I can't believe the year is almost over. Wasn't it just Christmas?
Not Monday Christmas. I mean the one before. You know, the one in 2022. It can't possibly be fifty two weeks since I last lamented another year's demise, can it?
According to the Wildcats calendar on the refrigerator, it is indeed. I'm sure Calipari wouldn't lie to me would he? Has one and done become a metaphor for the number of months a year feels like?
I'm being generous. This one didn't feel much longer than a week.
I know a lot of things happened in the past year but if you want me to list them too bad. I'm trying to figure out what happened to February, April and September.
Seriously, 2023. I'm drawing a blank. I'd go ask the neighbors but they disappeared the day after Christmas. Tater said they were driving down to the square and watching the sunset.
So while they're enjoying an exotic sunset who knows where, I'm trying to conjure something to say about a year that didn't register.
How about, Oh 2023! We barely knew ye!
A little too colonial? Yes, right. Let's sound like we're at least in a century that starts with a 2.
Let's try. 2023! One Swift Year! Accurate on many levels they tell me. Thank goodness for they, but maybe a little pop for this audience.
I've got it. '23. Year with No Shadow.
Yes, that's the one. Let's have someone sew the shadow back on in time for 24. Not sure I can take another 23.
This was a year of missing things for me. Missed events. Missed trips. Missed once in a lifetime occasions. Missed opportunities. It's hard to keep up with what's going on when you're missing all the things going on.
But 2023 started for me as it will end for me. I'll fix breakfast for someone and I'll fix dinner for someone. In the evening I'll make sure someone is safe in bed. In between I'll do most of my work remotely from the living room. I'll zoom into most of my meetings.
Nobody should zoom into meetings. Zoom is on the 4th Ring of Hell for those of you who want a map to eternal damnation.
But I digress. This was the year I dove into full time caretaking for my mom who labored a hundred times harder to raise three boys than what little inconvenience it takes me to keep her in the house she paid for.
It isn't easy. She is confused a lot and I answer the same question a half dozen times in a half hour. She's not completely sure whose house we're in anymore so I remind her as often as I can. But the Loretta sense of humor is strong as ever and nearly every day we both laugh so hard tears roll down our cheeks.
To paraphrase the late Jim Valvano, any day you laugh yourself to tears is a great day.
So maybe 2023 wasn't so bad. I've still got the same job I started the year with so I'm one up on George Santos, anyway.