Chapter 7.7: Progress is Slow

There's a line in one of my songs (the one my sister doesn't particularly like because it noted her portrait resting on the floor for years) that goes "Progress is slow when you still know the past."

I still believe that sentiment, though sometimes I think that as long as it's progress even a slow pace should be considered positive.

This past weekend saw progress in my dual marathons -- one mental, one physical. I jogged my five miles on Saturday, raising my total for the week to 13.7 and an eight-day total of 18.5. It's been a while since I've accomplished that. My mental marathon training (i.e., the novel) wasn't quite as successful, though I did write three or four pages this weekend. I didn't get much accomplished Friday, preferring to listen to the Reagan family say their fond farewells to the Father of Modern Homelessness. I cracked a beer to him and enjoyed Ronnie's swipes at the current president. Then I wrote a bit less than a page before bed. Saturday, after running the five, I spent some of the next several hours reading older sections of the book that I'd not viewed in months. I pasted some of the pages I know are better suited to backstory into an appropriate area (chapter two in that case), and reworked chapter 13 where I later reference the stuff that was moved.

Tonight is an editing night, but I also have other commitments. Weather permitting, I'll be umpiring in Springfield (my first in my new hometown), and then joining Maureen at the squad's general meeting. I'll probably miss the annual photo again; I've missed the past two or three. If the rain falls and cancels the game, I'll attend the meeting, get in the photo, and edit a few pages to counter the boredom. Tomorrow night I will run and write, though I also need to try to fix the washing machine that petered out on Maureen on Sunday.

The more I try to create a routine that accomplishes my goals, the more life sneaks a few realities into the mix. Discipline and progress... That reminds me, one of the other lines in that song I referenced at the beginning of this post is, "Progress is slow when you give it a fight."