Snolfs

Literally.

I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned it here previously, but two years ago the snolfs and I started celebrating the winter solstice. Since I’m not a Christian, it seemed silly to celebrate Christmas, and to me personally New Year’s Eve is nothing special, since it’s simply a marker of time on one of many arbitrary calendars. I turned to my Scandinavian heritage and—not surprisingly at all—discovered that the winter solstice was a very important occasion for my ancestors. That made the decision to celebrate it very easy; but it hasn’t been until this year that we’ve been fully free to create our own celebration.

I have been deep in home-improvement projects of late—mostly painting the interior, although there’s plenty of outdoor work that needs attention as well. The very short days make that difficult to get to, however; by the time I’m done with work, the sun is low enough in the sky that I’d barely get started before it faded enough to make it time to stop.

The big project—and topic of discussion for the three of us—has been how to celebrate the solstice this year. We’ve celebrated it the past couple of years, but this is our first opportunity to go all out. I suggested a Scandinavian pagan theme for the festivities, which was warmly received, so we all have been exploring ideas. It’s been a lot of fun, learning about ancient customs and thinking about which ones to use.

There is another holiday tradition that I sort of fell into; and I would be greatly remiss if I were not to continue it this year.

I should have known that years of hearing “I pay the bills, so what I want goes” would have some effect on the snolfs and me—and perhaps I did, but only now that I’ve been clear of that environment can I fully appreciate the effect it had on us.

Meteorological spring also brought another spring to my life this year ... one that was very slow in arriving but has already proved well worth creating.

I didn’t mean to be absent from here for so long, but I’ve been busier than usual. Most of you would be quite surprised to learn what’s taken up a large chunk of my time of late.

And I vacillate between which I feel more strongly.

And even though it isn’t one of my favorite colors, I’m pretty happy about it.

After years of carting around boxes full of stuff of unknown provenance, I decided to sort through them. O.M.G.

Snolf the First and I have been; and Snolf the Second is eagerly awaiting her turn.

by She Who Loves (almost) All Things Pink and/or Frilly, that today is a celebration day! Relax, enjoy yourself, and be extra good to one another, she requests.

I remember when I first discovered Wired’s Animation Express—weird but intriguing stuff was the rule for the brand new medium, then called Shockwave Flash (hence the .swf file extension). The snolfs enjoyed a lot of the animations too, and wanted to see them repeatedly. That’s why I learned how to find those files, which were usually downloaded to my machine but buried deep in the Windows file system. I dug them out, renamed them, and put them in a folder of their own for easier access.

Some musings occasioned by the imminent departure of Lobo’s first brood from our home and my concerns for their successful fledging ... Even so, I will try not to make this overly personal, not just for privacy of the individuals involved but also because I’m interested in exploring the broader ideas and issues, not just our family situation.

Knitting project, that is. Not bad, since I started it at around 6 p.m. yesterday!

A conversation yesterday brought into sharp relief something I’ve been observing as it has developed. Okay, I admit, I’ve also been participating in it ... more than I care to consider. Writ large, economic woes and political uncertainties have increased the fear and uncertainty in the USSA, and probably much of the wired world. Writ smaller, we who cherish liberty see the changes and likely continuation of trends and have our additional burden weighted even more—that being the question of how we can continue to resist the encroaching tyrannies. Looking at the calendar and remembering some inspiration from last winter, I think another round of January 16th celebrating is in order.