Where have I been? you ask.

Or maybe you don’t ask. Maybe you’ve been comparably occupied, and as little inclined to reading as I’ve been to writing.

To get business out of the way:

This is how the map looked at the end of the July, and this is how it looked at the end of the year. It’s highly unusual to score nothing the last five months of the year, but still, as years go it wasn’t bad.

Today, on a short foray to the grocery store and the p.o., I spotted Tennessee and Maine. (Need I say I got Massachusetts before I left home.) Tennessee rarely appears in the first 10 or even the first 25, so for it to show up #2 bodes — bodes what? Damned if I know. We’ll see.

As to where I’ve been — as usual, I’ve been here. Doing two jobs, one copyediting, one proofreading: I emailed the former back to New York today, and the latter, which is on paper, goes home via UPS overnight tomorrow.

I’ve been minding beasts as well as words. At one point I was looking after two dogs, two cats, one bunny, five hens, and a duck, as well as Travvy, of course, who between the beasts and the words got somewhat shorted. One dog and the bunny were only in my charge for four days. The rest of the menagerie was mine for more than two weeks. Their people just got home this evening.

Shortly after I sang in the “Songs of Peace, Hope & Light” concert on December 16, I came down with what I thought was a cold. I rarely get colds, and when I do, they never last more than a week. This one is still hanging on, more than two weeks later. It’s either a coldish flu or a fluish cold. Whatever, I’m sick of it. Go away, please.

So I’ve got several blog posts queued up in my head and will be writing them in the next few days. While looking for license plates, of course.

Welcome, 2013!