I’m concentrating quite a lot on my health these days. I used to use most of my noon hour to write. Now, as soon as I finish eating, I go outside and walk, either a half-mile or mile depending on weather. Once it cools down some I may punch that up to a mile and a half.

Once I get in from my walk, I may have fifteen minutes left in my lunch hour, a perfect amount of time to get most of a blog post written, or edit part of most of a chapter either of my own work or someone’s in my writers group. Alas, I find I have no concentration for either.

In the evenings, after supper, Lynda and I go for a walk, usually between one and two miles. It’s in the upper 80s at this time, so when we get home I go down to The Dungeon, where it’s cooler and I can cool down faster. And write, perhaps a blog post, or get going on a chapter in a new book or short story. Or prepare two other books for their print versions. Except the last few nights I haven’t been able to concentrate. I end up playing mindless computer games for an hour, cool down fine, but am unproductive.

It’s as if the quest for weight loss and better health have taken over my mind, my being, and I have no ability to concentrate on anything else. I suppose that’s the way it’s been a good amount of the last ten years with my writing. And for the five years before that for genealogy. But it’s worse now. Now the health quest is consuming me, and I have no ability to multi-task my brain and do some activities in the other things.

Unfortunately, I estimate it’s going to take me another year or even a year and a half to get to the weight range I should be in. If I keep up the walking and occasional flexibility exercise, maybe add a little strength training, I’ll be in good shape to match my proper weight. Can I go that long with single tasking?

I don’t think so. Somehow I have to come to a point where I can do all the things that interest me, all the things that I need to do, and do them simultaneously.

I think that will be my goal for the rest of this year: balance competing, good activities. I’ll report back later with the results.

I was sick last week. It started Monday evening, when I felt a tickle in my throat. I thought nothing of it, though it did seem unusual. On Tuesday the tickle persisted, and I had to cough to relieve it. I told several people at work that it was just a tickle, and to not worry about my coughing.

Then, Wednesday morning I could feel the head cold starting. This is opposite of how my colds usually come. Usually I feel tiredness in the eyes a couple of days before the sinuses start working overtime. Sometimes those colds go to my chest after another couple of days, sometimes not. The last cold I had, back in October, I think, was mild and I didn’t miss any work.

This one came on strong Wednesday, mainly coughing but with some sinus drainage. Since some muscle pains later developed, I’ve concluded that I had a mild case of the flu. I left work early and mainly rested. Thursday and Friday I slept lots and lots. When I  wasn’t sleeping I was resting in my chair, reading in War Letters. I finished that, by the way, on Sunday, and wrote a review at my other blog. By Saturday I felt a little better, and was able to leave the house for a short while to pick up a computer from the techno doc. But I still took it easy for the most part. Stayed home Sunday, and left my Life Group without a teacher (since my co-teacher was out of town). I did arrange for someone from the class to lead the discussion in my absence. Now, on Monday, I’m at work, and running on 7 cylinders.

But throughout this period of sickness, I did get some writing work done.

• Completed my writing business tax calculations for 2011 tax year, and filled out the forms. I made a little over $1,500.oo dollars, but after subtracting my expenses, which were inflated by the trip to Chicago in June (half of which was writing related), and after subtracting my home office deduction (allowable since The Dungeon is a dedicated writing space), I made a profit of $1.36. Or, stated otherwise, my writing income paid fully for my writing habit and contributed about $530 to household expenses. Not bad.
• Added about 1,600 words to The Candy Store Generation, completing Chapter 3 and working on Chapter 4. The book now stands at around 16,000 words, or a few hundred less, on its way to 40,000 or so. I’m not sure that the words I wrote in the flu-induced stupor are any good. The editing process will determine that.
• Wrote a construction administration column due for Buildipedia.com. I wrote that yesterday evening, and typed and submitted it this morning. It was due last Friday, but I figure at the start of work Monday morning is about the same as midnight at the end of Friday, so I’m declaring it “on-time”. Not sure how the editor will see it.
• Uploaded my second short story, “Too Old To Play,” to Smashwords. It’s available for purchase there. Now waiting for the Smashword Meatgrinder to tell me if it qualifies for the Premium Catalogue, or if changes will be needed.
• Cleaned up a couple of piles of writing papers. These were mostly extra copies from critique group. I discovered two that had critical comments on In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, and made those edits. This wasn’t hard work, and the living room is two piles cleaner.

I also balanced the checkbook, though that’s not writing related. Also washed some dishes.

So, despite the cold (or the flu), I made a little progress. Let’s see what a week of reasonably good health will bring.

I’m along this weekend, batching it while the wife is in Oklahoma City helping with grandkids as first one, then the other, parent has been off for conferences. So I should be living it up, right? Getting done all those things I never seem to do when Lynda is here. Writing up a storm.

Instead, I’m basically immobile. I sat through three days of corporate meetings this week, and the inactivity left me exhausted. I’ve come home and had no energy. My blood sugar has been pretty good, so that’s not the problem. My right knee is killing me, and my left knee is not back to 100 percent, residuals of the tick disease of the summer. So I come home from work and crash. I slept well last night, then napped some this morning and even an hour this afternoon. So I’m in good shape for sleep.

I’ve done some work on writing. I received the cover for the print version of Documenting America on Friday, and uploaded it to CreateSpace. Today I received the email saying it was all accepted. All that’s left now is ordering the proof copy, and deciding on price and payment methods. I’ve also been proof-reading Doctor Luke’s Assistant in preparation for publishing it electronically. I haven’t had the energy to get back to writing for content sites.

So, I’m going to muddle through for a while, and hope my body, aided here and there by medicines, is able to fight off this rheumatoid arthritis attack spawned by the tick-borne bacteria. Now to leave the comfort of my chair in The Dungeon, limp upstairs, and head to Wal-Mart.