26 March 2026

Hard Weeks

Over the past few weeks, I've been slowly packing up the bulk of Marcia's remaining clothing, fabric and crafting supplies - I've given away as much as I could to friends and family.

The clothing went to Good Will. Marcia's friend Brenda tracked down info for me on the local Salvation Army for their annual fabric/sewing/crafting auction - I donated the balance of the fabric and crafting stuff to them.

This work has been ... painful. But I've no need to keep all this stuff, and it'll go to people who can use it, so that's good. There's more clean up still to do, but I've made big progress on that front.

However, I've still got qualms about being out, about, and even mildly social. The local lake association that I'm a member of had a gathering at a local cider pub last Friday. I got there, walked out of the parking lot and into a room full of people I didn't know, and realized I am still suffering from the "Marcia's not here anymore" part of life. I decided I didn't need to cope with that in public just yet, so I turned about, got in the car and came back home. Better call than the nausea and/or sob reaction I was approaching. It'll get easier with time, I'm told. So I didn't go on Saturday to the local library gathering, either. Wish me luck.

Bitter Ruin

No, it's okay. Not me. Bitter Ruin, the band. (I may be occasionally bitter, and feel a bit ruined from time to time, but... meh) You can find their site at https://bitterruinofficial.com/. I've been listening to Ben and Georgia for better than a decade, and today hunted up their latest album, Arches & Enemies (2025), and gave it a first-to-last track listen. I like it very much. Highly recommended. My gateway for them was their 2011 hit, Trust. Check out the music video for that one - powerful.

Weather

So, nearly a full week into Spring. It is warming up, a bit. But we're back down in the teens (F) overnight this weekend, and there's snow in next weekend's forecast, so someone put that groundhog in PA out of my misery, eh?