I’m having a hard time getting excited about anything today.

I know I seem to be negative all the time, and that’s poison if you want to attract and keep readers. But it’s true.

I can’t get excited about Christmas. There’s always too much to do, even now that we’re empty-nesters and have less responsibility. Not much of it reminds me of the magical Christmases of my childhood.

I can’t get excited about work. I’m reviewing a project submitted by another engineering company to a city I sometimes provide city engineering services for. This is the third submittal, and they are finally getting it right. I think. I’m not sure because certain aspects of their drawings are hard to interpret. I’m having to slog through it, and can only concentrate for short spurts, then have to pull of and do something else.

I can’t get excited about my novel-in-progress. I haven’t worked on it in over a week. Instead, I’ve been tweaking and tweaking a document I plan to submit in response to an atheist challenge. It’s a waste of time, except for forcing me to concentrate on something. But it’s done. I made some tweaks yesterday, and I’m calling it final. I have no intention of looking at it again. Now, whether I actually submit it or not is another matter. I’ve started that process. Even have submitted it to an outside reviewer before submittal. But whether I submit it or not depends on a number of things, which I won’t outline here. Most likely my literary executor will find it and have to deal with it.

So, what to do? Maybe tonight I’ll be able to add a few words to my novel. Or maybe I’ll knuckle down and get our Christmas letter written. Then file receipts. Then file other papers. Then update my budget spreadsheets. Then read a little for pleasure—except now that I write, I find I can’t read for pleasure any more.