The journey continues...

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…

Brian Bilbrey November 18, 2025

18 November 2025

Finding my way For all of you that found the words and the time to write or call, (and for those of you who could not, for whatever reason, that's okay, too - I've always struggled with other people's grief), thank you from the bottom of my heart. It's been a little over a month since I lost Marcia ... and we're, well, we're getting along. I'm not getting stuck staring into space quite as often, although today was one of those days. I'm not skipping chores, or meals, or showers ... all the things are getting done. Not as…