You start the new year with so many expectations but it doesn’t take much to sidetrack the best of intentions. A recurring battle with bronchitis and pneumonia that has come and gone four times since December has left me so weak that I can’t last more than two or three hours before needing rest. I have to sleep all day just to have energy enough to shoot a high school basketball game at night.

I’ve been plagued with bronchial problems most of my life but this latest tussle has left me at a point where I can’t climb the stairs of our home without gasping for breath and has put so many plans into the dumpster. I had hoped to complete the move of our studio by the end of January but the project is far from done, complicated now by the bitter cold weather and my inability to haul more than a small box without running out of energy.

Some friends have promised help on Saturday morning and we will try to get the heaviest of my equipment moved so that maybe, just maybe, I can start next week with some semblance of order in my life. I have some projects that are more than a year overdue and new ones keep adding to the pile.

Time to get serious.

If I can just breathe.