Ira Heinichen's Blog, page 65

Day 3,714: No Place Like

Home.

Wiped. Good god I’m so tired. Travel does that! Coops was waiting for me when I got home. All by himself, poor guy, but he’d been taken care of throughout the day. Sweet boy. He was so happy to see me…and now it’s like I never left. He was ready to do nighttime routine and go to bed, just like that. Just like today was any other day.

Good to be home. Starting to think about the new year, getting everything in order, ready to rock. It’s always a bit hard to start out, and while I want...

Day 3,713: Bonded

Joy is my little companion, now. We’re super duper bonded. My little shadow. She’s often asking now to be up on my lap, where she lets out a big sigh and falls asleep. Even Coco wouldn’t ASK to be on my lap. Not really, anyway. She’d look at me sometimes with big eyes, and I knew that meant she wanted to be picked up, but Joy outright will jump in my lap, even if I place her somewhere else beside me. It’s probably not the best behavior to reward, especially considering she’s a little insecure an...

Day 3,712: Schadenfreude

It is wild – so much of the publishing world that I’m a part of—a very, very small part, to be sure—is the frontier. It’s messy. Really, really messy. And to be honest, I stay out of it almost entirely. My dragon to slay is not the reputation of self-publishing, or to comment on the latest scandal; my dragon is my own writing, my own ability to tell the stories I want to tell. But…every so often, I am reminded of just how wild west bat shit crazy my neck of the woods can be.

It’s also funny—s...

Day 3,711: Minus One

An old Heinichen family tradition has been rekindled: we went and watched a movie together in the theater. Godzilla: Minus One! It was a blast. Plucky heroes. Badass battles. Set right after WWII. What’s not to love?

Got up a bit early to take care of Joy (right at dawn, actually, which is only 7am here in Portland, ye gads. That is SO LATE. The sun rises so late up here, and sets so early. Way more dramatic than LA. But, fed and walked the pup so I would be ready to go with him and Cal over ...

Day 3,710: Chrimass

A wonderful Christmas day. Just miss Liz. It’s very, very weird to be away from each other on this holiday. I don’t think we’ve done that in…oh man, over ten years. And I miss Coopey, too. And Coco.

Not to say that my day has been filled with “missing.” It hasn’t. It’s been filled with quite the opposite—feeling very grateful and full with family time. I haven’t seen my family for the holidays in several years; since 2019, I think, the year before Christmas. We’ve spent the last three years a...

Day 3,709: Eve

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone who celebrates, and to those who don’t: happy holidays

2023 is almost behind us. Wild. Been an intense year. An intense few years. But, we made it. I made it. I’m looking forward to the new year and the opportunities it will bring.

Had a really nice day with Scott and Addie today – a holiday party kicked it off. Lots of babies and friends. Busy busy, and about three hours long which was PERFECT. Took a solid nap after that, and then went on a nice walk with ...

Day 3,708: Front Door!

My bro has a new front door on his house! He and Dad finagled it all day, basically, and got it perfect. That’s honestly some of my dad’s best work, those fine details, fiddling with something until it’s perfect. He’s very, very good at doing that. This was the perfect job for him. And it’s in, now. A gorgeous (expensive!) dutch door, which are those kind that will open on the top. It’ll be so nice in the summer time to get a breeze going through the house without any chance of letting anyone sc...

Day 3,707: The North

I made it up to Portland. Whew.

Joy was good on the plane and in the airport. She got antsy here and there, for sure, but never barky. Never whiny. Only restless, which made me worried she needed to like poop or something. But, nope. It was just because she wanted me to hold her. She’s REALLY become attached to me holding her in the past couple months. I definitely want to make sure I don’t let that get out of hand, but on the plane once she’d stopped pawing asking to be let out and had kinda...

Day 3,706: That’ll Do Pig

I didn’t get everything done that I was hoping to today…but I got enough done. I’m packed and ready to go. The house is clean. I hope our friend Matt has a nice time staying here. Joy is ready to travel with me; we’ll see how she does. I think she’s going to do just fine. She’ll be anxious, I’m sure, but nothing she can’t handle. And Coops gets to hang out with Matt.

Way late. Have to get up way early. Night night.

Day 3,705: Last of the Year

Podcasted tonight. Our last one of the year. We watched A Muppet Christmas Carol, which was delightful, of course. So fun. So silly. And with such a clear message, such a clear character arc and life lesson: Christmas is about giving, not receiving. It’s about the people we love.

What a year. It’s been an intense one, that’s for sure. But a good year. Not really time yet to reflect upon that here on the blog since there’s still more of the year left, but it is on my mind since we talked about...