The journey continues...

Brian Bilbrey January 11, 2026

11 January 2025

Long Arm Quilting Machine For sale ... Sold! Most of Marcia's sewing machines had designated recipients in her list of bequests. Linda Rose and her sister Mary got whatever they wanted, and took home two machines and a bunch of fabric and batting and whatnot. Kayla and her friend got a bunch of fabrics, a couple of quilt kits, and the serger. More problematic was the Handiquilter long arm machine, along with its computer, and 13' x 5' frame. Important to me is that it finds a home with someone who will use and love it, but for whom the…

Brian Bilbrey January 5, 2026

05 January 2025

Changes Today I pulled the trigger and sent the email notifying the company of my retirement date: 30 April 2026. Counting today, 81 business days left. Of that, I'll be attempting to take vacation days off here and there, which with luck brings the actual working day count down to 63. Tick, tock. So what's the plan, you ask? For the next four months, I'll max out my 401K and Roth contributions for the eight pay periods I'll have to work with. I'll figure out what my path forward is on Medicare (since I turn 65 in April). And I'll…

Brian Bilbrey January 2, 2026

02 Jan 2026

A New Year So. Christmas was ... okay. Nancy and Raven came over and we ate food, and watch the last three episodes of "The Last Wright", look that up if you're interested in Frank Lloyd Wright architecture and the daughter/mother team that builds the house that was on Wright's drafting table when he died... I was amused by that, as well as the last name of the builders, "Dykstra" ... (Marcia's maiden name). So. Happy New Year. A holiday most often celebrated not at all around this house, and so unchanged from years past, excluding the absent Marcia. I've…

Brian Bilbrey December 25, 2025

25 December 2025

Muted Celebration To be fair, at the best of times, I'm not really huge on the holidays. They're okay. I mean, who doesn't like pressies and too much food and celebrating anything with your loved ones. But as y'all know, that's the problem. This is my first Christmas without Marcia. Marcia loved the Christmas time of year with a deep and abiding joy. Decorating every available surface and getting new surfaces out of storage, just to decorate them - that was on her list. Christmas music. Christmas movies. Each year, she'd try to get the dog du jour to wear…

Brian Bilbrey December 19, 2025

19 December 2025

Travel For the first two weeks of December, you would have found me in California. I flew out on the 29th of November, and covered friends and family from Marin to Sacramento to San Diego to LA and back North again to SF before flying home last Saturday. To be fair, it was mostly a condolence and commiseration tour, talking through the last year's tribulations leading up to Marcia's passing in October. Some folks needed convincing that Maine was really, really where I wanted to be. Others just needed reassurance that I was sad, and bereaved, but not despondent and…