As I do, here’s a summary of the just-ended year as defined by pure numbers. A few of the standard categories went down, but as you can see elsewhere in the list, I’ve been busy elsewhere. Lots of stuff going on, as you can see.

• miles hiked or biked: 1608
• rides longer than 50 miles: 6
• net pounds lost over the course of the year: 11
• books read: 49
• shows played: 20
• paying gigs played: 2
• conventions attended: 4
• songs written: 15
• songs released: 8
• songs recorded: 18
• albums appeared on: 2
• times one of my songs was covered: 1
• medical procedures endured: 4
• friends made: several
• beers consumed: many
• musical instruments purchased: 2
• office “all-hands” shout-outs: 2
• number of times I actually left home for work: 14
• longest pub crawl: 7 venues
• “last beers” consumed at closed venues: 2
• houses bought: 1
• houses sold: 1
• net residential square footage gained: 1400
• sheds discovered: 1
• times moved house: 1
• times I’ll move in the future: 0
• times my new car was hit by teenage boys: 2
• rugs purchased: 3
• boxes purchased: too many to count

2023 was definitely a year. Lots of big things happened, some big changes, some small changes, a ton of stress. I got healthier (at least below the neck) and am working on the other parts. I took on some new responsibilities, including mentoring co-workers, changing job titles, and playing actual paying, repeat music gigs.

That said, all I really want out of 2024 is for things to be boring.

By the time anyone reads this, I’ll be done working for the year.

It’s kind of fitting that the big thing on my agenda for the last day is the try-to-make-it-quarterly touchpoint meeting with my supervisor to talk through the whole work experience thing and make plans for moving forward into 2024. So, having wrapped up all the final tasks I wrote about briefly earlier this week, I’ve been thinking about that whole topic and how things have been and how they’re going.

Upon reflection, my work life in 2023 wasn’t all that bad, honestly. Sure, there are daily frustrations about meetings that could’ve been emails and bureaucratic busybodies, but I can usually deal with those kind of things by writing songs or blog posts about them and moving on. To tell the truth, though, I’m pretty sure I’m part of the best, most effective team of people I’ve ever worked with, and almost certainly the best boss I’ve ever had the luck of drawing. I’m given room to do the work effectively, my contributions are valued, and I’m provided opportunities to grow and learn myself, and help others do so. Because of all this, our group is in a position to make some real, positive changes in an organization that could definitely use some.

The campsite rule applies all over the place; leave things better than you found them. I think we’re going to do that here.

Out of a bunch of good things I can say about work, my biggest accomplishment in 2023 has been finally being able to hand off the project I’ve been the unofficial caretaker of since the big re-organization a couple of years back. Not that I didn’t enjoy running that particular effort for most of the last decade, and it was a definite boon in terms of learning how to manage programs, but as I’ve moved on to other things, it’s been this weird anchor of “other duties as assigned” that I hadn’t been able to give adequate time to, even if we did accomplish some pretty cool things laying the groundwork for (the latest attempt at) modernization of a computer system that regularly gets written up in “World’s Oldest Computer Program” articles. Keeping the data flowing there’s been a good experience, but it was time to let it go. The new guy handling things is honestly doing a better job than I ever did, and I’ve long been ready to fully move on to solving the next problem.

So as frustrating and change-filled as this year has been, my work life has been, weirdly, one of the anchors that’s kept me from floating too far afield and kept me grounded. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to make more positive changes and impose a little more order in some chaotic corners of the public sector in the coming year, even if my boss does keep making friendly hints about making me a boss myself one day. I don’t think I’m quite on board with that yet, but she’s nothing if not persisent and persuasive.

We shall see.

Today I started my final work week for the year 2023.

Three more days, and another work year is in the books. Honestly, I haven’t spent a lot of time reflecting, because I’ve been too damned busy tying things up before I take off for a week or so.

…And of course today (actually over the weekend), somebody dropped the now-standard end-of-year garbage event.

This year is comparatively mild; mostly just weird management posturing bullshit rather than an arbitrary schedule shift three or four months to the left without warning, though it was awfully frustrating on Friday when I was apparently prepping documents at the same time someone was flexing bureaucratic muscles changing the format at the same time I was building the actual article, leading to some silly real-time commentary/argument.

It’s silly. Especially since the “new, official format” leaves out terribly important, basic information, and includes multiple spelling and grammar mistakes.

This is my life.

Oh well, this weekend I got to hang with the local Pokemon Go crew for the first time in a while, got another excellent cabbage at the farmer’s market, beat the new Civ VI monthly scenario on the first try, and we finally hung up some art on the walls in the new house.

Still, I spent most of the day frustrated.

Then, of course, after hitting the park for my after-work hike, traffic and accidents prevented me from pulling into my own driveway. So be it; I drove forward, hit the grocery store and stopped for a beer at another local place I haven’t been to in a while, and in chatting with the bartender/manager, I might have a lead on another local bar gig…we’ll see.

So, yeah, not all bad, but I’m still twitchy. Things’ll be a bit better come Thursday afternoon.

I hope.

We’re hitting that interesting time of year. Work, thankfully, is slowing down as all of my fellow public sector bureaucrats start burning their use-or-lose leave and leaving the halls of power empty (or emptier than usual, given the fact that so many of us work remotely now). The co-worker I’ve been unofficially mentoring for the last year or so wrapped his year yesterday, and won’t be back until after MLK weekend. Trips to the store for the various bits and bobs we need to keep the house running are full of holiday music and chattering Karens and Chads; it’s not a particularly pleasant experience, so I’ve been trying to keep these trips to a minimum and during off-hours. I’m doing okay so far.

I’m getting the holiday shopping done, though we’ve made the household decision that since everybody got a big shiny new place to live with lots more space, we’re scaling down the gift budget and investing further in the space. Sure, we’ll get some things we like, but it’ll mostly be about making the new environment more livable for all of us, and we’re generally okay with that.

Looking back over the last couple of weeks, the gig at the Kilt last Thursday went well; Had a decent turn-out, including a few new friends, hit most of my musical marks, and did okay on tips. I’ll take it, and things look good for them having me back before long. While I joke that Thom the brewmaster books me now and then so that I’ll keep coming in for my regular pint, I’ll admit it’s honestly nice to have a “local” where, as the theme song goes, everybody knows your name, and you can count on there always being someone to have a friendly chat with after a busy day.

And I’m glad my neighborhood public house is doing well, because the community’s lost a few over the last couple of months as rents get higher in profitable neighborhoods and the craft beer scene matures and changes. I had my final pint at Castleburg a few weeks ago, as Karl closed the doors this month on the place that took a chance on a guy like me to host a monthly open mic that I was proud to be a part of and make successful for a good long while back in the Before Times™.

This time of year and my unfortunate brain chemistry lead me toward rumination on the concept of loss; people, places, concepts, feelings, both real and aspirational. I don’t know why, exactly, but I do. The holiday season from late November through the end of the calendar year, while definitely a period of rest and recovery, is always tinged with a bit of wistfulness and sadness, especially in cases where actual losses come into play, like they have this year.

I’ve raised a glass to the memory of more than one person and place in the last couple of weeks, and it’s not always easy, but I do my best to persevere, remember the good times and make the best of what the world tosses my way, and see what I can do to make it better for someone else.

Anyway, that’s what you’re getting out of me today. Here are some tunes the algorithms pulled together based on where my musical tastes have wandered recently:

1. “Second String” – Vanilla
2. “Imposter Syndrome (feat. Lzzy Hale)” – Sophie Lloyd
3. “Devil Teasin’ Me” – The Commoners
4. “Radium Girls (Curie Eleison) – Rachel Sumner
5. “Girls are the Best (feat. Tanya McCabe)” – Kyle Gordon
6. “Tighten The Reins” – Lions in the Street
7. “Halcyon Days” – Fever Dolls
8. “Always Wednesday” – Aurelio Voltaire
9. “Dead Man’s Party” – Oingo Boingo
10. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” – Postmodern Jukebox
11. “Dance With Me” – Los Lonely Boys
12. “Girl on the Billboard” – Brian Setzer
13. “Wild”- Kelsy Kartner & The Heroines
14. “This Is Now” – Ann Wilson & Tripsitter

Given that it’s Thanksgiving tomorrow, I’m going to be going dark(er than usual) for a couple of days; it’s just easier for my mental health. Deal with it.

But, before I do, I’m going to mention that I’ve got a gig a week after Thanksgiving at Dancing Kilt, where I’ll be playing my eclectic mix of original tunes and hopefully interesting covers to the crowd at my neighborhood drinking establishment. Tunes start around 6pm:

Amongst all the other things I find myself doing in my copious fair time, I recently contributed a couple of things to Cover To Cover: Filker Song Swap vol. 1, a charity compilation spearheaded by my friend Madison and the crew at Social Justice Bards (a collective of like-minded creative types I’m proud to be affiliated with) with proceeds going to The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation supporting music in schools.

It’s a fun little project where a bunch of us geeky music types threw our tunes into a hat and drew out something to cover. I did a version of Bashira Letterman’s “Illusion of the Heart”, and the Salacious Crumbles did an excellent cover of my “Hello, Friend!”

The whole thing goes live on bandcamp on December 8, but if you want a copy right now, you can donate to the campaign and receive a download code.

It’s almost an hour-and-a-half of music, and supporting a good cause, so why not take a look?

Overall, this has been a pretty crappy week.

Sunday morning I was chopping vegetables into the crock pot for vegetable soup and tagged the tip of my left ring finger with a just-swharpened knife. Ouch. Also, having the bandage there has wseriously impeded productivity; it keeps getting in the way of the typing by which I make my living (and wedging lots of exta w’s in when I try to type ‘s’), and it’s left me temporarily unable to chord properly on the guitar, and I owe a compilation project I’m taking part in a few recordings by the end of the month, and I’m not done with ’em yet.

Work’s been extra garbage this week, in large part due to the ongoing congressional drama and the inability to fund things for more than a few weeks, leading to some serious garbage contract/budget drama at work leading to me getting stuck managing emergency, extra-creative improvisational application of acquisition regulations to avoid lapses in service in the licensing of über-important back-end database software we can’t live without, and all the stress that comes along with that.

Oh, and this budget crap isn’t all that likely to get better long-term now that we’ve got the unknown-before-Tuesday-morning back-bencher Christofascist they just installed as Swpeaker. So, the prohibition on any particular spending on the stuff we need for the house in favor of stuffing every extra penny in savings so we can continue paying for the house until they sort this out.

Also, my lovely swpouse is dealing with a persistent injury that I can’t stand watching because I can’t really do much to help except drive her to her next appointment. In this instance, I feel particularly helpless.

This is on top of my own weird health stuff, from the CPAP to the depression to the fact that my lower back is killing me today and I don’t know why…

Oh, and the Kroger bar beer taps were busted Thursday afternoon when we stopped by after she finished her doc appointment. The first time she really felt good enough to go out in over a week. Damn.

I’m not planning on doing much for the weekend. Maybe a long bike ride to prep for next weekend’s end-of-season Bikes and Beers ride, which we just realized butts up against the Celtic Festival that’s also on the calendar.

Dammit. Again.

Oh well…here are some tunes, which are mostly surprisingly enjoyable 80s rock and hair metal tunes. That the fact that the Spotify algorithms threw me some c-list power ballads and white boy blues is a highlight of my week pretty much says it all.

1. “Somebody’s Knockin'” – Izzy Stradlin and The Ju Ju Hounds
2. “Hair of the Dog” – Britny Fox
3. “Come On Sadie” – Stone Nobles
4. “I Wanna Be With You” – Pretty Boy Floyd
5. “Radioactive” – Gene Simmons
6. “Rockin’ In The Free World” – John C. Cale and Nico Nico
7. “Goldilox” – King’s X
8. “Day By Day” – Hooterws
9. “The Way You Broke My Heart” – Point Blank
10. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party in the Streetws” – Axe
11. “Rock and Roll Fantasy” – Paul Rogers
12. “7 O’Clock” – The Quireboys

Yes, I’ve been absent. It’s been a couple of weeks. I’ve been working like crazy. my lovely spouse has been dealing with medical issues. I’ve been helping. I’m trying to get a recording project done. I’ve been unpacking boxes. I’ve been hanging curtains. I’ve been reading books. I’ve been working even more.

Life’s busy.

But, since it’s been a couple of weeks, I’m still checking in here, because that’s what I do. I’m getting all that stuff done. I’m keeping an eye out for the cat that showed up in the solar panels the other day. I’ve been making sure people eat enough, and the cats and fish are fed.

I also (finally) discovered today that I make a couple of appearances in my friend’s book that he published this summer (it finally got unpacked from a box), and I think that’s really cool.

Anyway, life’s been happening, I just haven’t been writing it down.

Sorry.

Anyway, here are some tunes from spotify:

1. “Crushing Me” – ‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’ cast
2. “Heels” – Royal Sugar
3. “Colors” – April Smith and the Great Picture Show
4. “i hate this town (a twilight song)” – gabi balls
5. “Loud Ass Car” – Wolves of Glendale
6. “Relatively Good” – Mel Bryant & The Mercy Makers
7. “Jeff Found a Genie” – Philip Labes
8. “T-Shirt” – The Beaches
9. “Do You Believe In Magic”?” – The Lovin’ Spoonful
10. “Cassiopeia” – Elle Cordova
11. “Riverboat Shanty” – Emily Axford
12. “I Kissed A Girl” – Jill Sobule
13. “Se go Together” (Bonus Track) – David Tennant/Catherine Tate
14. “1985” – Bowling For Soup
15. “Strawberry Blond” – Miski

So, I’m going to call my posting of the new version of “Shutdown Blues” a stroke of luck, because, as you, a reader well-informed on the news of the day, know the government didn’t shut down over the weekend, which, honestly, was fine, apart from the knowledge that it’s all the more likely we’ll be having to do this all again in six weeks, because the Republican House decided to take it’s middle-school drama to it’s logical conclusion, and they kicked McCarthy out of the big desk yesterday, which makes resolution, continuing or otherwise, timely or last-minute, all the less likely next time.

That’s history, I suppose, which is significant to my inner-former-civics-teacher, though less-than-encouraging for my outward concerned citizen and public-sector bureaucrat.

But hey, I sold a few cents’ worth of the new recording…take the wins where I can get ’em.

The week thus far’s been novel, at least. I got a ton of stuff done on Monday and Tuesday, including seriously re-engaging my Microsoft Project muscles (last used more than a decade ago in grad school) building integrated master schedules, leading a bunch of meetings, and then taking a couple of days off starting today, stretching the Columbus/indigenous Peoples’ Day break out a bit.

While I’ve got some plans with friends for the weekend, today I was up bright and early after sleeping a bit less than usual and engaging in non-traditional core muscle exercises most of the night thanks to a pre-procedure four liters of PEG 3350, which, let me tell you, is a ton of fun.

The rest of it, though, was relatively benign Old Man Maintenance™.

Otherwise, I’m just planning on taking it easy for a couple of days, catching up on some rest, catching a bike ride or two, and ideally getting the damned air conditioning fixed today because it started being weird on Monday after I got back from twenty-four miles on the Capital Trail for it’s 8th Birthday.. Oh well, there’ a reason I got the house warranty, though honestly it’s probably nothing.

But, there’s always something…

Like I’ve said, I get a lot of mileage out of this song, because this is the world and political environment we live in, and mused about how I should update it. So I did.

Not only did I tweak the lyrics, but I played/programmed an entirely new recording with a nice electric Texas roadhouse blues feeling to it, that I don’t think entirely sucks, and hope that my friends and fans might feel the same way, since odds were good that I’d be looking at some time off this week, and maybe toss a few cents my way.

I’m going to call it lucky as well, as right after I hit publish, I saw the headline that the House passed a 45 day CR that’s good odds to pass in the Senate today, and render all this OBE.

Oh well, I hadn’t recorded anything new in a while, wanted to see how things worked in the new house, Bandcamp Friday’s coming up this week, and worst case, we’re doing all this again in six weeks, with all kinds of new interesting wrinkles about Ukraine aid and motions to vacate, so I’m leaving things out there.

Enjoy!