These are my thoughts, observations, etc.
Today I heard from the probate attorney that my father's estate affairs will be completed once I sign the legal document. Interesting that it came in the day after his birthday, but I'm glad it was today. This does mean that chapter is now done, and it is fitting that it happened right before Kitra and I begin our next chapter in Vancouver.
I wish I thought of Bill more, the way he was, instead of his end.
Today would have been my father's 78th birthday. Given how much his death last March affected me, I expected to be more upset or more sad, but, in all honesty, I feel sort of ... numb. I don't know if that's because I've reached some sort of level of acceptance or I'm still working through denial. What I do know is that I miss him and wish he was still in my life. If you're curious, I spoke a lot more about Bill in this episode of The Gutters, which is my audio journal in the Longbox Review feed. In it, I talked about him joining our family and his impact on me. Happy birthday, old man.
In lighter news, I discovered yesterday that I had lost 10 pounds in just over a month. When I started dieting, I weighed the most I've ever weighed, more than when I did at the beginning of my first weight loss journey nearly 25 years ago (when I got down to 175-180 lbs and one of my friends asked Kitra if I was sick). I think my anxiety and Bill dying played a large part in my overeating over the last few years, but I finally decided to do something about it last month. All this means right now is eating fewer calories every day and exercising more -- the basics. But it's just so easy to not do those things and end up 30 pounds over weight. And boy, am I craving sweets and beer.
I had a wonderful day. After physical therapy (treating my tennis elbows), I picked up a book I ordered at Bookpeople (Cry Out Loud by Tara O'Connor), got a great latte at Panhandle Cone and Coffee, and then did a bunch of stuff at home:
Kitra and I went to dinner with some neighbors/new friends, Chad and Kylie. Besides having a good time with them, I had the most amazing Oktoberfest from Shattuck Brewing. And the One Tree strawberry rhubarb cider was pretty tasty, too.
My experience with Neocities has been ... mixed. I like blogging like I did 25 years ago, but I still do prefer modern blogging platforms, like Wordpress, that allow me to schedule posts and not have to write HTML. On the other hand, it's been fun to dust off the coding cobwebs and learn new CSS solutions. Also, I have noticed that sometimes the CSS code I save doesn't immediately implement, which has been incredibly frustrating. Code and learn, I suppose.
I woke up this morning to the news that Robert Redford died at 89. I'm somewhat embarassed to admit that I have not seen some of his well-regarded films, such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or All the President's Men. I think the first movie I watched was Jeremiah Johnson on television and that was before I knew who "Robert Redford" was. I think I liked him better as a director though. His adaptation of Norman McLean's novel, A River Runs Through It, is a personal favorite.
Not only did I launch this blog yesterday, I also created a Teepublic store to sell my Longbox Review podcast merch. You can buy t-shirts, stickers, magnets, and a few more items at https://www.teepublic.com/user/longbox-review-podcast. The logo, by the way, was designed by Greg Stout, who is not only a great artist and former owner of Cover Me Tees in Clarkston, WA, he's my friend I've known the longest, and I think he's pretty cool.
Today, Kitra and I drove to Spokane, WA, to do some shopping and just get out of the house. We spent way too much money at Sleep Number, but we needed the new sheets and pillows. And then Kitra bought a bunch of books at Barnes and Noble and Aunties, so she should be set for reading material for the rest of the year. I did get John Scalzi's Redshirts, and as I was paying, the cashier asked if I knew he was coming to Aunties the next day, which explained why I was seeing his books all over the store! Besides that, Kitra and I had a fun time discussing what we need to buy for our new house in Vancouver, WA, which is where we are moving to next month. Come visit, won't you?
Everything old is new again...
I started blogging in the late 1990s after I'd signed up for dial-up internet with a local provider. They gave me some server space for HTML and I started a rant page, which was Twitter before Twitter: usually short posts about my day or specific observations. I then moved that over to Livejournal in ~2002 and then again to Wordpress in 2005. But I just sort of stopped making entries in 2016, deciding instead to use social media (Twitter, Facebook, Mastodon, Bluesky, among others). But now, I don't really like posting to social media. Plus, I had decided to focus on my comic book blog and podcast Longbox Review.
So this year, 2025, I've been thinking about returning to personal "blogging" and wanted to start fresh and simple -- hence Neocities (thanks to Greg Pak for the suggestion on Bluesky). Hopefully, I will be better at updating this site, with whatever I will add to it -- it's a work in progress, as am I.
© 2025 by Eric P. Isaacson. All rights reserved.