Reopening the Year

The fabulous Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, which almost burned to the ground back in 2019, finally reopened earlier this month in spectacular fashion. And following the path of its restoration was a moving experience for me. You see, I lived briefly in Paris and used to walk by the magnificent structure every day on my way to work.

Notre-Dame has reopened. It is renewed. It now begins the next chapter of its long life. Which is not unlike all of our worlds on this day of the Winter Solstice when things begin anew. When the dark of winter now shifts to the ever-brightening future of spring (in the northern hemisphere, at least).

So, I’m also ready for some renewal. But before doing that, I’ll revisit a bit of the past few months . . .

Writing & Publishing

I’m still at work expanding my NEANDER story franchise. I put the screenplay writing on pause so I could take advantage of a new offering from Amazon that provides AI-aided “virtual voice” options for creating audiobooks from already-published ebooks. It’s a beta program and I qualified. While Virtual Voice is not as good as that provided by a professional voice actor, it’s much better than I expected. And it still takes some significant backend editing on my part to get the subtleties and nuances right. But I’m pleasantly surprised by the quality. I’ve now got two of the three books in this series up in audio, and I’m currently working on the third. Check them out:
NEANDER 1
NEANDER 2

And then there are the ebooks themselves. One of the interesting aspects of “independent publishing” is the option to have Amazon keep track of how many pages of every book are being read (and listened to) via Kindle Unlimited. And then paying the author (me) for those pages. I mean, who would have thought that this would even be a thing back in the old days of traditional publishing? Well, it’s now a reality. Here’s how the current lifetime page reads look for all my books:

Sports & Fitness

My swimming continued in the outdoor 50m pool per usual until the pool’s seasonal closing at the end of September. To celebrate the 2024 season, we had our annual Pool Party, complete with food, awards ceremony, and a general good time. I’m now trying to stay wet with occasional forays to the local indoor pools, but honestly, regular swimming indoors has lost its appeal. I have evolved into more of an outdoor person for my fitness activities.

And then there’s my other sport: Disc Golf, which is ALL outdoors.

Strangely to others, I keep equating disc golf to surfing. Because there’s this feeling of adventure and unpredictability to it. I never know what’s going to happen as I work my way with others around the disc golf course. Plus, there’s the “treasure hunt” aspect when I lose a disc in the woods and have to bushwhack my way through the mountain laurels to find it. It’s awesome!

Around the House

Fall and early winter are always special at our house in central Virginia. The colors, the weather, the feel in the air . . . it’s one of my favorite times. Here are some visual highlights:

Family & Friends

I finally got permission from my wife, Lynn, to post a photo of her. She’s very private. Here she is just hanging around on our property on a beautiful fall day in October:

And remember Justin, my new grandnephew by way of niece Kira and husband Leo? Well, he’s now 1.3 and walking! I joked about giving him a soccer ball present for his first birthday before he could even walk. But now, based on what I’m seeing, he might be more inclined to American football.

I still Zoom with my cousin, Thomas, in Costa Rica, and I’m keeping up my connections to both faraway and close-by friends. Locally, besides playing disc golf with Peter, I regularly have fun with Gerry and Gilles. We try to stay linked through our shared interests in swimming, disc golf, politics, and humor.

And so, the solar new year begins. The reopening starts. Can you feel it?

Happy Winter Solstice.

— Harald