525,600 minutes

I had to google that figure... in a non-leap year, there are 525,600 minutes in a year. Sounds like a lot but I guess its all relative. For example, if you are counting down to something like a vacation, a wedding or a reunion - those minutes may seem like hours. If you happen to just be moving along from one day to the next with routine and habit, those minutes start flying by, melting one hour into the next. In the case of this post, it has been 12 months aka 52 weeks aka 365 days since the passing of one of my dearest friends. A man who was always in my corner, cheering me on, wanting nothing more than to enjoy experiences, make new friends, and play some golf. I have struggled to sit down and write; something I enjoy doing and find very relaxing. I can list many excuses like work, the rental property, and renovations on our home but the real reason I did not prioritize my blog is because nothing seemed suitable to follow Ed's post. Losing someone who was bigger than life, having their bright light leave this world was not only unfair but cruel. So many people have lost loved ones and these words may apply to you but with another person in mind. My personal connection with Ed brings me comfort and joy so having to live the last year without his random messages, his hardy laugh and his colorful slang just makes me sad. I want to use this time wisely, it can't all be about grief because Ed loved life. I will never find a topic worthy to follow the 'Just Ed' post so I'll just give a quick update. Since that last publication I have had 3 jobs (kitchen hand at the local old age home, auto parts store clerk, and cargo shipping/receiving office representative), we have moved a few more times (temporarily into one of the tiny homes and again to our own home), we had a full summer of tourists stay in the tiny homes (interesting people including one who wanted us to make the bathroom door taller as her husband kept hitting his head), we've opened another business to rent scooters next summer (working out the details now like insurance and registration), had some homeless people build a shelter behind our container using the contraction materials we had stored on the property (photos available upon request and FYI on an island this small, there is no such thing as strangers so the police knew within minutes who was sleeping there) and we continue to make strides participating in local events and putting ourselves out there in the community (Kevin went to Portuguese school for a few months, slow and steady). I can't pinpoint any one story to share that is any more significant than the last but I would like to go back to writing, find a new normal, and enjoy the mundane day-to-day things just as Ed used to. I can hear him clear as crystal, whenever you'd ask 'how's it going?' his answer, always, with the largest smile he could muster was 'any day you wake up is a good day' it's about damn time we all live by that motto.