Friends ⁽³³⁾

Brian Bilbrey May 23, 2021

23 May 2021

Well, it's been nearly two months since we last chatted, sorry for the inconvenience (as the Creator said to his Creation (in the fifth (I think) book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy)). A fair bit has happened in the interim. I have four ladders. This is a story about the fourth ladder. A couple of weeks ago, I was putting some items up in the garage attic. Two or three trips up and down the ladder. All done, I came down the ladder and it failed on me as I reached the third step. The wood broke…

Brian Bilbrey June 28, 2020

28 June 2020

We hope that all of you are keeping well and in reasonable health. Yes, yes, it's been a month. Sorry to those of you who worry. We're all okay here. And for a couple of weeks, we were okay up in Maine, too! Three days before we left for Maine, we learned that they had updated the rules for out-of-state visitors. If we could show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of arriving in Maine, we could forego the otherwise mandatory two week strict quarantine. We found a clinic, got a test each, and on Friday…

Brian Bilbrey March 30, 2020

30 March 2020

As such things go these days, that's not a bad combination. I'm one of about three people going into my office for a few hours one day a week, to manage one part of our "essential" business that requires physical presence. I'm trying to keep the grocery runs to once every two weeks if I can manage it. Just about the time the weather gets nice enough that Marcia could consider going fishing, at least, the stay home order drops. A pretty good thing, frankly, but it's hard for her, I know. The extended family is, to the best of…

Brian Bilbrey December 22, 2019

22 December 2019

We find ourselves a day into Winter, thus Beginnings. We've had mornings in the teens (Fahrenheit) fairly often for the last couple of weeks, so sliding formally into Winter seems the merest formality. More fun, we had guests up from Atlanta, and, well, it's properly cold here, for them. But they're driving further north, more power to them. It was a joy to have some time with Jen and Chris, though. And Lexi got lots of attention from them, too. Linda was over for supper, too. We enjoyed a properly garlic-y chicken supper, a holiday film from Mel Brooks, and…

Brian Bilbrey November 11, 2019

11 November 2019

The women and men who put themselves in harm's way on our behalf get precious little of the respect and care that we should give them each day. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. Some things change slowly, some so fast one hardly notices the thing itself as the blur as it goes by. A person I work with is moving on, after a lunatic number of years (by today's standards), and I'm going to miss them a lot. No blur here, but a lot of individual moments that together are a big part of the most…