Anyone who has followed this blog for more then a few posts knows that I have a bit of a consistency problem. Every now and then I stop blogging for a month… or two… or eleven.
And I always have an excuse. I’m not saying it is always a good excuse, but an excuse. And a I have a few this time.
November 2017 was a bit of a crazy month.
A Work Conference
November started out with a work conference. Oh, but did I mention it was in Orlando?
I won’t bore you with the details of the work conference, but since I was already going to Orlando, we made it a family trip and got permission to bring little bear along with us. I think he had a good time.
A Vacation
We did Universal Studios and a day at Disney World. If I wasn’t already convinced this little guy was “beautiful”, it would have been hard not to be, after being told by just about everyone in the park that he was beautiful. Okay, not everyone. I’m pretty sure those who didn’t say it, thought it. It was just weird that so many used the exact word “beautiful”. Not that I am arguing.
So precious! ( You were already thinking it)
A Funeral
Shortly after returning home, we received news that my cousin, who had been battle cancer on and off for years, had passed away. So instead of a calm and relaxing Thanksgiving close to home, it turned into a whirlwind travel week of getting to Texas and having Thanksgiving in Arizona.
I will say that Dallas/Ft. Worth airport was not a great experience at 2 am when the toll booth that you have to go through won’t read your credit card. Especially, when you were just in Orlando, so your GPS has avoid tolls turned on and thinks you can get to the terminal your family has been waiting at on a service road that requires a badge, so it drives you around the airport for an extra twenty minutes. I’ll just stop that rant right there and call it good. I think you get the point.
All of my siblings except one were somehow able to manipulate the universe in order to make the trip to Texas for the funeral. This particular cousin lived with us for a period of time in her teens and felt like a sister to all of us. The service was very nice and we were able to catch up with some relatives we have not seen for a long time. I even found out of of my cousins I have not seen since I was a boy has also been on the adoption adventure!
A Thanksgiving
One of the reasons so many of us could make it to the funeral was because we flew back to Arizona on turkey day. It took some doing to make things happen so last minute, but we ended up having a very nice Thanksgiving on Black Friday at my brother’s house not far from Phoenix.
An Adoption
No, we didn’t adopt Little Bear that month. However, somewhere in the midst of all of that, we were able to attend the adoption of The Baron Von Poopypants. Not by us, of course, but by his relative. Being able to get closure that things went well was emotionally helpful. I almost added, “in closing the book on that part of our lives.” but didn’t because that’s not true. I still miss the baron, but it was healing to know he is doing well (and he still is in fact – we get pictures every so often and might even have another visit soon!)
An Adoption
But we did get to adopt Little Bear not very long afterward! Yes, among all the traveling (planned and not planned) we were also juggling the details of an adoption! I am going to end every sentence in this paragraph with an exclamation point!
Considering most of my readers (if not all) are my friends on Facebook, you probably already knew this. But in case you forgot, you can relive the joy of finding out all over again.
A Server Migration
Not long after the new year, I was informed that the company I host this site on was selling its hosting division (or whatever) and my site would be moving in the next few months. I’ve never gone through something like this before and didn’t want to somehow lose some blog posts or get into a good flow and then get disrupted by the migration.
And that is why I am finally back. It took long enough, but things are all migrated and working like they did before. I have a lot of catching you up to do, so hopefully I can make it to the end of year before going on another unintentional sabbatical.
