love and death

life's been a real hoot, here at the shack. there were some technical difficulties with our dsl provider. hence my invisibility lately. that and the business of life, in all it's wacky weirdness. the good news? today is my blog-iversary. i thought it would be good to recollect why it was i decided to start doing this strange thing i do, with a certain degree of regularity. why indeed.

it's a place to vent and rant and yes, even curse. more than that, i started doing this because i felt such hopelessness about what has been heaped upon us all. i wanted to reach out there, and find hope in the fact that maybe there were others, who might be looking for something similar. there were. it has eased my worried mind immensely, to find that i am not alone in all of this.

even though it all keeps getting stranger, i am thankful that there are a few fellow bloggers to share thoughts, ideas, and general disdain with. thanks for inspiring me to carry on. ("love is coming to us all")

now the bad news. back in december, i wrote about my favorite aunt, who has been dealing with lou gehrig's disease, or a.l.s. it's been awful for her, and for my awesome uncle. she is in the hospital, and they are saying she might live another day or so. i am planning to drive down to san francisco tomorrow, to say good-bye.
i will go into great detail about this woman, and all the ways she made my life complete. but not right now. for now, here's an old photo that has seen better days, i'm afraid. sorry about that. it was taken during the summer of 1966, at lake tahoe. the whole family stayed at this place on the lake. here is my aunt, reading. (looks like the new yorker) those are my grandfather's feet, in the topsiders. this same summer, my little brother almost drowned, and a kid of some family friends got a fish hook stuck in his eye lid. two powerful memories, still vivid 40 years later.

so... there will be more photos, and more words about her as well. later.