I'm stuck. I've painted the first unit of Hastati for my Pyrrhic War project, but I can't finish them off. I was down to the dregs of a pot of Quick Shade, and when I shook it up I found that it was more or less dry and 'un-reconstitutable', so I ordered another. That is now officially 'lost in the post', so my supplier has (as of this morning) despatched another pot. But I can't get on with those figures until it arrives. I've done everything else I can think of (like cutting out the shield transfers), so once it arrives, it should only take me a day to finish them off - and most of that will be drying time.
Whilst awaiting the non-arrival of the Quick Shade, I set in and made enough movement trays for the first two 'legions' for my Roman army. They need priming before I can paint them, but it's heaving down with rain, so I can't do that. I could make more trays, but I've run out of magnetic sheet and need to order more. So I'm stuck there too.
I can't even assemble the next unit - I cleaned up all the figures when we were on holiday in the summer - but I need some wire spears... Lost in the post along with the Quick Shade.
I've been trying to book an holiday for half-term, but two vital web-sites I need to use are down, so I can't do that either.
AAAARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!! The only thing left on my wargaming 'to do' list is the page layout for 'AVGVSTVS to AVRELIAN'. But I'm not sure about doing that, because I'm not really sure I'm far enough along the road towards them being finished. But perhaps I should start making decisions about the document - page size, columns, margins, fonts, whether to use a leading grid and all that sort of thing, and get it all set up ready for when I think the text is finished.
One good thing is that my swimming is going well again. Those who've been following this blog a while will probably be aware that many moons ago I was a competitive swimmer, and that I keep myself reasonably fit by continuing to train. This past summer wasn't good - I was mad busy with DIY, the pool was closed for repairs for a couple of weeks, we went on holiday, I was unwell, and all sorts of other perfectly valid reasons stopped me training regularly. So, once things settled down and the kids were back at school, I decided that I would give myself until half term (i.e. end of the third week of October, to get myself properly 'swimming fit' again - and be swimming at least as well as I was in June.
So, it's been really hard, and I've worked really hard, and I think I'm more or less there. I'm already swimming more distance per week than I was in June, though my times are still a touch off. That'll come back though, with a few more sessions of sprints, now that I'm fit enough to stand them without throwing up!
I must be nuts. This morning's session being a case in point...
800 m front crawl warm-up.
800 m 'parts' (50 m full stroke, 50 m legs only, 50 m full stroke, 50 m arms only, and repeat the sequence)
400 m front crawl legs only
400 m front crawl arms only
4 x 100 m front crawl
4 x 50m front crawl
200 m back crawl 'swim down'.
So, given that I hit the water at 08:04 and had to get out at 09:00, that's 3.2 km in 56 minutes. Tomorrow's session will have more sprints in, which (oddly!) makes it slower, because one spends more time resting, so I won't go quite as far. It's actually only about half what I'd have done 'in the old days' - but I am 30 years older now than I was then, and I could afford to spend more time in the water too! The aim, this week, is to put in 12 km. I'd like to be able to squeeze another session per week in, and get to 15 km per week, but I don't think that's realistic.
And then I wonder why I'm tired.