You know The Christmas Waltz… where the singer goes…

Iiiit’s thaaat time of year…

I was singing that in the elevator and my brain randomly filled that in with “when my fingers get dry and crack.” I know that’s dumb but I have two painful crack on my hands. No matter how much lotion I use I still get super dry.

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Rain. Lots of it. Tired of it. Will be cold when it’s over.

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Joined the local homebrew club last night. Been meaning to for a while but we just could never make meetings. It’s a pretty fun group and I could see us enjoying it, especially when we get back to brewing. I feel like after the hurricane, and after Mexico, and with some on-going things dragging us down, we can never get ahead.

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One thing bringing life down is our dog. He’s 14.5 and really not himself anymore. He’s still somewhat spry but he cannot hold it anymore so I am constantly cleaning up. We can barely let him be out of a small area without having to clean up 3-4 messes within the evening. So we made the call and he’s going to be gone by 4ish. I hate to do it but he’s only getting worse. And why let him descend into that, you know? He can’t hear, his one “good” eye is declining, he looks emaciated, even though he eats enthusiastically… Either way, I want to remember him as the fun pup he once was – not the decrepit old thing I have to constantly clean up after.

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I feel kind of bad but I am excited to reclaim some things after my dog is gone. The laundry room for one. His crate is in there and I have to clean it all the time. The smell just permeates everything. Then, we can remove the baby gate, get all his other stuff out of there too. It’s sort of sad looking at it this way but in general, I am not sad that we will no loner have pets. People keep saying that his absence will leave a hole but I don’t know. Yes, I will have to adjust to NOT being woken up early or having to walk him late at night or multiple times throughout the evening to ward off a potential rug accident. Those sorts of things that you always do in and around the rest of your life are hard to get used to. Hell, I used to take birth control at 9 every night. It’s been five years and sometimes I look at the clock around 9 and still think I have to do it.

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In the new year, I really want to make time to teach myself guitar. I will most definitely suck at first but I think I am ready to pick up a hobby and stick to it. I have always loved the instrument and the more I get into certain bands and watch videos, I find myself caring more about the technical aspect.

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