Last time this year

Since I plan to be out of town for a couple days, I'd better give you a holiday season update before the holidays are history.

On Saturday afternoon, we (my wife, younger son and I) are heading off to northwestern Wisconsin to visit my in-laws--her dad and sisters (3) and brothers (2 of 4). I'm not exactly sure when we're coming back--the best estimate now is during the day on Monday (the 1st), though that is subject to change depending on weather conditions.

Many of you don't get to drive in winter conditions or know how you prepare. For the last few days, I've been checking the weather forecast to see what the weather will likely be doing during our two-day trip about 175 miles away. On Friday, we received about two inches of snow here. It's supposed to be partly cloudy for the drive Saturday. But Sunday night and Monday (yeah, New Year's Eve) they are talking about 3 to 5 inches of the white stuff. Our destination's forecast is just saying "snow likely" for Sunday night and Monday, with no elaboration. Sounds a tad ominous. But Tuesday should be OK, if we decide to stay over. I think my wife wants to go back home Monday, tho.

Now it's true that my wife and I live a quiet, boring life. But they live an even more quiet, more boring life over there. I can't imagine how thrilling New Year's Eve will be over there--a sister-in-law is talking about a Methodist church function starting at 8 p.m. Wooo-hooo! On the other hand, most of my FIL's life is spent watching Catholic channels and farm channels on his satellite TV. So I'm planning to pack along my laptop and a few DVDs, including a few I got for Christmas. No internet at my father-in-law's place, but I'll be able to write for future posting. I can edit pictures, too. Thank God I got the laptop a couple years ago.

My older son's visit was nice, if quiet. We visited my mom one night. Went to church Sunday night and opened gifts Monday morning. He left Tuesday morning. Didn't have much of a chance to watch movies together, but I'm not surprised. We did see the restored version of the original "Little Shop of Horrors," at least, and he seemed to enjoy that. And he visited my younger son several times for some serious game-playing.

OK, I'm sure you're wondering what I got under the tree?

1. My older son gave me a copy of the expanded (three-disk) version of "The Seven Samurai," one of my favorite movies. He also got me the first volume of the "Samurai 7" anime series, which places the Seven Samurai story in a futuristic world but otherwise is supposed to be true to Kurosawa's plot. I haven't had much chance to see it yet, but it looks promising.

I'm relatively new to anime, but I am a long-time fan of samurai movies, especially those directed by Kurosawa. See? Now you learned something new about me.

2. My younger son gave me a copy of the original "Alfie" with Michael Caine. Surprised and pleased.

3. My wife got me a blue sweater and a winter knit hat and gloves set. One of those Thermalite fabrics from 3M. She also gave me a copy of "Sally of the Sawdust," a 1922 silent featuring W.C. Fields in one of his first roles. (OK, I found it and bought it and gave it to her to give to me.)

My wife got a DVD set from the first season of "Monk." She wasn't watching it when it first went on the air, but now it's one of her favorites. She got one of the James Bond DVD movie sets. (She loves watching James Bond films with me. Especially on a Saturday night.) She got a couple nature/documentary films, including "Microcosmos" and "Genesis." And she got "The Universe." That's a huge coffee table book with lots of pictures taken from the Hubble telescope and information about the cosmos. (She loves that kind of stuff, too.)

I've got something that apparently is still on the way, for wear later on Saturday night. If she is so inclined. Remember, she still dresses as if she is her mother. Or grandmother.

The two kids got various games and DVDs. I also got my older son a "Generation Nex" thing--it's a modern-day console that plays the original Nintendo games, which he still has. He suggested that, and I delivered.

I'm going to have to break it off about here to pack and get ready for our trip--including winter boots, in case the snow catches up with us. See you all next year. Enjoy New Year's. Hope yours will be as fun and exciting as mine will (likely) be dull and predictable.

Remember a story from way back, when I was in about fifth grade. A looooonggg time ago. In school. Gym class. We had a guy there named Sam. He was a bit of a wiseass. But a lovable wiseass--there was no meanness in what he did.

Anyway, it was the last day before the holiday break, and we were getting dressed to get back to our other classes. The gym teacher came in and said, "Sam, you're suspended for the rest of the year."

There was a hush throughout the room, and Sam stood there with his mouth open--until it dawned on him. Everybody had a good laugh about it. This time, the gym teacher put something over on him, for once.

Unnh! A tribute to the king of soul!

We all have to die someday, Christmas Day included. (As a side note, this Christmas was the 60th anniversary of W.C. Fields' death. You know how I feel about him, I trust.)

When I got up on Christmas morning and got online to check the news, I found out that James Brown had died. Wow. He was just 72 or so, and he was still performing. Had just taken part in a toy giveaway in Atlanta and was preparing for a New Year's Eve show in New York. The news reports say he was detected with pneumonia, was taken to a hospital and died a few hours later.

Now don't think that I feel James Brown was a tremendously admirable man. He had his problems with drugs and guns and spousal abuse. He saw time inside a prison late in life after a high-speed chase. But if you ever read about his early years, you'll realize that he wasn't given a lot of advantages when he was young.

Lord knows he wasn't perfect. But what a gifted performer! Unnh! (That's the grunt you heard often during his performances.)

I had heard about James Brown when I was in high school--about the time he came out with his "Live at the Apollo" albums (which I picked up on over 35 years later). Some kids in our school knew his music pretty well, but only a few. I was raised in a Milwaukee suburb, for which the term "lily white" fits accurately. (I have to laugh--today, living in the woods of the Upper Peninsula, I see many more black people than I ever did as a kid.)

My personal discovery of James Brown started maybe 10 years ago. I had gotten to know a little about him over the years, of course, but gravitated towards the classic blues singers.

My first James Brown CD was the "Star Time" compilation from the early '90s. By now I had heard what an electric performer he was. (Years earlier, when I was in high school, my mom had seen him performing "Please, Please, Please" on TV and was absolutely aghast. I wasn't home that night, unfortunately.)

The breakthrough came when I purchased his "Live at the Apollo" CD, recorded in 1962. (I'm listening to it as I'm writing this.) That told me everything I needed to know about James Brown. It was incredible, the power he had in his voice and the effect he had on his audience. "Lost Someone" made chills go down my spine. A long medley ending with "Please, Please, Please."

The effect on his audience ... incredible, and not at all artificial. Maybe only Elvis, when he was in his prime, had that kind of power on stage. That album was ranked #24 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It's worth looking for.

Later, I found a different "Live at the Apollo" album, from about 1966, and I was even more convinced after hearing "Prisoner of Love" and an 11-minute version of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World." Incredible performances. Re-released in the last few years as a two-CD set. Another excellent investment in your music library. Unnh!

For some time I had heard about his incredible performance at the TAMI Show in 1964. Two years or so ago, I found a DVD of the TAMI Show, which featured many of the top pop music stars from that time. The Rolling Stones closed the show. James Brown was the act just before the Stones.

The audio is only fair, and the resolution of the black-and-white kinescope is, frankly, poor. That takes nothing away from his performance. He did "Prisoner of Love." He closed with "Night Train" as he did incredibly fast dance steps. In between he did "Please, Please, Please."

That's when I finally got to see what had grossed out my mom so much. There he was, collapsing to his knees, holding the microphone, screaming Please, please, please, don't go. Ohhhh, I love you so!

After a while, his backup singers come up to him, covered his shoulders with a cape and led this obviously despondent creature (overcome with heartbreak, of course) off the stage ... only to have him break away and return to the microphone for another chorus of his heartbreak.

This happened three or four times. If you have never seen it, you can't imagine how worked up the audience got. I mean, these are teenage girls, and they were moved. I mean moved. They were in it. Unnh!

And that's just the kind of reaction you heard--in quality audio--on those "Live at the Apollo" CDs. A showstopping performer. You could only pity the poor act--such as the Rolling Stones at the TAMI Show--who had to try to follow that!

James Brown--and his music--went through a lot of phases, but my favorite James Brown is the same as my favorite Elvis: The young version, the extremely virile one, the one who held the audience in the palm of his hand with excitement echoing everywhere.

One other thing about James Brown: He had a VERY tight band. The arrangements had to be done precisely, and his musicians--the instrumentalists and the singers--were spot-on in their performances. They had to be. Their boss would fine them if they missed a cue. Unnh!

So now James Brown has moved on. Here's wishing him well and that he has a happier life the next time around. He make a lot of his fans happy, that's for sure. And that includes me.

A sticky situation for Christmas

have to be somewhat short. We are wrapping gifts in the other room. Trying to, rather.

My wife and I were about a third of the way through the task, which we began after getting home from the Christmas Eve church service, when, suddenly, our roll of Scotch tape (the green type) suddenly ran out. When you're wrapping Christmas presents and you're only a third of the way done when the tape runs out, that makes your whole life pass in front of your eyes. "Well, get that big new roll from downstairs," I said with bravado, knowing full well that there was no big new roll downstairs.

Oh, what to do, what to do? Do any of you have some slightly used tape we can borrow? No questions asked.

Oh wait. My wife was rummaging around and found a roll of the Scotch clear tape (the red type) downstairs. It's old, but it's still mostly sticky, and at this point (9 p.m. on Christmas Eve) our standards are not terribly high.

We've got the kids' stuff wrapped. I think she's wrapping a thing or two she got for me, and I've got a few things for her that need to be wrapped.

Wrapping gifts is not one of my specialties. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate myself as a 2, if that. I know how to fold paper, but not good at estimating how much is needed, and my taping leaves much to be desired. I know that. We all have things we do well in life. Wrapping Christmas gifts is not one of mine.

On top of that, I've got worries about the gifts I got for the kids--whether I favored one more than the other. Because I did. You see, Phil (the older son) is on his own in the Detroit area, lives by himself, has a pretty good job and buys himself stuff all the time. Dave lives in town here, and he has to live more frugally. So I skew things his way. I admit it. But I feel I need to do something to sort of even things out. I'm trying to decide.

We will wind up with a white Christmas, after all. We received about three inches of very wet snow on Dec. 22, and it's going to survive till the 25th at least. Temperatures are a little below freezing, but it's not going to get super cold here for at least another week. The cold air will stay in Canada. And they're welcome to keep it.

Phil got here on Thursday night--he arrived just as I was walking out the door to a basketball game out of town, and he was in bed by the time I got back. We put the paper together on Friday--just watched something on TV that night. The highlight of Saturday was all of us going down to visit my mom. We had a nice visit. We got back home in time for a late pizza at one of the restaurants in town. It was supposed to be at the Happy I--but you know what happened there.

Tomorrow's plans--after the gift unwrapping and untaping--are uncertain. We may drive down to visit my mom again. Not sure. As I was clearing off the ice and snow from my car this morning (didn't drive it at all Friday), one of the windshield wipers came off, and part of the bracket on the blade broke. So I may be reduced to running around to the gas station/convenience stores that are open on Christmas day in search of a windshield wiper.

My life is crazy, I know.

Anyway, I've been taking a bit of a break from the blog during this hyperhectic season, but I wanted to wish all of you a happy holiday season, and I hope you get what you want and need and deserve.

Because we all deserve to be happy, but not all of us are. And gifts can't bring happiness. Only being with those we love makes us happy. Seeing them happy makes us happy. I wish and pray that I could give that happiness to all of you who needs that gift, that divine right. To those who may fit that description, my prayer is that you will find that happiness in time for the next holiday season. Beyond the right door is a wonderful future, and I hope you all find that door very soon.

(What? We're out of tape again???) Sorry. Gotta go.

A new holiday classic

We get plenty of news releases at our office. Here is one that arrived this morning that just screams out to be shared with all of you. I'd be surprised if the various "news of the weird" sites don't pick up on it. It's a new holiday classic.

It's in the holiday "spirit," too, as you will see. Just one more example of what holiday-related stress can lead to.

The names have been removed to protect the guilty:

Troopers from the Negaunee Post of the Michigan State Police responded to (address) to assist the Ishpeming Township Fire Department at the scene of a structure fire at 7:15 a.m. The homeowner was being combative with firefighters. During the investigation, troopers determined that there had been a domestic dispute between the homeowner and his girlfriend. That dispute led to the homeowner cutting up the Christmas tree with a chainsaw while inside the house and destroying other Christmas decorations. The tree and decorations were stuffed into the wood stove located inside the house, causing a fire that completely destroyed it. Troopers continue to investigate the events leading up to the fire. Criminal charges have not been determined at this time. No one was injured as a result of the fire. However, the homeowner was treated at Bell Memorial Hospital for injuries received during the domestic dispute. Alcohol was a factor in this incident.

Three comments:

1. You could see that last line coming a mile away, couldn't you?

2. How hard was it for the troopers writing the news release not to crack up while they were doing so?

3. You can't make this stuff up. Stranger than fiction.

A green Christmas

OK, gang, you know where I live, right? Which part of the U.S.?

Sure you do. You've seen it enough from the photos I post here. It's the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

And what kind of weather are we famous for in the winter months? Here's a reminder: looking out my front door last March ...

Wow! Looks like I had a lot of work ahead of me.

And let me remind you of a high school football game I covered this past October ...

I still remember that awful drive home, through the storm.

So now that we're closing in on Christmas Day, I bet you're wondering how white of a Christmas we will be having. After all, here's The Weather Channel map that depicts our odds on having a white Christmas. ...

But it's ain't necessarily so.

Since that mid-October storm (which, by the way, mostly passed west of us), we have had hardly any snow. Temperatures have warmed this month after a frigid (but snow-challenged) November. Today, the sun was out, and temperatures were about 40. Same thing is forecast for tomorrow.

But it didn't melt our snow. Because, as you will see from this photo of the local golf course last week ...

... there's hardly any snow out there to melt.

The only snow around are in the remnants of snowpiles that were plowed up when we got a few inches in November, or else in areas that are very shaded from the sun. There's been an inch here or there since then. But the bottom line is that my back yard looks like the shoulder of the road here ...


The local municipal ski hill, which relies on natural snow, currently looks like this ...

The tourism/resort-type ski hill nearby does make its own snow, and lucky for them. Otherwise, their slopes would look like this. It's this way in Europe, too. There's so little snow in the Alps that some World Cup skiing events have been canceled.

We were getting a gloppy mix of rain, snow and freezing drizzle when I was out getting these pictures, and the sand truck passed by while I was at the ski hill.


It has been cold enough that the lakes are starting to freeze up. For instance, tonight and tomorrow night, our lows will be about 20F (-7C). Ice is forming ...

But ice-fishing is still a long way off--you need at least three inches of ice simply to walk on the surface safely. That's a long ways off.

Speaking of icy ponds ... I drove down to visit my mom last week. On the trip to her house, I saw these mallard ducks in a pond near a rural intersection ...

What? These ducks are just going to bob along passively, allowing themselves to get frozen in ice? How dumb are they?

My wife laughed. You see, these ducks are always on this pond. Every single time. In exactly the same position. And if you take one of them and cook it for supper ... you're going to wind up with a lot of melted plastic.

No wonder they didn't fly away when I got close to them.

Saturday afternoon disaster

A disaster struck my town early Saturday afternoon. No people were killed or injured, fortunately, and the environmental and economic impacts are minor.

But it's a disaster all the same. It was a fire at our area's best pizza restaurant. A bad fire. Bottom line is, we won't be able to enjoy pizzas there for quite some time to come. That qualifies as a disaster in my books.

It started about 1 p.m., and soon the fire trucks were screaming past our house. To the east, a thick cloud of smoke was rising. I went to the office, grabbed my camera bag and then headed for where all the lights were flashing and the main highway was blocked off.

It's called the Happy Italian's Roma Cafe (usually abbreviated to "the Happy I"). When I arrived, here's how it looked, complete with flames on the roof (on the left) ...


It apparently started in the kitchen area--we don't have the official word on the cause yet. Here's the view from another angle, with firemen on the roof ...


The main action was on the backside of the building--down the alley from the last shot. Here's what was happening there ...

In that shot, the firefighters were retreating down the ladder because the flames were getting too close. That's where the kitchen is. Rather, was.

They set up again a little further away and climbed up again. Because they're firemen, and that's what they do. Here's the scene a few minutes later ...


And here is one of the firemen, with foam/water falling down all around him as he kept his nozzle pointed through a window at the fire in the kitchen ...


The firemen were mostly finished in about two hours. The roof never fell, but there was a lot of fire damage in the kitchen area and extensive smoke damage throughout the place.

And the bottom line is that when my older son gets up here late this week--he's arriving on Thursday--we're going to have to find another place to go for pizza.

Unread magazines

To be perfectly honest, I've been feeling a little depressed while visiting here lately. Down.

It isn't those much-discussed ads, which don't bother me in the least. It's a number: the number next to "blog alerts," which has been rising nearly as rapidly as the national debt recently.

What apparently has happened is that I've been subscribing to lots of interesting blogs. It's like magazine subscriptions. Before long, the magazines pile up unread. I have my favorites, like you do, but you're all interesting people--your life adventures, your unique version of daily life, your dreams and photos and adventures and frustrations and joys. And the jokes. I find them all interesting.

So I feel bad that I haven't been able to keep up. My life has just been very rushed lately. I recently skimmed through a bunch and simply cleared some that I didn't even look at. Hated to do it. But ... what else could I do?

Just this past Monday, I realized one big reason behind my mood: I haven't had a Saturday to myself since early November, what with several weeks of high school football playoffs, then an all-day wrestling tournament and an all-day volleyball tournament (last Saturday). I had one "normal" Saturday--the last one in November. But that was the day after that 11-hour drive back home from Detroit, so I don't think that counts.

A "normal" Saturday involves working about three hours in the morning, writing up what I can of the Friday stuff, and then having the afternoon and evening to spend with my wife and son. This Saturday, I would be able to do that--except that she's working at the call center all day. Maybe David will want to do something.

It's just the manic rush of events during the manic run-up to the holidays. This week, I had events to cover on four nights: I covered wrestling on Monday, basketball Tuesday, will have volleyball tonight (Thursday) and more basketball Friday. But I've decided to take a pass on Friday. My wife needs to do some Christmas shopping out of town (the nearest Wally World, 50 miles away). I've been telling myself that I have to cut back.

(About this past Monday: I also had a volleyball match and a city council meeting to cover that night, and they were all going on at the same time as the wrestling. Something had to give. But I enjoy wrestling a little more than volleyball and a lot more than meetings.)

On Wednesday, I did something I haven't done for a long time--I took the day off to visit my mom. I dropped my wife off at work and got back home in time to pick her up when her shift was over. It wasn't easy; I had to hustle.

My mom and I went to Hardee's for lunch (and to get her out of the nursing home). After taking her back, I tried to find some stuff at Wally World. David had given me a list of things that might be a good Christmas gift for him. They didn't have a single one! I batted .000. Thank goodness for the internet!

I did find some pants for myself and a multi-card reader for the office. I already had a multi-card reader at the office, but it only reads three or four types of memory cards. If they bring in Compact Flash or SD cards, I'm fine. But in just the last few days, people have brought in photos on MemoryStick and XD cards; I couldn't do a thing with them.

My home computer--bought last spring--has slots where the cards can be inserted. But my office computer was built back when computers were operated by steam and had belts and pulleys. And for carriage returns, you had to slap the thing back with your right hand.)

(OK, I was kidding about the manual carriage return. Seriously, though, how many of you started typing on manual typewriters? Remember?)

In fact, my office computer does have USB ports. While it was born as a Windows 98 machine, it has been upgraded to Windows XP. and it has 512 megs of RAM, with which I run programs like Word and Pagemaker and Photoshop 7, often all at once. So why does it run soooo sloooooowlllllyyyyy? Does it have something to do with its mighty 1.2 GHz processor?

(By now I hope you got the message that I'm pissed about having the oldest, slowest computer in the office. And my CRT monitor has the worst contrast, too. Everyone else has nice, thin, contrasty flatscreens, like I do at home. Just thought I'd mention that, while I'm at it.)

(End of computer vent)

So I got the memory card, and then I went home. I wrote part of this last night, and then I did other stuff. So I'm posting this now, and then I'll try to make headway on the backed-up blogs tonight.

I also discovered yesterday that I hadn't taken any photos with my own camera since the trip to Detroit. So I got a few shots yesterday, and I'll try to get more today, to show you how far advanced winter is around here.

Quick update on other stuff: My wife is working six days this week at the call center, for the Christmas rush. But the contract ends next Wednesday, and she'll get some time off after that. It's been very busy this week, she says.

Phil, my son who lives in Detroit, will be visiting here next week for the holidays. According to the calendar, he'll be arriving in about a week.

I understand that Christmas is on the way, too.

The game of the name

Obsessions come in many forms, in many guises. Lately, a few sports topics have been getting a lot of my attention. And since I haven't written about sports for long time (outside of the stuff I cover as part of my job), I'll fill you in.

Topic 1: The first one, getting just a little attention, is the Ashes series now under way in Australia. That's the storied rivalry between the England and Australia cricket teams. England "won back the Ashes" (won their series of test matches against Australia) in the summer of 2005 in England.

But this series is in Australia (the summer of '06-07), and things aren't going nearly as well for them. Australia won the first two test matches and only has to win one of the remaining three matches to "win back the Ashes." (Remember that a draw--where neither team wins a match--is common in cricket.)

The U.S. population just topped 300 million. Among all those who aren't of foreign birth, only about 14 know (or care) anything about cricket. I am one of them. So I won't take your time trying to explain why it's called "the Ashes" or why draws are possible or why England and Australia have been battling ferociously for a teeny, tiny trophy (that you can hold between your thumb and forefinger) since the late 19th century.

But I will tell you that Squilla--yes, our own Squilla here on efx2--made a bet with Fundy over last year's Ashes series, while she was living in Australia and Fundy was in England. They each bet on their own country.

But Fate (with a capital F) intervened. Squilla moved (physically) from Australia to England (and Fundy) as the Ashes series was being played, and for some reason Fundy seemed to lose track of their bet. They were so taken with each other, you know. (Everybody say "Awwwwwwww!" It's that kind of sweet story.)

I don't know if they made another Ashes bet. From what I can see on her page, they have an Ashes series being played on the pool table, and Fundy seems to have a commanding lead. He's heading for a nine-wicket win. (Won't explain that, either. It's a big win.)

Topic 2: My fantasy football team. It's called the Howlin' Wolfs, after that great blues singer who influenced so many rockers during the '50s and '60s. (The Rolling Stones got Howlin' Wolf his only TV appearance in 1965.)

These Wolfs of mine are howlin', too. Last Sunday, they finished their regular season with a 13-0 record. Perfection. You don't see that too often. My team is highlighted by LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers, who is having a monster year, and the Chicago Bears defense, which has been as good as their offense has been bad lately.

The fantasy regular season is over, and the playoffs start this weekend. Three more games, in an elimination format. Will the Wolfs finish the job? I hope so. I won a little money for finishing in first place, and the post-season title is worth another prize. Just in time for Christmas. (In fact, just in time for New Year's.)

It's my third year in the league. The first year, I did so bad that I renamed my team the Bunny Rabbits halfway through the season--complete with wiggling noses and floppy gray ears on their pink helmets. That was cruel, but they were bad. My second year attention got diverted after my mom got hurt--most of my free time was spent with her, and the team was badly neglected. But the third year apparently is the charm.

Topic 3: My baseball game. This is fantasy, too, but it's more imaginary. It's a computer game, where teams (that live only on my hard drive) form and evolve over time. I've been deeply into that lately and just completed the second year of the league's history.

The players are all imaginary with computer-given names, and I renamed the teams on the major league level for U.P. cities and (mostly) critters you see in the Northwoods. For instance, my team is the Iron River Ravens. Their big rival is the Crystal Falls Crows. And there are Wolves and Moose and Whitetails and Cougars and Coyotes and so forth.

There are minor leagues, too, and I mostly used the randomly given computer names for them. Not all of them. I have one minor league based in Canada, and I tried to come up with some especially good names for a few of them (keeping in mind that I love puns). The town that I visited 52 weeks ago today is called Clifford. They're in the league as the Clifford Big Red Dogs. But the Canadian name I'm proudest of is the Regina Monologues.

The Ravens were cellar-dwellers in their first year. They rallied to just slightly above .500 in year two, but they didn't hit for power, and their bullpen was bad. A leaky pen, you might say--wins kept leaking away. I'm hoping for improvement in their third year, but they seem to have traded away one of their top hitters, and their closer (who was pretty good) retired. So lots of uncertainties cloud the Ravens' future as we enter year three.

But you can help me with the league's future. Yes you can!

You can help me by coming up with some funny/bizarre new team names. The only condition is that they must be real cities (not necessarily big cities) in the U.S. or Canada. OK, we can fit England in, too. And Australia, if some of you live there. The team nickname is up to you and your fertile imagination. Risque names are especially encouraged.

I know many of you have great creativity. So exercise your wit and give me some suggestions.

Hey, if I get enough good names, maybe I'll rename one of the minor leagues as the Efx2 Baseball League. A league season, playoffs and everything! Now how cool would that be?

An anniversary took place on Saturday. I noticed it late, on Sunday ... because many of you have been marking your own one-year observances here, too.

Here's how I started out over here--my first efx2 post:

A quick howdy Ironic, isn't it? That on the day I discover ModBlog has risen from the dead, Frankenstein-like, I go off to find a new blog home. Yes, still another ModBlog refugee. I'm not bailing on MB. Not yet anyway. I'll be posting to MB, but I'll also be writing here, too. Whatever I write, you know it will be wordy. Full of words. Some good. Some bad. Some interesting. Others not. All by me. That's what I wanted my MB space to be. That's how it was. But with all the outages lately, I feel like it's time to put many of my blogging eggs--perhaps most of them--into another basket. So that's what this is about.

And it went on another two paragraphs and ended with me observing that I had a few other things I needed to do that night before bed. But the die was cast. It was the process of moving one foot from the dock to the boat: The other one inevitably must follow. By midway through January, I was posting over here almost exclusively. Naturally, MB's increasingly erratic nature encouraged this transition.

But so did the people, the fellow refugees I found over here, some of whom I had met over there, and others who became new friends. The community I feared I was losing with MB's death throes, I found alive and well and blogging like crazy over here. It was very happy news. It's damn hard for me to make good friends, and I didn't really want to have to start the process over again. Luckily, I didn't have to.

I don't write as much as I want. Work and other pursuits have this tendency to eat up the available time. Sometimes when I have the inspiration, I don't have the time. The opposite is often true, too.

This week marks another one-year anniversary, too. It was the week I went off to visit S, while she was living in Ontario. I was there three nights. That was the last time I've seen S--she's back with her husband now--and so I'm feeling a little sad and nostalgic right now. Yeah, I miss her. I'd really love to see her again, even if it's just to sit and talk or share a meal together. We still write each other regularly, and I sometimes send her some of the pictures I've taken. But after being together ... just trading words does leave a little to be desired.

One more thing. When I started my efx2 blog, just as Modblog briefly sprang back to life, I took advantage of the opportunity to make a backup of my Modblog files. Alas, that before my trip to Ontario, so it didn't include the story of my visit to S (posted only to MB). I wish I had that, if only to read it again to refresh my memory. Not to be.

Since then, more things have happened--some good, some bad. Life continues. Who knows what's coming down the road? I sure don't.

But it's nice to have you guys along for the ride. You help keep me sane and help me cope with things that sometimes get the better of me. And that's what I try to do at your places ... share in your joys and sorrows, offer a piece of advice when I can come up with one. Enjoy your jokes. Help you vent ... or exult.

That's my job. That's what I do.