Christmas 2019

Christmas 2019 marked the first Santa-free Christmas for our family, which was a nice change of pace. Not only was I proud of my children for demonstrating the continuing development of their critical thinking skills, but my wife and I didn't have to sneak around to maintain the whole Santa Clause illusion. I also didn't have to share credit with some imaginary character for the gifts I bought my kids with my (relatively) hard-earned cash. Maybe I'm an emotional vampire, or maybe I'm just a good, old-fashioned narcissist, but either way, all of that sweet, sweet gratitude was all mine now. And my wife's, I guess.

Of Grandmothers and Crabapple Jelly: Death, Sugary Preserves, and Summers by the Beach

On July 9, 2019, Noreen McCauley nee Hoffman passed away, and with her passing, a page turned on a major chapter of my family history. She'd outlived my grandfather by a solid six years, but in the end, she caught up with him, and so that marked the end of my maternal grandparents. Her contribution to the story was over, and so the responsibility--the burden--passed fully to the rest of us left on this small corner of this tiny blue orb hurtling through time and space with no regard for, well, anything. Certainly that great, old bitch Mother Earth wouldn't pause her cosmic dance for a second for the loss of a politician or a philosopher or a celebrity or even an entire tribe, so it certainly wouldn't hesitate for the final curtain call of a random woman in a random room in a small town painfully similar to so many other small towns around the world that you wouldn't be able to pick out of a police lineup.

So We Got a Dog

For those who know me, it probably comes as something of a shock that I would count myself as the owner of any pet larger or less disposable than a goldfish. I, myself, am still sort of surprised. About a month ago, I finally caved to years of pressure from my wife and kids, who all seemed to want nothing more out of life than a canine companion.

I had been quite vocal of my general dislike of the idea of pets in general. People often mistook this for some sort of anti-animal sentiment. This was a strange sort of conclusion to draw as, for me anyway, there was always a clear distinction; I love animals, but was less keen on owning one and having it live in my house with me.

And honestly, I was pretty dead set against getting a dog, which seemed to be the top choice of my family unit in terms of companion creatures. Owning a pet always seemed to me to be an unnecessary extra expense. It felt like a counter-intuitive waste of resources. It also provided another fairly large point of entry for dirt and all manner of bacterial intruders to lay siege to my already besieged homestead. Going on a trip out of town would have an extra level of logistics as we would have to either make arrangements for someone to look after the thing, or make room in the car to take them with us.