Let's look back at 2022, shall we:
- January: I started the month with a new idea of documenting my life with weekly summary posts. This was to counter my too small for blog but too unimportant for Twitter issue. I lost and found my wedding ring. Our windows, ordered eleven months earlier, were finally installed. Music returned when I started booking concert after concert.
- February: I got a new phone and was impressed by the 5G speed. Medical issues were addressed including getting a colonoscopy. We had a late family Christmas get together and a long overdue get together with the other side of the family. Ukraine began dominating the news and my doom scrolling.
- March: Went to the Oscar Animated Shorts nominees. Celebrated Pi day. Our windows were finally finished. Spring Sprung.
- April: The first week of the month, especially the first weekend, was very full with concerts and a family wedding in Minneapolis. We got our house painted Evergreen Fog. My numbers improved a bit after I changed my diet and exercise routines.
- May: The Wife's last month of work started with her student going to finals of Poetry Out Loud. My 11th Caminoverary came and went. I started preparing for my return to the Appalachian Trail by defining my stages, purchasing and repairing my gear, and planned my resupply strategy. The Wife officially retired and had the school mascot named after her. I stopped playing another game.
- June: The Wife's student, unfortunately, did not place in the top three of Poetry Out Loud. I planned my AT food. We went to a Notre Dame college world series baseball game. I got sick a few weeks before leaving for the AT (I should have tested for COVID but didn't). I mailed off my AT resupply boxes.
- July: The Wife and I enjoyed the Van Gogh exhibit. We celebrated a somewhat tarnished 4th of July early at the Brother-in-Law's lake house. I traveled to the start of my AT adventure. I celebrated our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary by hiking into Maine. My AT adventure ended prematurely. I underestimated the trail and overestimated my capabilities and my last attempt to finish the AT came to an end. What a waste of time, money, and effort on my part. I celebrated my fifty-ninth birthday at home instead of on the trail as I'd hoped.
- August: This was a transition month. I had little planned for this month since I was supposed to be on the AT for half of it. Coming home early left a month full of mundane weekly ephemera. The most important thing that happened this month were preparations for our big travels starting in September.
- September: This was a big travelling month for us as we visited Israel, Turkey, and Egypt.
- October: The trip we started in September continued through the middle of October with a visit to Ethiopia. We celebrated the Wife's sixtieth birthday not having our faces eaten by hyenas. I commemorated the end of my second Camino in 2013. Mom had vertigo issues that sent her to the hospital. We voted early. I got a not-so-good blood results due to the out of control food I ate on our travels.
- November: Started off the month with a prostate biopsy - no cancer found. I started moving from Twitter to Mastodon. I got my COVID bivalent vaccine. The midterm elections were mixed but better than expected. Hot water now flows at our house. We celebrated Thanksgiving at my Mom's house. I bought myself a new tablet. I put up the Christmas decorations early which felt very right. I remembered the passing of a friend.
- December: We went to the Late Night Catechism Christmas Show with the Brother-in-Law and his Wife. The balls were put in the tree again. We met the MoH and BM at a Frank Lloyd Wright Hotel in Mason City, IA. A Christmas cactus finally bloomed but from a gifted plant. The solstice ushered in a very cold start to winter.
- Hiking: My walking this years was a bit mixed this year. I started off doing longer hikes preparing for my attempt to finish the AT but after that ended in utter crappitude (that should be a word). I had trouble doing anything over ten miles. I ended strong, doing three hikes during the last week of December, hiking a total of 604 miles (972 km) for the year spread over seventy hikes. This places 2022 in sixth place since I started keeping records in 2007. A mediocre hiking year.
- Biking: This year I didn't ride my bike at all. I should just remove this category since I am not motivated to ride anymore.
- Books: I set a goal to read twenty books this year. I did well (for me) reading nineteen books. I'd hoped I would exceed my goal but I found it difficult to read while we were traveling. I was either very tired at the end of the day or there were too many movies to watch on the plane. Here are my Goodreads Stats for 2022.
- Concerts, Shows & Music : Live music returned this year. It started with the Tedeschi Trucks Band and continued with the Marshall Tucker Band, Enter the Haggis, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, Santana, and America. The only non-music show we went to this year was Sister's Christmas Catechism. Despite seeing live music again I still listened to a lot of music on Spotify. Here is my Spotify 2022 Wrapped if you want to explore what the shuffle button did music-wise this year. A lot of the music it lists is stuff I added before/after going to the concerts.
- I posted 127 times this year. This is the most I've posted since 2017 and twice as many as last year. I think adding the Weekly Ephemera posts got me writing more, not to mention the AT interruptus and the Fall travels giving me a lot of inspiration as well. Now I just have to keep it up or maybe even write more next year.
What will 2023 bring? We have a few trips in the planning stages - a domestic roadtrip, an Asian adventure, and a hike along the Camino de Santiago. Some friends will be visiting in the Spring to see the sandhill crane migration. I'm sure more things will pop up along the way. The key to 2023, and most other years frankly, is to be flexible and accept what comes your way.
Here's to a Happy, Prosperous, and Healthy New Year for all. May all your dreams come true in 2023.
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