Well, the first thing you should know is that, notwithstanding radio silence for most of the year, the Sands-Clay tribe is alive and kicking and trucking along, mostly intact and safe and sane despite the year’s chaotic events (“mostly,” please note how I wrote.)

Elizabeth continues to treat her little “medically-fragile” cuties, and some elderly ones too, in such a way that they cannot do without her and so she has little time for much else except playing organ, conducting a church choir, writing a music bulletin, doing laundry, rooting for the Buffalo Bills, operating a kitty hostel and feeding children (of all ages) more often than seems fair. Oh, I forgot to add her other job of caring for her doting, drooling husband now close to maxing out his Social Security pension.

(“My dear boy,” Auntie Pat would say, “whoever told you that life is fair?”)

I worked for Robert Half International for most of the year in a vain attempt to look somewhat busy alongside my wife. I started the year managing logistics at a hose manufacturer in downtown Buffalo and in May I took an assignment the Linde Gas company in Tonawanda (American readers will be more familiar with the name Praxair.) It barely counts as legitimate work but it keeps me on a schedule and helps to delay, possibly, the atrophy of my scattered mind. One of the fun aspects of in-office work five miles away is that I ride my awesome fixed-gear Detroit Bike to and from whenever I can and it turns out to be the most rewarding of my routines.

George & Nina

The biggest event of our year was George’s wedding to the lovely Nina at Camp Stomping Ground, the summer camp venue where they met and where many of their friends live and work. They have owned a house in Glens Falls for three years so it was not as if this commitment was entirely unexpected.

What a joyous event it was!