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January, 2026

This is not, if I'm being honest, the simple, structured start to 2026 that I had in mind. Rigor and early workouts have been replaced by pulled floors and sheets of ice.

After spending a lovely week in Park City with the Third South folks, we came back home and had 12 hours of respite until, board by board, our floors were pulled up for replacement. The good news — it's always important to focus on the good news — is that the damage was less extensive than we expected. The bad news, because there is always bad news to go along with good news, is that this week we learned that we would be hit by an ice storm.

And so, we decamped at my parents' house, the same one that I spent my formative years reading Redwall and playing Final Fantasy even though my parents thought I was asleep. Haley and I are, to a fault, creatures of habit and routine, and it would be a lie to say that the past two weeks haven't been draining in the same way a day spent in transit is draining. We miss our house. We miss our things.

For Lucy, though, this has been a permanent vacation — a whirlwind of delight that started in Utah and has extended without ceasing. In the span of two weeks, she went from walking, if she remembered about it, to quite literally sprinting through the house, chasing anything and everything she wanted. It is fascinating to watch a toddler learn about the world. There is a transparency to them, and her effortless and endless delight in discovering the cause and effect of things that I have cynically grown to consider mundane — such as a light switch — more than makes up for a little bit of inclement weather.

I haven't been working much. I haven't been writing much. I haven't been reading much. I have been watching my daughter discover the world and run headlong into it, hands outstretched.

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About the Author

I'm Justin Duke — a software engineer, writer, and founder. I currently work as the CEO of Buttondown, the best way to start and grow your newsletter, and as a partner at Third South Capital.

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