5:58 p.m.

Taking two days off from Orchard. Today was the first of two. I've been working four to five hours a day on it for the past month. I'm not good at math but let's give it at try.

Added up that's a total of about 150 hours in four weeks. And I went from a 226-page manuscript down to a 93-page manuscript. Not one solitary word added as of this evening. Tomorrow is another day off, and I should be glad, really. If not, by tomorrow at this time I'd maybe have a 20-page essay, a far cry from my contractual obligation.

Heather talked me into taking the two days off. I didn't complain. It seemed like a good idea then and I know it was a good idea now. Six or seven times today I started to open my laptop, Golden Boy, and dive into my Orchard folder. Each time I did other things instead: I checked Twitter, checked on my MFA students, started to watch a movie on Amazon Prime, and actually did buy a really fantastic cardigan button-up sweater. That's the fourth sweater-type shirt I've bought in the past three days. I also bought a Polo long-sleeve button-up this past weekend. I don't know what's wrong with me.

All I knew was that I had to write something today. Other than days and nights I've had surgery or was in recovery from surgery I have written. Something, anything. But I've written nearly every day for the past 34 years. Wasn't about to let today go by without continuing that obsession.