Site updated...

Six months ago I wrote about finishing the flowerbed. And then disappeared. At least, from this site. So what the hell have I been doing since? Some stuff. Here's a summary:

Summer:

Kept the flowerbed & lawn alive, despite a season-long drought & uncommon hot weather (for here). Took some pictures, admittedly not as many as before, but some, mostly in & around the house & of Buffy, of course. Most of which I hated — well, that's too strong, really, I just didn't think they were very good & couldn't bring myself to process & post 'em ('til this week).

Also did a lot of reading — outside under my umbrella'd table or inside under the influence of a.c. — in between moving hoses & sprinklers around. Finally got into the Harry Potters & obsessively read the entire series, except for the last one (am waiting for the paperback). Can't remember how long it's been since I was able to read that much, well, novels anyway.

Tooled around on the computer some, of course, but after early July when my sites' host carried out a major update on the software (which changed major aspects of it) without providing a timely update of the user manual, I had no choice but to lay off website development work for a bit. Which was no hardship, really. Call it a summer vacation. Except, I didn't go anywhere much, besides my own backyard. And around & about town, including to a weekly yoga class.

Well, I did make a day trip to Chicago in mid-August. My first visit there in 40+ years & luckily one of the few not-hot days all summer. Gretchen drove 4 of us to Michigan City, IN, where we picked up the commuter train to the city. Where we spent most of our time at the Art Institute immersed in a very good Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit. After a lunch at Gretchen's favorite Thai restaurant, spent the rest of the day walking on & around Michigan Avenue. I loved being there so much, I didn't stop to take pictures, after the first few minutes anyway....

Fall:

Shortly after that trip my sitehost finally updated the user manual. Meaning it was time to get back to work. Actually, begin work on a new, large website project, which took the better part of the next 3 months to complete — Pine Street Studios. Minus, that is, the 2-3 wks I lost to illness in September. It was nothing major, just a couple bouts with a nasty stomach/intestinal bacterial infection which were severe enough to send me to the ER for a few hours to get re-hydrated after the second bout. It took me another week-to-10-days to recuperate.

The infection experience prompted me to up the ante with yoga, to continue the weekly class & add a private yoga therapy session. Gretchen, who's an excellent teacher/therapist (the website I've created for her will debut in January), introduced me to it last year, but I realized now was the time to intensify my practice. And force myself to get up early & attend the morning session.

In mid-October, did another day trip, this time a return trip up to Pentwater with Lo & Mac. Photos? Not so much. But it was a perfectly beautiful, warmish day in an abnormally warm Fall & the glow of it lasted. Even after getting back to work.

What else? Let's see, first snow was a surprise couple inches in mid-November. That event melted away quickly but recurred with a vengence on the eve of a very cold, very frigid (mid-teens), very white Thanksgiving, followed by a Black Friday night dump of 7-8 inches. The next several weeks brought near-daily inches of lake-effect snow that added up to a foot or two in the end, left dramatic icicles on every roof & iced-over sections of the river. I resigned myself to not seeing bare ground again 'til April. But no. Temps floated up above freezing a few days before Xmas & have pretty much stayed there, so much of it melted fast away & the rest got washed away in this week's rain. What? A white Thanksgiving & a rainy Xmas? Go figure.

Anyhow, now I'm missing the snow. Everything looks too much like a cold raining, drab winter in New Jersey. At least when it snows things are bright, not sunlight bright but bright nonetheless, especially at night. And since it snowed every day, everything stayed white, without those dirty, oil-stained piles of old plowed snow alongside the streets & roads. And you can't beat the sight of a dramatic red-bellied woodpecker against a snowy background. (Of course, I'll regret saying this when real winter brings unrelenting arctic weather.)

Meanwhile, the holidays have been fun this year. Gretchen & Paul hosted Xmas Eve at their house, Lois & Mac provided for Xmas Day and we'll share a New Year's Day Chinese takeout feast tomorrow. I thought about attempting a latka party but having never made 'em on my own before, I prefer sparing my guests the guinea-pig treatment. Maybe next year. In lieu of that, whilst Xmas shopping, I happened on the miracle — here in conservative christian West Michigan — of a pack of Chanukah candles, so I've been doing the traditional lighting (with Mom's menorah) every night, for the first time in, oh, 35 years or so. I set it up right next to my "holiday" tree.... (Note, 2-10/06: Those pictures are now online.)