"Life happens," has become a favorite expression for many of us during the pandemic. It's helped us explain missing deadlines, being emotionally disengaged, and in resolving the cognitive dissonance of the world we long for versus the one we witness. The lack of updates to this blog recently are because "life happened" to my family back in February. On February 10, I received a panicked phone call from my brother's girlfriend that their house (the old family home) was on fire. By the time I arrived, the place where I had grown up was still smoldering, brave fire crews doing their best to save the actual structure and whatever belongings could be salvaged. I found my brother at the neighbor's place, on a recliner and covered in blankets. The fire, it turned out, had been an accident...a simple home maintenance error that had gotten out of control quickly. Despite the potentially imminent danger to their own home, my brother's neighbors had mad