End of 2012

Definitely a change from last year, musically, moving from Splunge to Jefferson Wheelchair.  From solid leader to new guy.  But a big gain in terms of challenge level, and back out in front of audiences again.  Good guys and good musicians, though of course no situation is perfect.

With Nick taking up bass and all of the lead vocal load, Splunge has managed to stay together without replacing me.  And since JW regularly takes the week off after a show, I may be able to guest more frequently than I did this past year, giving me the opportunity to sing lead and play other instruments with a band outside of JW.  That could work out to be beneficial all around.

Work took a big slide downhill toward year's end, as a new Big Cheese's unholy methods came into play.  I've effectively (if not technically) been demoted, in spite of achieving more than expected of me, because of his radical redesign of our work processes.  Not good, and I'm not enjoying the crazy increase in my workload, either.  My agenda for the coming year of work is no more ambitious than to hold onto my job, and that will honestly be a challenge, since it was everything I could do to not walk out this past week.

An interesting by product of the added pressure and my continuing spiritual practice is my relative calm in the face of the madness at work.  I have to admit that I've had more than a few bad days, but overall I'm coping as well as anyone else, and better than some.  This is important in that I think the work situation is going to get a good deal worse before it gets better, and I'd rather not be one of the casualties of that process.

Took up playing mandolin as of December 2012, so that'll be something different, and I'm getting back to playing guitar again finally, now that I'm caught up with JW's material.  Continuing to expand my musical skills is definitely in my plans for 2012.

Didn't succeed in getting back to writing of any kind.  It's still on the agenda for the upcoming year.

I'd like to get some things done around the house again.  That slipped a bit in 2012 after a particularly productive 2011 that way.