We all know how hard 2020 was. About midway through the year I decided to start blogging as a way to feel like I was getting out of the confines of my home. While I had done crosswords over time, I decided that it doing them and broadcasting my successes and my failures would mean I’d have something to write about every day.

I then took on the NYT Spelling Bee to complement the NYT and WSJ crosswords.

I’d like to say that my blog has kept me sane from when I started in the summer, but that’s not accurate. For a stretch of weeks from late August to partway through October, I fell to a low point in through and couldn’t really get myself to write about the crosswords, even when I’d done them. I was listless.

I saw the world collapsing with political divisiveness that led to varying approaches to COVID-19 safety. With every event that caused a spike in cases, I saw my wedding date being pushed more into the future. Even when I was asked yesterday if I have a date for the wedding, I said the thing I’ve gotten used to: “Yes, I do. My date is Calah.”

I’m lucky to be surrounded by friends, even if not physically. Weekly board game night has long shifted to being Zoom-based, and that’s certainly done a lot for me. But it was Calah who told me that blogging had been a good thing early, so I should just go back to writing on the regular, even if I didn’t feel like I could.

And as you’ve seen, it’s certainly gotten back to fully chugging along.

I like that I get to write daily.

I like being part of the NYT Spelling Bee community.

I like woodworking projects I do and writing my weekly Tuesday blog about it.

I’m looking forward to a much better 2021.

Thanks for reading what I write. Thank you for your support. I hope you find it to be entertaining. I try to find something interesting to write about with the puzzles I solve.

Coming upon the woodworking blogs are a couple chairs and some more end tables! Should be good.