TMI

Happy New Year, everyone! We’ve been having a lot of fun the past several days, which culminated—after a very full day of baking for me yesterday—in a raucous, chaotic, fun New Year’s celebration. Lobo’s cell phone started pinging regularly in the late afternoon our time, with texted New Year’s wishes from friends in Belarus; it continued somewhat as the transition swept this continent, and also bled over into some phone calls. That was a pleasant, fairly sustained addition to the celebratory mood. The snolfs once again had a piñata, filled not with candy but with other treats—coupons from Lobo and me for various goods or services (like taking their turn at dishes), money, and real money (junk-silver quarters)—it resisted the onslaught longer than any of its predecessors, then provided some enormous ersatz party hats once it did succumb to the stick.

So, we had a very nice holiday celebration. Underneath much of it, however, and beginning around Thanksgiving, I’ve felt a current of change beginning within me. Those of you who’ve been around a good while know that I am not in the habit of making new year’s resolutions—my position has always been if change is needed or desired, it should be undertaken then, not left to wait for a “special” turn of some arbitrary time-marker. On the other snakey coil, if one comes up from the bottom of the pool near one of those special dates, delaying changes simply for the sake of avoidance of the date would be just as silly. Thus it is that I’m starting to shed some old, now unhelpful ways today ... consider yourself forewarned: self-indulgent rambling ahead.

Winter is arriving in fine style here, as those of you who read the news and/or follow the weather know. As I mentioned earlier, we got a lot of snow earlier in the week, and yesterday evening, the winds picked up and more snow started flying. It almost feels like I’m back in Wyoming! Except Wyoming doesn’t have the monster evergreens that are everywhere ... nor the green that persists here, even this late in the year.

Well. I must’ve done something right by the weather spirits this year. I have been privately commenting on how much I’ve missed the snow—and as if on cue, the other day we got a decent (for here) accumulation. Amazingly, it’s stayed cold enough for it to mostly hang around. I awoke this morning to cloudy skies and a slightly thicker blanket of snow; and now, the snow is flying thick and fast—enough to compete with any plains or upper midwest snowstorm. The forecast is calling for 3–6 inches today, with a little more possible overnight.

That’s probably the last question y’all would expect from a candy-making snake, and particularly at this time of the year. But it’s for real—I’m thinking about undertaking a fast and would appreciate input from anyone who’s done it before.

Despite all my whining and complaining here, I do have much to be thankful for. There are now eleven of you regular readers, and you along with the conspirators and others grace this place with your contributions to the conversation. Whenever I start feeling overly sorry for myself, either a snolf comes along and cuddles me or a friend drops a note in my inbox, reminding me that I am not bereft of companionship, nor understanding. Yet, as thankful as I am for the wonderful things in my life, this year I would like to set some intentions ... goals that I plan to be thankful for achieving a year or so from now.

I feel an urge to clarify something. It’s probably superfluous after this ramble, but given the response around the web to my comment yesterday, made in an old thread, I want to be as clear as I can be.

It was twelve years ago—not this date, exactly, but this day, if you follow the distinction I’m drawing—that the Liberty Round Table was born.

Relationships are ever-shifting things, and although I think most adults know this it can still come as a surprise when a relationship that was considered steady comes undone.

Part of my recent bout of quietness here stems from various relationships being in a fairly obvious state of flux. Some of those changes are obviously to the good; others aren’t, and a couple others are being deliberately tended, to see how they might grow. An online acquaintance from some years ago has recently popped back into my life, and in so doing has got my brain buzzing with ideas and contexts I’ve not considered much, if at all. A major theme in our explorations is relationships. I expect to say much more on that here as the conversations spool out, but for now I’ll toss out this little thought–grenade: he is, without deliberately trying to (so it appears to me), slowly persuading me that the family metaphor is not the best one for the pro-freedom community. Sorry, Kirsten.

Coffee and chocolate are the key to long life, sez someone besides me. No, seriously—a British scientist is quoted in this report advancing the claim that 20 polyphenol-rich foods are essential to fulfill one’s maximum individual lifespan. Luckily for y’all, I just happen to use several of the delectables on his list in my truffle offerings!

And the punch line—so to speak—is that no one is ever finished when his life ends.

Yes, it is once again time for my annual IntrospectFest, tucked behind the velvet curtain so that no one need see it who isn’t interested.

Things have gotten kind of hairy for me of late, both online and off. The economic news and attendant political idiocies—which I do need to track—have not helped my mood, either. I have several ideas I want to explore here, but nearly all of my energy has been wicked away—hence my absence this week. I have decided to step back from the stressors as much as I can, and regain some perspective before attempting to say anything substantive. Kneading bread and picking blackberries and having some other fun outdoors with Darlin’ Daughter should help recalibrate me.

I’ll be back to blathering my usual schtuff in a couple of days, I expect. Take good care.

Snolf the First’s birthday was the other day, and he requested a coconut cake. I didn’t have one in my repertoire, so I found a good prospect online. The only problem I saw is that it called for a lemon curd between the layers, and I knew Snolf I wouldn’t be too keen on that. Instead, I chose to make pastry cream, and flavor it with a bit of coconut-flavored rum. It wasn’t until I started making the frosting that I realized I had a fundamental compatibility problem.

Lobo’s and Snolf the First’s birthdays are right around the corner, and much of my time of late has gone into trying to prepare for them—especially the latter. To be more clear, Snolf I said he wanted to take a camping trip in my trailer, so I have been trying to get it ready for its maiden journey with us ... but sadly, that won’t be this weekend.

I am finding the ongoing changes in and challenges to my thinking interesting, and sometimes even amusing. To be clear (and repetitive, I know), I have been a science-oriented person as far back as I can remember—wondering about how things work and how to test ideas and wanting proof for everything. I still consider myself a scientist, even though I have not worked in that realm for years ... yet the way some individuals apply scientific theories is problematic for me.

... is two-fold, it appears.