Happy New Year!

It is time for me to look back on the previous year and then look forward to the future on this last day of December. 

It was an excellent year on some fronts and decidedly less so in others. I escaped both gallows and grave and I should be happy for that.  

Any year on this side of the dirt is a good year, I suppose. Managed to hit medicare. Yippee!

Business was fairly good all year, most of my shows were very productive.  Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, San Mateo, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, they all fired for me. I feel good about that. 

I lost an important show in Del Mar but hopefully it will return one day. Managed to pay most of my bills and debts. Found some treasures. I appreciate my clients so much, they literally keep me alive.

My friends stayed mostly healthy as did my family, mostly. My cancer remained in remission.

Leslie and I took one vacation together, thanks to Doug and Retha and it was wonderful to get out in the natural world with my wife. 

Saratoga, Wyoming, near the Medicine Bow National Wilderness, very lovely.

That's not exactly enough for a whole year but you get what you get. 

I'm a working stiff and will be for the foreseeable future, while many of my friends are in the thick of retirement.

Did manage an epic trip to Chicago with my old bros Dave and Jeff. Not a lot of debauchery but plenty of fat and cholesterol and my first Cubs game at Wrigley.

You sort of have to carve out little crooks and crannies, quick diversions, have your fun along the way. I tried my best.

Managed a few side trips with my photo buddy Ken, snagged a few eagle and owl pictures, always good.

What else? Artistically I would say I treaded water this year. My literary output was the least it has been in five years. I wrote no fiction to speak of. That is my favorite thing to write but I have to really be feeling secure and free to let go. But still plenty of my normal snark and bullshit to go around and I kept the blog reasonably well fed. Just wasn't really feeling the elusive muse, the voice that lets me dig deep. Took my swings at the bat where I could find them.

I would say my photography was also pretty lackluster. Didn't take many street photos or portraits, wasn't quite feeling it.

Managed a couple.

Mostly shows and the swap meet. I like to take pictures of people at their worst.

Can't complain. Well I could but it would do me no good. Did the best I could, considering. I will take it and hope that I might equip myself better in the future. I like to think of myself as an artist and I am at my most happiest when I am creating.

I brought some fireworks back from Bluewater this summer. Will blast a few fountains off tonight in the wet weather. Leslie bought a prime rib. We are hanging out by ourselves.

Happy New Year to all of you and best of health! Thanks so much for reading. Without readers, the blog does not exist. Now moving into our sixteenth year.

My good friend Cam is getting married tomorrow today, wish him and his new bride Bobbie the best of health and happiness!