About time, right?

I've taken a break from blogging in the past. Nothing like this, of course.

But Monday was my birthday (No. 63. Thank you very much!) and nearly the end of the year, so I thought I should give you an update.

It just got too busy. I'm writing too many people, trying to do too many things. Something had to give. Posting to the blog drew the short straw.

I came to the conclusion that I was merely entertaining myself. I have a few good bloggy friends who read it, but if you count them on one hand, you'd still have several fingers left over.

I have never warmed up to Facebook. I go there from time to time to see what everybody else is writing about, but I keep my thoughts and wisecracks to myself. OK, Zuckerman didn't make a mint with his stock offering after all.

I enjoy Twitter more. Despite the amazing quantity of verbosity my blog posts can provide, I find the world of 140-character updates more appealing. And I still find it kind of pathetic that people--not to mention companies and corporations--are pleading for others to "like" them.

That's definitely not my style. My attitude has always been: "I am what I am. If you like me, fine. If you don't, move on and find something else to read." Thus, I am "an acquired taste."

Since I haven't written for so long, I feel obliged to give you an update on the cast of characters:

Me: I'm doing fine. But I have been feeling tired and weary lately. I'll explain later.

My wife: She is fine. We are planning a visit to her sisters around New Year's, assuming the winter weather isn't too bad. Either one or two nights away.

My younger son: He is fine. He came over for Christmas Day, when we feasted on sliced ham, scalloped potatoes and watched DVDs together.

My older son and his wife: (My account of their wedding was my last blog post, in early May.) They are both fine. They drove up from Detroit to visit us a week before Christmas, since that's when they could get away. They came here Saturday and left Tuesday morning. Nice having them around for a couple days. Sad that they had to leave so soon. But they are happy together, and that's all that matters.

As for my friends known by their initials:

--S and her friend T are doing OK. It's always touch-and-go with them financially, but things are moving positively. Last visited them in early August.

--B is immersed in her poly life in Alaska. Both she and her husband have friends here and there. They moved from one city to another early in 2012, and her latest letter said they just sold their old house, which is a big load off their minds. They went to Hawaii in November and are in Florida over the holidays. Haven't seen her since 2009.

--N was temporarily in Illinois but will be back home in northern Wisconsin late this week. Last saw her in September.

--M is at her home near Los Angeles. During the past year, she has cut back on work from five days a week to three days. Her choice, since she is (I think) 67. She also had bariatric surgery this fall. She is involved in a vocal group, and I recently sent her a CD I made of a vocal group from northern Wisconsin that my wife and I have seen several times--it was their holiday concert from November. High quality music, many vocal parts. M and I started writing in March. We have never met, and there are no plans to at present. Just pen pals in this internet era.

--K is at her home in northern Wisconsin. We had many adventures over the past year, too many to even start telling you about. Our last visit was just a week or so ago when the four of us (me, my wife, her and her guy) went to dinner and then saw "Lincoln" together. It was a movie we all badly wanted to see but few cinemas up this way are showing. Finally, everything came together: A theater in her city was showing it, and both she and I had the night off.

I don't want to give away the plot. ;) But late in the film, there's a scene where Lincoln and General Grant are talking on a porch--it's days before the end of the war, and they were going to meet with a delegation from the Confederate government about ending the war. In the scene, Grant tells Lincoln how much he has aged over the last few years--how tired/weary he looks.

I felt the tears building up and spilling out. I really related to that. At my job, we have had some changes recently. They told me in October that the editor was going to be out for a while--she had an operation for ovarian cancer, and if you don't know, that's a bad one. At the same time, our part-time writer left to take another job. And we only had three writers, including me. So it has been stressful.

We have added a new editor--a guy who used to live here and who has worked at papers. He's good, but it has taken a while for him to get up to speed with learning the computer equipment and programs we use. So it's just him and me now in the news department. We're hoping the old editor can get well enough to come back part-time. Time will tell.

So it has been sad at work lately. I don't say it has made me depressed, because that suggests something that isn't true. If that isn't bad enough, the National Hockey League may not have a season this year (labor pains), and I love to watch hockey. And finally, K and I have had a very hard time finding time to spend together lately, especially since the holiday shopping rush began, because we're both working full-time. It should be better in January.

I think a lot about one of the apps on my smartphone. It's a timer app with a countdown. I made one countdown with the title "When I'm 66!" When I started it, the number was in the high 1,400s. Now the big number is just under 1,100 ... and counting.