See, I told you I'd do better this year. I'm trying.
Today I read the obituary page of the newspaper where I work and was shocked to see the face and name of one of my parish deacons. I had known, of course, that he's been ill for many years, but still. He was one of the best, a warm and goodhearted man. He was, in fact, my favorite of all the deacons I've ever known. There was just something about him that was so approachable, so sincere.
He presided at my father's memorial service in January 2005 (my father lived to be 95). And it turns out he died on what would have been my father's 99th birthday!
Carl Beers, we'll miss you!

It's been almost three years again. Sorry about that. Since that posting in 2006, a lot has happened, as you might imagine. The sister-in-law's cat had to go. It kept attacking my older son, who is a big cat lover and even though he didn't live here, every time he visited it was awful. And the cat didn't like us much, either. I felt bad, but we kept him a whole year after she left him with us, and he never got any better.
Our black cat who was almost 20 years old had to be put down. He had cancer and was very sick, suffering and all that. We felt bad about that, too, but it was the right thing to do.
My older son has moved back to Baltimore County. He was substitute teaching but not getting much work, only two or three days a week. He comes back periodically to help his dad out and earn some extra cash. He's planning to sign up for a bartending/mixology course at Wor-Wic starting in January. He and one of his roommates will be taking the course and driving back and forth together. I hope they get jobs as a result. That's irony for you -- he gets a degree from a top academic college and it does nothing to help him get employed. He spends $149 and eight weeks learning to make mixed drinks and has better employment prospects from that?
We've had three rounds of layoffs where I work. I've survived them all, so far. But these are not good times for any business. I hope we survive.
My youngest son did not graduate from college. He basically flunked out, did nothing but get into trouble. He did, however, complete the two-year honors program he enrolled in. Weird. He fooled around with various jobs for a couple of years, totaled one car, joined Americorps, completed a year in that program, signed up for a second year but then ended up getting offered a job with the postal service. So now he is working as a mail handler for the U.S. Postal Service. It's the hardest of all the jobs he's had in his life, it's night shift but not regular hours, so it basically means he had to quit everything else he was doing, music, friends and all. But he's now been there almost a year, and he has applied to be shop steward for his union on his shift (and will probably get the job, as not only does no one else want it, they're all encouraging him). He's making good money but still living at home. We never have really lived alone, my husband and I, so far. Never.
Still, we're doing OK for now. And that's something to be thankful for.
I'm going to do better with this and my other blogs this year. That's one of my New Year resolutions. I have four other blogs: Musicology (hosted on www.delmarvanow.com), Shore Voices (also on www.delmarvanow.com), The Anti-Blog (on blogger) and on wordpress, A Spark in the Dark.