Wonderful World of Soccer Weekend!

 

What a great birthday weekend!  We celebrated by attending a game of our favorite team - Atlanta United.

We used to see one or two games a year using my son Doug's season tickets, but alas, Doug has moved to the Catskills and can no longer attend regularly.

We were able to pick up two great seats in the secondary market.  They were in a section for Delta Sky Miles members.  We had our own food services and restrooms.  We ate a delicious brisket sandwich in a dining area before the game.

We came early, so we could greet the players coming into the stadium.  Alison was near the front and could touch hands with at least a half-dozen players.  She commented good luck to them, as those players did quite well in the game, including Tyler Wolff, who helped score a decisive goal.

Yes, we saw our favorite team win, beating DC United 3 to 1!

I'm not sure if I've ever attended a game where they lost.  They might want us to attend more often!

Also, we met our working boy, Benjamin, for lunch in Macon.  He's only one week in, but he is doing very, very well.  The odds of this turning into a regular job after the internship period are very, very good.

We're proud of our team!

We're proud of our boy!

And I'm happy to have a joyous birthday weekend!

Also:  the topper is my 14-month-old granddaughter sent me some Snickerdoodle cookies (she may have had some help preparing them, but that's just a guess).  They were extra delicious.  And I got to read her a story on my birthday!

Woot!  Woot!

Living the Swinging Life

 The swing is swinging!

Yes, we finally have it up!

Just in time for Alison and Pixie to enjoy a cool Saturday morning (an unexpected 58 degrees!)!

I was lucky enough to see her father come over to put it up on Thursday afternoon and was able to offer a small amount of help in securing it.  So for those who think I'm absolutely worthless at this sort of thing, I was responsible for 3% of the installation efforts.  I can help if carefully directed.

I'm happy to see the swing installed and Alison able to enjoy it.

Just a' Swingin'!

Swing On the Ground

 

This magicked onto our porch yesterday afternoon.

I was home but didn't know this was here until Alison came home.  It must have come in when I was doing God knows what, God knows where.

The dogs dutifully ignored their job and at no time barked to let me know someone was intruding on to our porch.

It may go up today, but that may also occur when I am not looking.

I will keep you updated.

Isn't this exciting stuff?

Getting Ready to Swing

Yesterday, Alison rearranged the deck furniture on our titanic screened-in porch. She did this while I was at play rehearsal.

She was making room for the porch swing she and her father were building.

You read that right. Alison and her father. Not me. I am not building the swing. I don't think there's any demand for me to try.

This is one of the reasons I am not comfortable with strict gender roles and why I have been more open to people being who they are and not what others expect.

For better or worse, I have never been handy or crafty. If Alison or others want me to help with something, and they can direct me to exactly what I need to do, I'll be happy to help. But I have no ability or interest in doing more.

Fortunately, Alison likes these kinds of projects and happily takes the lead.  

Again, anyone who expects the male to do one thing and the female to do the other will be sorely disappointed.  

In the picture above is Cocoa Bear, carefully inspecting the changes to our back porch. I told her about the swing, and she said she would give it a hard pass. Only Boss-A-Man was interested, and that was only if he could be on our laps.

I may use it some. If nothing else, it will give me a different place to sit, so I won't sit in any one place for too long, which I think contributes to my arthritis pains.

I'll be sure to show you pictures when the swing has been installed.

 

Thoughts from a Reflective Monday

 

This is a photo that Alison took on her phone as part of a walking tour that was teaching how to best use a phone camera. I like it.

The building is where the Waycross Journal Herald used to be published. It was a daily paper owned by a far-right extremist, sort of a Fox News amplifier.

That owner sold out, and it is now a weekly (or semi-weekly - I'm not sure. I don't get the paper) that is headquartered in a different building.

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It is Tuesday as I write this, but I am reflecting back on Monday. It was a tough day in that I did a lot of studying for a class I am taking concerning racism in the United States. It can be depressing stuff.

One article clarified how the old feudal system was adapted to fit capitalism and how the elite used division and work ethic philosophy to keep control. How they eliminated the roots of European immigrants and replaced it with a kind of Calvinistic, capitalistic outlook - work was primary, rest and festivity were devilish. 

Another article discussed how we were really 11 countries in one, how distinctive in approach different sections of the country are, and how it makes it difficult to decide things together. Some areas are Yankeedom, the Deep South, Tideland, and more. I was already familiar with this and use it to write my Kingdom short stories. They're on this blog. Check it out.

Another article talks about white fragility. This is a significant problem in this country. Many whites get riled up if anyone brings up racism. This can be seen in all the censorship efforts of our schools to make sure that no teacher is allowed to teach our nation's complex racial history. Nothing burns me up more than this. The same people who make fun of college students and millennials needing "safe spaces" and canceling culture are the same people who want to CANCEL American History!

There's more, including a story about a little girl asking her mother what happened to all the Indians and her mother answering, "They drank too much."  All of our genocidal massacre of Indians summed up as instead being a native American drinking problem. Sometimes this country makes me so sad.

Outside of the class assignments, I also finished the book The Lost Eleven, about a group of black soldiers in WW2. They were left behind during the Battle of the Bulge, only to be eventually found by the Nazis. Instead of taking them prisoner, they tortured and killed them. It took almost fifty years for this incident to be recognized by the military and the American people.

I also watched an episode of one of my favorite TV programs, DC's Legends of Tomorrow. In this episode, the Legends found themselves in 1943, near an aircraft factory staffed mainly by females. They needed parts for their broken time machine, so the female members tried to get jobs there. The two white blondes got jobs on the assembly line, the white brunette became a secretary, and the two that were people of color had to be janitors. As TV is wont to do, the black female Legend, Astra, somehow gained control of the factory, using work orders to make the factory more efficient. Everything was humming along when she decided to issue an integration order for the assembly line. That caused the few males there to quit and almost all the white females to walk off the job rather than work alongside people of color. I know it was fiction, but it was plausible, and it made me sad, along with everything else I was reading. So sad. So very, very sad.

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And then, I saw a poll that showed only a minority of people believed that Trump was responsible for the incitement and insurrection of January 6th. WHHHHHAAATTT?  How is that possible? What the hell kind of bubble do you have to live in to not know that Trump was knee-deep in trying to overturn the election?

Then I see that Fox News will not show this Thursday night's 1/6 Committee hearings, and I know where that blissful ignorance comes from.

I am down on my hands and knees, begging, BEGGING my Trump-leaning friends, please, PLEASE do not miss these hearings.

Sigh.

They're not going to do it, are they?

I try to remain optimistic, but things look dimmer and dimmer for the home pro-democracy team.

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One overwhelming, sad lesson I'm learning from history -

when it appears things may be getting better, and it looks like positive change is taking hold, remember this...

The Empire Always Strikes Back

Hidden Gems Wednesday Wanderings

This is not Teddy, Thurston Howell's teddy bear on Gilligan's Island.  As far as I know, Teddy is still on the island. Thurston remembered to take his white pants and an ascot home, but he left poor old Teddy behind. 

This is Bobby Bear.  He has been a companion of mine for many years.  He wears a leather jacket and sports a Bobby Kennedy for President button. I have many political campaign buttons, but this is the one that Bobby likes to wear because he is a bear of excellent refinement and discernment. 

American history was irrevocably altered by the assassination of Robert Kennedy.  And not in a good way. I'll save more discussion of that for my political posts.

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Yesterday was our 25th wedding anniversary!  Yes, Alison and I have been married for 25 years! She is amazing, and I feel like the luckiest son of a B on the planet!  

We were going to go out last Saturday to St. Simons (where we had our honeymoon), but the rains were constant, and we 1) didn't want to leave alone our increasingly neurotic 13-year-old Cocoa Bear and 2) we didn't want to walk around all day in the rain.

That left us with our intensely romantic anniversary day plans - his and her annual eye exam appointments.

Both of us needed our prescriptions adjusted, so both of us are getting new glasses.  For Alison, she wanted to change up and make a different fashion statement.  Me?  Just get me what I had and git-er-done.

They did say two words to me that got me mildly shook up - EARLY CATARACTS.  Another little hint that I am aging.  The eye doctor indicated that it was pretty common.  Will I need cataract surgery someday?  He thought so.  When will I need it?  He wasn't sure.  Three years from now? Ten years from now?  Who knows?

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The biggest thing I notice in my vision is that I need more light to read by, and driving at night is more of a challenge than it used to be.

Hopefully, not having to read tiny, scribbled numbers and words from a multitude of accounting clients will help ease my eye strain.

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Wait.  Why did I call this Hidden Gems?

Oh, yes.  In addition to the eye exams, we, on impulse, went to St. Simons!  On our anniversary!  Woohoo!  

We debated many of our traditional favorites - The Crab Trap, Barbara Jeans, Tramici.  We felt like Italian but felt like something less fancy than Tramici (it's good, but it likes to stick less common ingredients into their dishes and to downplay the major function of American/Italian food - CHEESE). Finally, we chose a place we had never been to before - Sal's Pizzeria.

Well, even with GPS, it was a buggeraboo to find.  It was on a part of the island we had not been to much, and we circled a block several times to find it hidden in an alley slightly off the back of a street.

It was fantastico!  They believed in large servings (we got plenty left to take home) and in the power of CHEESE. Alison had Lobster Ravioli, and I had Chicken Parmiagana that was floating in a sea of CHEESE.

It was worth the effort to find and a wonderful anniversary dinner.  I can't show you pictures of the meal, because I didn't take any.  Honestly, I never take pictures of my meals to post on social media.  I just don't do that sort of thing.  If you want to do that, that's fine. To each his own.  I don't want to.

Ok. Well.  The truth is I'm eating it before I even think about taking a picture of it.

Wanderingly Yours,

T. M. Strait

Good Cookies!

Our church, Grace Episcopal, recently held a cookie decorating taught by the talented Papani Saini.

Our family participated. It overwhelming shows where the artistic talents lie.

Spoiler Alert:

It is not with me.

Tom's Cookies

I got an A for creativity and a D- for execution.  OK, it'd not do much creativity as I didn't follow the rules.  Patrick was actually supposed to be a kaleidoscope of colors, as you'll see from Alison and Benjamin.  

USA is supposed to be a red state/blue state division based on the 2020 election. So I had a blue dot in Nebraska and a red dot in Maine.  I also tried to show Georgia as a sea of blue in an ocean of red.

Alison's Cookies

Here’s the cookies Alison decorated as part of Grace’s cookie decorating class. She received much higher grades than I did. And deservedly so!

Benjamin's Cookies

 From the cookie decorating class, these are the cookies my son Benjamin done did. You will see these cookies no more. He done et them all.

He did not keep Hope alive.

Tomato Time! Keeping Your Distance 35

You say tomato and I say tomato.

Ok, that looks the same in print.  I guess you'd have to be inside my head (a scary proposition).

Alison was able to pull ripe tomatoes and lettuce from our garden, enough to be the foundations of a delicious salad.

Here's another bunch she got a day or two later.

I know that there are pictures on my social media that show much more spectacular garden results than the ones we're getting.  But to us, it is significant.  Our other gardens produced pretty close to zero, so these results are spectacular by our standards.

We do have plenty more, but there are only ripening at bout two or three a day.  And that is fine by us.  It's the amount that Alison can eat.  Any quicker and we've have to get into canning or something.

Maybe someday we'll need to can some and give away some.  

But we're not there yet.

And that's okay.

The Last Outing: Keeping Your Distance 6

When we knew Benjamin was coming home for his Spring Break, we planned for one day to be an outing to St. Simons.

Little did we know that Benjamin's Spring Break would last two weeks, and then stay at home to learn online.  The earliest he'll have classes again in Milledgeville is mid-August.

We decided to go on our outing anyways but do it as carefully as possible.

We went to Fort Frederica.  It was the first time for all of us.  There was virtually no one there.  A ranger greeted from a distance, was friendly, and pointed to a map we could take on our self-guided tour.

We had wide-open spaces, reading the different signs talking about houses and structures that used to be there, but were now just shell foundations and a little bit of fireplace.

The picture of Alison and me is in front of the only structure that is there, a storehouse/fort near the river.  You may think I'm heavyset, and yes, I am.  But I am 25 pounds lighter than I was two and a half months ago, so I'm working on it.


We also went to a grocery store, Harris Teeter, which is more upscale than grocery stores in our home area.  We kept our distance and bought a few things, some fancy brand chips and snacks, and possibly the most valuable find of all - Kleenex. 

We got one of our favorites, Southern Soul BBQ, standing in a queue where there was some distance between people.  Only three people were let in at a time.

We took our food to a picnic table at the pier.  Of the dozen or so picnic tables, there were only two or three in use, and we weren't close to anyone.  The food - BBQ sandwiches, french fries, and fried green beans, was delicious, but probably not very good for my diet plan.

We walked down the pier, not getting close to anyone.  The weather was beautiful.  There were more people than we expected, but we could still keep our distance. 

Benjamin and Alison stand in the trees near the library (which was closed).

We did not go to the beach.  We saw an area where people go to the beach, and it was crowded with cars.

Later that afternoon, the beaches were officially closed.

Maybe we shouldn't have oughta done this trip.  But we kept our distance, did it in the morning through about 1 PM, and all in all were more distant from people than we were at work or in our own grocery store.

So, we're back settled in at Blackshear, making the dogs think this is the new normal to have everyone home.

Yes, Benjamin is home now for a long stretch.  Alison will be home more, too, as sadly, the school lunch delivery program has been suspended.  We have a case in Pierce County now. 

Me?  The "retired" guy?  No, I'm still going to work. Not all the time - about 25 hours or so a week.  I'm not sure that will stop.

I pray all is well with you and yours. 

Merry Christmas One and All!

Merry Christmas, one and all!

From the Straits

Tom 

Alison & Benjamin

Doug & Paige

The Happy Father, Doug the Groom & Greg the Best Man

Skitty

Cocoa Bear

Ellie

Pixie

Boss-A-Man

Merry Christmas!

Merry Merry Christmas!

From our little family!

Bazaar Weekend Monday Musings

It was a Bazaar Weekend!

Yes, it was our church Bazaar Saturday, with a wide variety of vendors.  There were lots of arts and crafts,  healthy food advice, artists, pet rescue, and somehow I slipped in there too, selling my self-published books.

The crowd was steady and friendly, and I sold four books. It sounds pathetic, but for me, that was actually pretty good. My inventory of books on hand is dwindling, and I may not re-supply until next year.

That's me.  I'm huge.  My belly is practically on the table.

Saturday was our wedding anniversary, and we went out to eat after the bazaar to L.L. Creek 'n' Bean (I may not have the name quite right).  In my latest effort to lose weight, we did split one appetizer, on entree and two sides.  It was a grilled chicken entree, Blackberry Chipolte Chicken, and it was delicious.

The restaurant was crowded with kids from baseball teams (baseball in November?), and some kids were given free reign, with team members and younger siblings raising hell at their own tables, while the adults (adults, coaches, etc.) sat at different tables indulging in adult beverages, ignoring much of the chaos. It was noisy, but we could still hear each other.  For the most part.

We then saw the movie Doctor Sleep, based on the Stephen King book, and is an extension of the story in The Shining, featuring the boy Danny Torrance all grown up, played by Ewan McGregor, who was able to tap into both the Shine and the Force (he played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the second Star Wars trilogy).  It was a long but enjoyable movie.

Sunday was church, and then later, our continued attempts to watch For All Mankind - more on that in a subsequent blog post.

Today I need to leave early (for the new semi-retired me) to continue to learn the church Treasurer function.  Yes, Alison and I volunteered to take that over.  I have sworn to remove myself from accounting as much as I can, with the goal of putting it entirely behind me, but I find it sort of like trying to quit the mob -  every time I try to get out, they pull me back in!

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

Staring Into the Daniel Den

Alison, along with some other church members,  will be starting the Daniel Fast on Labor Day.  This will run until September 21st. I believe.

I think the bible's Daniel did this in the old testament.  How much of it was a deliberate fast, and how much was - well, this is what I got available to eat - I'm not sure?  Obviously, I have not researched the specifics.  I know Daniel went into the Lion's Den - maybe he survived because he smelled too much like vegetables and fruits.  "Hmmm, delicious meat!  Wait!  This smells like broccoli and kale!  Blecch!"

So maybe the fast is to help spare you from lions.  But probably not.

I can't comprehensively tell you what's in the diet or not.  It strikes me as kind of vegan-y.  Nothing from animals, everything plant-based.  The bread must be unleavened and whole-grain - I think that means no biscuits.  And like most modern diets/fasts, anything sweet is the ultimate evil.

Am I going to do this?

Maybe a little.  Alison and I share many meals, and I sure want to cooperate and help her where I can.  Most of the vegetables and fruits sound okay to me.  I like plant-based meat substitutes (except tofu).  I can find whole-grain unleavened things (tortilla chips as an example).  But there is one thing I cannot do without.


Cheese.

I love cheese.  Cheese on most everything.  Can I eat a veggie burger?  Yes!  Can I do it without cheese?  Noooo!

This morning, I'm going to have cheese grits. Can I eat grits without cheese?  No.  No, I can't.

Later, I'll have a Mexican Quesadilla.  Will it have cheese?  You bet it will!  And ketchup - but that's a whole separate thing.

I don't know all the theological themes about why the Daniel Fast exists.  But I'm hoping I can live up to the general spirit without giving up cheese.

Maybe I'll give up cheese for Lent.

Nah, that ain't happening either.

Weekend in Jesup

This weekend featured a trip to Jesup, a town about thirty miles away from us.  It's bigger than Blackshear but similar in size to Waycross.  We go there only rarely.  It's a charming town with a robust downtown, but we don't often have a reason to go there. 

Saturday we had a reason.  The Wayne County Arts Council invited me to present a reading from my books, and being the hamwich that I am, I couldn't resist.

It was a fun, positive experience.  No, it did not have world-beater crowds.  But those who were there seemed to enjoy it, and it was a great variety of local talents, including some extraordinary authors.  I read from Here Comes Tommy and Crowley Stories.  Not to brag, but they were well-received.  If I am unsure of some of my abilities, that uncertainty does not include my ability to read aloud.

I wasn't sure what to read from Crowley Stories.  I practiced the two-page introduction of Crowley Stories and found myself a bit overwhelmed.  Sometimes I reread something I wrote years ago, and I am horrified by the mistakes I find that I had not previously caught, or the reading flow is not as sharp as I expected.

Not so with the introduction of Croley Stories, Good Morning Bright Crowley Sun.  It held up, so much so, it almost took me to my knees, and I had hard keeping my emotions in check while I read it.

One of my decisions not to try agents with Crowley Stories was that this brief intro has a very long run-on sentence at the heart of it.  That was a stupid decision.  Having read it aloud for the first time, to me, it sang beautifully, a hymn as to what's to come in the Crowley Stories.  My inability to promote this excellent book is one of the biggest failures of my life.  That and not moving back to Michigan in 2016 and convince 11,000 Michiganders not to vote for racist Donald Trump.

We also discovered a great new restaurant in Jesup, One Love, with 'island" food, which I believe is Carribean,   Alison had some jerk chicken, and I had island pork with guava BBQ sauce.  The sides were delicious as well, and I had a custom made fruit punch that was out of this world.   Now Alison is busy trying to come up with reasons to go to Jesup!

They have a TV facility at the Wayne County Arts Council, so some of what we did may be on TV there, or even on YouTube.  If I hear more about it, I'll let you know!

2018 in Family

Benjamin

Benjamin begins his Senior Year! 

Academics were a challenge his first semester, with four college-level courses, but he came through it very well!  His grades are good enough to keep him qualified for the Zell Miller Hope Scholarship.  One semester to go!

He was in a musical, The Addams Family, one I am proud to have been in with him.  He got to use his beautiful singing voice, and show off his comedic talents.  We won't talk about the Strait dancing skills, although he was better than his old Dad.

He is a first-rate Dungeon Master and has friends over at least once a week. 

The pictures above show the cast of The Addams Family, and then one of Benjamin as Pugsly with Grandma.  I am hooded in the cast picture, as I had not yet shaved off my hair.  What did I look like bald?  Interesting that you should ask.

Back to Benjamin.

Benjamin had a great year.  He learned to drive and has become the driver of his mother's 2004 Toyota Camry.  He has taken up the martial arts. He is an usher and lector at church and enjoys summer camp at Honey Creek.  He is kind and generous, funny and nerdy, and yes, young ladies, he is single and available.

Alison

She sits on the throne of the Giant Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Because, yes friends, we finally got to take our dream vacation - ten wonderful days in Ireland!

Thanks to my son, Doug, who gave us his sky miles, we were able to afford the most beautiful trip of our lives.  Everything about it was extraordinary, from Dublin to Killarney to Belfast, from the Cliffs of Mohr (pictured above) to Blarney Castle to the walled city of Londonderry.  For those that wish to see more, please search out the blog label Ireland, centered around June 2018.

We were also witness to this special moment, where Doug proposed to Paige, in a site researched and selected by Alison.

Alison also got her first new car in fourteen years, this fantastic Subaru Outback.  It's been hard for the rest of us to get a chance to drive it, she loves it so much.

She had a good year at work, settling in with a new head of Nutrition.  She gets along with everyone and is known as the most helpful person in the office.  Working for a living can be a pain, but I think she makes it more pleasant with her generosity of spirit, and with teamwork and friendship.

Boss-A-Man sez - What about me???  Well, the pets had a great year too!  We had our full squad set for the year, no new additions.  They all have their individual quirks, but they all share one thing in common - they love us, and we love them!

And me?  Trust me, I'll get to more me later, in another blog story.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Strait Family.

Spikey Wednesday Wanderings

Saga of the Returning Hair!

Not enough to comb, but in more solidly than last week, this is the growth after 17 days.

I still wear my hat most of the time, although it's really longer now than a lot of guys. It's not all voluntary.  Some guys have male baldness pattern issues, and even though they may not be completely bald, they keep the rest of it short to balance out.  Others just prefer their hair that short.  I'm not one of those guys.

Also in the background note Boss-A-Man and Pixie, sleeping on our oldest but most comfortable chair in the house.

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I'm not a big fan of the unspoken prayer request, but...I find myself in a situation where I cannot yet be specific.  So, any thoughts, prayers or kindnesses you can send Alison's way would be greatly appreciated.  It's not health or family or personal relationships or even her work, but it is something that is causing her a great deal of stress, caused by something that is unnecessary and purposelessly mean-spirited and cruel.  She is not alone in going through this either.

I hate being vague.  Trust me.  If there was any way I could be more specific, I would.

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I won the second round of my work's March Madness pool.  Thank you, Loyola-Chicago and Michigan.  My choice for the champion is Michigan, OF COURSE!!!  GO BLUE!!!

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Tax season grinds on.  I'm not putting in as much time as in prior years, but I am putting in more than I wanted to.  Breaking up with accounting is hard to do.  Especially when I have demonstrated such poor skill at earning money at doing anything else.

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People can restructure Facebook and other social media to get the news they want, and that reinforces their beliefs.  But I really have to wonder what the Trumpeteers are looking at to think that the President is doing a good job, and that he is a decent and moral person.  It must be getting more and more difficult to only receive positive news about our Mad King.

Of course, it's not just the President that they see in altered reality.  It's the necessity to hate on the young people who are daring to challenge the NRA, and urge us to a few common sense gun control measures.  And it's not enough to hate them as they are.  They have to believe manufactured pictures like Emma Gonzalez being photoshopped to look like she was tearing up the constitution (instead of the shooting target she was tearing up).  Or that some are not really students but crisis actors. Are some people in such a tight bubble that they really believe crap like that?

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Wanderingly yours,

T. m. Strait







 

2017 Year In Review: The Part's That's All About Me!

2017 was a year of change, for myself, my country, and the planet.

For this post, I will focus on family, friends and community.

This has been a great year for acting alongside my son. Benjamin.  Starting with a great turn as Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank (to my role as Mr. Frank), it was followed up in the Fall with our appearance as the Costozuela brothers in the female version of The Odd Couple.  

I have experienced many grand things in the theatre, but nothing quite as special as performing side by side with my son.  He has marvelous acting instincts, and great comedic timing.

But there's more!  Benjamin and I  have both been cast to feature roles in the WACT presentation of The Addams Family!  I will play Uncle Fester and Benjamin Pugsley.

He goes off to college in the Fall of 2019, so I am treasuring as many of these opportunities as I can.

Writing was a mixed bag in 2017.  I did get my book into the local libraries, a long process that took several months.  History of the Trap sales have been small but steady locally, and I only sell ebooks during promotions - on its own it does nothing.  I published my autobiographical short stories in a paperback edition of Here Comes Tommy, to little notice or fanfare.

I completed My Europa, a science fiction story that remains unsold.  I put A Christmas With Pegasus on my blog, and it has received higher than normal page views.  I hope to have en ebook version of it soon.

Crowley Stories: Swamp's Edge remains completed, and I hae done nothing with it, still overwhelmed with Hamletesque indecision as to self-publish or try to get an agent.

I hope 2018 will be a greater time of focus.  In addition to promoting the projects I hae completed, I hope to finish the second volume of History of the Trap, and complete my NanoWriMo project of The Extra Credit Club.

The biggest thing would be to get into a routine of writing at lease some fiction each and every day.  Wish me luck.

Alison had an outstanding year at work, including winning the award for Best Nutrition Staff Support for the WHOLE STATE OF GEORGIA!!!

Soccer became a new THANG in 2017, thanks to my son Doug , and the fantastic inaugural season of Atlanta United!  I saw two games with him, one at Bobby Dodd Stadium (Georgia Tech) and one at the new Mercedes Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta.  Alison and I are both becoming enamored with this great sport!

We took a very special trip this year, to the cities of Vancouver and Portland.  Above is a river view of Vancouver, a wonderful city, filled with diverse and interesting people.  We took a number of walking tours, and got to know its in an honest and refreshing way.

The other city on our trip was Portland.  Yes, Portland is weird...but in a fun, delightful way.  My favorite was this sidewalk sculpture.  I called  it....Pigs With A Blanket!

It was the year to say goodbye to my old office, my man-attic, as Higginson & Paulk movved to a new location.  I had to take down my Wall of Plays, and this was my last camera shot before cleaning it out.

One of the most momentous and important decisions of my life was to step down from full-time accounting and only do it on a part-time basis.  

I am so happy that I prepared carefully and was able to take this step.  I am disappointed that I was not able to plan well enough to retire from accounting altogether.  I hae not developed adequate sources of income to completely replace.  I'll keep working on it, and hopefully something will break through in 2018.

2017 was also the year I got my unofficial "semi-retirement" dog.  Another foster failure, once I got attached to him, I couldn't let him go.  Boss-A-Man is a papillion/chihuahua mix of unknown age, who is as devoted to me as Pixie is to Alison.  I love being able to be home more with Boss-A-Man.

2017 as the year that Benjamin stepped forward even more in his church responsibilities.  He ushers.  He is now a lector, doing a New Testament reading once a month.  He has joined the choir.  

I am proud of my son.  Not only is he a good actor, a bright student, kind and understanding, he is also a faithful and deoted Christian, and an integral member of our parish at Grace Episcopal.

In the midst of the horrors of Trump and watching the nation make one bad decision after another, I am happy to be surrounded by such a happy and loving group of family and friends.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Award Winning Board Night

Rhonda Cooper, Nutrition Department Head presents the State Award for Central office Staff Support to Alison Strait.

Alison showing Benjamin and me her State Award.

I don't normally go to School Board meetings, or any other government meetings.  I probably should, but somehow I don't seem to do it.  The level of dedication to organization and Robert's Rules of Order are plain to see in the professional conduct of the meeting.  It's light years different than the chaos that reigns when I run a writer's guild meeting, which might as well be run by the Marx Brothers.

Benjamin and I had a very special reason to come out to the recent meeting of the Pierce County Board of Education.   One of the people that would be recognized for their service to the system was going to my wife, Alison.  Both Benjamin and I were there to receive her well-deserved honor.

She won the State award for Nutrition Central Office Staff.  And by State, I mean Georgia.  All of it.  The entire state.  From Albany to Augusta, from Resaca to Valdosta, and every point in-between.

The nutrition department head, Rhonda Cooper, gushed about the wonderful work Alison has done, and with the incredibly positive spirit she does it with.  She not only does exemplary work in nutrition accounting, she also steps up and helps others in the office with any tasks they need help with, accounting or otherwise.  She works with nutrition staff in the schools, kindly helping them to do their jobs better, and winning friends and positive alliances along the way.  She is a favorite among administrators, nutrition personnel, teachers and parents.  Not an easy feat to pull off, but she does it, respectfully and compassionately.

School lunchrooms have a reputation, not all of it positive.  It's hard to prepare food that is nutritionally sound and also acceptable to hundreds and hundreds of students with very individual tastes.  But Pierce County is sensitive to that, and have made extraordinary steps to do just that, and to increase it's supply of locally grown items, and to prepare as many recipies as possible in the school cafeteria.

School nutrition departments have as many or more bureaucratic regulations as any part of school, both in how food is prepared and served, and in how the bookkeeping and accounting must be done.  Free and reduced meals are a blessing for many students, but it is also a program that demands a lot of paper work and management.  Both Rhonda and Alison have managed that about as well as anyone in Georgia.

But their work is never done, and it never stays the same.  Legislators and regulators are constantly changing and shifting the rules.  The current administrations, both in Atlanta and D.C., are particularly active in making changes.  Food standards, who can or cannot get a free or reduced meal, what funding will be available, all this and more may be changing a great deal in the near future.

Whatever changes come, I can promise you this.  Alison and the entire nutrition staff will be dedicated to serving students with the very best meals that they can, at the most economical cost that they can.

Benjamin and I are very proud of Alison and her achievements. Now the whole community is more aware of what we already knew - she is a very special and wonderful person.