I turn 40 in a few weeks.

I’m no stranger to the trick knee, having “enjoyed” such for most of a decade so far. Unpleasant, sure, but it’s manageable, isn’t it? Stairs aren’t your friend but level surfaces don’t cause much difficulty.

Yesterday morning, my left hip started going wonky. As in, “walking hurt like hell all of a sudden.” What’s weirder is that stairs don’t trigger the pain much but walking across level ground becomes rather excruciating. Like, say, the walk to the store and back.

And I woke up with the same pain this morning. This had better subside, and soon…

We enjoyed a “fend for yourself” dinner last night, my roommates and I. Since we also went to the grocery store right after work this turned out to be a great plan. (Responsible Me picked up some breakfast and lunch options for work so I’m not eating out all week long…) In a fit of nostalgia I picked up a box of something I hadn’t enjoyed in quite a while: Stouffer’s French Bread Pizza. I used to eat those things all the time, I tell you.

Coincidentally, I also used to deal with acid reflux attacks fairly often. I couldn’t quite figure out why, and eventually they just stopped and I didn’t worry about it much.

Yes. Well. Quarter-past-three this morning I woke up to the nastiest acid reflux I’ve suffered in ages. Oh.

I think that’s it for those French Bread Pizzas, don’t you? Now to stumble through my day on about four hours accumulated sleep…

Perhaps letting an entire month go by without a post isn’t the best way to end the year, so let’s do this instead:

I choose here not to excoriate the year we leave behind. Yes, much of it sucked, but regurgitating the reasons won’t help anybody. Instead, I’m focusing on what’s good in my life.

• My loves, who keep me going when nothing else can.
• My children, who make me so proud I can’t even describe it.
• My job, that pays the bills, even if just barely.
• My friends, offline and on, who laugh at my jokes, however terrible they may be.
• My library of books and music, which help me forget the real world for a while.
• My stack of games, which can be played with family and friends to bring amusement to the household.
• My growing collection of ducks, which I use to entertain a couple dozen folks on the Internet every week.

I’ve had a particularly rough time of things lately, hence the lack of writing output. There are plans to improve things somewhat, but I’ve also never been good at making & carrying out plans, so… we’ll see.

Here’s to 2012. May it go better for us all.