit the comic shop, then wandered about till I wound my way home.

Needless to say, I've done nothing of value in creation, but I enjoyed the day and there's something to be said for that. And I can't say how energizing it was to talk with someone who's done what I'm doing, Heather has a great attitude and she had some excellent insights as well.

Saturday, August 21: Week 3

Took the day off from creation, and am recharging the batteries. Just went out to toss the trash and found my neighbor shaking his head ruefully at his car. Turns out his CD player was stolen, and as we stood there, another neighbor walked by and informed us her roommates was stolen as well. All of which sucks, I can only take solace in the fact that no-one in their right mind would want to steal anything from my truck, which is just the way daddy wants it.

Peace out people, tomorrow's a productive day, I'll tell you about it when it's done.

Friday, August 20: Week 3

Oh my God People! I went "running" for the first time in, must be, 17 years and daddy's tired! If you're under 30, burn these words into your skull, "don't stop running...EVER". This wasn't graceful, lithe olympic type running. This was thudding, flailing and ugly. But, the point is, I did it, and I don't think I've done any permanent (or short term) damage which was a concern. And to add to my fatigue, I really dropped the hammer on my second workout of the day, which was delts, bi's and tri's and I was appropriately pumped when I staggered out of the gym.

Novel was a little slow, but a decent clip, I tried to pick it back up when I got back from the gym but was too wiped. I think I'll just grab some chow and watch "Predator" or the Perry Mason's I taped off the Hallmark Channel. Which annoys me, because I cancelled the cable and it hasn't been shut off yet...I'm not supposed to have access to this gibberish and now that I know Perry is being broadcast I'm really in a tizzy over my decision to go with "over the air" television only. But it's the right move, I'm tellin' ya', having only yourself for company all day really does move you toward the idiot box.

Ugh, I gotta' turn it up a notch next week, I feel I hit the groove this week and want to drive home the habits and schedules I've developed. The one thing I need to make time for is more outside activities, there are a lot of great things in DC to do, and I need to take advantage of it. After I post this up, I'll grab a copy of the City Paper and see what's happening in town this week.

Thursday, August 19: Week 3

Used my "rest day" from my workout routine to kick-start the novel, and it went fairly well. The sequence I'm dealing with is pretty mundane, but it's important to setting up the central conflict in the story so I'm glad it went well today. For as well as the writing went today, the drawing was pretty lame, still struggling for balance.

Took a run to Best Buy to buy special edition of "GoodFellas", because I couldn't deal with knowing it existed and I didn't own it. I'm weak, I know, but it's within my unemployment budget so I'm being good.

Wednesday, August 18: Week 3

Major writers block going on, not to mention organizational snafus. I'm really being bad, BAD at what I refer to as "dropping the hammer" which is shorthand for asserting a given goal, then exceeding it. There may be an element of the physical fatigue of the two-a-day workouts, but I'm not killing myself with intensity, so it's likely I'm guilty of fuzzy focus. Up to this point, I've been willing to pass off this slowness in adjusting to "freedom", which is daunting to be sure but this really is a situation where I need to dig down and apply mental toughness. Tomorrow is an "off" day from the gym, and will give me plenty of time to reconnect with the novel, as well as a longer visual art session and I'm going to power through this block.

It's only been two and a half weeks, but I'm starting to get a sense of why so many artists self-destruct. There's no feeling like when the artistic process is cranking at full speed, and there's no low like when it isn't. This is the moment that will determine whether the Odyssey 2004 is the ballsy gamble it's supposed to be, or a crazy folly, so I'd best get some rest and hit this thing hard in the morning. I can't wait.

Tuesday, August 17: Week 3

Lawd, lawd! Didn't think I'd ever get this thing (journal) up and running. Here's the bottom line; the first two weeks of Odyssey 2004 were spent with many hours dedicated to figuring out what it means to "not work for a living". This has included, but was not limited to, when and how long are my two daily workouts? When do I clean the apartment now that it's not a given that it's Saturday? Should I write in the morning or in the afternoon? When do I grocery shop, or do I sort of play it by ear? And so on. I admit, not the most interesting of problems, particularly if you're slaving away at an office when you read this, but it's my life dammit. I need to get a few more things squared away on the site, but starting tomorrow these entries will my meditations on this time, reflections on the work I'm creating, and some good natured banter.

By the way, my nephew is off to his first year at college tomorrow, so a round of applause for Josh!