What a crazy way to start the year… in specific, with the Los Angeles fires. A tragedy which began as fear that people you know were in danger and that it could quickly spread anywhere, from any direction; settled into a deep and ongoing sense of city-wide grief, over all that had been lost. I talk more about it all to start this episode, and somehow I cranked out five stories this chaotic month:

I had started off the year here on a more positive note, in Reflections In The Rearview (12:52). Talking about how the year had ended and in hope that in 2025 we were due for a better one. Guess it’s easy on January 1st.

By the time of my second story for the month, Fire, Fire Everywhere (16:31), we were around 24 hours in to what would be a series of smoky, uncertain days, but I could never have predicted just how long we’d be in this mess.

In Feeling Good When Times Are Bad (19:33) I was already beginning to think about how we all might be able to help each other and what it means to feel like a good person. Particularly when others are suffering.

The loss of David Lynch was another sad note to start the year. But it did give me a chance to celebrate my favorite of his works, in Give It To Me Straight (22:30). What a fascinating man and one-of-a-kind artist he really was.

To round out the month I found myself writing about our gardener. A man who came with the house, I seem incapable of firing, who often brings two ear-splitting leaf blowers to the house, and yet I find myself completely charmed by. Somehow that gets me onto the scourge of 6-dollar donuts, in Blowing Up (26:51).

That’s enough from me. Thanks for taking the time.

- Toby

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