What Day is it?

I often try to write my posts at least a few days ahead of their scheduled date. Sometimes, I even manage to have something a week in advance, which allows me all the time to edit…or at least think about editing. On occasion, such as today, I find myself struggling with what to write about. With a few projects in the pipeline – Aurum Ledger, Walking Home to Georgia, and even the old Springwood Current – there’s plenty of subject matter. It’s on the Wednesdays I have nothing planned that I tend to detail my current state.

On this Wednesday, the last of a month that feels lost to me, I’m feeling less and less tired. Oh, wait! It’s Tuesday! Allow me a moment to chuckle in my chair. That’s funny! After three weeks (going on four) of feeling sick, some laughter feels like sweet honey on an estranged esophagus. I visited a clinic, the ER, and finally got a new PCP after pestering the practice with daily phone calls. Diagnoses started with “it’s a cold” and morphed to “likely tickborne,” “Hepatitis A,” and eventually the timely named Epstein-Barr Virus and Lyme. Needless to say, July of 2025 is a lost month of three-hour naps, bouts of consciousness, and returning to oblivion.

To lose a full month feels painful. Losing time is part of living. But this was a whole month. In our short lives, a month is quite a substantial amount of time. I was too ill to be more productive than reading or making a peanut butter protein shake. My immune system felt like the 262 men of the 1st Minnesota charging headlong into overwhelming odds at Gettysburg, because someone had to. At the end of the assault, with just 47 men remaining, the regiment holds the line at tremendous loss.

July took all my strength, but ideas continued to percolate in my sweaty sleep. The Aurum Ledger is my most recent series. I have no end goal or even idea of how it will evolve. The words come with the clacking of the keys. I hope to return to this world soon. 

Some time ago, I wrote Walking Home to Georgia, about a Confederate journeying home after the Civil War. I ended up bringing this piece to my writing group and got amazing feedback. I was in the process of revising this before I got sick. I also began a second chapter. In contrast to the Aurum Ledger, I have a vision for this story. 

The Springwood Current stems from a city I built in Cities Skylines. As I built the city, I found myself hearing backstories on the citizens, parks, and regions. I started writing the first newspaper, dated 1850, but found myself distracted by formatting. I may resume the process, but focus entirely on the city rather than include national coverage.

But August is coming, eh? I won’t pretend I’m ready to sprint into it. I’ll settle for a stroll. With the worst of the symptoms behind me—retreated like General Lee after Gettysburg—it’s the fatigue that lingers, holding the high ground like Meade. Still, there’s hope in that slowness. A chance to enjoy the tail end of summer, to return to my stories, or just to savor the simple pleasure of chuckling at my own confusion between Tuesday and Wednesday.