2021 Reading

 I read the same number of books this year (47) as I did in 2020, but about 7,000 fewer pages. I blame Steven Erikson for the discrepancy, since 2020 was the year I finished the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. That said, not included in my 2021 list is the book I'm currently reading, which clocks in at around 1,050 pages, and Timothy Renner's slim volume, "The Witch Cloud - The Haunted Bridges of Gettysburg, Pennsilvania" which has yet to be added to either Goodreads or Discogs (it comes with a Black Happy Day lathe-cut 5" record).

The End Births A Beginning

 Traditionally, the week between Christmas and New Year's Day is a time of reflection. Not much else ever seems to happen during this time period. I realize, of course, that many people never reflect at all, and it shows. Our society has become fragmented by social media, with digital enclaves of suspicious people peering out over the tops of digital barriers, menacingly waving their Twitter spears at each other with unveiled hostility. All of the isms are very much still in play, and those who know the least continue to be the loudest. In Antarctica, a massive wall of ice dubbed as the Doomsday Glacier shows signs of giving up the ghost, unleashing catastrophe. The Omicron Covid variant is in the news, although many digital enclaves have their heads buried deep in the internet so they don't have to engage with reality. So yeah, the world is messy.

Personally, my year was pretty good. Work sort of returned to normal. I realized I don't really miss going to stores (although my online purchasing has gotten out of hand) and I've developed a habit of getting up early so I can go find birds. Speaking of which, my creative eggs are all firmly in the bird photography basket at the moment, but I have plans to get back into drawing, thanks to a couple of recent gifts from Willow. I've started using eBird to log bird sightings, and late in the year I decided to see if I could log 200 species by December 31st. This means I have two days to find my final three species, but I have a plan.

I don't have any walking or reading stats at my fingertips. I'm currently in the middle of Tad William's massive fourth "Otherland" book, with 700 or so pages to go. I turned 54 this year, and at some point recently, I realized that I could probably calculate pretty accurately how many more books I'll be able to read before I die (based on how many books I get through a year, and roughly how old my parents were when they died - although I realize that I lead a marginally healthier lifestyle than either of them did). The fact that my mom died in the middle of a book, which was left open on the kitchen table, sometimes haunts me. That said, none of us ever get to see the end of the story. It continues on with or without us. Our personal stories never really end either. Our connections bear fruit in the minds of others. Ideally, our inspiration outlives us. 

Unless, of course, we're among those who don't reflect and inspire, in which case we're more likely to be simply erased from history.

These stream-of-consciousness ramblings brought to you while under the influence of: Bernardo Devlin "Chroma"

Christ Mess

 Of late, my pattern is to post here whenever I have a couple of weeks off. My recharging time needs to be longer these days, I guess. I'd hate to discover what things would be like if I had a less appealing job. As things stand, work weeks fly by like plummeting falcons, and the weeks off aren't much slower. That's one of the problems with getting older - we never have as much time left as we think we do, and the clocks are all ticking out grindcore beats. Long gone are days when December lasted months. This year, my holiday shopping was mostly confined to the last week. We plan a small gathering later today. Most of us have had booster shots, and many of us avoid crowds. I know I do.

I'm still focusing on bird photography (pun intended), and lately I've taken to using eBird to report findings. According to eBird, my life list stands at 192 species, although there are a bunch of birds that I saw when I wasn't counting. I may add a couple more to the list before the end of the year. 

I plan to post here again before the end of the year with a more fleshed-out reflection (although I had an epiphany earlier this year about how I don't really "plan" - I'm more of a spur-of-the-moment improvisor type in everything I do, from teaching to playing music). Happy holidays, may they be Omicron free.

Typed to the merry tune of: Mandible Chatter "Drinking Out the Hourglass"