It has been wonderful spending time with my family over the Christmas holidays. Ben came in from New York and helped me change the batteries in the smoke detectors and the air filter. I had a list of jobs for him. Ben is my "adapted" son from Kenya. He came to stay with me at age 16, and is now 23. It's nice to have a tall person around to reach all those things that I no longer can.

In a few days, we start a new year, 2024. Sometimes I get very depressed thinking of what the future could hold. At other times, I'm excited by the prospects of what can be done. Maybe it is best if we don't know what's coming ahead of time.

On the publishing front, I'm working hard to get my next book, Life in a Tumble Dryer, life and work in the world's hottest capital city, Khartoum.  My goal is to run the text through ProWritingAid. That will take about a month. Then in February, I expect to send it off to GracePoint Publishing for a copy edit, typesetting and printing.

On January 2, I'm headed to the eye doctor to see about the cataracts forming in my eyes. Sometimes it is really hard to see. I hope we can schedule that surgery for AFTER January. We'll see.

In May and June, I will likely be in Africa again. This time iDELTA will be run in Nairobi, Kenya. Since my buddy, Margaret, is having cancer treatments, we aren't sure if she will be able to come or not. One of us needs to be there to start off the new cohort.

In July, I expect the Tumble Dryer book to come out. Watch for the announcements by signing up for my newsletter. 

There are many things to look forward to. I need to focus on those things and leave aside the other things that I can't fix. What a concept!

Happy New Year to you and yours.