So dear can be as thou to me, my fair, my lovely charmer

I'm back and probably writing to the void. That is ok.

Veronica and I moved up to Maine a few years ago. We are still deeply in love. Everyday with her is a gift. Our town is small, quiet, and peaceful. We have a whole house to ourselves with our three cats. Exactly what we wanted. To the extent that we crave the city experience, we head down to Portland, where we hit up Whole Foods or Trader Joes, have a nice meal somewhere, and visit our favorite record store. Unlike Boston, Portland is easy enough to navigate and the glorious ocean is omnipresent. I've only been back to Somerville once. In late winter of this year I went there to attend my friend Erica's birthday party. It was fine being back, but it felt a bit claustrophobic. I'm now used to open spaces. I had originally intended to stop by our old apartment but we just had learned that our landlord, Rick, had passed away and it might have been depressing so I tossed that idea. I was eager to get back to Maine. I hardly ever think about Somerville. The past is history, a dream.

Anyway....

That is enough for today. Perhaps I'll return here sooner than later. Or maybe not at all. Time will tell. 

It's been a long, long, long time

Well, it appears I've been away a while. Doubtful anyone who used to read this blog will see this, but who knows? Every once in a while I pull up the site and read some old entries. Man, a lot of it is depressing but in the midst of it all I see a stubborn tenacity to get through the shit times. I find myself rooting for past me ("Hang in there, buddy!). 

Obviously, a lot has happened since my last post five years ago. I am still happily married and it still feels like we're in the so-called honeymoon period. We have three cats: Nadja, Tomasin, & Kikuchiyo. Last year around this time, our cat Tasmin passed away way too young. It was an awful experience but we didn't wait too long until we got Nadja, who is eerily like Tasmin in a multitude of ways (What do you expect when you get another tortie?) and Veronica's feline soul mate. 

I'm still working at the same job, albeit remotely for the most part (one of the only good things that came out of the covid nightmare), and living at the same place. We plan on exiting the city and moving up to Maine, hopefully in the spring. I've been here far too long - most people I knew that lived here have moved on - and leaving is more of a necessity than a desire. So much of the world has turned ugly and this place, while it still has its charms, is no different. We'll be happier in a quieter environment. It's fucking noisy here almost constantly. 

Ok, I'm off. Maybe for my own amusement, I'll continue to post here and there despite knowing I will have zero readers other than the weird bots fill the comment section. And hey, if you're a loyal reader that has continued to check for new posts or have been alerted to this post, let me know. 

Peace

Didn't time seem so sweet yesterday

Well, it's been a few months since my last post. I am among the living! Guess I needed a break. To those of you who've been checking in and wondering why there haven't been any posts, all I can say is that things are always changing even when it doesn't seem like it. I've had other things occupying my attention and the blog took a back seat.

No way I'm going to attempt to recap everything that's gone on since my last post; that would be an undertaking I'm not equipped to tackle presently.

Anyway

Mona is here for the weekend. She's down from Canada taking Ayurveda classes with Veronica. This is her third or fourth time staying with us. She's a good presence to have in the house. The kittens love her and she's V's best friend besides yours truly. And I'm fond of her, too.

Ever since my cardiac event over the summer that left me with three stents in my heart, my life has been a bit different. I'm a little over a month out from my last procedure, which was to have two more stents put in and, while I've been feeling more and more like my old self, I'm still recovering in more ways than just physical.

I've been feeling out of touch with friends and family. It's been tricky finding the time or the inclination to tend the social garden. A good part of that has to do with the heart attack and how it narrowed my life down to pretty much just me and Veronica. When all of this happened at the retreat in Rockport at the end of June, I certainly wasn't expecting how much it would change my life. Still, I say that and it also can be said that I'm still myself in a fundamental way. But what do I know?

Time to go to bed. V and Mona hit the hay early. They have long classes and are out the door early in the morning. I might read from Jacques Vallee's Invisible College or the book on Jimmy Saville. We'll see.

Aloha.

Fear is your only guide on the radio

Another lengthy gap between posts. It's alright; I'm not sure there are many of  you left out there checking in to this blog. I haven't the heart to put it to sleep, so to speak, so I'll keep it going. It's not that I don't have anything to write about, it's just that I haven't had the time or the inclination to put pen to paper. I've said this before in past posts. I'm sure of it.

Anyway

Veronica has been reading from this blog. She started at the beginning. I don't know what year she's on now, but I've been okay with it, despite my fears to the contrary. It's a good way for her to fill in the blanks with a number of the years before we met. So far she hasn't encountered anything to warrant a divorce (as far as I know). We'll see how things pan out.

We have two new additions to our family: Tasmine and Tomasin, sister kittens and cute as can be. We'd been talking about getting a kitten but these girls came as a bonded pair, so it was both or neither. When V showed me pics of them, I had to think of it for a bit, but it made sense to me we should try to adopt them. V got right on it and within a week our household became a bit more crowded and quite a bit more active.

We've been using V's office as  a nursery for them until they're old enough to be left out at night unsupervised (Tasmine's agenda is to investigate any situation that will result in mischief; Tomasin is sweet and responsible but still a kitten and not entirely trustworthy). This is as close as I'll get to parenthood, raising three cats. Kikuchiyo has been a good older brother but he's bigger than them and can get rough with them when they play. Another reason for the nursery.

V and I were pretty beat this morning and there was mild dread around taking a Krav Maga class this morning, but we got ourselves there and made it through. It was an intense class. Lots of kicking and punching drills, no let up. A lot of sweat. Yankel, who taught today, ended the class with gun disarming drill. A number of people were going to play paintball later in the day but V and I declined so we could do some chores at home. We would have liked to have gone; not only do we enjoy the classes themselves, but we've been meeting some great people.

We leave for Puerto Rico in a few days. I haven't been on a vacation like this in years and years. My inlaws have a place in San Juan they've been renting for years and invited us to come visit. We'll probably meet up with my cousin, Brian, who lives there in his capacity as an FBI agent (nice gig).

Alright, I'm out of here, children.

Peace

The Year of The Cat

A quick update to this neglected, lonely blog. Sorry, folks, it's just what happens. Married life suits me well and it takes priority over things in my life I used to have more time for. So it goes.

Well, let's see....

I've had a rib injury (probably dislocated, maybe broken - who knows) for a week and I'm just now starting to feel the effects of healing. The injury was the result of our Krav Maga instructor, Alli, demonstrating a move that entailed placing his knee on my chest as I lay there. He exerted a bit more pressure than I think he intended to and pop goes the rib. It's okay, he's a real nice guy and I know he didn't mean it. Still, Veronica had moments afterward in which she felt the urge to give him a tongue lashing. She likes him, too, though, and never followed through. Good, because he felt pretty bad about the situation.

We started taking Krav Maga a few weeks ago. It is intense and we love it. And we dread it, too, but that's to be expected. We're learning how to defend ourselves and those in need. Krav Maga is brutal and swift and incorporates various martial arts. If we find ourselves in a tough situation, we'll be ready to handle ourselves in such a way that makes it so that our opponent(s) will regret their decision to mess with us. We're still green, though; we've got a while to go before we reach bad-assery.

Christmas looms. We'll be spending Christmas eve and early Christmas morning in Portsmouth with the inlaws and then go to my grandmothers and then go to my mom's house. It will be a long day and our little kitty, Kikuchiyo, will be all by his lonesome. We've got someone coming by to feed him and give him a little TLC while we're gone, but we still feel like bad parents leaving him like that.

V and I had our little Christmas last weekend. Our new 40" TV and blu-ray player arrived on Thursday and so did a few Christmas dvds we ordered. We didn't get to them all but we will at some point. We stayed in all weekend - I had to on account of the fact I could barely move - and ate good food and enjoyed each other's company. She's the love of my life and my best friend.

Alright, I've got to split. More soon, I hope.

Eternally returning

I started writing about the political climate but there's little refuge from it. Why should I let it leak into this blog? As of right now, I declare this blog to be a haven from the ubiquitous buzz of civil unrest. It's entirely possible I'll change my mind in a future post, but such is the nature of my whims.

Moving on.

I forgot to take my contacts out. I'm typing in a semi-dark room lit only by my screen and a salt lamp on my bedside table. Veronica is asleep in our bed and Kikuchiyo is laying down on my side at its foot. I really don't want to go downstairs again but I'll have to. Not such a big problem, I know, but it's problem enough to turning my thoughts towards a prickly outcome. Ah, it will only take a minute or two, not a big deal. I guess.

Anyway

Short week. Tomorrow I'll head into the office for the last time this week. Thanksgiving is upon us. And so is Veronica's birthday, which falls on Black Friday, something she's thrilled about. Not for shopping reasons but because the color black is her best friend. You won't find another color other than gray in her wardrobe. We're going to have a few days of uninterrupted time together, something we're both desiring pretty strongly. Among other birthday related things, like going out to eat, we plan on watching a movie called Things I've been dying to see. It's basically one of the best worst movies ever, according to my sources and my eyes, which have seen enough clips from it to feel pretty confident it will be a worthwhile viewing. The dvd only cost approximately ten bucks so if it's shit, well, I've payed more for a crappy burger.

It's time for me to go back downstairs and take out my contacts. If I'm not back before the holiday, I hope yours is a special one.

Gobble gobble

People Vultures God Approaches

A few months back, my doctor advised me to change my diet to mostly vegan and incorporate a daily aerobic routine into my life. This was because my blood pressure and cholesterol levels were too high. Bummer news, but not surprising. I had hoped, because of my (mostly) healthy lifestyle, that these family health traits would have not appeared so prominently. Not so lucky: sometimes you can't escape your genes. Nothing is static, however.

So, consequently I've been getting up earlier every morning and hitting the bike path for about a half hour of interval running (walk real fast, all out sprint, walk real fast, all out sprint....). This wasn't such an easy transition to make, particularly because it's a bit of a shock to the system to be sleepy and snuggly under the covers one minute and outside busting ass not so many minutes later. I have, however, come to cherish the routine. It's a great way to start the day and my mind and body are energized by the time I get in the car to leave for work in the morning. Gone are the days of groggy, foggy commutes.

While I'm reaping the benefits of my modified lifestyle, it was discouraging at the beginning knowing that whatever I had been doing health-wise was not nearly enough for me to be healthy. Even though I was an avid yoga practitioner and ate pretty well, I was still too heavy - 30 lbs too heavy - according to my doctor. Losing thirty pounds might be tough because it will take me below the ideal weight for my body type, but it's where I need to be to maintain healthy levels of cholesterol and blood pressure. I've been up for the challenge so far.
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V and I are planning on learning Krav Maga, the brutal but swift and effective Israeli self defense system. We've been scouting locations and hopefully will begin taking classes soon. I've always wanted to learn this style of self defense and, without being too alarmist, it seems to me it will be more essential than ever in our emerging divisive, powder-keg cultural climate to know how to protect yourself . V already has combat training under her belt (in addition to a carefully placed knife she keeps on her person) but her skills have grown rusty with the passing of years. I know we'll both feel better knowing our mate is well equipped to get out of trouble if the need arises. I'm looking forward to it and, if for nothing else, we'll get some good workouts. I hear the classes are pretty intense.

Ok, I'm out of here. The weekend approaches. Other than a brunch we're attending on Sunday that Emilie from Borealis Yoga is having at Daddy Jones for her employees and significant others, we're planning on laying low and getting some quality time together. Because of our work schedules this week, we've been like two smoking hot ships passing sexily in the night.

Or something like that.

Peace!