The sky was full of stars, and every star was an exploding ship — one of ours.
– Jeffery Sinclair, Babylon 5, Season 1, Episode 8.

I survived my own miniature version of the Battle of the Line.

Since the first weeks of October, I’ve been sick just about every day.  I think it was more than one illness.  Problem is, I don’t know: they all overlapped.  Sore throat, headaches, ear infections, sinus problems, bronchitis . . . .

That’s what I get for being a teacher.

Today is the first day in a long time I woke up without having a sore throat or a fit of coughing.

I’ve been pretty scarce around here, and around the internet in general.  With so much of my energy spent fighting against one invading army of microbes after another, I had to focus on a few projects and do them well, as opposed to failing eloquently across the board.

And today?  Unexpectedly, the enemy surrendered.  Three months of battle, gallons of cough medicine, three trips to the doctor, two days spent lying horizontal thanks to an ear infection . . . and now, today, nothing different, no new remedy, no new medication . . . just “it’s gone.”

Well, although I stepped back from the broader world of the internet, I focused what energy I had on making music and learning new things.  Over the next few weeks I’ll try to introduce some of them.

Also, some big projects are in the works . . . not music, but home improvement, oddly.

Today I’m writing this from my living room.  All around me, the bits and pieces of my world are spread out like debris from a wrecked starship.

That is, I just finished painting my music room, and I’m about to install a new floor.  My recording area, my computer, and all my musical instruments are scattered all over the house.  It’s like the twister from Wizard of Oz ran through them.

The weird thing is, I hadn’t realized how much that particular corner of the house really represented until it was taken apart bit by bit and stored in a dozen inconvenient locations.  I’m at home, but at the same time I’m not at home: I’m camping out in my own house.

Well, that’s the holidays in a nutshell: days you aren’t at work, but aren’t really at home, either.