You would think I would have a lot to say on the occasion of my oldest child obtaining his driver’s license. And I do, but nothing comes out well. Right now even I’m suffering through to push out even this third sentence. I’m just not able to write. For several days I’ve had a massive case of writer’s block. Certain reviews which I should be able to write in my sleep are a struggle. Ones that require more thought are impossible. Even now I’ve lost focus on what I wanted to write about.
I’ve taken Kyle out driving the last week or so three times a day, usually for an hour or so at a time. That has really cut into the amount of time I get to work. Work begets work, and now I need to get my groove back, and it is proving very difficult. Some of these reviews are horribly late, to the point at which my relationship with those publishers might become compromised. I feel really bad about it, but at the same time feel powerless to actually do something about it. I have spent so much time focusing on Kyle and helping him get ready for his driving test that I’ve almost forgotten how to take care of my own needs.
Why was I spending so much time with Kyle? He’s 19, and usually kids his age have had their driver’s license for a while. Unfortunately, because he was in boarding school for high school he missed out on that whole experience. His transition to college was swift, and we were able to pack in some lessons last summer (thankfully through a third party). Over the last year while he was away at college, it was impossible to give him driving lessons, what with him being nearly 300 miles away. He passed the written test, and was able to schedule the drive test for when he was home visiting. The problem was the amount of time he has spent behind the wheel has been minimal (something like 10 hours or so) and that was almost a year ago.
So I took Kyle out driving. A lot. He needed it. So many mistakes were made, I was surprised we didn’t get into an accident or a cop didn’t pull us over. Actually, both. But that’s what you do as a parent. Why didn’t my wife do it? She can’t. She is unable to be a passenger in a vehicle. Whenever we go anywhere she has to drive. It’s not a phobia or anything, well, maybe, but she freaks out. I could write (if I could write better) a whole other blog post about this. This is why it fell on my to take Kyle out driving.
I’m not blaming Kyle for my writer’s block. It hasn’t helped though. I’m really not in my groove of writing. For some reason it is harder this time to get back into it. Even the easy types of reviews which I can usually do over my first cup of coffee have been difficult to the point where I have abandoned them. Heck, I’m on my third day of trying to write this, and I’ve been using a “stream of consciousness” method.
Thankfully Kyle passed his driver’s test, so I don’t have to take him out nearly as much. This means more time is now available for me to sit in front of the computer and stare at a blank screen.