I've been slowly dipping my toes back into the frigid waters of social media, specifically Facebook. I have accounts for both Instagram and Twitter / X, but I haven't used either of them in so long that I'm not sure I could log in even if I wanted to. My daughter says Facebook is for old people so that's where I belong and that I'd better stay in my lane.
My birthday was only a few days ago. When I woke up that morning, I didn't think to myself "Happy Birthday to me", it was more along the lines of, "Hey, my back doesn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would". To be honest, until someone at work wished me a happy birthday, I'd forgotten about it. I don't have a "Bah Humbug" attitude about the holidays - I actually enjoy the Christmas season very much. We've just had some stressors that made this year feel a little less than festive, and in my opinion, Christmas morning is a bit anti-climactic. As I said, I enjoy the Christmas SEASON. I love the ambience and the get-togethers and Christmas parties during the month. While there is still New Years stuff ahead, Christmas morning kinda feels like the end. I used to get the post-Christmas blues really bad as a kid, so maybe that's why I feel that way.
We're worried about the current state of our finances (or lack thereof), and our ability to pay the mortgage for anything beyond the next few months. I wrote (but didn't publish) a piece on why we find ourselves in this situation. I'm not looking to piss anyone off so I won't go into details, but I don't know if those involved truly appreciate how badly this went for us.
My children are about as far away in life viewpoints from us that they could get. Interestingly enough, they are on opposite ends of the spectrum in that regard. I won't go into specifics, but they can get along if hot-button topics don't slide into any of their conversations. If I see a conversation heading in that direction, I will quietly remove myself from it so I'm not forced into playing referee. I've tried doing that before, so I can say from experience that it doesn't work.
The aforementioned house is looking better, but it has also nearly depleted our once semi-decent cushion of a savings account. Maybe we'll have it looking good enough to sell for more than it appraised for by the time we run out of money. We make enough between the two of us to pay all our bills, except the mortgage. We have to dip into savings for that. We're hoping that tax season will offer us a brief reprieve, but we have no idea what, if any return we'll be getting.
At some point, my in-laws (or at least one of them) will likely be moving in with us (assuming we still have a place for them to come). Nobody knows exactly when that will be, but becasue both of my passed away during the time we lived here, it's a very real possibility that we could end up living through volume 3 (and possibly 4), but it is what it is, so I'm trying to enjoy pretending that my family and I have a house to ourselves for as long as possible. If I'm doing this right, I'm hiding this post from them because I don't want them to feel bad.
My reason for leaving Facebook was the unmitigated hate being spewed across the platform. I can recall the two very specific instances that were the straws that broke the camels back: Charlie Kirk, and Jeffrey R. Holland. One was murdered, and the other passed away from natural causes from age. What they both had in common was evil people celebrating their demise. One person in particular, who was only a "friend" as far as social media unofficially defines the term, wrote heinous things about both people after their passing. I won't name names, but we used to cross paths from time to time becasue we were in a few of the same circles. As it stands now, I will no longer be participating in anything where they are involved. Consider it a form a peaceful protest / boycott, or what have you. They won't notice I'm not there, and I won't be firebombing anyone's building so it will ACTUALLY be peaceful. There was a time where murder was considered universally wrong. I believe those days are gone. Today, if you disagree with someone hard enough, you are justified in ending them... apparently. It's very evident that social media has rendered civility an endangered species. You could literally rescue a box full of puppies from a burning building, and someone would still try to spin it as something shameful.
To this end, I remained pretty quiet. I used to wish happy birthdays to any that popped up on my reminders, but as I remained away, I didn't keep up the habit. I still peeked in from time to time, but I refrained from posting anything.
The last of my closest friends recently re-married and moved out of state. The closeness I had with him was not only emotional, but geographical. He moved from being a 30 second drive away, to being roughly a 30 hour drive away. I don't know his exact address, so I used Google maps to plot to Washington D.C. It's the only city I remember him mentioning in regards to the surrounding area. Our money issues make a trip to visit unlikely to happen, at least no anytime soon. I'll never say never, and I will look forward to the possibility one day, it's just going to take some time.
I retired my red armor. It was cracked badly in several places but I couldln't bear to just toss it, so a mannequin was the obvious choice. Mannequins don't typically have dad bods, and the one I got was about 6'3", so it didn't fit the plastic body as well. To be fair, my son got it from Amazon without my knowledge, so it's not like we could do a test fit. Now it's displayed in a corner of a back room, where the in-laws will probably be spending a lot of time. I will finally be constructing the one I was gifted quite some time ago (December 9, 2017 to be exact).
*** I don't know how long that video link will remain active as I'm not the one who recorded and posted it***
It only took 8 years, but I'll be dedicating more time to it now.
My new years resolution is to just make an effort to be better, both physically and mentally. I only have to be better (in my eyes) than the person I was yesterday. I say "only" but it's much more difficult than you would think.
I truly hope you all have a happy and blessed new year, and that the poison of social media can be somehow mitigated. Its claws are pretty deep into our culture now though, so I should keep my hopes somewhat realistic.
Sincerely,
Adam Cannon
