Losing a loved one is always hard. What I’ve learned from loss, so far, is that everybody grieves differently; that each one is hard in its own right; that the best of our family and friends can live on in our minds even as the last time we saw them stretches backwards in time. All of that said, losing Mark hurt, and I found myself grieving him even before he’d really gone.

…

We can’t not write about our recent trip to California that we are most certainly riding a high from. This was the first trip in … a long while … that we went on just for fun! No weddings, no holiday commitments, just friends to see and good times to have!

We’ve been planning a trip to visit friends Natalie and Ryan in beautiful San Luis Obispo since 2019 (James reminds Sheila) and it …

…

James: Well, here we are. Five months into home-ownership, and a full year into quarantine. Sorry we’ve taken such a hiatus from our ever-attentive readers. There’s been the tendency to look inwards in this time; I was talking to one of my best friends the other day and we both were remarking about how easy it is to accidentally not keep people in touch, since with the people you …

Well, we took a month-long sabbatical back to the East Coast — escaping the worst of the Denver (and, to be fair, national) heat wave by driving back to New Hampshire to visit family & friends in late July. Upon arriving back to Colorado, with Buckwheat capering excitedly (no dog has ever been more relieved to get out of the car), we took a look around at our apartment and realized it was time to …