Hello Everyone! I can’t believe it’s December, but it certainly is. Happy Holidays to you all. A very Happy Chanukah to everyone celebrating it around the world this week. And Christmas is definitely right around the corner as the stores are decorated and Christmas trees are starting to show up in the windows of peoples’ homes. I really love the Christmas season and am happy to be home for it again this year. It is sweeter for me to come home for it than just to be home for it like I was last year. I’ve spent a lot of Christmases and New Year’s Eves working, either on tour or at a restaurant somewhere, so it’s always nice to not have to work this time of year and I’m definitely grateful. I’m looking forward to spending the holidays with family and friends, attending Christmas events and enjoying it as much as I can. This is going to be a pretty short newsletter this week as I haven’t been doing a whole lot. I spent Thanksgiving and the following weekend with my dad in West Virginia and then made the drive home to D.C. on Monday in one shot. It’s been more off the road than on the road this week, which is fine with me.
It was great to pull into Charleston last Wednesday and see my dad and his partner, Judy, as I hadn’t seen them since before the pandemic started. They’re both well and in good spirits. Unfortunately, my dad’s macular degeneration has only gotten worse so he can’t see much at all which really limits what he can do. That’s just one more reason for me to keep doing what I’m doing for as long as I’m able to. I’m sorry because all of his retirement plans went out the window with his eyesight, but sadly there’s nothing that he or I or his doctors can do about it. I was definitely surprised that their dog, Sadie, remembers me after so many months. Sadie was rescued from a pretty bad situation and basically hates everyone except the two of them. A few years ago, when we were all visiting my brother in New Hampshire, I thought that Sadie looked like she couldn’t breathe and was having a heart attack. Well my dad couldn’t see her obviously and Judy came down on the side of better safe than sorry so we rushed her to the all-night vet. She was having a heart attack and they kept her overnight. We picked her up the next day, she hasn’t barked at me since. This week she actually came and curled up on my lap. I don’t know how dogs know or how they remember, but she certainly does.
It was a quiet Thanksgiving with just the three of us, but we did have a delicious ham, some great sides including a delightful broccoli casserole and of course two varieties of pie. We all slept in in the morning and we all enjoyed an afternoon nap as well. In fact, I slept quite a bit while I was there. Living in my van, no matter how safe a spot I am parked in overnight, some part of my subconscious has to be alert and aware. When I finally get to a warm, safe place I sleep really deeply and really well.
The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. I slept a lot and got far less work done than I had planned to. I did make it to the gym everyday which was great and got some photos edited, but I was generally content to just relax and do as little as possible. I also knew, and I’m not complaining about this, that when I got home to D.C. my phone would light up and my calendar would fill up quickly, so a few quiet days were just what the doctor ordered. We went out one night to get a nice meal at Hale House downtown which was a really excellent spot. The weekend passed by quickly, but it was great to see those guys and to take a few days off.
I got up Monday morning and hit the road towards D.C. It was an easy ride and I didn’t hit any traffic until I got to the Beltway. There was some snow up on the high mountains in the Maryland Panhandle but it was a sunny day and generally smooth sailing. I pulled up to my mom’s house before the sun went down, which was all I really wanted to achieve. My mom and my stepfather were up at my brother’s place for Thanksgiving and weren’t due back until the next day, so I unloaded some of my stuff from my van and headed over to my friends James and Kara’s place. Those of you who followed this blog through the pandemic will no doubt remember that I spent a good chunk of that time looking after their son, Mason. I’ve really missed the little guy and couldn’t wait to see him and how much he’s grown and changed. He wasn’t at all happy with me when he had to give up our daily adventures in the woods and go back to school which was really heartbreaking after all the time we had spent together. My mom’s been watching him at least once a week for a while though, and she’s been waging a public relations campaign with him on my behalf. He was a little shy when I got there, but warmed up quickly and soon was chasing me around the house. He showed me all the renovations they’ve done while I was gone and even asked me to put him to bed. It was wonderful to have him sit on my lap while I read The Polar Express, a book we read together every day last December. It was also great to catch up with his parents a little bit, and their dogs as well. Their younger dog, Toby, is my biggest fan. He’s happier to see me than my own mother when I show up and I’ve missed him as well. It was wonderful to see them all.
Yesterday I spent sunning some errands, unpacking some more and cleaning up. I wanted to get some groceries in the house so my mom wouldn’t have to worry about cooking or going to the store after their long drive home. They also got home before dark, and it was great to have them home. We had a few beers from Castle Danger Brewing Company in Minnesota which I brought for them and caught up a bit. We were all pretty tired, though, and all called it an early night.
As much as I love being on the road, it is definitely nice to be home for a while. It’s nice to go to my home gym and shop at a grocery store where I know where everything is. Variety and exploring new places are what I’ve based my life around, but every once in a while it’s nice to be in familiar surroundings, especially around the holidays.
So here I will be for the next 5-6 weeks. We’re definitely going to be out doing things and hopefully get a little bit of travel in as well. I’m really looking forward to holiday displays and events and to cooking with my folks. I’m certainly going to spend some time this week getting the rest of my Minnesota photos edited and published and then I can start working on my state albums from the last few months which should be fun. I also hope to get at least one new podcast episode done and clean up this site and some of my social media pages as well. Of course I need to start planning my winter path as well as there is a lot I want to see over the next few months on my way to California. I definitely plan to rest and relax while I’m here, but there’s a lot to do as well. I need to find a healthy balance, which I’m sure I can do. Anyways, enough from me this week. I hope this finds you all safe, warm and happy and that this month brings you all the joys of the season. Have a great week and I’ll see you right back here, same time next week. Thanks, as always, for reading.
-Mike