season's greetings

Hello everyone. It's just past four o'clock on that longest day of the year regardless of one's age, Christmas Eve. I've been awake since around five this morning. It seems that my thinking on the vitamins having a positive effect on my sleeping was a bit premature. However, I still think that they are having an overall positive effect on my ability to cope cheerfully with said difficulty. The day is passing slowly but pleasantly enough. It seems like only yesterday that I was in church celebrating Good Friday. No, Reader, I'm not so old that time passes that rapidly for me. Our church has changed up its calendar for this year so that we're having Easter services while the rest of the world contends with Christmas. Yesterday evening was our Good Friday service. It seemed very odd indeed to leave the building after it without saying anything to anybody. I must say that it does make one reflect on Christmas with a good deal more gravity than might otherwise be the case. It puts things in quite a different perspective to have the commercial clout actually match up with celebrating what all of us ought to be most thankful for. Namely, Christ's death and resurrection. This afternoon, I managed to catch A Christmas Carol broadcast on the Accessible Channel in descriptive audio. Not bad at all. It was my favorite version with George C. Scott as Scruge. I can now officially declare myself in the grip of the holiday season.

Things have been progressing on other fronts as well. The bar code reader I ordered arrived in splendid condition earlier in the week. That nifty gadget would have saved us a good deal of time and trouble were it available during my marriage of five years. I'll keep it handy in my kitchen to identify all those foods and other items destined to be eaten or otherwise consumed. Its database also knows about medicines and the like. A very nifty addition to my talking arsenal. We also got the first batch of forms filled in and delivered to the agency which will help me afford to live in what will soon be my apartment for the foreseeable future. There's more of that sort of thing to be done in the new year. I'm profoundly glad that this transition is happening while my parents are still able to help me if I need it. Getting everything lined up properly is going to take a while. There'll be all kinds of little things to sort out over the first year or so. What a year of new people, new economics, and new opportunities that will be. I'll at last be able to truly find my true style of life.

All that is coming up though. For the next week or so, the focus will be on enjoying friends and family. Recently, while participating in free tournaments held on All inPlay, I was chatting with a woman whose mother had just died a couple of days ago. I can't imagine how she was able to concentrate on Crazy Eights after experiencing that kind of loss. Ringing any enjoyment out of the holidays will certainly be profoundly difficult for her this year. The last experience I had which was even remotely similar was when my grandfather passed away during my later school years. She seems to appreciate people keeping in touch with her even if they're complete strangers from the All inPlay community. It's the first real exposure I've had in quite some time of the power to break down barriers which games can afford. Even as I hope to move more fully into the real world and local community, I see that I still have a role to play in the blind online world. A far more perifferal one than previously, but nevertheless capable of having some positive impact on people.

I can now say with confidence that there'll definitely be a small gathering at my parents' house this New Year's Eve. Mark, Wendy, and Ron should be there. I don't know for certain about anybody else yet. However, I have one or two other possibilities. The sise of the gathering doesn't matter nearly as much as that there'll actually be some good company with me to celebrate with. And here, I think I've arrived at a good place to close off this entry. I don't anticipate writing another until early January. You can picture me, if you've a mind to, able at last to look forward to a fresh new possibilities as well as some very happy holidays. Of course, I extend my best wishes that you, my audience, might enjoy the same good fortune which seems to have befallen me.