A Nightmare Come True: The Conclusion

So that's been the dark trip through our year since early April. The complete look (as well as can be seen from the outside looking in) at everything we've had to shoulder since what should've been the beginning of a great chase year. That leaves but one piece of the story: the ending. Where does all of this take us next? What direction are we going now? The answer is simple: forward.

The irony (if that's the correct usage of the word...I still don't know what it really means pertaining to context) of this "nightmare" is, it doesn't change anything. I still must get up in the morning and go to work to ensure we stay afloat in the present. Bridget must still get up in the morning and do her studies to hopefully build a better future. Life goes on as it does every other day. So the comical conclusion to this horrid phase is basically that it never happened.

I've got several projects planned, which include the ever-needed updates to my website. Now that I've given up on being a true "company" or "brand" with which I expect to actually make money, there is no time-line on these updates. The site gets very little traffic in general, so there's no "audience" to have to constantly feed new content to. The beauty of a dead-end street website is, you can take your time working on it. Nobody's going to complain.

Once all of the content is updated, that will free up a lot of time/energy for any possible, whimsical changes I might dream up. I've kept the look of my site more or less the same for a decade, partly because of laziness, but mostly because I just like it. It's simple, to-the-point, and isn't a commercial site. It was a cookie-cutter website for the first few years of its life, but time, technology, and trends have made it unique (some would say "a dinosaur"). There's no new DVD in the works this year (as if I needed to say), so that allows all of my time/effort to be put into the website. Believe me, I'm not excited about doing the work. But I am excited about having it done.

The major project between now and the next chase season will be a new car (again, as if I needed to say). After years of driving cheap beaters, which are great bang-for-your-buck bargains but not the most comfortable or workable cars on the road, I've decided to spend more and get something a little more practical and comfortable. Something with resale value. Something I can replace before it dies (something that, at 39 years old, I've yet to do). It's time I drove a car worth more than the video camera I'm using. Bridget deserves a little comfort, and I deserve a little more peace of mind. For years I've sacrificed comfort for value, and for a lot of those years it's paid off. But I'm not 25 anymore, Bridget likes air-conditioning, and it would be nice to have a vehicle that's worth washing once in a while.

So there you have it, dear reader. The downward spiral of our storm season, from start to finish (with a few more graphic details left out for your sake). The road ahead is long and winding, and full of possibility. There are still many construction zones we've got to negotiate before we find the true open road, but believe me, that open road is ahead, and somehow, some way, we're getting there. 2011 might have succeeded in quieting the monster for a little while. But you can't kill passion, and that my friends, is all I'm made of.