Wow… what a year. A TON has happened, and I really haven’t blogged much. So here’s what’s going on:
First off, I’m still here, writing as always. So that hasn’t changed one bit.
Second, there will be a new Clear-Writing website coming. This website has been up almost a decade, and in internet years, that’s a lifetime. I’ll be doing this myself with the Divi wordpress website theme/plugin/builder (whatever it’s officially called).
Third… besides the Cheilectomy I wrote about last post (which is juuuuuust about all healed now on Nov 24th), I had an interesting year. One huge thing was I ran for local office (town councilman). Of course, this was surprising to a lot of people, because I am NOT a political person. But I am a worker, and I saw things that I felt needed doing.
To alleviate the suspense, I did not win, but it really was an interesting experience, and taught me a lot, both good and bad (it also reaffirmed my opinion that fretting over politics is close to pointless).
It was also all-encompassing, because I went all-in on campaigning (I found out that doesn’t matter all that much.) I will have some more thoughts on this later – there might even be a book there.
But ok, campaigning was really intense, and took up a ton of my time. But the biggest thing that happened this year was our dog Heidi dying on November 18th.
She was 9 1/2 years old, and we’ve had her since 2010. She seemed VERY healthy, but unknown to everyone, her heart was a ticking time-bomb, and it suddenly went off. I still can’t quite believe this happened.

Heidi was a wonderful dog, and the wound of her dying is still fresh. But Maryellen and I understand all too well the deal we make with dogs: no matter how ingrained they are in your lives, they will have to leave you, and you must accept it.
We don’t have kids, so this left a HUGE hole. And just like we did when Ruby died in 2010 and we got Heidi 5 days later, we looked for our next pup. Meet Lacey, everyone. Shepherd/lab mix, 8 months old. This pic is from 11/23/2019.

Anyway, that’s where we are right now. Coming into the holidays with a new, energetic puppy, with a new website on the horizon, a “run-for-office” experience behind me, a healed toe, and a kickass attitude for business. This run for office required a lot of my creative energy, energy I now have in abundance.
How can I help you?