This time/last year, the nest was empty, save P and I.  C. had been gone for years, B. had left for the first time and A. had gone for part of the summer.  This time/this year, the nest emptied by one, as A. went off for a few weeks with her dad, but B. came back, for at least a year, to make college and working and paying for her car easier without rent. So we are at 3 and holding till A. comes back when we will be 4 again.  C. is still in the city with J., Ru and Rae-Rae, and an other on the way-way.  There is a 3rd cat in our house now.  Licorice, a huge orange tabby, has joined the ranks with Belle and Lucy, my very, very tiny kitties. 

This time/last year, we didn’t really celebrate the 4th although I did buy sparklers and hold them back for when A. came back home.  Last year, we lit her sparklers while out fishing, she doled them out one or two a night, so she had enough until the end of the summer.  This year, like last year, I have to work a shift over the holiday weekend, so there will be much fun to hear about later this evening.  We can see the fireworks from our house. 

This time/last year, I was not doing much art beyond the desk, and P. didn’t have a “workshop” to speak of.  Anything we did beyond computer work, was done in our laps, in various spots around the house, then thrown in baskets and piled up in corners, saving off for when we had time to turn the “junk room” into a more artistic workspace.  B. is now moving into the “junk room,” and so I’ve been spending a lot of time reorganizing my studio/library area in the front of the house, since there is no extra room available for any overflow.  I  actually made room for the easel today (which P built in the workshop in the garage that he didn’t used to have but has now).  P. has been in the “shop” all morning and afternoon, on into this early evening.  I’ve been in my “studio,” managing to create one piece I’m not entirely pleased with, but only because it’s less “angry” than usual, and I’m not used to that.  I have to go to work in less than an hour.  P. will continue working on A’s half of the workshop, a place where she can work in tandem with him, breaking glass (flint-knapping) and off to the side building things out of wood. 

This time/last year, we were gearing up for fishing and had been hiking a lot.  I’ve been missing both, a lot, this past several weeks, since I started the summer with a cold which went full-blown bronchitis, and I’ve been inside mostly, due to heavy loads of work.  I’ve been feeling like this summer was not really ever going to begin for me, but then I realized at this time last year, it was just beginning too.  There will be catfish in my lap, and on my plate soon enough, and once I’ve had enough of those, I hope some of the “big ones that got away” last year, breaking poles, lines and flopping out of the nets, will also land in my lap so I can get my fill of fish/fishing before the lakes freeze over. 

This time/last year I planted geraniums, salvia, pansies and tomatoes in containers, etc.  Ali had a crop of corn and a bean plant.  The peonies and daisies went wild.  This time/this year, it rained so much, I only added one hanging basket outside, and additional houseplants in the sun room. The container gardens from last year are holding the most amazing crop of wildflowers (weeds) but all flowering and very green.  I feel like our back deck belongs to some hippies. 

This time/last year, I had a TIA (transient ischemic attack) or a RIND (reversible ischemic neurologic deficit).  So it busted into my record of trying to go a year+ without an “incident” since my stroke.  We had to turn back from a fishing outing, and I spent the night in the ER.  It cost a fortune at the emergency room and I had to have another CAT scan, but it all disappeared and I was fine, though I got stuck back on Plavix for a time, being called an “aspirin failure.”  It’s difficult to be called an anything “failure” when you are in the emergency room, already humbled.  I stayed on Plavix for a few weeks, but one day when I was refilling it, later in the summer, the pharmacist said, “You are too young for this kind of shit!”  I trialed off it again, and it’s been a year, and so far … so good, except for a tiny incident in November, which I just rode out at home, and saved myself some money in the ER. 

Every morning when I get up, before I think what day it is, before I pee, before I even put on my glasses, I take a 325 mg enteric-coated aspirin, reminding myself it would suck to "fail."

This time/last year, I started by blog.  Woo-woo!

Happy Fourth everyone.  I’m heading into the critical care unit (vicariously) to see how many people have pickled their livers this weekend, beat up their relatives or blown their f***ing fingers off.