This post constitutes a warning – not to any particular person or institution, but to the world at large.

Give me a hard time, mess with me in any way, and I’ll pull up stakes and move to a spot within driving distance of this unnamed beach on Oahu.

Think I’m kidding? Try me.

Among the great ironies of our age: the overabundance of modes of communication intersecting with the utter lack of something to say. Ahem.

Actually, it’s a kind of bullshit cowardice to blame the culture at large for my not having much to say on the blog for, like, forever. Still, there’s a little irony at work here, yes, kinda, sorta? I spent a lot of time cobbling this blog together – and it’s not too bad to look at, admit it – only to post on it once every other week or so. Part of this is just pathetic time management, of course, hallmark of laziness and disorganization. To be fair to myself, however, there’s a fair bit of the old cobbler’s children and bare feet to this: I spend a substantial chunk of time each weekday advising folks on how to work their Thesis blogs at the DIYthemes support site, and it’s accurate to say that the absolute last thing I’m in the mood to do afterward is blog myself.

But I’m missing something valuable, something personal, by not blogging – not writing – on a regular basis. I need to reclaim that.

So, well, yeah. The mic is still on here, and unfortunately for you, dear listener, more frequent dispatches are on the way.

I apologize in advance.

Not to be confused with Riot Grrrl.

It was around this time last year – during this season of light – that I began dealing with Type 2 diabetes as fact of my life as opposed to something I might maybe, possibly, some day, have to face. I’m still here – thanks! – and in pretty good shape, all things considered. The condition is well-managed, as they say. So very well-managed, in fact, that I’m probably just a tad too relaxed about it all. Familiarity will do that. It’s something to address in the coming year, and I’m confident that I will.

I’m confident about the future in general. Much of that does come from having spent a year in the uncharted landscape of T2D, a valley of questions and grim fears, and emerging little the worse for wear. (So much of that is due to the love and support of my wife M that it won’t fit in this particular post.)

Diabetes isn’t the whole story of 2010, however. This past year has been a period of other successes that were wholly unexpected. I have enjoyed the fruits of past work and preparation that are all the sweeter because that effort didn’t really feel like work at the time. So much the better, then, I guess. I think that the future promises more of the same – assuming that I actually keep working, of course.

There is it. The year ahead is about work, I believe, work undertaken with gratitude for the opportunity to do it. The outcome of that work is unknown, unguessed, left up to Fate (or Providence or, er, Whatever). Life is full of events you don’t expect – and I suppose that that was the big take-away from the year just past.

Looking forward, then.

This is a colossal head outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. ‘Colossal’ is not used subjectively here.

This head is officially, objectively colossal.

Sighted on the way in to work: A giant pink rabbit with a drum and an oversized bottle of Michelob Light? Nah, they’re just the first of many balloons to appear in Forest Park, in advance of the annual balloon glow and race.

A closer view:

Note from my doc on my latest blood test:

Your diabetes numbers are still excellent at this time.
Your cholesterol has gone up about 30 points since last checked.
I still strongly feel you can lower LDL by exercise and diet alone.

Urgh. Fewer lasagna cupcakes, I imagine.

Listen to my wife as she talks about perceptions of disability in American life, and learn how to change those perceptions. Written transcript of the linked video available.