My friend Maggie posted her goals for 2022; and banal as they were, they were at the same time uplifting to read, because a year ago everyone’s goal was just to survive.

In that spirit, I give you…

Kick Killer Insomnia to the Curb.  It would be unrealistic to say that from now on my goal is to sleep eight hours every night of my life.  But the kind of 110% awake killer insomnia that makes me promising to kill myself in the morning…  with my new pal Mel A. Tonin, I hope to make that a thing of the past.

Lose Absolutely No Weight as I eat exactly what my body wants.  Familiar now with both my biomom & biodad’s phenotypes, my pudge factor is actually exactly where it should be.

Food Is a Sacrament.  Whether it be a fantastic home-cooked dinner, a night out, or a simple bowl of oatmeal… Ah, Meaning!

Continue to Grow My Career in Astounding Ways.  Techlab was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; but now I find myself positioned in a key role on a heavily “agile” incarnation of Fedwire which is a whole new world.

Be at 1.5 with Nature.  I used to be on Woody Allen’s wavelength: “I am at two with nature.”  Finally after decades of rural living, I am inching asymptotically closer to one…

Frolic with Fiber.  No particular fiberific goals, as the goal is specifically the general (Joe Oxymoron).  Having fun is the only goal.

Read, Read, Read.

My m-i-l has all her marbles.

She has excellent physical health, with the exception of a broken bone.

Which has received top-tier medical attention.

And is healing.

Broken bones being one of the things that medical science has a proven track record of being able to understand and fix.

She even has a good amount of money saved.

She has not one but two phones at her disposal, and a new tablet.

And a list of useful phone numbers given to her by a social worker.

Really, is there anything I “have” to do here? Or even should? Besides provide loving support?

My nose & my smile get crookeder every year.

I wish I had some pretty picture to show you today; but the adulting! It never stops!

Have I gone on already about how we should count our problems rather than our blessings? From this year’s Best Book Ever, 4000 Weeks, comes the idea of how we often get upset not only at our problems themselves, but somehow, at the mere fact that we have problems at all. We shouldn’t be having problems! Life should be problem-free! If you have a problem, what’s your problem?

The problems, though, you will always have with you.

Suppose, then, every day you listed your top 3 problems. Day after day, you’d see, there’d be no trouble coming up with 3 problems. You’ll always have 3 problems to list. It’s just a matter of what they are.

This way maybe you’ll stop getting upset about having problems.

Jericho Market has a box collecting items such as hats for donation to COTS. They emphasize that they only want new items. I want to donate the hat I just knit, but I am afraid that they will think it is not new given that it has no tag.

Fairy Birthgodmother strikes again. Plies me with beer & crocheted toy.

Time to get used to the monochrome.

I see a beech leaf.

I was in a bad mood last night. Maybe the color scheme isn’t so bad. Maybe someone would like it who wanted to make something for a guy. Guys like ugly colors. Especially those not confident in their masculinity.

I would love to make this, but as I oohed and aahed over it, I was summarily told that it would require “more than four harnesses” and would not be a good choice for someone at my level.

Anyway, today someone from TechLab wrote me a belated farewell, and mentioned she was “envious” of my “lifestyle.” Maybe DC people are different from NY people, or the NY people just all know me or know of me; but the TechLab people seem to be slightly dumbfounded at my life. That I raise goats and take time away from work to go to weaving school and whatnot. It seems not to have occurred to them that one could do these things.

If I perhaps inspired one person for one moment to “step away from the computer” and saw some wood or something (manager said he had always wanted to try woodworking school)… then that was a 10-month-year well spent, I would say, even apart from the fact that it was a total blast.

Workers of the world, relax!