I received a friendly reminder about a year ago that my subscription for this domain was being renewed.

Surprised?  Me neither.

I, like many other folks, have a bad habit of forgetting to stop subscriptions. In this case it isn’t all that bad a thing … the past several months have proven a great time to return.

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So, for an update in the life of the author. 

While I’ve been away for about a while, the past two and a half years have been a long decade. 

Two years ago we had a kid in 3^rd grade, another in 1^st, and I thought we were about to renew a lease on an apartment, when my better half insisted, “No we’re not!  We’ve been here too long, we’re buying a house!”

Since that point the following occurred:

• We closed on that house which happens to be 20 miles further away from work,
• Moved into said house
• We bought two new cars
• Our kids started in their new school
• Had a nasty split with a close family member
  • Got sued by said family member
  • That family member finally dropped the suit
  • Hopefully things have calmed down
• My vertigo flared nicely (insert sarcasm here)
  • Got serious about looking for cures to said vertigo from any doctor who would listen
• Started looking into other ways to get to work besides driving
  • For some reason driving and vertigo don’t mix
  • Settled into taking the Virginia Rail Express (VRE) to work as my primary source of work-related transportation
  • I learned that VRE and Amtrak both stop regularly in Manassas
  • Amtrak is now another way to commute into work along with VRE and the Prince William County bus lines
• The boys got interested in soccer
  • I was “encouraged” to coach their soccer team
  • Our oldest has become quite the player
• Our boys also played football
  • This proved to be a great thing for them
• Our boys are now playing the French Horn and
• We got a dog
• Dad complained because he claims he never sees the kids
  • Dad balked when I told him the phone works both ways
• Dad had a significant surgery on his back
  • He told me it was an option
  • He didn’t tell me he decided to have the surgery
  • He didn’t tell me when
  • He’d got upset when I asked why he never mentioned it
• Finally met up with my father for the first time in a year
  • Dad doesn’t seem to like the dog
• Apparently Mom is pissing off more people than usual
• We finally sold the house in Colorado and taxes were steep.
• We Federal employees have been told to come back to work full-time
  • There was a fork in the road
  • There have been offers to early retirements
  • Not sure what to do!

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