Half a year, half a year, half a year onward (with apologies, as necessary, to Lord Tennishoe)! That seems to be very roughly the length of some of my bigger gaps--such as the last one. If I knew I had any kind of readership out there, I'd definitely apologize. Apart from such obvious failings, I appear to have missed various details & developments along the way.

Two years ago, as documented here, I resolved to lose weight. Well, I've failed. The conveniently-located fitness shop I'd been visiting three times a week, never attained sufficient clientele, & closed by winter's end. Come autumn we were moving, & this matter had to wait.

Having remained so far behind in chronicling, I hesitate at the question of what to say here about completing half a century--most of it, of course, here in this obscure city in West Cutover/North Flyover, USA. I will note this: 50 was the age at which LOTR’s two central hobbit heroes, both atypical bachelors, found themselves plunged into their most important life’s work. On the other hand, as I recall, a gladiator who lived this long retired.


Argh! Blatantly Xmas-related ads have begun appearing on TV already. Enough of this pre-Halloween Yuletide crap! I think a consumer rebellion is in order.

Well, it's another case of blog negligence. I've ignored this Chronicle for months, but at least I've got excuses--lots of 'em. Basically they all have to do with moving's aftermath, in this instance the interval between starting our official residence at our new address (for two of the three in our household, anyway) & selling the old home. We're still emptying the house of our stuff, & it ain't easy. Going by how long some of us lived there, that's 40 years of accumulation!

Anyhow, a month ago I was invited to an event honoring Dr. Cornell. Seems the local U's making a virtual museum of its biology collections, or at least some of them, & naming the assemblage (& a single room) after him. Before leaving I finally asked him how he ended up here, & he explained that--presumably once he'd finished his degrees--he received two job offers. The other one was from a school in eastern North Dakota; & when he saw a picture of a building there, surrounded by a flat, relatively dull landscape, he knew how to decide!

His elder son, one of my closest childhood friends, also showed up. I hadn't seen him in at least 20 years. He's still a Methodist minister & married to the wife he'd evidently met in the mid-70s. I mentioned finding a high-school girlfriend of his on the Net: None other than the classmate I rediscovered a year ago. Forgot to tell him certain of the details I'd learned/suspected, but maybe that's just as well.

Meanwhile, some two weeks previously, our band kept its single commitment so far this year by performing at several downtown establishments on St. Patrick's Day. Borrowed two Canadian drummers for the occasion. Funny how my beret tam, which I'd dropped upside-down without much thought on the pool table we usually play around at the first (& perhaps most favored) venue, became a target for cash! Wonder if we'll even see more of a season than that this year.