With the end of August, it is time for a new year to start. While January is one starting place, even though it was a long time ago, I link September with a fresh start and beginning again. A school year is starting over in a new grade, with brand-new supplies, different teachers and unfamiliar lessons. I enjoyed summer vacation but there was a sense of expectation when a new school year started.
As I write this, it is the middle of August, close to the start of the school year and the end of summer. Yet it’s still hot, the heat baking up from the concrete and blacktop when I move outside. Shade provides some relief but not with cooler temperatures, just a break from the sun beating down in a clear blue sky. The air conditioning runs non-stop, blowing cool air through the house but also a sense of cabin fever in closed up buildings.
Normally I would publish the next installment of the “Year 2038 Bug” story this week. Unfortunately, I have not written that installment yet, although I have the outline in my head. The next chapter, about Brian, is waiting for me to sit down and type it up. Since I have been busy working on another book, which I would like to finish soon, I have not been focused on Year 2038. I plan to work on the next chapter next week, and I will post it once it’s ready.
Our summer has been quiet and the weather hasn’t been bad. We had one day of record breaking temperatures and a few more days of really hot weather but most of the summer has been pleasant. When my son and I walked the other evening, there was a slight breeze on the trail and a few clouds gliding by in the sky overhead. While we don’t usually get thunderstorms we do get monsoonal flow, which is why there were a lot of clouds. In the afternoon, they build up and tease us with possible thunderstorms, huge clouds building up over the mountains.
With the Fourth of July holiday and a heatwave, I’m running slower than usual on my updates for the blog. As I reviewed the latest chapter for Year 2038 bug, I thought about the next direction for the story. I also thought about the slowness of publishing these chapters once a month, it can be difficult to keep up with the characters and the story. I continue to make notes about parts that will need filling out for the final version.
I’ve posted the next chapter of my Work In Progress (WIP), not a lot to write about at this time. I am slowly plugging through the chapters and it can be challenging to keep track of things due to the time in between publication. Because of this, I wrote a short chapter this time, with less of the actions written out and more description. In other words, I did more telling than showing. I was more interested in getting the story captured for right now and leaving more time to work on the next sections so I can fill up my queue.
Throughout my life, when I’ve felt depressed, I’ve found that walking or driving can improve my mood. At these times I feel lost and unsure of how to move forward with my life. When walking or driving I am free of life’s distractions and I have time to think and reconnect with myself. During these activities I have noticed things that seem to mirror how I feel.
For this installment of The Year 2038 Bug I am a week late on finishing up this chapter. I did finish the initial draft last week but I ran out of steam before I edited the content. For those with an eye for detail, I suspect you wonder if any editing occurs before I publish these chapters. I assure you that it does but it is very light and meant to catch large mistakes. So, standard warning, this is a book in progress and the text may or may not be included in the final version of the book.
At the end of March I wrote about the different viewpoints within the autism community. There is a saying, “If you’ve met one person with autism, then you have met one person with autism” and it describes how different each autistic person is. Conflict and anger can often result due these differences in all of the people involved in the autism community. I suspect many people see those differences as a weakness, with a desire to have a united front but after a great deal of thought, I see things differently. Perhaps those differences are a strength.