{"id":2049,"date":"2016-12-31T23:40:23","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T23:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zuschlag.us\/?p=2049"},"modified":"2026-02-19T00:44:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:44:42","slug":"christmas-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/?p=2049","title":{"rendered":"2016 Christmas Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 1, 2017<\/p>\n

Dear Friends and Family –<\/p>\n

Well, here it is in all of its mundanity (that is a legit word, isn’t it?).<\/p>\n

A little late, and unfortunately not any better for it. \u00a0I had hoped some last minute inspiration would strike and render this effort something more than a dull recitation of the year’s events, but the muse proved elusive.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Also, to make things worse, you’re getting it in raw unedited form. \u00a0I’m recovering from what I thought was going to be a minor outpatient experience but turned into something slightly more complicated so I haven’t had the mental energy to chop this down to a reasonable size. \u00a0Feel free to skip through the worst bits of navel gazing (pun intended!)<\/p>\n

At any rate, herewith my year – what it lacks in literary value, it makes up for in verbosity….<\/p>\n

January<\/h4>\n

The year seemed to get off to a great start with a poolside brunch at Matt & Chad’s Palm Beach manse. I had high hopes for the year considering 2015 had been so shitty to me<\/a>. \u00a0And a fair amount of real estate activity and mild weather seemed to indicate a change in my luck. \u00a0But that luck changed toward the end of the month with the “Snowzilla<\/a>” storm on the 22-23rd. \u00a0 We had 30 inches of snow dumped on us in 36 hours. \u00a0I spent most of it inside enjoying the show and only occasionally going out every few hours to knock snow off the yew hedges (so they didn’t bend or break). \u00a0 What I should have been doing instead was plowing the driveway every few hours. But since they had forecast gale force winds, I thought, “what’s the point?” “Besides, warmer temps should melt it in a few days.” \u00a0I was more worried about the power going out. \u00a0But the power didn’t go out and the snow stopped late Saturday evening, and Sunday morning I woke up to a winter wonderland and the realization that I was stuck. \u00a04 foot drifts over my driveway meant that even the tractor couldn’t go anywhere. \u00a0I could barely move it 2 feet in any directly. \u00a0Stupidly I left the car up by the house instead of down by the road (a half mile away) because my hybrid car comes in handy when the power goes out to recharge the phone, etc. \u00a0So there I sat and sat some more. \u00a0Meanwhile Keith has wisely chosen to stay at the condo in Alexandria so he could get to work. \u00a0The rest of the world recovered fairly nicely in a day or so, but I couldn’t get out of my driveway because the snow drifts refused to melt and my tractor was just not up to the job. \u00a0I did not see single human being from Thursday January 21st, until Friday January 29th. \u00a0I trudged back and forth to the barn and single-handedly rock and rolled 500 lb round bales of hay to the sheep, but by the end of the week, I was running out of food and patience, and going a bit stir crazy with cabin fever. All week long my tractor still got stuck in the snow despite mild temps in the 40s and 50s. \u00a0Finally neighbor Brian Adams came to the rescue and plowed out the front of our drive so our neighbors Jim and Char could get out to the world, and Keith could park at their house and finally make the trek in. Brian’s big boy tractor made me feel pretty inadequate. \u00a0He accomplished in 20 minutes what I had tried to do all week. My ego and my finances forbade me from asking him to plow the additional half mile up to my house, so it wasn’t until February 1st that I was able to dig myself out fully.<\/p>\n

January Photos
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