Being Present is my life theme for 2026. Being present for every moment of life with my fabulous 88-year-old husband of 42+ years, who is my lover, running buddy, and best friend. Nothing is going to get in the way of that.

Sometime during the night, I realized I would need at least two 3-D printers for my project of printing the world. When light began to shimmer in from the pond under the glass doors and Lulabelle the old chocolate Labrador came to my side of the bed and poked my overhanging arm with her nose, I had a moment of panic. The project!

Of course it was a dream. But why? Maybe to play God and make a new world?

7:15 a.m. Time to grind the espresso beans I keep in a jar and go watch the geese fly in and the sun rise.

We’ve been together a long time, Buck and I. When we met, it got serious fast. Like 5 seconds fast. He fretted about our 14 year age difference. After talking through a lot of whiskey, we concluded if we could get 20 good years, it would be worth doing. He was already nearly 44 and I was 30. The year was 1981. We eloped to Dothan, where Buck had a cousin named Patt with two t’s, who set things up with a county judge. Now he’s 88 and I’m 74. Pretty sure it’s gonna work out.

Nike had a special deal about ten years ago where you could add your own text to a pair of jogging shoes. Buck said, “Go for it,” and so I did. They fit like squishy bathroom slippers. I love them. Wish they were new again. I’ve always liked the little secret text: “Buck’s” on the left foot, “Girl” on the right.

Last year, I downloaded decades of my old WordPress blog archives, stashed them in the Cloud, and declared “I’m done with blogging.” But here it is, the tail end of this newest January, and it’s driving me a little nuts that I don’t have a WordPress blog anymore.

I have a perfectly adequate space for scribbling thoughts, pasting art journal pages and photos, all that, at OneNote. But, dang it, it’s just not pretty or fun, like this format can be. It’s dull and — I don’t know — somehow disorienting.

And so, I’m back amongst ye, at least for today.