Goodbye, Ginny
At 3:23 p.m. on Friday, April 19, we said goodbye to our beloved coonhound Ginny. It is an understatement to say it hit us hard. She was so much a part of our new life back in Wisconsin, living with us for over two and a half of the three years we've owned our house in Barron. The emotional weight has felt like moving. We left our home around 2:00 p.m. on Friday for the last time, and we came home to a new space. Where's our girl?
Consider this a eulogy for a dog.
Tags: ginny, meet-the-mayhaks, music
Groundhog Day, 2024
There is one holiday that I love, in part because there is no expectation of gift-giving and in part because I get to watch a terrific movie:
This year, Sarah heard my pleas loud and clear and agreed that it was time we had a year with no (holiday-connected) gifts. She made a nice card to better express the sentiment.
Tags: groundhog-day, meet-the-mayhaks
Photo calendar, 2024
And now for the Fourth Annual Photo Calendar! This year saw another decline in the volume of pictures taken, but I still managed to get out with my camera once or twice a month. As a matter of fact, knowing I'd be putting together a calendar is often what got me outside to make sure I had enough.
One of these years I'll be lazy enough to do a "B-sides and rarities" edition where I make a calendar from past years' pics that didn't make the cut, but it is not this day.
Tags: ginny, meet-the-mayhaks, new-year, photography
Season's greetings, 2023
I'm going to keep this year's post short because I don't have much to say and I put this off to the last moment. Sarah has made another lovely card, and I think it does a great job capturing special moments particularly with the kiddos in our lives.
Tags: christmas, ginny, meet-the-mayhaks, photography
Photo calendar, 2023
Without any qualification, I have for you today my Third Annual Photo Calendar. I took far fewer pictures in 2022 than 2021, but I still managed to take a good number of pictures each month. Feel free to take a look at the photos I took this past year and let me know which ones you would've picked.
Tags: ginny, meet-the-mayhaks, new-year, photography
Season's greetings, 2022
Well, 2022 happened. Every few weeks I'd think, Maybe I should write a blog post, and I wouldn't get around to it. Since the card Sarah made this year is sort of one-sided (more below), I figured I'd use this annual post to write up some highlights from the year.
Tags: cd-listening, christmas, ginny, meet-the-mayhaks, music, photography
Photo calendar, 2022
I can't find a reference for this, but I seem to recall at least one popular style guide (perhaps the AP Stylebook) states that a yearly event shouldn't be referred to as "annual" until the third occurrence. However, I have also seen folks argue that the second time an event takes place is enough to say it's annual. All that to say, this marks my Second Annual Photo Calendar.
Don't @ me.
Tags: ginny, meet-the-mayhaks, new-year, photography
Season's greetings, 2021
While I didn't get around to setting up the aluminum Christmas tree this year, Sarah did a lovely job decorating for the holiday. She also put together another card, and it only seems right to share it here.
Tags: christmas, ginny, meet-the-mayhaks, photography
Ginny's World
When we moved back to Wisconsin and bought a house, Sarah was adamant it meant we should get a dog. No longer could I use the excuse that our lease didn't allow for pets. No longer could I point to our multiple thousand-mile trips every year between Virginia and Wisconsin as an example of why we couldn't provide proper care or afford to board such a beast.
I still resisted when we first got settled in our new house, but then we met Ginny.
Tags: ginny, meet-the-mayhaks, photography
Summer 2021 updates
The past couple months flew by as Sarah and I have been getting settled into our new house. Weekdays have been filled with trips to Menards, and weekends have mostly been trips to see family. I don't want this blog to fall by the wayside completely, so here's a short recap of how things are going.
Tags: about-me, meet-the-mayhaks, photography
Movin' and groovin'
We survived the move. It went well overall, but there were some key hiccups.
Tags: meet-the-mayhaks
From Electric Light Orchestra to Folds
With the busyness of preparing for a move in a couple weeks, intentional music listening has fallen by the wayside as of late. Even so, I wanted to get a short one out about a few more discs in the collection.
Tags: cd-listening, meet-the-mayhaks, music
From Death Cab for Cutie to Does It Offend You, Yeah?
After much procrastinating, I finally started writing this post while staying at our new house in Barron, WI. We haven't officially moved yet, but we took Sarah's spring break to drive up and take a closer look at this place we bought entirely from Virginia. I'm very thankful for my dad's willingness to go and look at the house and give an informed opinion before we made an offer. Cheers to Casey Watters and her team for all their help.
The release of this post was also delayed for a special appearance.
Anyway, we continue exploring the collection with a look at a handful of different bands.
Tags: cd-listening, meet-the-mayhaks, music
From Costello to Crane Wives
I'm happy to bring reminiscences of an artist enjoyed by generations of Mayhaks, along with a band Sarah and I discovered together. This one encompasses quite a few discs from the collection considering it only covers two distinct artists and nine albums. Lots of "deluxe editions".
Tags: cd-listening, meet-the-mayhaks, music
Photo calendar, 2021
This year, I decided to start what I hope will be an annual tradition: a photo calendar sent to friends and family. If you did not receive one, please don't be offended: I kept the list fairly short because of the cost of printing and shipping. However, let me know if you'd like one, and I'll gladly have one printed for you.
In the meantime, I figured I'd share the photos here.
Tags: meet-the-mayhaks, new-year, photography
Season's greetings, 2020
Sarah and I celebrate Christmas in a fairly traditional way: trees, lights, presents. She carefully arranges our commemorative ornaments on the main tree, and I set up an aluminum Christmas tree from my dad's childhood. Most years, Sarah puts together a nice card to send out to friends and family, and I thought I'd share a digital copy on this blog.
Tags: christmas, meet-the-mayhaks, photography
From Computer Magic to Costa
More of my CDs and why I have them. These sort of hit on opposite ends of my life, from recent adulthood to early childhood.
WARNING: This episode may contain a tangent of love.
Tags: cd-listening, meet-the-mayhaks, music
From CAKE to Cars
This time, we have two bands from the collection. One I have a little, one I have a lot. Don't be fooled by the CDs that I've got: I'm still, I'm still avoiding disc rot.
Tags: cd-listening, meet-the-mayhaks, music
From Bowie to Brubeck
This one brings us two artists who shouldn't need any introduction, and about whom I feel woefully underqualified to write. As with previous entries, I'll focus mostly on what they mean to me and how their albums made it into my CD collection.
Tags: cd-listening, meet-the-mayhaks, music
From Beat to Boston
In this installment, we go across the pond and back again. These are all bands that have been with me in spirit for a long time, but they entered my CD collection at very different times.
Tags: cd-listening, meet-the-mayhaks, music
New beginnings
How did I get here?
My name is Gideon Mayhak, and I'm currently living in Bridgewater, VA, with my wife, Sarah. We're both from Wisconsin originally; I was born and raised in Wisconsin Rapids and she was born in Merrill. A teaching job at James Madison University brought Sarah to Virginia in 2015, and I followed her when we got married on May 16, 2016. I ended up with a job at JMU, too.
I write this first post of few as we look forward to moving back to Wisconsin sometime next year. Sarah got a teaching job at WITC in Rice Lake, WI. I plan to follow a little closer this time.
Tags: about-me, blog-info, meet-the-mayhaks, photography, server-info