So after three years we were finally able to have another Furnal Equinox. Normally I try to write my con reports as soon as I can after the con, but this week and a half since getting back has been crazy as heck. So I hope to post this report in stages while I also share some of my art backlog and then finally share the art I received at the con. But it seems like the crazy is finally subsiding so without further ado, let's get into the details of my part in this great adventure!

Thursday

I woke up at 4 AM, had some coffee, finished packing, and spent a little time with my daughter before climbing into my car and heading off at 6 AM. The trip up to Buffalo was fairly uneventful with light traffic the whole way. I felt a bit anxious when I got to the border crossing, but I had all of the necessary documents on hoof and sailed through customs with only the standard set of questions. It was probably the earliest I'd ever managed to pass through the border. I prayed a Rosary in gratitude and then proceeded to the new home of my friend and roommate of all but the first Furnal,  Fulminar.

And you bet we hugged when we finally saw each other again!

From there we stopped to help one of the dealers, Jim Felker / AlphaWave (?), by picking up three very full boxes of old comics he was going to try and sell at the con. My car had started making a weird thump, thump, thump noise right before we stopped, but after turning the engine off for a few minutes as we got the comics loaded, I never heard it again. Whew!

The trip to the hotel was spent catching up on a lot of news with Fulminar (and enjoying the privelege of driving in the special HOV lane to avoid the slowdown). And on arriving at the hotel I pulled in right behind dear friends who I had longed to see again,  CatMonkShiro,  Nyomi and  DanRaccoon. We did a big group hug but had to save chit chat because we were in front of the hotel lobby and had to finish unloading. Fulminar got a cart for us and to our delight our roommate,  DaiCymru was there waiting for us. He and Fulminar took the cart inside after we got it loaded while I braved parking my SUV in the hotel parking garage. I liked the Valet service for it because that parking garage was the tightest garage I've ever been in; I had to back up and try again a couple of times to get up the ramps to the next level.

Once I made my way back down to the lobby we all went up to the room together. Dai had already checked us in and gave us room keys as well as the special custom keys the con had made but now which couldn't be used because in the interim the hotel had changed all of their door locks to a new system. It was great to get into the hotel room and lay down for a few minutes before I unpacked all my things, sorted out who got which bed, and general room preparations. We all talked for a bit about how we were doing and of course complained about COVID and the discussed the success and failure of various mitigation efforts our countries had all tried.

We walked down the street to pick up some Beaver Tails as a mid-afternoon snack. It seemed like a warm day in the sun, but in the shade it was just a bit too cool for only a T-shirt, and unfortunately that's where we ended up eating the (they were amazing). So once we finished we booked it back to the hotel.

About 3:30 I called home so I could talk for a bit with my daughter. She was very happy to tell me all about her day. Dai and Fulminar kept going "Aww, that's sweet" as they heard my part of the conversation and possibly my daughter's, not quite sure. After we talked for a bit I had to let Angie go as my wife other stuff they needed to do. Dai, Fulminar and I spent some time walking around the convention space after this, with Dai reporting in because he was also staff.

I don't recall too much about this time and was a little disappointed I didn't run into more friends. I did come across  Pakesh but that was about it. He tried to help us get our registrations done, but that wasn't to start until 6. I don't recall too much of what we did until a little before 6 when I attempted to get into the reg line. Things were fairly disorganized so I was able to find a spot near the front of the supersponsor line. Furnal tried to do a timed ticketing system so that we wouldn't end up with a huge line but that didn't work out. I was near the front but still had to wait a half hour in line before I got my reg. The computers were slow and I hear a few were even down. Poor Fulminar was in line for two-and-a-half hours.

Now, we had tried to get reservations to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner that night, but there weren't any openings. It's just as well because we'd never have made it in time thanks to the disaster that was registration. While Fulminar was stuck waiting I wandered up to the Dealer's Room and found CatMonkShiro and Nyomi setting up their booths. I helped Shiro with his set up for a bit as we talked and started trying to get caught up on each other's lives. Since I wasn't actually with any of the Dealer's I couldn't stay for too long, but it was good to help out what I could.

I checked on Fulminar in the reg line, saw he hadn't made a ton of progress, and so headed back into the hotel side of the convention space to look around for a bit. I stopped by the game room but didn't see anybody I recognized so headed back up to the room instead to grab something to eat. I looked to see if there were a room service menu but there wasn't anything so I subsisted on the snacks we had to try and slake my hunger.

Dai and Fulminar came up not long after and we ended up talking for quite a bit though by now I'm afraid I cannot recall what. By 10 o'clock I was too tired to stay awake anymore and so came to a close my first day of my first Furnal Equinox in three years.

Dominus vobiscum

I just returned home safe and sound from Furnal Equinox 2022. Dang I needed that. What a fantastic con with so many fantastic friends! More details will come when I have a chance to collect my thoughts and such. Here's hoping everyone else made it home safe and sound! And for those who couldn't come, you were missed.

Dominus vobiscum

Merry Christmas to all! We've opened presents and are now relaxing and enjoying each other's company. My daughter is playing Minecraft which she was very excited to get. I'm sure I'll get to play the games I got at some point! LOL!

I hope each and every one of you can find some morsel of joy that enflames your heart this most Blessed of Days. We have all received a great gift whether we know it or not.

Dominus vobiscum

I've been writing birthday journals for nine years now. Here are those that came before:

37: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5036489/
38: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6092268/
39: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7018568/
40: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7796928/
41: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8402940/
42: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8867733/
43: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9257568/
44: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9608508/

This last year has been an interesting one with lots of ups and downs. My daughter did well in second grade and has already started third grade. And she's doing very well in her gymnastics. She went from practicing four hours a week at the gym to doing twelve hours a week (three four hour days). This is going to take some adjusting. And it will serve to determine just how much she actually does love it.

The biggest change has been moving to a new house. We only moved a few miles from our old home, but the new house is bigger, has more land, and is on the corner of a dead end street. Angie discovered that there are two other families with girls her age on the dead end street and so she wants to play with them as much as possible. I confess I am both happy for her and a little sad, as before this she always wanted to play with me. Now she rarely asks me to play with her. And she's barely touched any of her toys or crafts. The new school year is just starting so we'll see what happens as she finds less time than before. I don't want to be selfish of course, but I do hope that as the tumult of the move winds down she'll want to spend more time with me at our home again. I know it delights her that I'm there waiting for her to get off the bus from school everyday so far!

We did have a wonderful vacation in New Hampshire last month. Saw the White Mountains, some black bear cubs, and lots of other amazing and fun things. It was a great family vacation and we all had a blast! We were already talking about coming back there half-way through the trip! If you've never been up there, it's worth giving it a try. There are so many places in the world filled with natural beauty and local charm. I'm glad I got to visit that one a second time.

I'm still dealing with stomach/gut troubles. The medicine I'm on for the acid reflux means I have less stomach acid, which means I don't digest as well, which can lead to some bloating in my gut from time to time. I've figured out a few things I should avoid in quantity, but there's still more to sort through. It seems I cannot go a year or two without some new health issue. Just part of the fun of getting older I suppose.

I always say something about wanting to write or read more and then never change enough to do so. I don't think with the new house and all of the changes we need that it's going to matter so much. I've got lots to do and lots to manage here. I just hope we'll have the finances to cover everything. My wife is trying to figure out what she wants to do with her career; there seems to be an opportunity to team up with a group of realtors so they'd all share the work, but right now it seems like the guy who's the linchpin is dragging his feet, so I'd appreciate some prayers for her there.

There is a lot of uncertainty in my life right now. So much has changed and will continue to change. I am doing my best to remain hopeful. I know I'm blessed in abundance, and looking over my past journals show this everywhere. I hope to do more with my family as we adjust to the new home and so forth. There are so many promising things to look forward to. I just need to relax and trust.

And yeah, today's my birthday. 45. Here's hoping that cons will be back next year too! I do miss everyone!

Dominus vobiscum

I'm going to be on Quasi-Hiatus from FA until September. This means I expect my activity to be even slower than usual though I will try to prioritize responding to Notes a bit more timely than I have been.

The reason is that my family is moving to a new house later this month as well as having our Summer vacation in August. It's daunting for many different reasons, but mostly because we've lived in our current home for 16 years now and all of my memories of my daughter's early years are centered here. It's hard leaving that, even if the new place is bigger with a bigger yard where we can do much more than we can now. It's just so hard leaving that which you know. I am trying to keep in mind that this is just one more of life's adventures and that I have had to leave other places before. I'm sure in time I'll be able to make the new place home. But it's going to be months of unpacking boxes and trying to figure out where things we made or bought for our current home can fit into the new one.

At least the vacation we have planned for August should be tons of fun and I'll get actual relaxation in.

And lastly it feels strange but in a good way to be able to go about my day without a mask anymore most places. The cool animal masks I bought back when the pandemic started lay untouched for the last couple of weeks. I miss wearing them a little bit because I loved being able to show my furry side without worrying about how non-furries will react, but they mostly just hurt my ears and fogged my glasses and honestly, they'll have times I might need to wear them again. It is a GOOD thing that the pandemic is over; we still have endemics to deal with and we might end up with a Seasonal Flu situation with this thing, but things as we knew them last year are in the past and that is a relief. I am happy to see faces again. Still like having that Zebra snout though!

Anyway, I do hope conventions will get started back up again later this year. I miss seeing everybody. Take care and count your blessings! We're still here!

Dominus vobiscum

Just wanted to post a quick update. I'm still alive, just very busy with a lot of different things right now which are keeping me from answering messages and the like. I do not know when I'll have time to answer but I'll try to do what I can next week.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter tomorrow!

Dominus vobiscum

Merry Christmas to every fur! Unto us a Savior is Born! Venite Adoramus!

Dominus vobiscum

Haven't updated since my birthday, so to summarize, Autumn went pretty smoothly for me here, nothing really worth discussing as such. Keeping safe, trying to be a good ZebraDad and Husband, and now enjoying Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity (so love getting to play as a Rito).

I'm also slowly churning through my backlog here. I was interrupted this last week when on Tuesday I got some of my lunch stuck in my esophagus for about 45 minutes; ended up in ER but by the time I got there it had passed through; I was not choking mind you, as I could breath and talk fine, so I knew it was the esophagus. Had an endoscopy last Friday to check out what might be going on down my esophagus and while they did rule out a stricture, they're doing some biopsies to see if I had an allergic reaction. It might also just be acid reflux so until I learn otherwise I'm going to assume it's acid reflux and try to eat better foods for it. But the endoscopy did require me to be sedated and it took all weekend for me to start feeling back to normal.

I'm going to be okay, but prayers are always appreciated.

Now it's back to preparing for Christmas and looking forward to two weeks at home with my family to celebrate. I hope everyone else is managing okay. Definitely looking forward to the end of this year and the start of a new one.

Dominus vobiuscm

This is my eighth year writing a birthday journal. My previous ones are here for those who are interested. I re-read them and smiled as some of the memories came back.

37: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5036489/
38: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6092268/
39: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7018568/
40: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7796928/
41: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8402940/
42: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8867733/
43: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9257568/

The last few years have been rough in a lot of ways, but still filled with blessings. Last birthday I mentioned we had lost $16,000 dollars due to various repairs. Thankfully that trend did not continue and we're actually seeing our finances turn around. Not completely of course, but progress is progress.

My daughter is now seven years old and starts second grade in a couple of days. It amazes me how much she's grown and learned already. She still doesn't care too much for playing board games all that often, but we're working on it. I also spent some time working on Math with her this Summer, and I showed her lots of different science experiments. Just the other day I showed her how when you have a faucet running over a flat surface, there is a ring of water that humps up a short way around where the water lands (the hydraulic jump) and that nothing you do outside this ring can ever impact the ring (no waves in the water can pass into the middle section); I did this by squirting food coloring into the water in different parts; essentially we're using that little bit of fast moving water inside the hydraulic jump as a White Hole analogue. Yeah, I'm a geek, but hey, Angie loved seeing the food color swirling around and if she learned a little something that's great!

We're currently spending the weekend sleeping in a test in our backyard. One last Summer hurrah before school begins. Our vacation which I chronicled at length was fantastic and all, but I am hoping to do some real camping next Summer and so the more comfortable we can get in our tent the better. She's enjoying the fun of seeing with our flashlights and waking up and having to walk inside. Listening to crickets for music to sleep by and all that. And last night a praying mantis had climbed up under the rain cover and we watched him for an hour; Angie had never seen one before so it was a real treat. Good times!

Her school is going to be full-time for now. Obviously if COVID fears kick back up they may have to go virtual again, but for now I'm glad she'll get to see her friends again. The school has a bunch of safety measures in place of course and I expect it will be sufficient, but we'll see. COVID has certainly messed a lot of things up, but I've discussed that before. I have had more time with my daughter and that's the one thing I know we'll always be grateful for as the years go by.

That and I love the animal masks I got, they make it look like I have snout/beak of various critters. Naturally I have a Zebra mask, but now also a Raccoon, Bear, Dragon, and Osprey mask. Kind of funny how I feel a little like each of those creatures when I wear the mask and imagine what fursonas for each would be. Of course Zebra is one I know well now, and to my surprise, is now my primary form. I like having hooves and stripes and long face with equine snout and spiked mane. I'm a Zebra and that's that. Triceratops is dear to me and I can always imagine myself that way and will certainly get more pictures of me that way, and I hope to write stories that way too one day. The Woodpecker Rito stuff I've done is awesome too and will be getting more of that as well. Rat is a wondrous treasure and I love them and I'm sure we'll see more of it too. I don't want to be all of these at once, but they are all part of me and will always be. I find it funny as I realize Zebra is primary only because of what my wonderful daughter said that one day. Truly those little moments can change you forever!

I have done more writing and reading this last year as I hoped and I certainly want to do more of each, and I also want to get back out on my bike more too. But honestly, I want to share more and more of the world with my family, especially since my daughter's old enough to appreciate it and not so old that her Dad is boring yet! LOL!

After the crazy things that have happened in the last few years I dare not speculate on what will come to pass before my next birthday. I hope for many things, fear many things, but in all I am going to do my best to trust in God to see me through all of them.

God bless all you who are watching! Time to hoof it and get to my birthday with my family!

Dominus vobiscum

Some final thoughts on our vacation. We'd made our reservations for this family vacation back in January when it was not yet clear how bad Covid was going to be worldwide. We've stayed at this same cabin twice before (two and four years ago) so there were many things we knew we could do, and some things we weren't sure if we wanted to do again. Covid put the kibosh on horseback riding as the only close place was in Maryland and crossing state lines is a no-no right now even though that part of Maryland would have been very low risk. It also put the kibosh on visiting the caves again as there would be no way to practice social distancing. And the ropes course we loved in Ohiopyle was also closed down which was a big disappointment. And Angie was getting too old for the kid daycare at Seven Springs but not old enough to really do any of the adventure activities they have there.

That said, all of the biking, swimming, hiking, and visiting we did do was wonderful. Despite the nasty sunburn the rafting was great and we definitely want to do it again. And as I've mentioned in some of the other journals we're planning on coming back to Ohiopyle some Autumn weekend just to see how it looks then. This was as stress free as I've been in a very long time. I am not looking forward to going back to work as I've got a ton of stuff I know waiting for me.

Still, I have responsibilities and what I do matters and I could not support my family without it so we go back. I do hope we'll be able to come back to this cabin again. I hope this is not the last time we'll be able to stay here and enjoy time away from all the pressures of the world. There is something so much more enjoyable about biking and rafting and swimming together than there is about any movie or video game. I dread the though of getting home and then finding ourselves slouched on the couch in front of a TV for hours at a time.

I also hope to do other vacations in the future. It is my long-held promise to my wife and now my daughter that I would take them out West to see the Black Hills of SD and the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone and the like. My daughter is almost old enough for it now. Next Summer we're already planning on coming back to Ohiopyle to camp for a few days since she's ready for that too. She asked me if we could camp in our backyard again and I think that's a great idea. Her school start date got pushed back by a week because of the influx of so many new students (probably because her school is going to be open while the public schools are on some painfully twisted half-in, half-virtual schedule that will do nothing to prevent the spread of the virus because they'll still be mixing every week), so we have some time to do it.

So despite the challenges, we've had a great trip. It will long last in my memory and will call me back in the the years to come. I look forward to reviewing all the pictures after we get home and laughing and pointing saying, "Remember that?" I hope that my daughter will never lose her love of the adventuring and wonder at the beauty of nature. I hope she will see vacation time as the best time of the year. It is for my wife and I.

Still, it'll be good to get back home and see our dogs again. Vacations are always temporary and the time to return home has come. I'm content and grateful for all I've been given. I'm so glad we were able to come here and have this time away!

Dominus vobiscum

Our final full day at the cabin was yesterday. Without a big lynchpin reservation these last few days have felt like extra days tagged at the end of our vacation but they have been enjoyable days and they made our vacation feel longer than it really was which is a good thing. Since we went swimming the day before, Wednesday was given over to a good bike ride and doing whatever else we wanted to do in Ohiopyle as long as we weren't in the water.

We had cereal for breakfast as we worked on finishing off various foodstuffs so we'd have less to bring back. Angie and I had the last of the Fruit Loops. She wanted to watch TV but I told her no cartoons, she had to watch one of the DVDs she brought. She picked Khumba, which of course has a Zebra as the hero, so naturally once I had the few things I needed to prepare ready I watched with her. After the movie was done we got dressed, packed my saddle bags with snacks, filled my camelbak with ice and cool water, and then headed on over to Ohiopyle for one last day of fun.

In case you aren't familiar with Ohiopyle, here is their website which actually has pictures of many of the places we've been in the last week: https://ohiopyle.org/

And here is the official parks website with more information: https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/.....s/default.aspx

I really cannot recommend this wonder of western PA enough!

So we parked in the riverside parking lot ad then rode our bikes through town to the GAP trail and then headed north. Heading north on the trail takes you over two bridges crossing the Youghigheny in quick succession as you traverse the Ferncliff peninsula. The first is the low bridge where the river isn't far down. The second is the high bridge after the river has rounded the peninsula and dropped ten stories in height (going through a squat waterfall as well as six class III and IV rapids). It's a pretty stark visual reminder of just how quick the Yough drops and how much fun the Lower Youghigheny is for rafting!

Mile marker 72 is at the start of the low bridge and I said we were going to get to mile marker 77 before turning around, making for a reasonable ten mile trek. No rush on how long it took though, so we stopped several times along the way for pictures, for water, for snacks, etc... At one stop there was a staircase and trail leading down to the river and so we parked our bikes and climbed down to a river view. While I scrambled around trying to get good views and pictures of everyone (and seeing if it were safe to climb the rocks) Angie began collecting little shells she found among the rocks. She also collected more acorns on the path as she went.

Two years ago we'd biked this trail but back then my daughter had been five and had training wheels on her bike. She didn't last too long and wore out very quickly. We'd stopped at a culvert with some very beautiful rock strata only one and a half mile in. I completely missed this culvert on our way out we were going so fast and so easily. I won't recount all of the places we stopped for pictures, just a few. One of them had an informational sign in front of a tall rock face. We stopped to get a look and saw that it was about coal. Back in the late 19th century coal mining was vital to the economy of the area and in that location you could actually see an exposed vein of coal in the rock strata and find pieces of coal strewn about the ground. Angie snagged a few of the smaller ones for her collection. My wife and I mused about getting her a collection case for her wall so she can organize some of this stuff and get them off of her dresser.

Everyone was thrilled when we reached mile marker 77 after about a hour-and-a-half of biking (including all the stops) and after having some snacks, I forged on ahead to see what was just a bit further down the trail. I went another two miles down before stopping at a spot where the trees opened up to reveal a field of black-eyed-susans and part of the river far below. I took a few pictures and headed back; I was pedaling at a little faster than my usual speed so I wouldn't be gone too long and felt it in my legs. I was away for twenty minutes, and in that time my daughter practiced her gymnastics routine on the trail, played with a catydid, and found a little frog she held a few times before letting it hop along and off into the woods.

On the way back we spotted a massive rock formation that just towered above us and showed the power of water very well as well as some of the strata of the region. Seeing exposed rock like this is something I yearn to see, there is just so much power and so much antiquity to it I feel very humbled and awed in its presence. We also found that culvert where we'd stopped two years back and we paused to grab a couple more pictures.

When we got back to Ohiopyle, we biked through the town to where we knew some restaurants were. We found the sandwich shop, parked our bikes, and while waiting for our order, delighted in watching the antics of a small bird darting and hopping around looking for crumbs. I was wearing my bear mask that day and did get a couple of compliments on it. It amazes me how many people are running around with plain masks on; I wasn't surprised I didn't see anybody with an animal mask like me, but there were a decent number with designs on them at least. If we have to wear masks at least have fun with it!

After we got our sandwiches Angie spent some time picking off bits of bread to toss to the bird trying to get it close. Her side was a dill pickle and I mean the whole pickle. My wife had to help her finish eating it; I'd expected her to get a spear, not the whole thing! But at least Angie did eat and had fun at the same time. The bird never let her get too close of course, but he was fun to watch too.

We then biked over to the playground for a bit so Angie could run around freely. She wasn't too interested in playing there, but there was another family there with a young boy and Angie took to trying to help him with all the equipment. It gave my wife and I a moment to sit and relax and watch, and gave her a little of the social interaction she's been missing. After the other kids left we saw a squirrel by one of the trees being rather bold in coming close to us. I started taking pictures while Angie crept closer and watched the squirrel move around. He was watching her in turn which delighted her no end!

Once we lost sight of the squirrel we rode our bikes back to the parking lot and got them secured on our car again. We then walked down to the river for a while. Angie really wanted to collect some more shells and so I took her to a section of the water it was safe to wade into and where a bunch of Canadian Geese were swimming getting scraps from other folks come out to enjoy the day. Angie took her shoes and socks off, I helped her roll up the end of her shorts, and she went right on it searching for shells. She also, of course, had to try and get close to the geese. One of them hissed at her at one point and she squealed in delight even as she backed off. She did find several shells, but she also found a few feathers from the geese, an old rubber fishing lure (without hook) in the form of some caterpillar thing, and a still living crayfish which darted away from her to her and a couple other kids delight.

A little after three o'clock we made her get back out of the water; she'd gotten her shorts pretty wet when she bent down to pick stuff up, so after sitting in the sun a few minutes so her feet could dry and we could get her shoes and socks back on, we walked along the riverfront to the museum at the falls again. This time I insisted that I be allowed to read - if only to myself - the information and "travel journals" in the museum. So Angie looked at a bunch of different stuff, asking us what some things were from time to time, and ended up looking at the various diaromas with my wife as I wrapped up the last of the info. The history of the location is actually quite interesting and varied from its time during the French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, the creation of the National Road which later became US-40 which helped settlers travel across the Appalachian mountains to the mid-west, and of course the aforementioned coal mining during the Industrial revolution, and then to the decline of the area as the rivers got polluted to the setting aside the area for protection and the cleanup that followed, even to the successful reintroduction of otters to the river back in 1992, and of course the first white water rafting east of the Mississippi!

Once I was done with the Museum we went to the General Store so Angie could sift rocks one last time. This time we got her the fossil bag and she was thrilled to find six shark teeth, some petrified wood, and plenty of other shells and mollusks and other things we have yet to identify. She's got lots of classification to do when we get home! Once we finished with the sifting we bought some waffle cone ice cream and sat down in the shade to enjoy the treat. My wife and I discussed coming back and bringing the dogs to just enjoy the day out; I know I want to come back here some weekend in the fall to see how beautiful it gets.

With ice cream done we said our goodbye to Ohiopyle and headed back to the cabin. Once back my wife and I did a little bit of packing and sorting stuff we know we're not going to use again. I got most of Angie's collections sorted and in bags for ease of transport home. Angie was busy drawing pictures and wanted to sit in my car to finish the one she was working on so I let her. Once I had enough sorted and Angie finished her picture, she came in to help my wife cut up one of our cucumbers to eat with dinner. With that done we went outside to play I thought, but Angie wanted to pick some of the wildflowers growing around the yard to put in the 'vase' we had on the deck table to surprise Mommy. I walked around with her while she picked the flowers (I made sure she didn't pick any of the actual garden flowers) and we talked about all the fun stuff we did and I asked her what she wanted to do again. Pretty much everything we did was on the list of course!

Dinner was fried chicken strips seasoned with thyme and rosemary along with the cucumber and the last of the orange drop cookies we bought at the Farmer's Market. It was the perfect temperature for eating outside in the shade and the food was good, but after having ice cream not two hours before we couldn't quite finish. We played a game of "I spy" while we ate.

After dinner was done Angie helped me collect some kindling for the fire we wanted to have that night. It didn't take long before we had enough and had the fire going. While I took care of getting everything ready and getting the seats around the firepit cleaned up, Angie took some of the scrapwood leftover in the shed and fashioned a little house out of them and a cross beside it. I am always impressed by her creativity and love of making things.

With the fire safe and her house complete we did a few other fun things one last time, like visiting the creek behind the house, playing on the tire swing and playing "Ship" on the playset - it had a ship wheel at the top and she wants to pretend we're pirates but this mostly involves me calling her "Milady" and she calling me "Pi Rat" and then me saving her as she slides down the slide or whatever. Oh, that and making Jaws sounds. We also played a few more rounds of monster while we still have a huge yard to run around in. I also snagged a few more pictures of the cabin and the yard and so forth.

About 7:30 the fire had settled down nicely and so we started roasting marshmallows. My wife was still pretty full so only had one while Angie and I had two each. My first got a little too crispy on the outside, but the second one I did was perfect and gooey all the way through. Angie made a mess of herself both times; my wife and I concluded that the Jumbo marshmallows were just too big and we needed to get the mid-size ones next time we did a roast. I got a damp washcloth for her to clean up the mess off her hands, face, and clothes. Once we finished the marshmallows she changed her pants so she could sit in Mommy's lap for the story.

I am currently reading her Redwall and so while we still had enough light I read two chapters to them both. Once done Angie wanted to do some scary faces and stories. She started first and did something silly with werewolves and bears and so forth and somebody being dead for ninety million ears and then springing to life again. I was reminded of the "scary" stories I used to tell around the campfire back when I was in camp as a kid. My wife elected not to tell a story. I had a few ones in mind, but not wanting to give everybody nightmares I concocted a story about a family with a little girl around a campfire in the woods, the little girl finds a flute she tries to play but it makes no noise. Then something starts coming toward them and all the sounds of the forest go quiet. I made stomping noises with my feet that got louder and louder. The shadow in the woods, for it never came into the light, called out to have his flute given back; and once they tossed the flute toward the shadow, it disappeared back into the woods and everything went back to normal, but the next day the little girl went to that spot to find her flute, but there was nothing there except huge footprints the size of her chest with claws!! I made scratching noises at my daughter at that last little bit. I apparently did a good job building it up because my wife says she was actually starting to get a little scared of the story too.

I started trying to tell another story about the lights going out but I lost the thread of it and we were all pretty tired, so we opted to go get ready for bed. Angie helped me douse the fire, and then we did our nightly rituals. Angie needed a bit more reassuring than usual before she fell asleep; final day of vacation and everything. But we did all get to sleep.

Today is our last day and we'll be having breakfast and doing the last of our packing soon. We should be home in time for lunch.

Dominus vobiscum

Yesterday we decided to revisit the Meadow Run Natural Slides and Cucumber Falls so we could get in the water one last time before the vacation ended. Unfortunately the weather has cooled since our arrival last week and never got to 80 yesterday, so we waited around the cabin in the morning until lunch time to head off. Angie tried to watch cartoons but the cable was having issues so she watched "Goosebumps" instead. I made sure to watch at least the parts with the werewolf in between getting things ready. Once her movie was finished I told her she could play outside. Instead she wanted to sit in my car with me and work on her travel puzzle book together. One of the books is focused on the fifty states and has different puzzles for each state. She liked to flip through the book and do whichever ones caught her attention. I tried not to do the puzzles for her, merely helping her understand what they were asking.

About eleven we headed off to Cucumber Falls but were disappointed when we found the parking lot was full. So we turned around and headed to the Natural Slides area instead because we had passed it by on our way and knew it's lot was not full. The only trouble with hitting the slides first is that they are under the cover of trees and so only patches of sun shine through. It was already a partly cloudy day to begin with so we also had that to contend with. We warned Angie we we're going to be making her take breaks to warm up when we thought she was getting too cold and she did take the breaks even if she tried to argue that she wasn't cold and was just shivering deliberately. LOL!

We first went down to the pool and shorter slide toward the bottom of the natural slide area where there's the most room for actual swimming and basic play. Some of the other folk mentioned a huge salmon in the next pool down so we went to check it out. Turned out to be a very recently dead fish (not sure if it was salmon or not, I'm not the best taxonomist) that I was able to bring to the surface so my daughter could show it off (and then we washed our hands). We played down there for a bit before my daughter asked if we could try to waterfall and bigger slides. So we found the little three foot waterfall and took turns sitting in it (water and air were just too cold to manage it as long as we did the first time as that waterfall was in the shade). We then headed way upstream to where the slide starts.

The natural slide is a little fissure on one side of the creek where the water has gouged a channel big enough for a person to slide down. When the water level is a little higher it will carry a person down most of its length all by itself, but as long as the water was we had to push our way down most of the slide, only actually being carried along in short sections. The entire river bed has been carved out of the pancaked sandstone rock so it's really worth checking out regardless of whether you like to swim or not. Angie and I went down the slide several times, or went down different sections a few times, and I even found a bore hole carved out of one section I could not touch bottom on that flared outward a little as it went down. I let Angie get up to her armpits in there while holding her hands just so she could feel it too.

My wife spent the entire time on the rocks taking pictures with her phone and enjoying the rays of sun she found. It was just a little too cold for her to get in the water. I also took several much longer breaks than I would have had it been in the 80s. After we ate our lunch we did the slides a few more times and then went back down to the lower part of the river and Angie swam around a good bit more before finally convincing me to let her jump off the rock. There was a rock on the one bank of the river where kids were jumping off a couple feet into a deeper pool. There were shallower rocks flanking the pool a few feet in every direction so I felt nervous about it, but nobody was getting hurt and it was pretty obvious once you were on the rock where to jump to stay safe. So I climbed up there first and helped Angie climb up there; the rocks were wet after so many swimmers had gone up first and they were steep too so she needed my help to get all the way up. Once on the jumping rock, she let another girl and boy who were a few years older show her where to jump, and then she did it herself. Angie was perfectly fine, loved it, wasn't afraid anymore, and immediately climbed back up (with my help) to try it again. I didn't let her go a third time because as I contemplated how I was going to get down, I decided the safest way down was to jump. I had to do a countdown in my head to get myself to jump and I shouldn't have kept my legs straight as I hit the bottom with one foot when I wasn't expecting to and jarred my teeth some. I took a break after that, thankfully unhurt if jarred. And since I wasn't going back up there, Angie wasn't either.

There was a nice place nearby the jump where we could get in deeper water and do some sorta swimming, and we did this for a while and had fun, but angle of the sun had changed by then and we weren't getting any of its lovely rays anymore (and yes, I loaded up on sun-block this time), so we decided to try and hike the path down to Cucumber Falls.

The path took us down to the river where Meadow Run creek empties into the Youghigheny river, and then down the river toward the falls. We found a huge section of river carved sandstone jutting out into the river that had formed a natural bay and decided to stop and do some swimming there. This proved to be a great decision because this stretch got plenty of sun, allowed us to see the rapids and watch rafters go down them, and gave us some really good spots for swimming in sun-warmed water (it wasn't that warm, but compared to the rest of the river it felt that way). We spent a good two hours here having a blast and to be honest, I did spend a good bit of it in the water too. Even my wife got her feet wet here. Angie loved it and while we could see where Cucumber falls were down the river (the falls are set back up another creek and not visible from the river) we just were having a good enough time here we did not bother going all the way.

But a little after 4 we headed back to the car, dried off and got changed, and headed back to the cabin. Angie was a little bummed when I told her no cartoons. I made French Toast and sausage for dinner, finishing off the last of our regular bread, the sausages, and half the remaining eggs. We used the maple syrup we bought at the farmer's market and my wife loved it while Angie and I only found it okay; that's what we get for being too used to the flavor of the store bought stuff! We watched Back to the Future Part III afterward and then Angie and I spent a few minutes looking for fireflies; I almost caught one but it was too early for many so we went back inside and got ready for bed with the promise we could check again afterward. I broke that promise but Angie didn't even notice, we were all just too tired after so much swimming and sun.

Today (Wednesday) is our last full day at the Cabin. We're going to go back into Ohiopyle proper today to ride our bikes. If Angie is good we'll even let her sift the sand again to find some fossils this time. Depending on how long the bike ride lasts will determine how long we just hang out in town. When we get back to the cabin we'll begin packing some stuff back up, but nothing goes into the cars until tomorrow morning.

One thing I noted is that we saw several folks with dogs yesterday, and each time we all wanted to go say hi to them. I do miss my dogs and look forward to seeing them again when we get back (they're in my mother-in-law's care). Our vacation seems to have been just the right amount of time as I'm ready to go home but happy to have one last day here; one last chance to make some more fun memories in an otherwise disappointing (to be charitable) year.

Dominus vobiscum

Sunday morning we relaxed for a few hours at the cabin before going to Mass as St. Joan of Arc Parish. Angie watched some cartoons for a bit before I told her to turn the TV off. She played some more with the little birds we bought her at the Farmer's Market the previous day. I joined her in the play and we had a big game of hide and seek. One of us would hide both birds and then ourselves. If we were found first and both birds still missing we'd try to give clues to help the seeker find them. I hid one of the birds under her hat and gave her the clue "On your Head"; she went for her pillows first, gah!

We got to the Parish a little early so we could spend a few minutes in their Mary Garden. It needs some TLC as some of the bushes were a little overgrown, but it was still nice. The praying bear statue was still there as well as the four realistic duck statues. Mass was good, the priest added context to the day's readings to help some of the shocking words of Christ make more sense. After Mass we headed back to the cabin so we could get our lunch.

After some boiled hot dogs and a change of clothing, we packed up snacks in my new saddlebags (that sounds like it should be the start of a fun TF story, but sadly no!) and took the bikes to Confluence and headed south along the trail just like I had done with Angie on Friday. My legs were in better shape by then, with only my right leg along the shin and near the ankle having any active discomfort. This far south on the GAP trail the elevation rise toward Cumberland Gap gets noticeable, so the entire time we headed south we were heading uphill, at least once we got across the second bridge over the Casselman River. The trail follows a course with some large granite excursions on the right and frequent sudden drops on the left toward the river. Several times the trail was flanked by wooden fences on either side where a culvert would go beneath. About three miles past the second bridge my wife and daughter called it quits as they were simply too exhausted. While Angie collected acorns and my wife relaxed, I continued on for another mile and a half upward to see what else there was to see in the little time I had.

I finally stopped at a field surrounded by trees. I took a few photos there, caught my breath, and turned back around. It took very little time to get back to my family. The slope was not so great that I didn't have to pedal to keep moving, but pedaling was really easy. I sat with my wife for a few minutes as Angie gathered the last of her acorns (she counted 48 while we were there and stuffed all of them in the little bike bag she has). We ate some of the snacks I brought and then headed back down the trail. Angie was a little bored of just riding, and it was somewhere in here that she made the "Government is stupid!" comment I mentioned in yesterday's mini journal. My wife and I were loving it. I always feel so energized when I can get out there on the biking trail or a hiking trail and have the trees and "untouched" land around me where the only music is what nature provides. My wife loved that and how much easier it was to go back downhill!

After we got back to the cabin we were all pretty tired; my wife and I sat in the chairs on the covered deck in front of the cabin while Angie worked on her latest craft. She drew two bees on paper, cut them out, and then taped the petals of a flower on for wings, and the stamen for antennae. Her raw materials are still on the deck in fact in case she wants to make any more.

My wife went in to make dinner at some point, pork chops and rice pilaf, while I played some with Angie on the tire swing. After a good dinner we sat down on the couch and watched "Back to the Future Part II". We played a little bit more afterward, but soon it was time for bed.

Monday began with another breakfast with cereal (Fruit Loops for me) and Angie did watch a little cartoons, but we didn't have time for too much as we had a 9:30 tour at the Frank Lloyd Wright house "Kentucky Knob". One thing that did start on Monday that was new was that the skin on my legs started molting, peeling, whatever, where it had been burned. I was picking dead skin out of my leg hair throughout the day as it came off. Good to see all of that healing up finally.

Kentucky Knob is one of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian homes, which means one he built that folks were actually supposed to live in year round. Fallingwater is only about seven miles away from it, and we'd been there a few times, but that was always a getaway house, not one for living and it showed. Kentucky Knob was built as if it emerged from the top of the hillside, and had a hexagonal structure with the only right angles being those between the floor and the walls, between walls it was always 120 or 60 degrees. Triangle and Hexagonal designs were everywhere. We only paid for the walk-through tour which thanks to COVID did not include the bedrooms, but we did have free reign to explore the grounds after the tour. They had a beautiful overlook about fifty paces from the house, and a long walking trail back down the hill dotted with various modern art sculptures including several kinetic sculptures that moved with the wind and even a section of the Berlin wall where we got to teach Angie some history. She did a great job not touching things in the house, but once we got out wasn't quite as good though she did still try to curb her natural impulse to touch stuff. Once we finished with the trail we got back to the visitor center and gift shop; Angie got two kid travel puzzle books and a pencil with a ruler on it, while I grabbed a couple commemorative magnets.

On our way into Ohiopyle for the rest of our day Angie already started in on our of her travel books. We first went to the little Ohiopyle museum which was thankfully open and learned a little of the history of the area as well as the history of rafting on the river and of the ecology of the area. The museum had two dioramas set up and we all had fun flipping through the "travel journal" associated with each and finding all of the animals depicted in the diorama. There was also a station where you could hear the sounds made by each animal. The interactive video screens were all shut down thanks to COVID, but Angie could still use the stamp machines and touch pretty much anything else. We all got a good squirt of sanitizer before we left and hit their gift shop too.

I grabbed another pair of commemorative magnets (I use them at work to hold up pictures of family and especially my growing collection of Angie's school pictures), while my wife snagged a T-shirt Ballcap combo and Angie grabbed a Stag and Fawn pair, the Stag is named Bucky, and the Fawn who is a boy deer is now named Jack. We dropped all of this off in our car before heading back down to the river to get a few pictures of the waterfall and then on over to the "general store" where you can buy a bag of sand with some semi-precious stones inside to sift them out. Angie had a blast doing this and then comparing each stone you find against a little chart to see what they were. She was thrilled when she got not one but TWO pieces of pyrite!

We carried this around with us as we grabbed some lunch at a pizza place down the street. The pizza was good but thin and we gobbled it down pretty quick. The town playground was across the street there and so we stopped over by it to let Angie play for 20-30 minutes while we let our stomachs settle. Naturally I was exploring the playground as well. The playset was themed with the area, so there were rocks with fossils in them, and the "tree stumps" on which the ladders, platforms, and slides were built had little holes with "animals" in them. A raccoon was looking out from one hole and since I had my raccoon mask with me, Angie snapped a picture of me next to my kin. Definitely a "problem" with these animal masks, they make me want to get more sonas!

We moved the car over to the trail head for the Ferncliff Peninsula around which the Youghigheny river flows (and drops 100 feet too). The previous times we'd come here to hike this trail we never made it all the way around because Angie would get overtired and we'd have to carry her so we'd cut out on one of the shorter trails back. This time we did make it all the way around and a couple diversions down toward the river where the landscape allowed so we could see the rapids and watch the rafters go down. All the while Angie was collecting more acorns, a blue jay feather, and a couple of beautiful yellow leaves. I hiked knowing we had to come back down here in the Fall to see how beautiful it would be.

Angie twisted her ankle on one stretch of path and dropped one of her leaves. She was able to walk so we knew she'd be okay, but she did complain about it hurting. Been there, done that! A few minutes later she realized she'd lost her leaf, so I raced back being the crazy mountain goat with great footing on rough terrain (my family does seem to have great footing on rough terrain and do all of our tripping on that treacherous level ground), found the exact leaf she had, and raced back. I did slow down half-way back. Good grief I'm an idiot.

The last part of the Ferncliff trail actually leads out onto the rocks on the bank of the Youghigheny river right where the waterfall is, so we were able to get pretty close to the waterfall. I kept saying I wanted to go out to the edge of the rock for a closer look and Angie would always announce she wanted to see too. I helped her on the bigger steps up and down and made sure she wouldn't hurt her foot worse. Although, I will say that this is one of those benefits of being a parent; after a few years you can tell when an injury is serious and when it isn't most of the time. I could tell that this one was going to be okay the more she walked on it. I promised her that once we were back at the cabin I would put an ice pack on her ankle and she could sit and watch a movie to let it feel better. And it worked.

After we got beyond the part of the trail on the rocks it was a fairly short hike back to the parking lot and our car. Angie resumed working on her travel puzzles while I pondered what sort of things we could do on a visit down in the Fall. When we got back I kept my promise to Angie, offered her a choice of the five cartoon movies she brought and had not yet watched; she selected "Lilo & Stitch" and we all watched it together while she had the ice pack on her ankle. By the end she felt fine and was running around the yard.

We roasted hot dogs over a fire for dinner again. Angie helped by getting a couple nicer chairs out of the shed for us, and even tried to put some of the kindling on. After lighting the match, I let her actually light the crumpled newspaper on fire. I got the fire good and hot and even bigger this time. I ended up cooking my hot dog partly by balancing the skewer on the stones of the fire pit just so I didn't have to be so close all the time. Angie loved the idea and managed to do it too (very proud of her for figuring it out).

After devouring those delicious hot dogs, Angie and my wife got the archery set out again while I cleaned things up, got the makings for smores ready, and tried to get the fire to settle down. I joined them for a little archery too. Angie brought out the tennis ball gun to try on the target a couple of times too. Once it was late enough and everybody's stomachs were settled we sat back down around the fire and roasted our marshmallows for the smores! Angie, being a kid, delighted in catching her marshmallow on fire. I did the balancing trick again and my marshmallow didn't even brown at all; the inside was so gooey though I almost lost it as it was sliding around on my skewer. The smores were excellent and tasty; Angie made a huge mess with hers of course and had the stickiness all over her fingers, mouth, and even a little in her hair. I had a second smore to finish off the chocolate I'd opened, while Angie had a marshmallow by itself, which she kept setting on fire and blowing out until the whole things was blackened. She ate it in her hands and before going inside to get cleaned up had a spiderweb of marshmallow goo between her hands.

Once we were all cleaned up we came back out and played frisbee for a while before my wife needed to get off her feet. Angie and I played a little target practice with the frisbee, trying to throw it through the tire swing. We even succeeded a few times. We then made a version of our "Monster" game that involved the frisbee. "Monster" has one person being the monster, the other the human. The human has to run from one end of the field to the other and between two small pines. The monster has to catch the human. With our variant the human started with the frisbee; they would throw it and the monster had to stop whatever they were doing until they had the frisbee in their hands and yelled "Got it!" At that point the human had to stop whatever they were doing and chase the frisbee. We did that three times before I was worn out.

It was after 8:30 at that point and starting to get dark out so we came inside to get ready for bed. Two more days left on our vacation. If the weather stays nice we'll revisit the swimming places on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday we'll do some biking in Ohiopyle, and possibly visit a couple of other spots in the town. We plan to have one more fire Wednesday night and roast marshmallows then. This has been a great vacation despite the sun-burn and I'm hoping these last two days prove relaxing and fun to cap it off. Then comes sorting through all of the many pictures we took to find a few gems to share. Oh, and getting back to work. Yeah, gonna have to do that too, hoo boy!

Dominus vobiscum

I'll write up a more complete journal of yesterday's fun probably tomorrow morning. But this was too good not to share on its own.

While biking yesterday, my wife became overheated so took off her helmet. My daughter wanted to take her helmet off too but we told her no. She said she didn't crash anymore. I said even if that were true, the state government requires kids under 12 to wear a helmet on the trail. Her response?

"Government is stupid!"

On the right track there, kid! Keep it up!

Dominus vobiscum

My wife headed back to our home early Friday morning so she could pick up her new pair of glasses, do a little shopping for the things we forgot, clean some laundry, and clean the gym. So it was a day for just Angie and me to have fun together. We had some cereal for breakfast while Angie watched more cartoons and I got caught up on the news after taking a shower and sitting there letting the cool water wash over my legs as I prayed a Rosary to count the time.

The sunburn on my legs was still pretty painful, but I discovered that it actually didn't seem to bother me while I went biking with my daughter. We started on the GAP trail near Confluence and headed south for about an hour before turning around, eating our lunch, and coming back for about nine total miles. Every time we stopped and I had to swing my leg over it definitely hurt, but I managed. Also got to try out the new saddle bags I bought for my bike; they worked pretty well up to the end of the trip when the fact that one side was a little unbalanced finally had it start bumping into the tire. Going to have to do better about keeping it balanced next time. The trail was quite nice though, more hills there than in our usual part of the GAP trail, and it started following the crazy-low Casselman River. I could get across most of it without getting my jeans wet!

We stopped by the local Dollar General to find a few things we knew we'd run out of (like Bread, Eggs and Milk) and I let Angie get one of those paddle balls, you know, the paddle with an elastic band tied to a ball you're supposed to try and get into a rhythm. She was surprised when I said she could have it, but delighted to get a new toy to play with. And then she was having so much fun carrying it around we almost forgot to pay for it! I was happy to find a spray for burns as my legs were definitely still hurting quite a bit.

When we got back to the cabin, and after I put the groceries away and applied the spray to my legs, we watched "Rio 2" which also has significance for our trips because we bought this movie from that same Dollar General on our vacation here two years ago. I zonked out for a few minutes half-way through the movie because I'd only managed 3-4 hours of sleep the night before. Angie nudged me back awake. We tried playing outside that afternoon, but I just could not get myself to run around (Angie had even of her own volition grabbed the sun screen and tried to put some on me before we went out). So after an hour of various things we went back inside where Angie started to draw some Rito on the white printer paper I brought for her. She then cut each one out of the paper once finished and colored. I drew one too that looks close to my woodpecker Rito-sona. Angie's Rito all had family relations, one was the Dad, the next the kid, and then another Dad for my Rito, and even a Dog-Rito as the family pet! It was a lot of fun.

At Angie's request we called my wife to check up on her, and that turned out good as both Angie and I were able to ask her a couple of things we needed. Angie was excited to show Mommy the new toy for one. My wife was doing good, loved her new glasses, and had found some sunburn cream that had really helped her shoulder. We called again later that day before dinner too to see if she was done cleaning at the gym (which she was).

I boiled up some hot dogs for dinner and we watched "Back to the Future" together. It was Angie's first time seeing the movie and I'm not sure if she understood the whole plot of Marty trying to get his parents together and how George laying out Biff changed the course of their lives for the better, but she did keep asking whether Marty was going to get back to his own time. I was only a few years older than her when I first saw the movie, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that the plot was a little too confusing to follow at first. Still, that music is freaking awesome and what a fantastic movie. As I said in my journal from a few days ago, I do miss my brothers at times like this and part of me wishes I could get back to 1985, but I am glad I am alive now and more than happy to be father to my daughter and husband to my wife. I am blessed!

After the movie we did more Ritos for a bit, then she played some with her paddle ball. She was fiddling with the other side where the string was tied with a crestfallen look on her face and I cautioned her not to mess with it because we don't want it to break, then asked her, "It broke already didn't it?" And yes, the ball had come off the string less than 12 hours after we bought it. For a one dollar toy that was still pretty cheap. She was sad because now she wouldn't get a chance to show Mommy. I comforted her a bit, and then she had an idea of buying a second one, and once it broke too, we could use them to play ping pong. Ah, wonderful!

I let her stay up later than normal so she could see the fireflies come out. We saw some but there was a lot more than fireflies out there so we came back in to avoid getting eaten. This time I took a single Tylenol right before bed and had no trouble getting to sleep.

Saturday I woke to it drizzling outside. The pain in my legs was not as bad as before. Angie woke up ten minutes after I did so I let her watch some cartoons to start the day. I had some of the raisin bread for breakfast while she had regular toast with jam. My wife got back to the cabin around 7 and while she was a little sore from yesterday, seemed to be in better shape than I was. She loves her new glasses and says she can see much better now (even though the optometrist say her prescription barely changed).

We went to a Farmer's Market about a half-hour away that morning. I decided not to bring my Dragon mask as I didn't want to unnecessarily startle the Amish and Mennonite farmers selling their crafts and fresh-grown crops; I elected for my Osprey mask instead; if I have to wear a mask I'm going to have fun with it and show my furry side off! (I've also got Zebra, Raccoon, and Brown Bear masks). It was raining/drizzling the entire time we were there which made some of the folks who were outside leave early. We walked the whole place once before going back and buying things to my daughter's dismay as she kept finding things she wanted and we kept saying wait and promising her she'd be able to get something.

In the end my wife bought some sourdough bread, orange drop cookies, and fresh maple syrup. I bought a tie with a lighthouse on it (I love lighthouses for some reason I can never quite explain), two leather belts and two bars of goat-butter soap. For my daughter she got a toy horse and rider whose hair she can brush, and a plastic bird cage with a pair of birds that tweet, sing songs, and even can repeat back to you some of the things you just said. We also bought four jars of Amish jam of various flavors we look forward to trying. Angie helped me pick the flavors.

We had originally planned to go out to Mt. Davis which is the highest point in Pennsylvania and not far from the Farmer's Market, but it was raining pretty good and the whole point was to get views from up there so we decided to just head back to the cabin. In the end it rained the entire day! After a sandwich lunch my wife watched one of the movies she brought, "Two Weeks Notice", one of those romantic comedies that I could barely stand the first time. My legs were smarting from all of the standing still at the market (standing still hurt worse than walking) so I opted to take a short nap which lasted about an hour. Angie was being good and playing with her toys. I snuck off into the back room of the cabin which is a covered and mesh-enclosed porch to listen to the rain, feel the breeze, and finished reading my book - "Feasts and Seasons" by John C. Wright which is a collection of short stories each of which has a theme from one of the major feasts of the Catholic calendar. Naturally, my hope for privacy ended in both my wife and daughter joining me in the room five minutes later; it's okay though as after a few words my wife pulled out her Kindle and Angie played with her tweeting birds so I was able to finish the final story. It was a tear-jerker though and I had to tell my daughter what happened in the story so she could understand why I was crying.

About this time I noticed that my right ankle was slightly swollen; not a ton, just enough to be noticeable. She got the ice pack for me and that helped. That's probably why I couldn't stand still for long. We ended up crashing on the couch and watching Duck Tales for about two hours. I hate watching TV because of the commercials, but I put up with it because there was little else we wanted to do; too wet to go outside. None of the boardgames at the cabin were the type anybody would be interested in playing that I could tell. My daughter had found a scrabble piece and I'd have loved to have tried to teach her that game (knowing I would have had to help her spell a few things) but they didn't actually have it. Christmas list time!

My sunburn didn't actively hurt except in a few places like near my ankles, but every time my daughter or anything else bumped them dang did I get a lance of pain! I kept joking with my wife that I really want to go rafting again but we need to do a much better job of applying sun-tan lotion. My wife pointed out she did offer to reapply it while were out; I so wish I'd taken her up on it, but the trouble was that by then we were actually almost done and it was too late anyway. Ah well.

The last thing we did on Saturday was head out to the Stone House for dinner ( stonehouseinn.com ). It was to celebrate twenty years of marriage for my wife and I. They gave us a 45 min to 1 hr wait for seats. We waited outside where Angie found a beer bottle cap and proceeded to play a game of flipping; my wife had Heads and I had Tails (of course I did). This game actually made the time pass pretty quick; we tied at 71 apiece before they called us (less than 30 min wait). While waiting for our dinner Angie drew another couple of Ritos on the back of the kids menu including a . We had their Buffalo Mozzarella for an appetizer (one huge mozzarella stick in sauce) and then my wife and daughter shared their Smoke House Sampler while I had the Chicken Parmesan. We finished up with some dessert we took to go (too full to eat it there). The rain had finally stopped by the time we left about 7 o'clock. It was a really nice Anniversary dinner. I'm so blessed to have her as my wife. May we have many more anniversaries!

When we got back to the cabin we made sure to close all of the windows and then enjoyed our dessert (wife had Bumbleberry pie and I had Chocolate Peanut Butter cake, while Angie shared with us). We played with Angie's new birds for a bit, she drew one more Rito and then played a little with her Leappad before we went to bed.

So our vacation is half-over at this point. We have four days to go. My ankle is not as swollen this morning and most of the sun-burn doesn't really hurt anymore (still hurts in a few places). We're going to Mass this morning and then in the afternoon we'll do some more bike riding. Monday we've got tickets to see Kentucky Knob and then spend some time in Ohiopyle. We'll try to do some more swimming at the natural rock slides and the river Tuesday or Wednesday, maybe some hiking. Despite the sunburn this is honestly still a really good vacation so far.

Dominus vobiscum

Yesterday on our vacation we went White Water Rafting down the Middle Youghigheny River. The Youghigheny has some of the best White Water rafting on the East Coast and there are three places on the river that offer rafting tours, the Middle, Lower, and Upper Yough. The Upper Yough is down in Maryland and is psycho crazy with class 4 an 5 rapids; we did that one twenty years ago and it is off the bucket list; I doubt I'll ever do it again unless my daughter asks me for help when she's older. The Lower has class 3 rapids and a single class 4 and is typically the part of the river I'd want to do for some excitement mixed with some relaxing stretches. The Middle is just class 1 and 2 rapids with lots of open stretches for lazy river floating and swimming so its perfect for my daughter and other kids.

There was a wrinkle this year though; the water level was crazy low, so low the rafting company recommended we take two duckies instead of a full raft. We agreed, and so Angie and I were in the two-man duckie, and my wife in the one-man duckie. We had to drag the duckies out a good way through the water because the rocks were so close to the surface, and we had to get out several times along the river to drag the boat along. But where we could move we did so pretty well. I've had enough experience on the water I spent a good bit of my time trying to teach Angie. The first two-thirds of the trip she wasn't too helpful, but the last third she started truing to do all the rowing and complained whenever I helped her right the boat, claiming it was "Kid Culture!" not that I know where she got that expression or how it could apply. That said she did all right for her first real time rowing; I let her get us down the last part of the river, only taking over when we had a rapid to get through.

The only downside to the whole trip is that my wife and I apparently did a horrible job putting sun-tan lotion on each other. Her shoulders and legs got burned, while my legs got burned pretty bad. They still sting this morning and are quite stiff; I had to take Tylenol to get the pain to settle down long enough for me to sleep last night. And that's after rubbing them down most of the evening with ice packs. I think I'll have a cool shower this morning.

Despite the pain we grilled up some steak, chopped up one of the cucumbers from our garden, and I still played outside a little with Angie that evening. While icing my legs up we were watching "Penguins of Madagascar" which was one of the movies Angie chose to bring; it has a bit of history with our vacations because we first saw it during our first trip to this cabin four years ago, or rather, Angie was in the middle of watching it while at a kid play place at Seven Springs resort when we came to pick her up. We promised her we'd rent the movie so she could finish seeing it; man it's genuinely hilarious, and my favorite of the Madagascar movies.

Assuming my legs are up to it we'll be doing some biking today and other shenanigans around the cabin. My wife had to head back home to pick up her new pair of prescription glasses and will be taking care of some chores and grabbing the things we forgot to bring (or didn't know we needed) so it's just Angie and I today. I brought, as a surprise, some marshmallow blow guns made from pvc pipe that should be a lot of fun.

I do not think I'll have a ton of time to get to any messages or anything else on FA while I'm on my trip, so if I owe you something I'm sorry it will be late!

Dominus vobiscum

Good news! The August vacation my family had planned is still happening and we're now at the cabin enjoying ourselves. We arrived on Tuesday and my daughter has already had fun with the tire swing, the playset, the nearby creek, and some of the toys she brought. In the days leading up to leaving she painted an old piece of scrapwood like the US flag and now has it sitting on her sidetable at the cabin. It didn't take my wife and I too long to get unpacked and settled in to the cabin. We've already got a decent list of the things we either forgot to bring or were surprised to find not available at the cabin. We've stayed at this cabin twice before so we anticipated most of it, but there's always something.

After getting things unpacked and helping my daughter play on the tire swing and visiting the creek (which is really low this year) we drove into town to get something to eat. We walked through town, across the two foot bridges over the rivers to the town square and were saddened to see that M. Corona had ravaged the place in other ways. While this area of the state is largely unscathed by the virus itself, the governor's shutdown orders had put almost all the restaurants out of business. Angie and I explored the railroad tracks for a few minutes (with me having a very watchful eye and making sure she was never more than a few feet away from safety) and I showed her some railroad spikes and the like, before we wandered the park in the town square and visited a Revolutionary War memorial and then headed back across one bridge toward the only restaurant we saw open; we'd skipped it since we knew it was expensive, but it was the only one open. We got lucky that they had a table for us since they prefer reservations (especially with only 25% seating capacity rules) and while it took a long time to get our food, it was excellent and we polished everything off.

When we got back to the cabin we played around with the tire swing some more before crashing; my daughter turned the TV on and it was set to Disney XD and the new Duck Tales was on, so we watched that a bit before my wife crashed. We're in the middle of watching the new Duck Tales for a second time as it's surprisingly good. There is a nostalgia factor for me since my two brothers and I loved the original show as kids, but it's got genuinely good characters and plot and develops from episode to episode. There is a bittersweet quality as well; it makes me realize how much I miss my brothers. As a kid we wanted to be Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Now as a grown up and a father I find I identify more with Donald Duck in this cartoon, the protective Uncle who is not the cool relative but the one you can count on no matter what. But I still miss my brothers and being on vacation makes that separation more apparent. Oh, they're alive and all, we just don't get to see each other that often anymore. We weren't triplets, but we were close enough in age that we were always doing stuff together. We were each other's best friends growing up. I love my daughter and am doing all I can to make her childhood one of joy, learning, adventure, and something she will look back on fondly and yearn to pass on to her own children in time, but I do wish my brothers could be here with me too.

Yesterday we spent a good bit of time playing in the yard again. Angie broke out the tennis ball gun that my Mom bought for us years back (which none of our dogs care about and we cannot use at our house because the yard is too small); she played target practice with the tire swing and we joined her in it. We then brought her archery target and bow over and we all took turns practicing with it. Close to ten we headed into Ohiopyle and played at Cucumber Falls first. We all had swimming suits on of course and our water shoes! Angie and I headed into the falls while my wife took pictures from the dry land of which there was a lot because the falls were the smallest I had ever seen them! That full month of dry 90+ weather we had really lowered the water levels around here. There was still a good amount of nice cold water to play in, and Angie did try to splash me as she promised she would.

We then went down the stream to the river and did a little swimming there. There were some fishermen there at first, and we even saw one of them catch a fish, but they left not long after and for a little bit we had the river to ourselves. Rafters came by about eleven thirty and we watched them go down and into the rapids for a bit before we headed back to our car to get dried off and eat the sandwiches we packed. Thanks to Weird Al's song Foil, and we forgetting to pack sandwich bags, we had wrapped our sandwiches in aluminum foil and to be honest it really did a great job keeping them fresh.

After lunch we headed on over to the Natural slides and spent a few hours swimming and sliding over the rocks. Saw two kids get hurt when they slipped (nothing more serious than a busted lip thankfully) but it was a good lesson for my daughter, especially when I pointed out that both of those kids had not been wearing their water shoes. Angie kept hers on after that! I found one part of the creek where the water had bored an almost two-foot deep hole in the rocks underneath, and we had fun stepping in and out of it as we slid around. Before we left I showed Angie a small three foot waterfall you could sit in and we loved that. She kept saying it felt so weird! I loved the waterfall massage!

We headed back to the cabin after that with only one pit stop to pick up some firewood and a newspaper I could burn (I did look at the comics first). We cooked some hotdogs over the fire than made some campfire banana boats (slice a banana peel on the curved inside and stuff it with marshmallows and chocolate; wrap in tin foil and then cook it in the fire for five minutes; dig in with a spoon to enjoy). Angie had her bits of Hershey chocolate standing up and said they were Vicious Vikings (we've been watching some Horrible Histories too). Afterwards we played some more on the swing and playset; they have a kid's boat wheel on the top platform, and she wanted us to pretend we were sailing the sea. Everytime she got off I started doing the Jaws theme.

Eventually though my wife and I just collapsed in chairs around the fire while Angie sat next to it pretending with the rocks and pine needles and sticks; at first she made a hearty breakfast of eggs sprinkled with paprika, ham with cloves, potatoes and toast. Then she was trying to light her own fire with the needles and a singed stick from my fire; she sabotaged herself with the dirt she kept mixing into her pile, but we kept a close eye on her work. It never did anything more than smolder for a moment.

We tried to watch one of the movies we brought when we discovered the DVD player wasn't even hooked up to the TV, so we contented ourselves with a little Disney XD before heading to bed. I'll try swapping the cables on things today when we're ready to watch something. Today we're going to go Rafting down the river and I know we're going to be completely exhausted when we get back!

We've got a week out here and it feels great to be here out seeing the trees and breathing the fresh air and away from all the craziness of our day to day life. Both my furcons were canceled this year, and some of the things we'd like to do out here are closed thanks to M. Corona, but most things are still open and there is still a wide world of adventure to have and share. I hope everyone else has that chance too!

Dominus vobiscum

So, I hope every American had a happy Independence Day and everyone else had a great fourth of July. My daughter and I watched some fireworks in our neighborhood from our front yard. We don't usually see it together because I'm usually at Anthrocon. I really hope they would stop scheduling it on 4th of July weekend, but nobody listens to me.

While the United States hasn't always lived up to its founding principles, those founding principles, that all are created equal and should be free to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness... those are worth celebrating and honoring the sacrifices of all the men and women who came before us to make that possible. Flawed and imperfect men and women though they be, they still sought and worked to make the world better and extend the promise of equality more broadly than those before them. I'm grateful for what I've received and hope I can, in some small way, leave it better for my daughter.

The last couple of months have been okay for us. We've been getting out and riding our bikes a lot these last few weeks. Yesterday we began the day with a four hour and fifteen mile bike ride, stopping for breaks regularly, including a half-hour break for brunch. It was a good family outing. We were able to get out to eat at a restaurant a few weeks back, and we hit Living Treasures Animal Park as well. But that's it for outings; while many places are sorta open, we're being judicious there. Angie did have fun at one of her classmates birthday parties / pool parties the other week. It was her first time seeing her classmates face to face since March so she had a great time there. Her Karate and Gymnastics are open as well, which gives us hope maybe her school will be too in the Fall, but we'll see.

Our first vacation plans, something we had in the works since last Summer, might get kiboshed though. Our August plans still seem to be on track though as long as M. Corona doesn't resurge here in Western PA. So far so good. When we do go to the grocery store and other indoor places people are wearing masks and usually managing to social distance, so I'm hoping we'll be okay.

Speaking of masks, I now have an anthro Zebra mask from Redbubble. Woohoo!

And speaking of Woo-oo, been loving Disney+ and watching Duck Tales with my daughter. She watched the entire original Duck Tales and now we're watching the new one. I'm actually surprised how much I'm enjoying it; only a few episodes have made me cringe so far. Not keen on some of the changes, but for the most part it's good.

We also watched "The Legend of the Three Caballeros" which only has 13 episodes but it's freakishly hilarious and worth checking out. If you like Donald Duck you'll love it.

Anyway, I need to get back to cleaning out my message and picture backlog here. Everyone stay safe!

Dominus vobiscum

It's been almost two months now that we've been under the COVID-19 restrictions. My area of PA is still on quasi-lockdown though some rural parts of the state are opening some things up now. Given our proximity to Pittsburgh I figure we won't see a lot until June. And with Anthrocon already canceled and Furnal Equinox canceled two months back, I now have no furry cons scheduled for the year. I've given half a thought to trying to attend a new one in the Fall and may still do so, but for now I'm content to just see what happens.

I have grown in my distaste for the media who seem intent on creating a sense of malaise and devastation which has certainly impacted me. I've had many days where I know I'm feeling depressed and the fact that my gym is closed means one of my normal outlets for keeping my emotional stability is gone. I need to do more here but have not managed to do so outside of the rigors of household chores.

I am of mixed opinion on the response of various leaders at both the state and national level. Some of the decisions seem appropriate, some seem ridiculous overreaches, and other things have me scratching my head. All I know is that I have essentially no voice here except in November.

I am still hoping the rest of my Summer vacation plans can go on. I signed my daughter up for Zoo Camp in late July, and we're supposed to go to the beach in mid-July with my family. And we rented the same cabin we've rented twice before in August. That last one I'm still pretty confidant will be okay given the studies showing the virus very susceptible to heat and UV radiation.

But given that doom and gloom and uncertainty, you may be wondering at the title of this journal. One of the consequences of all of this is spending more time at home with my wife and daughter. Angie is seven years old now and for now home-schooled thanks to the school closures. In this time she has many times made forts out of our couch pillows and blankets, and once made a spaceship out of a huge cardboard box we'd saved for storage. I was laying on pillows inside the fort last week while Angie was prowling around pretending to be a wolf staring up at the blanket which cast me into shadow and I was thinking about how these were the years of being a father I had always longed for. For a few more years yet my daughter is the age for this creative play and I can be a part of it with her, sharing in forging these all so important childhood memories. She will remember this time not as one of fear and uncertainty, but as one where her dad was home from work and did all sorts of crazy things with her. We made our own soap bar last weekend and will make another this coming weekend. I took her for a drive and let her pick which way we went at every intersection a few days back. We've planted new vegetables in our garden. We're watching classic cartoons like "Adventures of the Gummi Bears" together (highly recommended, man I really am enjoying it). Through all of this stress and honest to goodness terror getting to do these things with her is the greatest gift I have right now. These very well could be the best years of my life right now in that sense.

I definitely want to capture some of these moments in the convention-style sketches I normally get, just as I did Angie getting to hold her puppy for the first time. And I look forward to more fun in the weeks ahead no matter what comes to pass.

We will get through this. It's been hard and it may get harder, but we will get through it.

Dominus vobiscum

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and tomorrow begins the Easter Triduum, which is the holiest time of the year for Christians. As a Catholic, the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) have liturgical celebrations that are the most beautiful and sublime, but also the most profound of all during the year. Holy Thursday features the washing of the feet and the Transfer of the Holy Eucharist from the tabernacle to a place of repose recalling to mind Jesus and the Disciples leaving the upper room to go pray in the Garden of Gethsemene. Good Friday features the holy petitions and the Veneration of the Cross. Holy Saturday is the day on which the Church begins in complete darkness, we consecrate and light the new Paschal candle, and hear the story of salvation through the Old Testament with seven readings from Creation, the Exodus, to the promise of a Redeemer. And then the light return in triumph as we remember Christ's Resurrection.

Right now all the Churches are closed and so we can only watch these celebrations online (at least we have that). What a Lent; where the sacrifices we must have were chosen for us.

We're doing okay here. Tired and eager for all of this to end. I struggle to comprehend just how everyone's lives have been disrupted, and especially in places like New York where so many have been infected and so many have died. Italy is beyond what I even want to imagine. I am grateful that everyone in my family is okay, and that all of my friends seem to be doing fine too. They say we're going to be hitting the peak here int he US this week and next. Stay safe everyone; keep washing those paws and if you have to go out mask your snout!

Dominus vobiscum

One of the things I'm going to try to do during these unusual times is post some brief update journals so a broader array of folks know we're okay. I have expanded my communication mediums as well which is helping, but there's lots going on around and FA has been my main artery into the furry fandom for the last thirteen years and that's not changing.

What is changing is the adjustments to working from home. This is not easy for me but I'm managing to get better about it and I'll probably finally be genuinely productive at it in another week or so. The class I teach during this time is still running though we've made several changes to maximize social distancing; this means I still go into work every other work day. My county is under stay-at-home orders except for life essential activities. My work is excluded from this but I do honestly wonder whether or not we'll get interrupted again, especially with how bad I suspect April is going to be for most places.

My family is doing okay right now. My parents sent me "Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening" for the Switch yesterday. I had some stuff to do so Angie gave it a test run and it looks like it will be fun once I give it a spin today. Angie's been getting quite creative with her play, setting up her own little desk using one of my books as her laptop and selling some of my other books as computers. Been asking me to write different names of customers all in cursive; now that's been fun to try to do again. Her enthusiasm is a wonderful balm.

I imagine that in ten years when we look back on this time, my daughter will remember it as one of the best times of her life, a time when her family were all there and we did so many different fun things together.

If the rains let up and the temperature can stay up in the sixties I'll probably be out spreading lawn seed and so forth this week. We Zebras do know the importance of growing good grass!

Stay healthy everyone and wash those hooves and paws!

Dominus vobiscum

Were times normal I would be driving up to Furnal Equinox right now.  Salvestro and I would be chatting about Metamor Keep, the Catholic Church, the furry fandom, politics, movies, what we wanted to do at the con, etc... I'd have a bit of nervousness about crossing the border, but then we'd be picking up  Fulminar on the last leg. We'd check into the hotel, worry about parking and snagging one of those luggage carts, and then wait for roomies and friends to arrive. It'd be a fantastic and exciting time as we chatted about our lives and got caught up.

We do not live in normal times.

I am currently home from work for a few days, figuring out how I'll be able to do some simple telecommuting and the like. My daughter is home from school for the next two weeks at least. I suspect it will be longer than that, but I'm not sure how much longer. None of us really are.

We all know the name of Dr. Fauci now, somebody we'd have never heard of before. Glad to know he's out there helping direct my country's response and going into all the media to give us good information. Too much of the media reads like a guy setting his hair on fire and running around screaming. I'm glad to see politicians in both parties working together and praising each other. There is still plenty of partisanship out there, but I feel a little more confidant that the folks actually doing the work are doing the work and looking past party labels during this crisis.

One of the students in my class is currently being tested for COVID-19; we should know the results on Sunday. So yes, I may have been exposed last week (the particular student sits in the back of class, but he did hand in homework and I graded it, so there ya go). Do I have any symptoms? No temperature right now and I've checked the last few days. I had a small sore throat a couple of days ago but that's already feeling better. I have an occasional cough, but its Spring; I often have an occasional cough in Spring. I'm trying to be careful, but honestly I just have to wait to hear the results or see if I develop any other symptoms. Until then I'm staying at home. Need to do more cleaning. Hand washing is happening so much some of my knuckles have actually chapped; gotta balance it out with hand moisturizer.

My wife and daughter are currently fine.

Last night we ordered Chinese takeout from the local family-owned place. If you can, that's a good thing to do to help the small business owners stay afloat in this challenging time.

I know things are going to get back to normal again. Naturally I hope they'll be back to normal before Anthrocon; missed one con already, I don't want to miss two. I suppose if Anthrocon is kiboshed, I should look into attending some other con later in the year.

There is so much conflicting information going around, it's hard to know what to take seriously. But we can hope. I will be doing that and praying too. Everyone, keep yourself healthy. Keep of good cheer, chatting and finding ways to laugh is a great idea! We watched "The Court Jester" last night and that helped. Had also been watching "Rocky & Bullwinkle" with my family; and boy did Angie love that! Be not afraid; this too shall pass. Worry will tear you apart and make you more susceptible to all sorts of illness. Do not look at your 401K if you have one.

Spring is here and warmer weather is coming. That also improves our overall health. I don't know if it will be effective in blunting COVID-19 like it is with the Flu; I've seen studies saying it will and saying it might not, so I dunno. But I do know that almost everybody is going to survive this. The Mortality Rate is dropping every day as we confirm more and more cases.

These are not normal times. We did not choose this. But, to quote Gandalf, "It up to us to decide what to do with the time we have been given."

COVID-19 is not forever. Furry cons will come back. Stores will open. Life as we once knew it will return. Will there be changes? Sure; I hope we have more diversified supply-chains for one! Now let's beat this thing. Hunker down and don't despair. Laugh! Pray! And wash your paws!

Dominus vobiscum

It pains me to do this but I am going to have to cancel my trip to Furnal Equinox this year.

I have been to every single Furnal Equinox. It's a con I've helped since its first year, one I have greatly enjoyed watch grow. I believe they are doing everything they can to protect us from contamination from the Coronavirus. I know the chances of contracting the virus are very low. But there are some other things I have been considering while weighing my decision.

First off is the question of governments. To attend Furnal Equinox I need to cross an international boundary. While there are currently no restrictions between the US and Canada except for those who have been to China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, Japan, and now most of Europe, and I certainly haven't been to any of those places, I cannot be certain where we are going to be in another week and a half. More and more venues are closing for the rest of March in order to slow the spread of the virus; my brother and his family just had the Disney vacation they've been dreaming about for the last two years put on hold. My Diocese just removed the obligation to attend Sunday Mass (though the parishes are still open). No Fish Fry's have been canceled yet, but it's only a matter of time.

Even if the risk is not that great, the risk of being detained at the border and put into quarantine is more real than I can risk; I will not take that risk.

But more important to me is the health of my wife and daughter. Everything I have read indicates that this Coronavirus does not seem to strike kids, which is a big relief. However, my wife is often susceptible to respiratory illnesses this time of year because of her seasonal allergies. Last year both my wife and I caught the Flu at the beginning of March. I recovered in a few days and only had a lingering cough (which finally abated during Furnal Equinox). My wife's cold lasted a lot longer, and she kept recovering from one thing only to end up catching another... for two months. I cannot take any risks of this sort, especially since this Coronavirus is far more deadly to people with respiratory issues.

For these reasons I must cancel. I did not reach this decision lightly. As of Wednesday the 11th I was still planning on attending. I had been keeping an eye on developments since I learned about the virus in January. But the cascade of closings, travel restrictions, and hysterical commentary from the media and the fact that confirmed cases are increasing in both US and Canada at an exponential rate is simply too much. I do wonder if Ontario/Toronto won't ban gatherings of sufficient size in the next few days which will have made this all moot to begin with.

I apologize to my friend  Salvestro who I was going to drive up with and with whom I was going to fursuit together for the first time. Hopefully we can get together and do something fun that weekend anyway. I apologize to  Fulminar who I was going to pick up along the way and room with. Fulminar and I have roomed together for every Furnal Equinox save the first. I could not imagine doing the con without him. I will miss him dearly this year and only hope Furnal survives to thrive next year.

I am sorry for all the rest of my friends who I can only see at Furnal. Some of you have already decided not to attend, and others are still uncertain. I apologize to all of the Rodents who were looking forward to my Rodents! panel. I already miss you guys and it pains me to have to wait another year to see most of you. Hopefully the Coronavirus will be on the wane or gone by the time Anthrocon rolls around in July. I expect the next two months to be very trying. I hope I am wrong.

Furnal Equinox is giving folks the option of rolling over their registration to next year or of donating it to the convention to help them support operations so that we will have another Furnal Equinox next year. I am planning on donating my registration because this con means too much to me to let something as pesky as a global pandemic do it in. You can learn more about Furnal's current situation here: https://www.furnalequinox.com/2020/.....id-19-updates/

Thank you all for being such great friends. We will get through this. Take care of yourself and do not despair. Do not panic. And definitely remember to wash your hands!

Dominus vobiscum

Sharing a request for help: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/...../#cid:56783855

Please donate to help the firefighters:

https://quickweb.westpac.com.au/Onl.....n=EnterDetails
http://www.givit.org.au/
https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/about/supporting-cfa
https://cfsfoundation.org.au/donate

I've heard that almost 200 people have been arrested or detained for starting many of these fires. It boggles the mind. Do a little to help stop them and save the lives of so many. Far too much has been destroyed already. It will take a generation or more to recover what's been lost already.

Dominus vobiscum

Wow, it's a new year. 2020.

I remember when 2000 was this mythical year off in the future. Now it's 20 years in the past. Dang.

Naturally I'm behind here on FA. Christmas and my daughter's birthday and then helping my wife rearrange a bunch of stuff in our house so we can make more space and begin cleaning it up for real actually takes a lot of time. That and watching the movies and playing the games we got. And building all my daughter's new lego things and playing with her with them. Man did she make out like a bandit this year (cue raccoon transformation).

But these are happy complaints. I am blessed. My daughter is amazing, she just turned seven, and it blows me away every day how big she's getting and what she can do. I am going to take her to the Museum today; I hope she has a great time and learns some nifty things.

I have a few hopes for 2020 of course. I hope to write more than one Metamor Keep story this year. I hope to get a few more Zebra-me and Rito-me commissions done, as well as a Zodiac Family picture (with each of us as our Zodiac animals). I hope my wife can make half-a-dozen or more sales this year so we can pay down the debts we've accumulated in the last two years. I hope that I can continue to improve vis-a-vis the anxiety. I hope the party I want to win in the US elections wins. I hope for peace, stability, and healing in my country and around the world.

I have no idea what's in store for us all this coming year except lots of terrible vision jokes. I will trust and hope in God.

Happy New Year!

Dominus vobiscum