Hiatus

Once again, it's December. Having been raised within a family retail business environment, my memories of Christmas in the traditional sense end somewhere around the sixth-grade. Over the years since I began helping out at the "store", my associations with the holiday season grew increasingly commercial as yuletide tradition transformed into a literal marathon of selling that kicks off the day after Thanksgiving and concludes with a quiet day of rest and sleep recovery on the 25th. It's definitely an alternative take on gift-giving, doing time with family, and all around good-cheer; but nowadays, I can't imagine spending the holidays any other way. In any case, the Marathon is in full swing now, so the trading will take a back seat to earning an "honest buck" behind the counters for the rest of the year. But I'll still try to drop a post now and then when I get the chance, including some interesting developments which may hopefully come to fruition by the time we ring in the new year.