Bring on 2014!

I’ll be happy to see 2013 go but sad to be leaving important people and things behind. Before we forge ahead to 2014, let’s take a last look at the year that was in the Kingdom of the Cat’s Pajamas:


The year started off with the retirement of my longstanding sixty-inch TV. I financed the big girl when I was 19, paid it off when I was 26, a few years longer than planned at inception. But it was mine and I somehow moved that 350lb beast six different times, up narrow stairs, down steep stairs, you name it, before the wife said it was time for the TV’s last move, the move out.

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/01/rip-60-inch-rear-projection-tv.html



One night after dinner I noticed that my first I-Phone was gone. I had put it on the roof of my car outside Longfellow’s and forgot about it. My poor phone.

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/01/rip-i-phone-4.html


On Easter Sunday, the cancer cloud came. My wife felt a lump that ended up being advanced cancer. Things got real dark after that.

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-lost-pearl.html


When it looked like Kobe might lead my Lakers to a surprise playoff run, he went down with a gruesome achilles injury with four seconds left on the game clock, while playing the best ball of his career at 35 years old. As I write this, Kobe’s out again. This was a bad injury to an all-time great baller.

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/04/snake-bitten.html


Then the real life Erin Brockavich gets arrested. Say what?

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/06/theyre-called-boobs-ed.html


If my wife’s cancer wasn’t enough, my little puggle, Sophie Cinnamon, was diagnosed with mast cell cancer. It was caught quick and cured, and Sophie waxed poetic to her heroic vet, Dr. Patrick.

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/06/sophies-letter-to-shaker-vet.html


Then it got real bad. The physically-devastating story of James Gandolfini’s death in Rome hit the world. I could never describe what Tony Soprano and THE SOPRANOS has meant to me. I can’t even see a picture of Gandolfini or look at a clip of him on camera without suffering a suffocating sadness.

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/07/my-final-word-on-gandolfini.html


I should’ve known any summer that starts with the death of Tony Soprano wasn’t going to go well. In July, my oldest friend, Chris Premo, was involved in a nightmarish accident on a construction site. After five days in the hospital, he passed away, breaking the heart of a whole community. Chris’s death rocked my world in ways that I still can’t completely understand. It is the saddest, sickest thing I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t supposed to be Chris.

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/08/mines-ordinary-life.html


One month later, Chis returned. Well, he kind of did.

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/08/life-is-circle-wheel.html


Two months later, my wife went into remission.

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/10/whats-victory-look-like.html

http://brianhuba.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-turtle.html

I’ll leave you with the words of two great giants, both lost way too soon in 2013. Maybe "Giants" isn't the best way to describe them, because my beloved NY Giants SUCKED in 2013 too. Let's call them two legends then.

“If you’re lucky, you’ll look back and remember the little moments, like this, that were good.” –Tony Soprano

“There’s still hope in this crazy world.” –Chris Premo

Bring on 2014!

Brian Huba
12.28.13