A Little Much Ado

This week has been stressful. Two family members are in perilous health, I can do little about either situation, and I have the sort of imagination that can awfulize with the worst of ’em. (I acknowledge that the same overactive imagination has been great fun to have around when it’s time to write a book.) Some people are good at bracketing, at telling themselves, “I have fretted about Uncle Fred’s pneumonia for the last hour. I will put that aside now and write my next two scenes. Then I will code my general ledger for the month and do payroll. When those tasks are done, I will check Aunt Talula’s FB page to see if there’s an update on Fred.” Nah me. “How’s Fred? What if Fred dies? He’s getting Up There. He hates to be sick, and Aunt Talula is so stoic. Does she know how dangerous pneumonia is at Fred’s age? Maybe he has COVID too. I was certainly short of breath with long COVID… That was Bad News…” I am nonetheless mindful that sitting at the computer playing soli-worry-taire won’t…