A Sense of Doubt blog post #4000 - Letter to Dad #20 - POST 4000 - Christmas and Birthday Round Up

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4000 - Letter to Dad #20 - POST 4000 - Christmas and Birthday Round Up

Hi Big Guy, This is post #4000 on the SENSE OF DOUBT BLOG. That's a momentous occasion and a notable accomplishment.

It is very fitting that the 4000th post fell on a Letter to Dad day, also letter #20, which is a round number and a notable number.

I started this blog in 2007 with a post that has been viewed 61.6K times. I know a lot of those are bots because it's the first post on the blog, but many are not. I only posted a few times from 2007-2013 (about 17 times). I did the T-Shirts blog separately from 2013-2014. In 2014, I tried to maintain a weekly schedule and only managed maybe every other week.

Then on January 6th 2015, two days after Mom died, I started HEY MOM that ran daily for three years, and I have not stopped daily posting since then, nearly 11 years ago! For a while in 2016, I was posting twice daily as I did over 70 Daily Bowie posts after he died on January 10th, 2016.

And here we are, post #4000.

I am blessed and privileged to be able to make so many posts.

If you are a regular or semi-regular reader, thank you.

Dad, I expect you to be here.

On with the show...

I am delayed in posting this entry (it's Sunday) because I was hammered in the final week of the Winter quarter for Walden with some tough classes with final projects and extra assignments besides because why limit what we have to do when we have final projects due?

I also delayed this entry, originally scheduled for after Christmas, to include my birthday.

I am keeping many of our traditions alive.

I will now curate the following photos.

Love you Dad.

More next week.
-christopher


Christmas presents part one: Leather note book, more on that below.

Only three CDs, which I have not yet imported and listened to. Two by Laurie Anderson and one by Radiohead.

A hard cover set of Sherlock Holmes books to replace the paperback set I have had since middle school. I hope to re-read several of the Sherlock Holmes books in the next year or three.

First of two volumes of the Annotated Sherlock Holmes, which I learned about last year in reading through all the Nicholas Meyer Sherlock Holmes pastiches. I have read them all though I want to re-read Seven Percent Solution and my favorite The West End Horror. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes is a fascinating resource that also contains essays on Holmesian topics.

Also, the hardcover new release of Warren Ellis' Desolation Jones, which I have read but wanted the hardcover edition.

In 2024, I read the first book in Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings series. I was listening to it during the time you died, Dad. Not literally when you died but in the car all during that trip. I did not finish the book until months later. I was not blown away. It was good. Worth reading. But it did not light a fire under me. But many people told me that books two and three are even better, so at some point, I will read number two pictured below.

Very interested in a critical analysis of the Lost TV show and the script for Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine. So those.

A friend with whom I play D&D recommended Dungeon Crawler Carl, and I do take recommendations especially when they relate to the kind of thing I am writing.

I read a review of The Dream Hotel even before another friend recommended it. I had not decided to get it and read it until that friend's recommendation.

Obviously, I get all the books Alan Moore does but have not read the other two I have yet. This one may get read before those others.

Jackson "Butch" Guice died last year, which reminded me of how much I loved his work with Mantlo on Swords of the Swashbucklers, which I read in its entirety before working at EPIC, who published it. Mantlo is in a care facility after suffering a closed head injury many years ago. So sad.

I am a big fan of Marvel's Kung Fu offerings, and I never read enough of the black & white magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu when it came out as it was a bit pricey for my budget at the time, though I often received issues as gifts.

Lastly, the Darth Vader book, which is attractive, but I have already read it now, since Christmas, and it was under-whelming.

Here's the three before the presents were put beneath it.

Yes, I know it's leaning to the left. I had a difficult time getting it straight and then just gave up trying.

Here's the companion photo to last year's photo from Christmas presents opening. Remembering that I drank out of my I LOVE MY WIFE coffee mug last year (and probably in many of the years)  I replicated that as a now tradition as are the photos.

Pic below from December 25, 2024:

From this post:

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3605 - Post-Christmas Gifts and Reflection and REPRINT of #2874 from 2022

Another photo of Christmas presents from this year. The coffee mug was a present. Not the Christmas-themed couch covers.

So, I received as a gift a leather notebook from Portland Leather that replaces my mostly destroyed note pad that is now inside of it. I carry this around all the time. It contains my blog schedules, peeking through the top. You can also see your obituary, Dad. I do not write in the notebook part as often, though it is a useful way to carry key pens, pencils, and erasers.

The pencil is explained here:

Friday, November 29, 2024

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3573 - New Pencil & Eraser -Thank You to Adrian Tomine - Doing Some Writing

I love my new notebook.

Several T-shirt photos in a row, pretty self explanatory.

Not that I needed more t-shirts...

I like to wear D&D shirts when I play D&D. I now own six shirts, not counting my DIE shirts which sort of count.

I am planning to make new shirts with Star Trek patches: light weight ones.

Stocking stuffers:

And so, Dad, you know about this tradition but other readers will not. Starting from our first Christmases and birthdays, Mom wrote down all of our gifts and who gave them to us. When we could write well enough or were old enough to shoulder the responsibility, I forget which, we took over writing our lists. I have all the lists somewhere as I saved them with the Mom stuff. Here's this year's lists.

I wish I had close up pictures of both ALL the lists and all the presents from my childhood.

Another reason I waited on this post was for my sister's gifts to arrive (pictured below). I also updated the birthday list. Those are HER crochet works, and I think they are beautiful. She sent Mom's PB cookie recipe as PB cookies are my favorite. Two ornaments as I keep breaking some, and that was another tradition of Mom's to give ornaments as gifts. I still have all of mine. AND Lori agreed to bake a whole batch of Molasses cookies (Mom's recipe that she has improved upon) for my birthday. I am so blessed and loved. I know you and Mom are smiling down on us for keep our relationship alive. It means a lot to me, my relationship with my sister.

That's all.

Everyone other than my Dad, Thanks for tuning in.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2601.29 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3863 days ago & DAD = 518 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.