"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." - Mark Twain
2024 was going to be the year of the nap but instead it became a crappy echo of 2016. 2016 started with the loss of family members and friends and ended with a disastrous election. This year we lost family members and friends and, once again, gained an incompetent government with a large side of corruption and stupidity.
I feel I was coasting most of this year. Few things excited me. Many things left me dumbfounded. Eight months of this year were all about my Mom. My schedule revolved around hers. I think I lost a little of myself during those months. The passing of my Mother was sad but a bit liberating. Too bad the rest of the year fell apart thanks to ... stupidity ... selfishness ... apathy ... I guess a combination of all of those. Overall, 2024 was not a really good year for me.
- January: The year would be dominated by the health of my Mom. This month she was diagnosed with parkinson's disease. I bought a new GPS. We left on a short vacation to Tampa.
- February: We had a great time in Tampa. Very relaxing. We tandem skydived which was interesting but a bit of a let down (kinda like scuba was in 2016). Glad I did it though. I filed my taxes and went to see the Oscar nominated shorts.
- March: The Wife went to New York for the Big East Men's Basketball tournament. We started planning our Great Britain trip. The start of multiple sprinkler system repairs started this month.
- April: We went to see Omaha Supernova volleyball (one of the Wife's students will be joining them in 2025). We went to the GodSon's school gala in Minneapolis. We remodeled our bathroom.
- May: The new bathroom was finished. My Mom had her last birthday.
- June: The Wife's student, the one ordained as a Deacon in Rome, was ordained a Priest in Omaha. We cancelled the Wife's Camino trip when we moved Mom's spinal surgery up. Mom's surgery was a success and her back pain diminished soon after her procedure. She would be at a rehab center for a few weeks. We were hit by a big hail storm this month. We would still be fighting the insurance company in November.
- July: Mom fell at the rehab center and fractured her hip. More surgery and more rehab to come. We celebrated our twenty-seventh wedding anniversary by taking care of Mom's finances and having burgers. On the way to celebrate the MoH and BM's birthdays our car got totaled by a semi. We had no injuries but OOF. We took the Wife's car and went to Minneapolis with a side trip to the Dignity of Earth and Sky statue. We tried to distract ourselves by watching the Olympics. July was a crazy a$$ month.
- August: Mom went home from rehab. She was happy to be home. A week later I found her in her kitchen after she'd passed away. While we prepared Mom's memorial and burial we tried to live a normal life. I got a new car totally paid for my insurance. We went to a political rally, our first. Mom was buried near my Dad's grave. The Wife and I came down with COVID for the first (confirmed) time. Both cases were very mild. 2024 was not being gentle.
- September: Things started becoming more normal this month though this would be a brief respite until the real world caught up to us. We got vaccinated before our next international trip. We went on our trip to Great Britain (documented in October and November) and met with friends.
- October: We returned home from our Great Britain trip, a fun adventure. We voted by mail. The October weather rollercoaster resulted in our first brief freeze of the season. Eleven years have passed since the end of my second Camino. Not being done with us yet 2024 took one of my Aunts and one of the Wife's cousins. I had a follow up CT scan.
- November: One of the Wife's aunts and cousins visited this month and had a nice visit. 2024 had the coup de grȃce when the election crashed and burned. After one phone call from the Wife we got a check from the insurance company to complete the roof repairs from the June hail damage. I left Xitter and moved over to Bluesky. We celebrated Thanksgiving with family,
- December: The house was decorated for Christmas including putting the balls in the oak tree out front. Our TV died and was replaced. We celebrated Christmas with family ... and Moose.
- Hiking: Like in 2023 my walking started off strong as I prepared to do the Camino with the Wife. Mom's schedule and our travel disrupted my walking until I somewhat got back on track in October. I successfully pushed the length of my walks out beyond the ten mile mark. In the end I managed to hike 605.4 miles (974.3 km) over 69 hikes. This distance ranks in seventh place and the number of hikes ranks ninth place since I started keeping track - an average showing I would say. Definitely not a bad showing considering I really didn't hike much in the summer months.
In early November I crossed the one thousand hikes recorded over seventeen years of keeping records. Onward to two thousand! - Books: I set a goal to read twenty books this year and, unlike last year, did not meet my goal reading only twelve books. I read nearly everyday including while we were traveling (which is odd for me). Despite this I think I read less per sitting and took a long time to finish books. Here are my Goodreads Stats for 2024.
- Concerts, Shows & Music : We went to a few concerts this year. With the Wife, I went to the Eagles, Peter Frampton, and Melissa Etheridge. I also went to Joe Satriani and The Offspring by myself.
I listened to a lot of music this year - mostly during naps and on long airplane trips. According to Spotify I listened to 2,839 songs from 1,264 artists for 39,710 minutes. Here is my Spotify 2024 Wrapped if you want to explore what the shuffle button did music-wise this year. - I posted 96 times this year. Not as many as 2023 but good enough I guess. I think I need to write more but I'm afraid of either going too dark, too political, or too preachy.
Here's to a Happy, Prosperous, and Healthy New Year for all. May you all find happiness in 2025.
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