Another holiday celebrated, everyone stuffed full of brunch and back on the road ahead of the wind that is now gusting hard enough to keep the motion-detection driveway light on full-time (and carrying in more juniper pollen). And the biggest change, the radio show concluded this morning as the Internet podcast age begins. Not a lot of change for me, I think, except I no longer need an alarm to check that a contest photo has posted each week, and I removed a weekly reminder about posting it. I did call in to pay my respects, to give a voice to the name he mentions several times every week (since I post his social media I also send him a list of the questions people have asked during the week - it helps eliminate dead air when he's trying to remember what else people asked him about, etc.) Cat sitting was finished yesterday, and I have a few days in which NO ONE NEEDS ME TO DO ANYTHING. Wow.

I have a couple of classic film DVDs from the library to watch (that I hate to admit I've never watched) and I'm going to go pick up some more salmon to brine (the batch I made for the ex and our daughter was amazing and it can be reused several times) and smoke in the next day or two. I think a perfect use of a bit of xmas cash, buying wild caught salmon.

Xmas day chat and consultation with the librarian daughter who had a broken Achilles tendon repaired surgically a couple of years ago was helpful to her father, and the result is that we both think he needs to see the orthopedist. My knees and her tendon were repaired by orthopedic surgeons. So starting next week we'll see about an appointment for a professional opinion. The GP hasn't been able to solve this one and he needs to get back to driving himself around.

This thread can continue to run into the new year because it was updated for the Mudcat thread count. In a couple of days I'll change the name to 2026.