Dear Readers,
Two quick notes this week:
First, the issue is quite small. That is on purpose, as a cost-saving measure as we move into the new year. Don’t worry, we’ll get back to our usual eight pages, hopefully more, as we move through the next few months.
Of course, that depends entirely on you, our readers, and on our advertisers. But I have faith that our subscribers find value in our pages, and that our local businesses want to be part of that value.
Second, on a more personal note, I have not escaped 2023 unscathed. As some of you know, I managed to develop pancreatitis a few weeks before Christmas, and spent a day in the hospital being “fluidized,” as I like to call it. Apparently the treatment for pancreatitis is basically to not eat solid food for about 24 hours while having nutrients and saline administered intravenously. It worked, and I only missed a day or so of work.
But that was not my only scrape with illness. As Christmas crept closer, my daughter, Morgaine, came down with a serious bought of cold and/or flu.
On Christmas day, we enjoyed our presents and a wonderful dinner of roast beast (prime rib), proclaimed one of my best holiday offerings yet by all the family. I did the corn bake, my daughter’s annual contribution, myself to try to avoid infecting anyone. By the end of the day, I was feeling very tired and worn out, but chalked it up to all the excitement and work.
The day after Christmas, my illness began. I had a fever. At more than one point, it was 100.5. I was completely exhausted, had the icky cough and severe congestion, and a headache. I called off sick.
The next day I was no better, but by Thursday I felt on the mend. At that point I recalled that my brother-in-law was supposed to come down from New Hampshire to visit over New Year’s. Out of an abundance of caution, I took a COVID test.
That’s when the other shoe dropped. It came up positive. The second and third tests also came up positive. Like dark-stripe positive. No pale line for me on the test device. I texted my daughter, who, feeling recovered, had left town to visit friends in Connecticut, and suggested she test as well. She did, and she got the positive stripe, too.
By the time you all read this, we will be into 2024. I am finishing out 2023 here at home, safe behind my computer screen. By Jan. 1, I will likely be well on the mend. Just know that you won’t see me out and about until later in January.
To round out this year-end saga, I’d just like to say that 2023 was, overall, a pretty good year. Did it have its bumps? Of course it did. Is my kitchen renovation complete, more than seven months after it started? Heck no. No countertop, no backsplash, no crown molding, no box filler next to the dishwasher to hold up a countertop. But hey, I have a sink now, and my son made me a temporary countertop out of plywood covered in oil cloth. So I have function, if incomplete form.
Have I learned a lot about patience and expectations and patience (said that twice, didn’t I?) this past year? Yes, yes indeed.
But I’m still here, and you’re still here, and I am grateful and blessed. I hope your year is off to a grand start.
–Kristen B. Payson, editor
