I’m by far not the only one to observe this but 2022 so far doesn’t seem much different than 2021. And yet, of course it is. My mom and aunt are gone and although our family Xmas celebration went as well as could be expected under the circumstances, it’s nigh impossible not to feel like it was a couple of stockings short. We’ve been feeling sick on and off ever since our convention outing, and some of it has been pretty draining even though any COVID testing we’ve done has come up negative. That said my day job is insisting on people being back in the office (despite escalating infections and the empirical fact that we successfully worked remotely for more than a year) so I can’t help but feel like it’s only a matter of time. Omicron is reportedly milder, especially if you’re vaxxed and boosted, but as someone who is diabetic, overweight, and suffering from sleep apnea I’m not looking forwards to the possibility of rolling the dice, so to speak.

Anyhow, all this means morale at the ranch is still not at any sort of high point and sometimes is pretty low, but Dawn and I are taking all y’all’s advice and moving at a pace we can manage, figuring week to week how our “spoons” are doing. If my day work holds its course it means things will be getting busy very soon and the circumstances of that are going to be extra stressful, which might not be great for the creative juices. But before that we think we’ll be able to get this comic out and another in the week after. Health and spoons permitting.