Dateline: above the garage in Portsmouth RI, 12 February 2005
First off, baby Vonne Mei is doing much better. The Amoxycilin is working wonders on her lungs, and she was back to smiling for the first time in a long time this morning.
Yesterday was supposed to be my day to write the entire last section of Chapter Five, but I got caught up in a load of travel planning for a slew of trips I'm taking in the coming weeks (Washington, Norway, San Francisco Bay Area two separate times!). All that ensued after I spent the morning at the doc's with Vonne Mei (well worth it).
So I didn't start writing until 5pm and I got only about 1,800 words in by 9pm, which is ungodly pokey for me.
Watched Tucker Carlson last night and felt okay about my performance. Bit too much of the old head-leaning thing, plus I made one boner when I talked about Taipei or Pyongyang possibly staring a war between "us and the United States"!
Still, I was pretty happy with the whole thing, especially how Carlson treated both me and the article. The only thing that pissed me off was them putting "United States Naval War College" under me twice as I spoke. Some truth to it, in the sense that I was still at the college when I taped it on 28 January, but that is definitely the last time you'll see that line flashed, except in a "former" sense.
Got up this morning and added just 2k by 12:15pm, when I broke for Kevin's basketball game. We had two kids sick and our one big guy still sidelined by his broken wrist, so only seven available. We faced the same team the guys played without me when I was off at the MIT gig down in VA. That time we narrowly lost. This time I was head coach because my partner was feeling awfully ill, so I took it as a matter of pride that we kicked their little asses 26-13!
Back on the PC, I rambled through another several thousand words, ending the section at 7,500 total, which surprised me, but it just turned out that I had that much to say and that much material to cover. Pretty happy with it, but even happier to be done with the last substantive chapter.
Word total for book now at roughly 118,000. Conclusion I expect will be less than 5k. Preface will be very short. So I probably finish with 125,000, absent the endnotes (less than last time) and the chapter intro's (also shorter than last time, I think).
I will plot the Conclusion tomorrow morning and write it in the afternoon. Preface is Monday morning, then I help Kev on a couple of school projects before the Valentine's Day festivities kick in (already covered).
I feel like I've been writing all year on this book, and then I realize, of course, that I have . . .
Off now to Bean Town to pick up my new Mac Powerbook laptop,. The one I ordered over the web was delayed, so they secured me one at local store for pick-up. Already got all the peripherals I ordered, so I will be a new man tonight. Taking the kids along to see a movie.
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