The Myth & The Majesty

Back in college, I had a love-hate relationship with the days right before a holiday. Generally speaking, the professors were just as ready to leave as we were. We might have a test that week -- but rarely after. No one wanted to deal with that. With any luck, classes would be cancelled due to lack of hustle. And since I was always driving across the state in what would inevitably be crappy weather, I was always antsy to get on the road. I now find myself not leaving town for a holiday. It's odd. I kind of love it. Alas, my brain has nothing to focus on. All is quiet in the camp. The phone isn't ringing as much because things are winding down elsewhere, too. My usual chores are pretty much done. I've spent the last week unsure of what to do with the sudden quiet out here. Sure, we had a group this last weekend, but they were small. And we have a group a week and a half from now -- one of my favorites, actually, a group of people fairly close to my age. I've h

In an interesting twist, this year looks to be the calmest Christmas my family's had in years. Well, Christmas Day should be calm-ish, anyway. Between now and then, there will hopefully be the arrival of a brother-in-law and the moving of my parents to their actual permanent home (at the moment, it lacks things like complete plumbing and fully insulated anything). In the meantime, we get to have Thanksgiving with all five of us for the first time in a few years and plenty of family shindigs, meaning there will be no calm until Christmas itself. As the whole retail empire gears up for the Big Season, the snow starts piling up, and my own family starts making solid plans, I'm finding myself resisting. It's not a lack of excitement. I love this time of year. I'm even (sort of) excited about the snow. I'm thrilled that we all get to spend a couple holidays in one place (and that one of those may even involve both Jay and Miss M, for the first time ever). But wo

At the beginning of September, my parents moved to a house just east of town. This is quite strange to me. For the entire first three decades of my life, I lived either in the same house as my parents or a minimum of five hours away. (Over the first two-thirds of 2014, it was actually both simultaneously.) Now they are ... well, in the same town, at least by address. They're actually 25 miles away, but that's because we live in a surprisingly sprawling amoeba of a town. Off topic. Sorry. The bottom line is that now, I can actually just hang out with my parents. We can meet up for dinner and then go to our separate homes. We've been hiking and biking a couple times. It's kind of strange. Thankfully, I'm lucky enough to have parents that actually make for pretty good friends, too. We even went to "Rocky Horror Picture Show" on Halloween, something I wouldn't do with a fairly large chunk of my acquaintance. [My parents are actually the ones that

While I stay in my cozy house avoiding the snow and working on ... everything ... here's an excellent year-old Vlogbrothers video to let you consider where you're currently standing. Hmmmm... I can rent "Harvey" on Amazon Instant Video ... This may be good news.  

When I woke up this morning, it was as warm as it was going to get today. Hello! Yes, it has once again been a few weeks. It seems that when I ran out of things to say, I did so abruptly and with violent abandon. I'm not sure that's actually possible, but it may have happened here. Today is the first discernible day of winter. Temperature in the teens, something like 6+ inches of fresh snow, getting dark at 4:00 ... And hey, this year it waited till November! I can deal with winter a lot more easily when it starts at a reasonable time. Especially if it also ends at a reasonable time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that one. It's been a solid two weeks with guests (longer, actually) and now things are sort of slowing down. We at least have a few days without overnight guests, giving us a chance to catch our breaths. And take an actual holiday. I may even sleep in. And then ... *gasp!* ... I may get a few posts started. I haven't been writing but I ha