morrowlife

Here’s Baymax sitting with me and getting a bit of rest. He’s been unusually interested in sitting right up close to me lately. His normal pattern is to hang out nearby but not touch anybody. Not the last couple of days, though. I kind of like it. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Las Vegas and Pet series.

Lots of new stuff. But first, happy 38th anniversary to Shannon and me. I still love you. I still miss you.

It’s interesting to me that I can be so happy and yet still feel this frequent longing about which I can do nothing. Joanne has told me she’s making an effort to keep the happy memories and good feelings alive and discard the things that make her sad. That’s a good idea, I think, and I’m trying to do the same thing with some success. There’s not much negative to let go of other than the hard parts of Shannon’s illness during our last year together. And even that was such a love-filled year that I’m having a hard time wanting to ignore it. Lots of suffering, but lots of love.

We had a nice, quiet Christmas. Gave a few gifts, received a few gifts.  Are a bunch of delicious food. Had Paul and Melissa over a couple times. We enjoyed the whole season. Now the tree is down and all the decorations are put away. We’re getting ready for a nice New Year’s Eve party with friends and then we focus on 2017.

Joanne’s job is ending on January 3rd, sadly. The executive she serves has decided to leave the company and she’s not being replaced. So Joanne’s job no longer exists. She’s busily searching for her next place. It’s a hard time of year for a job search and it’s not going as quickly as it ought to. We’re both hoping that changes in January.

She hasn’t needed to be in the office much the past couple of weeks. I’m enjoying having her at home a lot more. We’re cooking more and just spending a lot of time together. It’s been like a vacation and I’ll be sorry to see it end. But I’m sure she’ll be happy to see her paychecks continue, so she needs to work. Poor Joanne.

Mark was a bit worried about how his semester was going to turn out this fall. He had a couple of classes that turned out to be quite frustrating. Shortly before Christmas, the semester ended and he learned that he did well in every class. Great job, Mark!

Nothing else I need to cover today, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: lettuce attack!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s Baymax helping me fold my clothes this afternoon. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPad-cam, taken at home today, and part of my famous Las Vegas and Pet series.

Not a lot new here. I’ve gotten newly reinvigorated regarding a couple of things lately and have been fairly busy doing them. What are these things, you ask? I hear your plea.

First, work. I’ve started working on Photodoc again. I must confess that I’ve been less than excited about it for quite a while, but I feel a new enthusiasm now. We’ve scheduled an online training seminar to start in early December and we’ll see whether that works. Let’s hope so!

I’m also ready to start working on iOS apps again. Morse Trainer definitely needs to be updated. I’m thinking seriously about making a premium version or maybe the ability to upgrade via in-app purchase. It’s been pretty popular and there just might be a way to monetize it. First off, though: getting it back into the store! It got kicked out because it hasn’t been updated in a while. Must fix that right away!

I’m also starting to do a bit of thinking about an Apple TV app and something for the watch. Might as well, assuming I can think of something interesting.

Second, cooking/baking. I’ve finally gotten sick of eating out extremely often and heating up frozen things on the rare nights we don’t bring something in or eat out. I’m working on menu planning, side dishes, and getting everything to hit the table at the same time. And then I can think about becoming a really good cook. There’s plenty of room for improvement and I hope to do that.

In the last few days, I’ve baked a loaf of raisin bread and a lemon bundt cake. Baked the cake today, so I have no idea how it tastes. The bread was done during the weekend and I think it was delicious! There’s still a bit left; I hope to finish it before it goes bad. In any case, I’m planning to bake another loaf within the next day or two.

I haven’t flown in a couple of weeks. I’m planning to go tomorrow. The weather should be good for lift. Wish me luck for a long flight, Loyal Readers!

And I’ll end with this shocking food violence news: massive corndog spill!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s Baymax hitching a ride on Mark’s backpack. Mark can’t seem to keep the cat off of his shoulders these days. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in our living room the other day, and part of my famous Las Vegas and Pet series.

Wow. It has been a LOOOOOONG time since I wrote here. Way too many things have happened to discuss them all. We’ve traveled quite a bit, we’ve lived our lives, we’ve been happy, we’ve been sad, and we’ve been busy. I wish I had a lot more to say about it, but I don’t. I hope to not let this much grass grow under my blog feet again. I had never missed an entire month before now, even though I needed to use the Wonders of WordPress from time to time. I’m not doing that this time. No posts for March through October 2016. Deal with it, Loyal Readers.

If there are any Loyal Readers left, which I doubt. That’s okay. This is just supposed to be a chronicle of my life. Which it is. Sort of.

Thanksgiving is coming up. Andy and JaNell are coming for a few days beforehand and then going on to visit Katy and Cliff the day before the holiday. That’s the day Joanne, Mark, and I leave for Michigan. While A & J are here, we’re having a pseudo Thanksgiving dinner the prior Sunday. I’m looking forward to that visit and to seeing my sisters, my brother Tony, and my dad in Michigan.

Nothing more for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: azalea-trampling water buffalo!

See you on Monday.

Here’s the Loyal Pet standing guard over our Christmas tree this year. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken on December 30, 2015, and part of my famous Event, Las Vegas and Pet series.

Note my new famous Pet series. I think it was time.

Wonders of WordPress once again. After this post, I’ll be caught back up. Of course, I still need to post for January IN January. But that might happen.

First, a quick recap of our travels.

On December 9-10, I went by myself to Los Angeles to attend an Apple tech talk about the new Apple TV. There was lots of information on the device’s capabilities and how to access them programatically. I’m pretty enthusiastic about it and currently looking for a Killer Idea. I’ll let you know if/when something comes to mind.

On December 18-22, we went to Windsor, California to visit Joanne’s kids and mine. Paul and Mark went with us, which was great! Sadly, Melissa had to work (WORK!), so she couldn’t come. Kristina spent most of that time with us, as did Katy and Cliff (Mia was away with her dad). We saw Ryan only briefly, but it was a very nice visit. All in all, a nice time was had by all.

Before we got home on the 22nd, Andy and JaNell arrived in Las Vegas for Christmas! Actually, Andy came alone; JaNell was supposed to go to southwestern Colorado to spend the holiday with her mom. However, the weather there got ugly and plans had to be canceled. We were able to get her a ticket and she flew to Vegas and spend the holiday weekend here. It was great!

In the meantime, Katy and Clifford left us in Windsor to go to Los Angeles for something (I can’t remember right now exactly what it was), and then they drove over to Las Vegas to spend Christmas with us! So we saw them twice in two locations in one week. Amazing!

We had a great Christmas with all of my kids and their partners. Then, to top it off, Mia’s other grandparents dropped her off here the day after Christmas. She was only with us for a couple hours, but we loved it. She gets more fun every time I see her.

I’m so, so glad everybody was here. Thank you, Loyal Family!

Andy and JaNell went home on the 27th and Christmas was over.

On December 31-January 3, we went to Ontario, California with members of the Porsche club. We had a great time! Because of an early morning departure on New Year’s Day (and possibly the average age of the group, of which I think we were some of the younger members), we celebrated the New Year on Eastern time and went to bed. That worked for me. Of course, this post only covers what happened through the 31st, but I can predict that we went on an amazingly fun drive in the Los Angeles canyons on New Year’s Day, another fun drive to Big Bear on the 2nd, and came home mid-day on Sunday the 3rd. I further predict that I got sick on Saturday afternoon with something that was going around the group all weekend and had a pretty miserable time of things for a few days. I’m glad not to have missed any of the group events, though. Feeling fine as this is written.

Now to a topic that has been much on my mind lately. To wit: has Facebook taken the place of the Morrowlife blog? I find myself posting less and less frequently here and more and more frequently there. I’ve been reading for quite some time that blogs are dead, particularly as the term refers to personal journal-style writing. I’ve resisted that trend, especially during the days when this space served a much-needed cathartic purpose during the days before and -especially- after Shannon’s death. But now I need to decide whether this should continue. So a few thoughts:

• Will Facebook be a lasting journaling platform?
• If not, will I want to follow the crowd to the next thing?
• One of Facebook’s strengths is that it lends itself to immediate, short-form writing. I’ve been using it as kind of a travelogue and an outlet for humorous musings. Is that the direction I really want to take with my personal writing? In other words, does this blog serve a purpose that Facebook really doesn’t? Is Facebook good enough to keep a record of what I’m doing, where I’m going, and who I’m with? Are those the most important things to capture?
• The Morrowlife blog demands that I sit down and think about what I want to say. That’s also a strength because I think it leads to higher-quality thoughts (stop laughing! You know who you are!). That has been worthwhile to me. But there’s definitely a valid place for quickly-written here-I-am things.
• Do I have enough bandwidth to do both? Admittedly, Facebook doesn’t really take any effort, but my presence there seems to make posting here even more difficult.
• Tell me what to do, Loyal Readers!

Brilliant thoughts, each one.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: dog-impersonating bear!

See you on Monday.