Today is December 31st, and the year has basically ended.
I for one should have seen it coming. Even before January 1, 2023 came, I was flying across the Atlantic Ocean on my way to Tanzania. On the way, we had a chance to explore Frankfurt, Germany. It was New Year’s Eve, and the city was in holiday mode. Everywhere we went, there were Christmas themed people and holiday decorations.
Then it was back to the airport for the next leg of our journey.
Our destination was Mount Kilimanjaro and we summited, (19,341 feet) on January 7th. And then life began to happen. Tax time came and went, and in July we flew to Boston for my grandson’s third birthday. In October, it was off to Peru and the Inca trail. After 7 days of trekking, we arrived at Machu Pichu through the Sun Gate.
For some reason, I felt less focused on Peru than I did for Africa.
And I made assumptions based on the Kilimanjaro experience that really did not apply to the trek in Peru. But in the end, I discovered how vast the Andes in Peru are. Trekking along one side of a mountain, I looked past the gorge below us onto the slopes of the steep mountain on the other side. Gleaming in the afternoon sun were glaciers.
And even from our side of the gorge, I could hear the glacier grumbling and creaking in the afternoon sun.
Thanksgiving had us flying to Boston on Thursday morning, getting there before 10:30 AM. We got to spend the holiday with family and flew back Friday night so I could work on the weekend. Whirlwind, yes, but oh so worth it. After that, my attention focused on the number of shopping days until Christmas.
I purchased a live 4’ blue spruce to use as a Christmas tree.
It turns out that a live tree wasn’t any more expensive than what the VFW was charging for a cut tree. But unlike the cut tree, this will live on years after the VFW’s tree has decomposed in the woods. Now that most of the holidays are over, I plan to plant the spruce tree on our property.
With the year all but over, New Year’s Eve is the only event left in the year.
We will be driving to New Jersey after I get off work on Friday. I do have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, January 1, 2024, off. It will be fun to spend time with family and ring in the new year. I imagine there will be traffic on I-95 as we head home Monday afternoon, but it will be worth it to have spent the time with family.
In all my years, I have never written a “year in review” letter, but I’m sure that’s what this is.
It is interesting to me to see what events I chose to include and what I left out. Foreign travel and being with family are the two areas I have included. Family is what it’s all about. And sharing the world with different family members at my side makes travel unique and exciting.
My wish is that each of you reading this will reflect on your year.
What would rank and be included in your “year in review” letter? What are the important parts of your life that would warrant inclusion? And what would you leave out? My list of what I would leave out includes my continued struggle to stay asleep at night. I go to bed at 10pm, are awake at 11:30PM, 1:00 AM, 3 AM, 4:30 or 5AM, and then I get up around 7 AM.
And I did not include my continued search for an anti-depressant medication that has minimal side effects.
I put on over 15 pounds in the past few months while taking Remeron. And even though I have, with my psychiatrists help and guidance, stopped taking Remeron, I have not lost the 15 pounds. But the other side effects of the drug have disappeared. I am still taking 450 mg. of Wellbutrin daily. And based on a genetic screening, I am taking my B-12 every day. Using my SAD lamp has been much less consistent than what I shared with my doctor.
My orchard is still a work in progress, but with soil samples and help from a Greene County Master Gardener, I may have the formula for success this coming year.
So now I have talked about some of the key parts of my year in review, that I was not going to cover. But these things too, were my year. And the things I don’t want to have happened just as much as the things I did want to happen have happened. I just read this sentence and I can barely understand it and I wrote it.
Oh, did I mention my automobile accident in early November?
In the end, my truck was totaled, and the insurance company gave me a check for its value. Even as I write this, I am sitting in the waiting room as my mechanic installs the tow package, I purchased online to fit my new to me 2018 Nissan Pathfinder. I have a 4×8’ trailer I use to take trash and recycling to the landfill. If he finishes early enough, I plan to take a load of trash and recycling to the landfill before I head to work.
So that’s my year and I am sticking to it.
My wish is that 2024 will build on my time with family and I will make the right decisions about possibly retiring again. My last retiring attempt ended in 2019 with me in 5 East and led me to finally saying, “I have depression, depression does not have me.” And from SMART Recovery, I now say that my goal is to “lead a balanced life” with depression.
