22 thoughts on “December 29, 2016: Solitude”

  1. A friend of mine owns a used book store. In an email a couple days ago he mentioned getting an online order shipping to an APO address with "Bagram Airfield" in it. The book ordered was on ice fishing. I find myself intensely curious about how the knowledge gleaned from the book will be deployed.

      1. went horribly with my cereal...

        nah, i'd meant to mention it before. i've tried them on several different occasions now, and it's always got this weird, funky taste to it. kind of like fat tire.

        1. I never cared for the Nordeast, either, but I'm still a big Grain Belt fan. That's some proper 1420.

  2. In the last 15 months, in my small town there has been two suicides by men both 22 year old. I didn't know either guys, and only know of their families (of course if you livein a small town long enough you bump into everyone at least once) but I still feel deep sadness. It also make me wonder if there isn't something deeper going on with people that age living here. There are not a lot of younger people here because most kids after high school head off to college and never come back to establish roots. The ones that stay are working tough farming related jobs.
    I don't know, its all sad. I don't have any answers to all the questions. I just hope that everyone gets the help they need.

    1. It is very sad. I don't have any answers, either.

      Not to toot my own horn, but this is something I wrote a few years ago after a suicide in one of my small towns. Some people found it helpful. Feel free to share it if you think it might help. The families will be in our prayers.

    2. Sadly, suicides do seem to cluster amongst the young. There appears to be a bit of a social network effect.

  3. This is a book of faces post that a few of you might have seen. It concludes with an extremely high-quality baseball metaphor, so of course I immediately thought of you all. In the days, weeks & months ahead, I'm certainly going to do my best to keep it in mind.

    I was talking to an 86-year-old man at the gym last night as we were riding the exercise bikes. He was wearing khaki pants, sneakers, and a 1991 World Series sweatshirt. At some point in the conversation he said the saddest thing anyone has ever said to me: "One by one the lights go out. It's just part of the deal. When you start losing the people close to you is when it really hits home. I've lived long enough that I can pinpoint the last happy day of my last happy year. That's tough to live with, and I wish I hadn't checked so many of my swings."
    -Brad Zellar

      1. I'll be at a wedding, and entirely unable to even watch the game. I mean, I'll have fun, and I'm very much looking forward to the wedding but... I wish I could watch the game too.

      2. I wish I could. Can't believe the Wild have won 12 straight and they don't have the longest current winning streak. I hope the NHL Network or someone else picks up that game.

    1. I wonder when's the last time the Wild had six different players score goals in one game. Some years, it seemed like they only had six players score goals all season.

  4. Sorry folks, seems as though i won't be in the cities save for the flight out. Have a lunch on me if you can figure out my credit card info.

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