All Over Albany

What's up in the Neighborhood

Among the topics in this most recent spin around the Capital Region's online neighborhood: Christmas and love, the beauties of winter, Julius Wendt, becoming a driver, talking about the scary things, life with a toddler, a moral dilemma in the supermarket, remains of a cemetery, a milestone -- and many, many thanks.

Amy on Christmas and love: "Lives are linear; they begin and they end. But love is not. Love cycles back, coiling its way through moments as the years pile up behind me. And what is Christmas, after all, but an annual feast of love?"

Ahead of the solstice, Jackie again shared her meditation on winter: "So yes, I do celebrate the return of the light and the promise it holds of warmer seasons to come. But I also delight in all of the beauties of winter."

Julie posted some glimpses of early 1900s Christmas in Albany thanks to Julius Wendt.

Katie shared scenes from what it's now like for a teenager to become a licensed driver.

Roger reflected on talking with kids about the scary things in the world.

Albany Jane gathered up a bunch of thoughts about life with a toddler.

Silvia encountered a moral dilemma at the supermarket -- and quite a find at Capital Hills.

Christopher detailed what's left -- or at least what's visibly remaining -- of a 19th century cemetery near Krumkill and Russell Roads.

Jona arrived at a remarkable milestone!

Thank you, Daniel, we're so thankful for your many contributions to AOA.

Thank you, Jon, we're looking forward to getting everyone together and eating some pizza.

And thank you, Chuck, we're happy to see you carrying on The Neighborhood.
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This will be last edition of "What's up in the Neighborhood" before AOA ends December 31.

We've ended up linking to something like 200 different local blogs throughout the years. Many of them no longer exist or are no longer active. Even so, here's a file that collects the feeds for most of them. (You can plug this file -- called an OPML file -- into a feed reader.)

These many sites represent a period in the life of the web that will probably never return, the moment between when early tools like Blogger made it easy for all sorts of people to publish on the internet and the rise of the all-devouring social media platforms. It wasn't perfect, but it was interesting and fun.

We're happy to have been a part of it.