Adios 2004

2004 ends today. It has absolutley rocketed by. Let me start by listing our major purchases of the year:

Timeshare
88 Corvette (sold 6 months later)
2 pieces of investment land
Diamond Earrings
Gas powered generator
Pool Heater
2 Lawn Tractors (1 sold immediately)
Elliptical cardio machine

Damn you would think we were loaded. Hardly.

04 was also the year that I started playing volleyball tournaments on a regular basis again, something I hadn’t done since I lived in PA. It didn’t quite capture the glory of the past but was a satisfying season none the less.

The number of projects this year has been less than years past. The biggest by far was the tiling of the 2 bathrooms. Some of the other noteworthy projects were the weedblocking and mulching of all the landscaped areas, the addition of fill dirt to raise some low areas, installed a pot rack, planted a few new trees, set up a new mosquito trap, made our “laundry center“, put in a 3 foot rock border around the entire house, redid several landscape borders, built steps into the lanai doors, along with various smaller organizational projects. Hmmm, well it seemed like I did less.

04 was a hurricane nightmare. Having our first hurricane wasn’t enough, it was followed by 2 more within a month and a half. The experience was a bit scary and the panicking, hoarding mentality of the masses in such events is very frustrating. We spent 2 and a half days without power during the middle of summer. It was very stressful, very annoying yet very memorable. Certain moments stick out like sleeping in front of a fan, on the sofa bed that is powered by a dc inverter that is plugged into the Tacoma that is parked out back , running all night. The “shower” I took by getting in the pool to get wet, going into the shower, soaping up and then having Ali be my showerhead by dumping water on me with a plastic cup she filled with water from the tub. And most memorably, the 30 minutes when we got power pack midway through the outage in which we threw out all of our ice, emptied the tubs and undid most of our hurricane prep only to have the power click off again to set me off into a near uncontrollable obscenity filled rampage.

The hurricane trauma sparked a rash of hurricane prep spending. We now have a generator, a window AC unit and plywood window shutters for the next time big wind comes our way.

We had our first full year of dog ownership. We both love Nicki more than we thought we could any pet. However the other 4 pets we own have taken such a backseat I feel guilty about the lack of attention they receive.

We had a full year of being in Invisalign braces. By now, we were supposed to be close to being done with the treatment. Instead, we will be lucky to finish by the end of the upcoming year. It has been frustrating, yet my teeth are getting straighter, slowly.

My mom has spent her first full year living on her own in Florida. She is grinding out a living and continues to make minor steps towards more success at her job.

04 was the year I lost “Itchy”, my 36 year old blanket from childhood that I never got rid of. Ali’s efforts to find it were futile but amazing none the less. She was kind enough to create “Scratchy” in an attempt to fill the void.

We had a lot of visitors in the past year. My sis, my bro, Troy, Cheryl & Dave, Shannon, Alison’s parents, Alison’s Pop Pop, Mike, Suzanne and Lauren all have been down in the last calendar year.

My technology purchases continued in earnest this year. Topping the list are my Sirius satellite radio rig, the Roomba, the Sony all-in-one LCD remote, the 2nd hacked Tivo, the DVD/VCR combo, the new XBOX, the Gameboy along with numerous smaller things.

This year I really have been buying and selling a lot on Ebay. I am continually amazed at what I can unload online. I am hooked.

I picked up a number of regular readers of the blog, mostly friends and family but also a few that never actually met me. Gnome, Jenny, Keener, Mike, Torrin, Rich and Joe have made some interesting contributions in the comment sections. To date I am working towards 8000 views.

On a personal level I continue to work hard at staying as healthy as I can. I weigh close to 10 pounds less than I did last year. My fear of aging and death motivates me to hit the gym harder than ever before in my life. I try to be more introspective, more patient and more positive although I often fail to do this as consistently as I would like to. When I allow myself to slow down and take a look around, I realize how lucky I am and how far I have come from the kid that had no idea what was going to happen with his life and didn’t have a clue on how I would get by. I’m proud of what has been accomplished so far yet frustrated by my inability to decide what I want my next step to be. I love living in Florida but I am bummed out about my inability to create any close friendships with people down here. I continue to become increasingly sensitive to the world around me. I get emotionally involved with issues and things like the tsunami disaster really make me stop and take pause, where as 15 years ago I wouldn’t have given it 5 seconds thought. I actually read a few books now and then and ENJOY it.

For 05 I am unsure of what excitement will unfold. There are a few things I would like to have happen this upcoming year. I want go on another cruise. I really enjoyed the first one and have been itching to go again. Making dog arrangements is the biggest hurdle with that. I want to complete Nicki’s dog run and make that the last of the major projects for the forseeable future. I want to spend more time enjoying the fruits of my labor and less time laboring. A big goal is trying to get Ali working only part-time. Doing so would help some of the other goals, hurt some of the others but I think it would be a good thing for both of us in the long run. The idea of kids will probably be decided upon by the end of the year, one way or another.

Tonight we are ringing in the New Year at a dinner theater with Alison’s parents, a different way to do it. It’s too bad that Dick can’t make the call for the New Year’s Eve show but Regis is a good substitute. I hope everyone has a great upcoming New Year and thanks for taking the time to read this drivel once in awhile. Peace.