Friday, January 4, 2008, 6:30 a.m..

This is turning out one cold winter, and that may be a good thing.

About two years have passed since the fire that took place on February 3, 2006 in Laurel, Maryland, bringing to a close life in an apartment where I had lived for 15 years.  In any life, such a span amounts to an era.  It's not possible here to recount the experience.  In retrospect it was rich but equally embattled and grinding.

By way of comparison, life here in Hagerstown has been busy in quite different ways. 

First and foremost, in the wake of the death of the parents, the fire, the relocation, the launch of a blog (Oppenheim Arts & Letters at http://commart.typepad.com) and, most recently, the welcoming of the girlfriend and her cat, the business challenge looms large.  Apart from the independent journalism and scholarship encouraged by blogging, there's not much left to do around the place but account, administer, market, and shoot. 

A cold, dark winter's a fine time to finally clean up the mess left over from the drama and fire that characterized the last years and days in Laurel, Maryland.