Tag Archives: Home & Family

Thoughts on Aughts

There’s an old man who comes to the gym in the mornings. He has a walker with an oxygen bottle, and bears visible scars from open heart surgery and a pacemaker implant. Monday morning I loosened up in the hot tub, and the two of us talked.

I learned that he had his first surgery in early December of 1999. I was reminded of my bout with myocarditis that same month, and how, as I lay in the Intensive Care Unit at UVRMC, the rooms around me were full of what I have come to call “gray people.” Their skin was literally deathly pale, and I assumed that the majority of them were going to die there.

I asked where this man had gone for treatment back in ’99, and he told me he was at UVRMC, and spent most of December in the Intensive Care Unit.

One of those gray people not only survived, but did so for a full decade at current count.

The last decade has been huge for me. I started a new job, rose to prominence, and then quit to do the same thing again. I created Schlock Mercenary, and Sandra and I had two more kids.

All of this in a decade.

I don’t know what my elderly friend at the gym has done with the ten years the doctors, God, and/or the Fates gave back to him, but I’m sure they are precious.

Whine about the “aughts” if you must, but as we begin the second decade of the twenty-first century, know that at least two of us are really thankful for the last ten years.

I was sure I’d related this before, but Google couldn’t find it…

Short version, cutting to the punchline as quickly as possible:

My mother-in-law sent us a plush nativity, complete with wise men and a camel. Its job was to sit under the tree and get played with.

About five years ago my son was playing with them, and from the other room I heard “Wap! Him dead! Now my take camel!”

That poor wise man was apparently unwise enough to get ambushed by some other toy (a Hamtaro, if memory serves.)

Two Years

Today I celebrate the 2nd anniversary of “doing it full-time.” On Monday, September 20th of 2004 I resigned from my position at Novell, came home to my home office, and wondered how I was going to be able to make it work.

I didn’t really figure it out until May of 2006. There were some really rough patches in there – particularly July of 2005, when Ad revenues were in the toilet, commission work had dried up, and we had to pay bills using a home improvement loan. And then there was the $100 Christmas.

Sandra was there for me (and I was there for her) throughout all of it, and I could not have done it without her. Of course, without her it would not have been worth doing at all.

It wouldn’t have been possible without you readers and fans, either. Thank you, everybody.

–Howard

ps. I’m celebrating by scripting, pencilling, and inking an entire week. I’d probably better get started.