A Homer's Travels Look Back At 2017

2017 was the year that I became lost.  I returned from my failed Appalachian Trail (AT) attempt not knowing where I was or where I was going.  This feeling persisted throughout the year.  The AT didn't break me physically but it did break me spiritually.  I'd gone out looking for spiritual healing but the inability to keep my promise to G_v just ripped my spirit to shreds.  I spent most of this year trying to rebuild.

Let's look back at 2017, shall we:

• January: I started a new tradition of posting my best picture of the previous year in the first post of the new year. I changed a few thing on Homer's Travels like moving the travel magnets to their own tab and changing the counter. Among picture posts, some accompanied by little anecdotes, I left a haiku. I caught up on six months of podcasts which felt like a form of time travel. Icy weather and an interesting documentary got me in the minimalist mood resulting in a clean den. Said Icy weather never truly materialized. I slowed down from my post a day practice that I'd been practicing since the beginning of last November. Inauguration day gave me a bloated feeling. I bought a new camera to replace my dead one (the sixth camera I've ever owned). I went to several doctor appointments this month, a common occurrence in January, but this time I ended up getting some minor surgery. The Wife participated in her first protest rally. The month ended with good news about an old blog friend's engagement. 
• February: I took a step towards the AT and bought my ticket to Georgia. I posted about the winter and rain gear I would be taking on the AT. We went on a winter family outing at Willow Lake. I wished the Wife a happy Valentine's Day. I enjoyed a few hours of secrets. I skipped Trek Up the Tower this year. I started planning my AT meals in earnest including making a pot cozy. I ended the month sick with a stomach/intestinal bug that was just delightful. 
• March: This month was occupied mostly with preparation for the AT. I didn't post much this month because my anxiety level was pretty high and I was afraid it would come out in the writing. 
• April: A strange month for me. This month I packed for, I gave reasons and revealed promises for, I started ... and ended my Appalachian Trail adventure. I regretted. I documented. I supported science. 
• May: I took pictures of a mom-to-be. I acquired my Chromebook. I began filling in my social calendar. I quietly celebrated my sixth caminoversary. I posted several flower pictures before ending with the Amazing Stinko. I observed Memorial day and wished my Mom a Happy Birthday. 
• June: I started the month with a visit to Britishfest. I went out into the sunshine at the Omaha Summer Arts Festival followed quickly by sand castles in a parking lot. Summer was officially welcomed it with a photograph of an hibiscus. I went to my first college world series game. 
• July: We celebrated the fourth at lake Cornelia before heading to Minneapolis. This month we celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary with raccoons. I turned fifty-four. I began moving my pictures from Flickr to Google Photos. I found a strange head. 
• August: The third clutch of dove eggs hatched (followed by a fourth clutch!). Our kitchen was updated followed by me cleaning the house. I visited Homestead to witness totality. I watched some curling. Most importantly, this month I went for my first hike since walking off the AT but I did not find the spark ... Or the butterflies. 
• September: A spider caused shivers.  I discovered the Dodge Street Subway on my way to five thousand miles.  The first day of Autumn was a hot one.  I considered what I would be doing if I'd stayed on the AT.  I strolled passed a little positivity.
• October: I began to drift a little in October.  I watched the Harvest Moon.  In a reversal, rainy days comforted me.  I remembered the anniversary of the end of my second Camino.  I watched the latest incarnation of Star Trek.  A ghost in the grass wished everyone a happy Halloween.
• November: The drifting that started in October continued into November.  I signed up for Trek Up the Tower in hopes to get something started in me.  I took a cool picture of the Hunter Moon.  I watched my fill of the Olympic Curling Team Trials.  The Holiday Season started when I put up the tree in our living room.  I completed the photo move from Flickr to Google Photos that I'd started in July.  I ended the month remembering a friend with poetry.
• December:  The ornaments went up in our oak tree ... and then some came down. The Christmas cactus bloomed on schedule.  Our first snowfall finally arrived on Christmas eve.  The month and year ended on a very cold note.
• Walking: ... I was going to make this the year of walking. Instead the AT, at least temporarily, killed my desire to walk.  I restarted my walking after an one hundred forty day pause but the spark I usually get from walking hasn't returned.  In all I walked 381.89 miles this year, less than last year.  It ranked fifth place in the last eleven years.  A dissapointment.
• Biking: This year I road my trainer ninety-one times - a record for me - and I ended up doing 1799.8 miles.  All of these miles were on the trainer as I never took my bike out into the real world even when the weather was nice.  I just couldn't get myself motivated to actually bike on the trails so I used Netflix to coax me onto the trainer.  Better something than nothing.  
• Books: I hadn't planned to read many books this year but after cutting my AT hike short I set a goal of ten books. I surpassed that goal and read fifteen.  This number is still a bit weak I think.  Next year I will try to aim higher.  I didn't read any five star books this year but, on the good side, the lower rating I gave this year was three stars.  I would say that my favorite book of the year was "The Handmaid's Tale".  Here are my Goodreads stats for 2017.
• Concerts & Shows: After ending my AT prematurely I bought tickets to several concerts to help fill the void.  I usually only include music concerts in this list but this year I'll include other events, such as comedy, as well: 
• The first was Billy Joel who was awesome.
• After returning from the AT  I lightened my mood with some Jerry Seinfeld.
• The summer started with KC and the Sunshine Band.
• I really enjoyed a band from my youth: Queen with Adam Lambert.
• and some more: Blondie and Garbage.
• and another: Sir Paul McCartney.
• The year ended with three pieces of funny starting with William Shatner,
• followed by John Cleese,
• and ending with Ira Glass.
All of the shows were good but I think McCartney stood out as the best showman while Queen brought back the most memories for me.
• I posted 139 times this year, just four less than last year.  This was a lot more than I'd planned on.  I'd figured the AT would cut the number of post by quite a bit - probably down to 95 or 100 posts.  The fact that I didn't walk the AT and only managed some forty more posts was a bit of a let down. 

As the end of the year approaches I am still a bit lost.  I've lost both my joy of hiking and my sense of adventure but I think things will get better. Time does heal all wounds but we can't always choose how long it will take.  I just need to give it time and to keep moving forward.

Here's to a Happy and Prosperous New Year for all.

May all your dreams come true in 2018.

(or at least, may we all survive 2018.)

BRRRRR

I was going to go for the last walk of 2017 today but I decided I 'd rather be warm today.  The high today was 20℉ (-6.67℃).  I kind of wimped out since I've gone walking in colder weather before.  I decided, after the Wife suggested it, to ride my trainer in the basement while watching "The Gifted" instead.

There probably won't be another walk until after the new year.  The temperatures pretty much guarantees it.  Tomorrow the high/low temps are 1℉/-9℉ (-17.2℃/-22.78℃).  New Years Eve isn't much better with -4℉/-19℉ (-20℃/-28.3℃).  New Years Day is a slightly better -1℉/-15℉ (-18.3℃/-26.1℃).

All I can say about all these numbers is BRRRRR!

Book: Douglas Preston's "The Lost City Of The Monkey God"

My last book of the year is Douglas Preston's "The Lost City of the Monkey God".  This was the fifteenth book of the year.  Better than the ten book goal but still a bit anemic.

The book documents the discovery and exploration of a civilization hidden in the mountains and jungles of the Honduran Mosquitia region.  The city, which may or may not be the legendary City of the Monkey God, was discovered using LIDAR which is becoming an important tool for archaeology.  In reality the City of the Monkey God is probably an amalgamation of multiple archaeological sites in the Mosquitia region.

The book is a bit disjointed bouncing between the history of the area, a story of the discovery and exploration of the city, the politics (and jealousy) within the archeology community, and Leishmaniasis which ravaged the exploration team.  This disjointedness took some of the enjoyment out of this story of modern exploration.

I liked the book but it didn't do enough for me.  I gave it three stars on Goodreads.  It's an okay read.

Christmas Wishes

Nollaig Shona duit féin agus do chuid féin.

Vrolijk kerstfeest voor jou en de jouwe.

あなたとあなたのメリークリスマス。

Frohe Weihnachten für Sie und Ihre.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

สุขสันต์วันคริสต์มาสกับคุณและคุณ

Feliz Natal para você e para você.

Feliz Navidad para ti y los tuyos.

Joyeux Noël à vous et à vous.

Buon Natale a te e ai tuoi.

First Snow Of The Season ... Just In Time

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas with the in-laws.  We had a very nice time in the Mother-in-Law's tiny house full of family.

Overnight we had two inches (five centimeters) of snow, our first significant snow of the 2017-2018 season.  It was a bit late this year.  It will be cold enough this week that it should last for a while.

The sun rising over the first snow.

The snow was enough that I could use the neighbor's snow blower to clear our sidewalks and driveways.  Luckily the snow blower worked - last year I could never get it started.

Snow of the ornaments.

I always like how the world looks with a fresh blanket of snow - so clean and bright ... and innocent looking.  It's also nice when it snows in time for a white christmas.

Tomorrow Christmas day at my Mom's.

Photograph: "Ice On Tree"

Yesterday, the first day of Winter, also gave Omaha it's first dusting of snow though, to be honest, it was more of a rain event.  The little snow we had collected in shadowed corners or rested on elevated surfaces that kept their cold.

This morning as the sun erased the winter dusting I noticed the iced branches of the trees across the way and took a picture before they too disappeared.

"Ice on Tree"
by Bruce H.

Photograph: "A (W)hole Lot Of Beautification"

During a walk last week I came across this.  The building was in a more industrial area of the North Downtown (NoDo) area of Omaha.  They are trying to improve the NoDo area and this particular building was across the street from a new apartment/condominium building.  To beautify the industrial building, the windows facing the new apartments were painted a jaunty green.  Unfortunately they did not take the time to fix the holes in the windows before they painted them green.

"A (w)hole lot of beautification"
by Bruce H.

The Holiday Season Is In Full Bloom

We have two Christmas cactuses.  This year it was a very close competition to see which would bloom first.  The older, larger in one in our living room opened up this afternoon and won the race.  The smaller one in the kitchen will be fully open tomorrow if not later tonight.

The first bloom of our Christmas cactus.  The holidays are now in full bloom. 

This is a little later than last year but the Christmas season is back on track.

...And Down They Came

Last Sunday I put up the ornaments on the oak tree (Here's the post).  I predicted that a few would blow off with the forecasted winds.  Well, I was right.  THIRTY balls blew off the tree over about three days.  There were balls everywhere!

Thirty Christmas Ornaments in a pile.

I was going to put them back in the tree once the winds were gone but I changed my mind.  The tree, despite missing thirty ornaments, still looks festive so I'm not rehanging the balls.  It's just too much work for this old man.  Bah Humbug.

Photograph: "A Blue Whale ... And A Few Penguins Too"

I've been waiting to take pictures of snow but nature is not cooperating.  We have yet to have our first snow of the season.  So, instead, I will post a picture of a colorful Blue Whale I took on my walk last week.  Enjoy.

"A Blue Whale ... and a few penguins too"
by Bruce H.
(Original artist unknown.)

Book: N. K. Jemisin's "The Stone Sky"

The third book of N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, "The Stone Sky" completes the story told in "The Fifth Season" and "The Obelisk Gate" and is the fourteenth book I've read this year.

The first two books of the trilogy won Hugo awards for best novel.  The third book was as good, if not better, than the first two.  Having said this, I'm not sure why it won the awards.  It's not a bad set of books but, frankly, there is nothing special about the story or the storytelling.  It's a perfectly good fantasy trilogy but, in my opinion, it belongs in the middle of the pack, not the top.

The story follows our main character and her daughter as they head towards their inevitable conflict.  The journey is brief and almost throw away.  The conflict at the end is a bit anticlimactic.

I gave this book, and hence the trilogy, four stars out of five on Goodreads not because it was good but because it's not bad.  It was entertaining enough to be okay and there was nothing in the books that put me off.  It's good filler when you don't have anything else to read.

They're Up!

I put the Christmas ornaments in our oak tree on Sunday.  This is a bit later than usual since the leaves didn't drop until this week.

In the last twenty-four hours three balls had dropped.  I rehung the three and a few hours after another dropped.  The wind was picking up and I went out to hang it back in the tree when a gust of wind blew five more ornaments from the tree - a couple hitting me in the head and back. I collected the fallen ornaments and brought them inside.  I will hang them when the wind dies down and, based on the forecast, I will be picking a lot more off the lawn in the next few days.

Our decorated oak tree.
(Picture taken by the Wife.)

Last year fifteen ornaments dropped on the first few days.  Wonder how many will drop this year.

Learning Lessons With Ira

Photo from Wikipedia taken by Tom Murphy VII

Last night the Wife and I went to a live show with Ira Glass, host of This American Life.  The show, 'Seven Lessons I've Learned: a Night with Ira Glass', was Ira talking about his career, the show, and the rather random sampling of the lessons he has learned over the years.

The show was a humorous mixture of talk and multimedia that was very satisfying.  Ira Glass is of a liberal bent and, Omaha being the most liberal part of conservative Nebraska, he tip toed around the politics of modern America.  He didn't really have to, I think, since the applause he got showed approval for the few political musing of the evening.

This is the second time we heard Ira speak.  The first time was during a taping of stories for a future show at UCLA back in 2007.  He hasn't changed much which is a good thing.  He gave us an entertaining two hours which ended with questions from the audience.

Barring something unexpected showing up, this will be the last event we have planned for 2017.  A good end to a full year.