new dishwashing gloves that haven't sprung a leak yet

[as if you aren't seeing enough of those]

Looking back today, I see 2022 as one of my most challenging years, and not one of my happiest. The unintelligence and unkindness of the world at large continues to reach new depths, and there's little to give me hope for better in the new year. I face ongoing health problems at a higher intensity than any other year in this century. My creativity is at something of an ebb — most notably, 2022 was the first year in the past five that I didn't write at least one novel. I've pulled back from social media, no longer posting things I used to share regularly. For me, it was basically a year of hunkering down and huddling up.

But, believe it or not, I'm here now looking for some positives to focus on, and here are a few:

1. My love for being retired remains undiminished. I've never once regretted making this move.
2. I managed to hit my weekly deadline for posting my comic strip without a single miss all year. I can't help feeling that this matters to me more than it should — certainly more than it matters to anyone else. But it's like a vestige of professional pride, I guess.
3. When I did manage to work on my art, I learned and grew to at least some small extent. There were ventures into new techniques and media, including one of my fave pieces of beginner's luck.

I feel like covid has taught me to not have expectations of what an upcoming year might bring, and not make plans. So, while I realize that such prognostications for 2023 are more or less expected at this time of year, I am going to demur, thank you.

Originally I had several appointments scheduled for today, but we were greeted this morning by dangerous icy roads and warnings to avoid travel wherever possible. Grateful that I was able to reschedule all appointments without penalty and just stay inside cozy today... especially given that I feel very rough, and was mildly dreading the idea of going out anyhow.

My 26th watercolour is a portrait of my friend's cat — I did it a while ago and have been itching to show it, but now that she's finally received the original, it's okay if she sees it here.



Freddie is actually a good bit darker IRL than she appears here [much closer to black], but I decided to lighten her to allow some under-colours to show through a bit better. And I chose ivory black as opposed to lamp black for the over-colour because of its brownish tone when diluted, which matches the warmth that I saw in Freddie's colouring. This underpainting approach was inspired by something I saw in a book — I'm fairly pleased with how that aspect turned out, and it represents an unusual amount of artistic licence on my part.

a clean bill of health on my dental checkup, plus praise for my home care

I am able to pay my bills. (I try not to take that lack-of-worry for granted.)

When The Queen died a couple days ago, there was [to no one's surprise] a marked reaction around the world. Furthermore, I was not surprised to see some people hail this as a good thing... because I have seen increasing displeasure with British royalty expressed online over the last few years.

But I have seen some people expressing actual delight in her passing, as cause for celebration. And this does not sit well with me — I find it tasteless, at the very least. And I learned something about myself I wasn't quite clear on before: I believe that death should not be disrespected. [Hard for me to argue an objective case for this, it's just how I feel.]

It occurs to me now that even the death of someone I hate will not cheer me. Most of my life I have said that I don't hate anyone, it's just not in my nature. Nowadays I know this is no longer true: in the past decade, I have come to hate certain political figures, one in particular. I even wish him harm, after a lifetime of wishing no one harm. But I know now that, if he were to die, I would feel relief, and a certain sense of justice... but I would not rejoice. I would find even his death a sombre thing.

Not really going anywhere with this. I just didn't realize til now that this is one of my sub-rational beliefs.

This morning, my weight was at a thirty-year low. The last couple decades have been a study in slow and steady.

Yesterday we didn't need to put our A/C on. Today we do need it, and it's working. Opposite things, but I am grateful for both!