Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Year In Review



It was an excellent year for me to travel. I started the year off with the trip to Ireland. Beautiful country and people. Lots of history, good food and drink. I especially liked the southern part of the country with the rugged land and the small farms. I could see me living like that.

Made the trip to California shortly after that with the high mileage team from the high school - fun and educational both. Got to see the Golden Gate bridge and giant redwoods and get state #48 in the books.

Cuzzin Ricky and I went to Kansas to visit my brother and pick up the chickens. Lovely visit with he and his wife and the bonus stop in Knoxville, Iowa for the Sprint Car Hall of Fame and race (we also made the last Hoosier Hundred this year). I really need to get back out to Kansas again one of these days. Spend some time with "fam" and check out the big ball of twine.

Cuzzin Ricky and I also headed farther west on the Amtrak to Utah. Long ride to Salt Lake City but pleasant enough. Saw some beautiful scenery along the way and met some nice folks on the train. Promontory Point was worth the side trip as was Ogden with the museums in the old train station. Wendover and Ely were both well worth the trip - airplanes and trains, beautiful scenery and state #49. Only one left now is Hawaii.


Did the bi-plane ride this year just like the old barn-stormer days. That was fun. I don't know of any motorcyclist who doesn't like flying in small craft, though. Unfortunately, the B-17 I flew in a few years back crashed while I was out in Nevada killing several people. Certainly a tragedy but what a boring existence a risk free life would be.


Got the motorbike operational this year and started on the Rapido. Not a whole lot accomplished on the other internal combustion projects but got quite a bit done around the shack and this-n-that sort of things. As always I've got big plans for the upcoming year but I'm sure this time next year I'll only have accomplished about half of what I planned.

Didn't do much cycling this year. I did do the ruck march and a few 5K events. My resting pulse rate was slowly creeping up, so I'm addressing that and doing a bit more strength training. With the political and financial situations in this country being what they are, we all should try to be as prepared as possible for any scenario that comes along. With a government that's $23 trillion in debt, trying to disarm its citizens and remove the president by any means possible, I don't think it will end well. Or peacefully.

Changed jobs this year. I left the college after seven years and became a handy-man for a local company. I doubt I'll be working there too much longer. I turn 70 next September. As it stands now, that'll be it for me.

Kind of a slow year for reading. Twenty books was all. I spend a lot more time on the computer these days rather than reading. Sort of a mixed blessing, though. Even though I read a daily newspaper, I like to supplement that with info I gather from the internet. Of course there are also the time wasters like Facebook and Free Cell. 

Looking forward to 2020. Even though I'll be70 next year, I'm living pretty large for a semi-retired school teacher. I'm not rich but doing OK. For a middle class guy, doing OK is actually pretty damn good these days. Cuzzin Ricky and I are planning on some more traveling this upcoming year. East to Pennsylvania with a stop in Ohio to see my brother for sure, not sure where else. Definitely a few more races than this past year.  

Best wishes on the upcoming year to all of you. Here's to health and happiness on 2020.

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