It’s been a while.  Almost a year, in fact.  I miss writing and I miss this place – a LOT – and so, as Samwise Gamgee once said, “Well, I’m back.”

This feels like returning to your summer cabin after a year away – you locked it up tight when you left the summer before, but when you arrive and look around, you see the cobwebs up in the corner of the ceiling, a couple of dead bugs on the windowsill, and a fine layer of dust over everything from lack of use and movement.

A lot has happened in the last year, and I can never dive back into the action on this blog  until I’ve caught up with myself here.  So this is me sweeping the cobwebs from the ceiling, tossing the dead bugs in the trash, and removing the dust cloths from the furniture.

Aside from a Dawg Comic sometime last summer, the last thing I ever wrote was for mom, when she departed.  After that, I found myself having a hysterectomy in August, which was incredibly necessary but was also a really huge change.  And while I was recovering from that, we found out that our apartment could be sold out from under us at Any Minute and despite that meaning it could happen next month or next year, we decided to go ahead and start looking for a house.  That was last September.

We found one of those fairly straight away – this place that had been listed since last March but hadn’t sold through several (I think) awesome twists of fate and also probably because when I first saw it online I proclaimed outloudly that “no one was allowed to buy this house, until I’M ready to buy a house.”

And so we bought it.  And awesome dad along with our wonderful friends helped us move in.  That was last October.

Then cue the mad dash to get everything unpacked and settled in.  We didn’t want to waste time living among boxes and drawing it out.  Rather, we preferred the notion of just Getting On With It and enjoying the space.  So we busted all it out.

For the most part, all of that was finished by the time we had our first Thanksgiving here.  And then our first Christmas.

Next thing I knew it was 2018 and we were having a housewarming party and then suddenly it was Mardi Gras time.  We marched in the Rex parade on Mardi Gras day, which was incredible.

And then it was J’s birthday in March.  And St. Patricks Day.  And a couple of trips in April to check out a new Medieval Festival in Alabama, and then off to Sherwood in Texas.

We hosted J’s mom and brother for a visit; we hosted friends from CO for a visit.

And then, suddenly, it was Mother’s Day and a picnic by mom’s river, the Tchefuncte.  And a couple of days from now, it will be the one-year anniversary of her passing into her next great adventure.  The “year of firsts” without her has not been easy, not by a long shot.  But J and me and dad have each other, and I think she’s been pleased with our own adventures together.  I also think she’s poking me with her spiritual walking stick and telling me she’s tired of seeing me sad.  So, I think I’ll heed her advice and work on that.  It’s time to honor her by enjoying the world again, fully.

Anyway, here we are.

Halfway through 2018, and one year since I wrote anything here.  It’s been a whirlwind.  Often fun.  Frequently stressful.  A lot of laughs, a good chunk of sads.  I think I’m STILL processing 2017: The Year of a Billion Changes That Kind of Happened Too Fast.

So I’ll finish the sweeping and maybe dust the end tables.  And I’ll raise a glass to mom, and smile this time instead of crying.  And then I’ll practice not letting my heart feel so heavy, and go wrassle up a bunch of stuff to write about.

It’s time to Follow my Crazy again.