Delays and Distractions

It has once again been a long time since I've last written here. I'll give you, the reader, three guesses to explain why I haven't been able to write. You probably need only one. Yes, I've once again been really busy with work. I've also taken on another freelance project to make some extra money. The freelance project is just a project management job, meaning I'm just taking a manuscript through the stages of editorial production. It's basically what I do for my "real" job. And the project doesn't need to be finished until July, so I have a comfortable schedule to work with. So that explains the delays in my writing.

Today, however, was all about distractions. The "lesser" of the distractions happened to be another wildfire that broke out in the foothills of Boulder. At about 10:00 this morning, we looked out our office windows and saw huge plumes of smoke rising from the foothills. The smoke was dark brown and in some places it was black. And it seemed like the area of smoke was spreading really fast. Whatever was happening in the hills was made worse by strong, gusty winds we were having all morning. People were evacuated from their homes, but according to the latest news reports, no structures were destroyed. Fortunately, however, it seems like firefighters were able to gain control of the fire fairly quickly. Last reports said that it was 25 percent contained, but at least it wasn't spreading.

My other "bigger" distraction of the day were the earthquakes in Japan. It's always horrible to see a natural disaster in any part of the world, but this one shook (no pun intended) me a little more because one of my best and dearest friends happens to be in Tokyo right now for work. I went about my normal routine this morning. After my shower, I turned on the TV to the news, but then went into the kitchen to start making my breakfast. While I was in the kitchen, in the background I heard that an earthquake hit Japan. I came back into the living room and saw that the earthquake was an 8.9. I almost dropped my cereal! Fortunately I found out that my friend was safe, and I was extremely grateful for that. Still, though, I felt like I was on edge for the rest of the day, and I had a hard time being productive at work. I found myself taking lots of breaks to read the news to see if anything new had happened. I didn't get much work done, but oh well. I guess that makes up for all of the extra hours that I've been working over the past few weeks.