Surely, we begin again

Thanksgiving week. This will be the first of the "big" holidays since my wife and I separated, and it will be wierd. I'll see my girls for some of the time, but I won't be part of our decade-old family tradition of going away for Thanksgiving. I will really miss that but hope they won't miss me too much. I don't want it to be a downer for them. But, of course, I have no control over that.

I'll go visit my father and stepmother for turkey, and that will be a nice visit, if I don't stay too long. My stepmother is great! She is much closer to my age than to my father's (10 yrs. older than I, 20 yrs. younger than he). She's the best wife he's found yet (she's #3, but #2 didn't last long at all). She doesn't let him get away with any shenanigans. He starts his control stuff, and she lets him know right where to stop. Amazingly, he straightened right up! He is older now (84) and his health ain't what it used to be. And, my conversations with him won't have much depth to them. If he starts in on me about anything, I'll just cut if off and leave the room. All those years of therapy have counted for something!

Sexual Sobriety didn't last as long as I wanted. It got away from me this weekend. I got away from it, actually. And, I'm really feeling a sense of "hangover" from it. The powerful neuro-chemicals that surge through the brain have a profound effect. And, their absence can leave one feeling a bit strange.

But all is not lost. We begin again.

The picture is of my daughter and me looking into Bent Creek.