Hallelujah! I have completed the final – and admittedly preliminary – draft of chapter 6 for the Small Public Library Administration textbook. I started to work on the final section three hours ago and slogged to the finish line. And not without numerous temptations along the way.

I need another cup of coffee, I tell myself. And while I’m in the kitchen the dryer buzzer sounds.

Guess I better fold those clothes and put them away, I decide, delaying my return to the computer.

Twenty minutes later.

“Do we have any sunblock?” Andy asks before leaving for work.

“I know we have a tube around her someplace,” I reply, pushing myself away from the desk to begin a search through cupboards and drawers and storage baskets, eventually striking gold.

Fifteen minutes later.

I’m getting hungry, I consider. Better eat some breakfast or else I’m going to end up with a headache.

Yet another opportunity for escape.

But each time I returned to my work station refreshed and continued to make excellent progress. By the time I added the final period, the resulting 2½ pages of text had been thoroughly worked over. Now it’s just a matter of inserting this section into a larger document, which will require, unfortunately, the renumbering of a series of text boxes containing supplemental information.

Still on my to-do list before submission:  (1) proofread; (2) add a few more footnotes.

Then it’s on to my portions of chapter 7. The final chapter in this saga.