The journey continues...

Brian Bilbrey March 26, 2026

26 March 2026

Hard Weeks Over the past few weeks, I've been slowly packing up the bulk of Marcia's remaining clothing, fabric and crafting supplies - I've given away as much as I could to friends and family. The clothing went to Good Will. Marcia's friend Brenda tracked down info for me on the local Salvation Army for their annual fabric/sewing/crafting auction - I donated the balance of the fabric and crafting stuff to them. This work has been ... painful. But I've no need to keep all this stuff, and it'll go to people who can use it, so that's good. There's…

Brian Bilbrey March 14, 2026

14 March 2026

Still Winter Yes, yes, on Monday last we got up into the 60's and it was the first shorts day of the year for walking the dog. But then it started getting colder again, and I was up this morning at 0630 to shovel snow before heading out for the weekly shopping expedition. Next weekend, more snow, after a few days with overnight lows back into the teens. Sigh. I'm still working through the grieving process, too. The spikes of severity seem to be slightly less frequent, but I'm still in a predominantly tenebrous space. I find myself across the…

Brian Bilbrey February 22, 2026

22 February 2026

Condolences For my brother-in-law, Michael Ellison, who passed last Monday after a short battle with an aggressive cancer, rest in peace. My thoughts are with my sister Barbara and their adult children, Rob and Alex. Over the next five days, I'm expecting over a foot of snow. Two big days, Monday and Friday, and two light days, Wednesday and Thursday. So plenty of opportunity exercise through snow shoveling in my near future. Not terribly surprising, since that bloody rodent saw its shadow. Last year, the six extra weeks of winter were 12 extra weeks up here in the northern reaches.

Brian Bilbrey January 31, 2026

31 January 2026

A Busy Saturday Temperatures got down to -6°F last night, now it's early afternoon, and so far I've: So yeah, a fruitful and productive day so far... Yeah, so three months left in this phase of my working life. Right now the thought isn't as freeing as I'd hoped - I worry a bit about how they'll do in my absence... but in the real world, that becomes not my problem, come the end of April. Sadly (and properly sadly), I'm still popping awake with some regularity in the middle of the night, thinking I heard Marcia calling out for…

Brian Bilbrey January 18, 2026

18 January 2026

New Year Blues Nothing serious, just going back and fixing the last couple of post title dates from 2025 to 2026. Meanwhile January weather is like a bouncy castle, too warm for a little while, then back to cold again. I hear voices asking if warm is such a bad thing... well, yeah. It's not actually warm, just high 30's to low 40's. First, it turns all the fluffy icy stuff into a slushy mess that's miserable to walk through, and still very slippery. Then when it gets cold again, sheet ice, no bueno. Yesterday, I was due for less…