2015, A lot of wins but a major loss

Hello and welcome to my 2015 year end recap where I do a generally poor job of recalling and summarizing how my last 365 days on this planet have gone down.  The easy part comes first where I see how I did with the 2015 goals I set last year.

Physical health – After a very bad 2014 my health has improved in 2015 overall.  I have been able to get some decent strength numbers posted, returning to a 240 pound bench press, a 375 pound dead lift and an out of left field 460 pound farmer carry and 600 pound tire flip at Stonepark with IronLoo.  My endurance training sputtered off and on during the year.  For almost six months I was suffering from chronic IT band pain in my right leg that I seem to have gotten under control with regular stretching.  My running endurance/speed is at probably a 5 year low as a result but at this point I am happy to just get out there and run 3-4 miles without limping the next three days.

Home projects – Uh yea we had a ton of home projects, possibly the most ever in a one year time span. (more on that later)  Specifically I mentioned replacing the flooring in the house which finally went down in 2015.  We totally changed up the vibe inside with ceramic tile that looks like wood in the main living area and fresh, higher quality carpet in the office and bedrooms.

GMT – I mentioned that hopefully 2015 would see Green Machine Timing gain momentum.  It really hasn’t, the only business I did outside of the running club was working with the schools to rent my timing equipment for several cross country meets.  I have not made any sort of push or effort to try to secure additional work basically because I normally feel like I already have enough going on as is.  More detail on my future as a race timer will be outlined below.

Job changes – The BIG job change that was a possibility did not come to be but my responsibilities at work definitely grew with the departure of my boss of the last 15 years.

Cindy and I growth – Cindy and I have continued to feel lucky to have each other in our lives.  Cindy made a huge jump this year, leaving her conventional job to pursue getting her personal trainer certification.  She accomplished that goal later in the year and is looking forward to putting it to good use in 2016.  I saw how much work she put into getting the cert and was/am very proud of her for accomplishing that goal.

Ok so let’s talk about more specifics about 2015.

Home improvement projects seemed to be incredibly numerous in 2015.  I don’t recall ever taking on more in one calendar year.  I am sure that is fueled by Cindy’s never ending willingness to do what it takes to make them happen.  The flooring project of course consumed the most dollars as well as a pretty significant amount of labor.  Moving all of the furniture around the house and ripping up the old flooring ourselves was a major pain in the ass but saved us major money as well. The end result of all that money and effort was a major transformation of the interior of the house that Cindy and I were very pleased with.

The building of the new chicken coop did not burn through the same amount of dollars as the flooring project (still significant $$) but the time/labor involved was MASSIVE.  If you told me at the beginning of 2015 I would be buying a 10′ x 8′ storage shed and converting it into a chicken coop I would say you are crazy.  Well evidently I was the crazy one as we now have the impressive structure in the middle of our backyard.  Like 95% of my projects, the coop and attached run were built pretty much entirely from mental blueprints and improvising along the way when hurdles were encountered.  Cindy was instrumental in the project, helping me push forward at certain points where I was just fed up.

After countless hours of work we truly have a chicken mansion that keeps our birds safe and sound.  Of course I had to geek out the coop.  It features a high def four camera security system, internet access, fan, and an automatic chicken door that opens and closes at assigned times.  If I added up every dollar spent on coop/chicken related items in the past year I may get physically ill.   Somehow we can tell the chickens appreciate our effort.

There were a bunch of smaller home improvement/repair projects as well.  I replaced all of the mulch around the pool area with rubber variety, hoping it would discourage the chickens from digging in the area.  They still dig and scratch in the rubber mulch but at least it doesn’t create the dusty/dirty mess on the pool deck as it once did.  I totally rebuilt my pool cleaner, replaced the drain pump on the dishwasher, cleaned the freezer drain, spliced in new wood in the rotted lanai border, and built a second, shorter pull up bar for Cindy.

I did some substantial geeking out of the household in 2015.  I added an Amazon Echo which in turn lead to my purchase of a Philips Hue system and some Belkin WeMO devices.  The end result of all of this is Cindy and I be able to control various things throughout the house with our voice alone.  Alexa has become just another “person” we talk to.  I also installed a Ring doorbell that allows real time two way monitoring/communication with our front door.  We could be on the other side of the world and have a conversation with someone at the door.  Technology is an amazing thing.

In 2015 we bid farewell to the party van.  It was a sad moment when I came home to an empty driveway after a tow truck took it away to be sold as a charitable donation for the Humane Society.  That van was part of countless memories over thousands and thousands of miles in the various road trips it transported us in.  I had been considering getting rid of the van for quite awhile.  I finally pulled the trigger after getting a good look at the horrible, dangerous rust on the under carriage backed up by the AC going out shortly thereafter.  I felt very guilty removing the dog’s favorite mode of transportation.

I did some auto maintenance/improvements in the last year.  I did the front and rear brakes on Cindy’s daughter’s Mustang, replaced hatch struts on the Prius, replaced the instrument cluster on the SSR, and added a LED ground projector to the truck as well.  I am sure the automotive work will always be part of what I do.

My YouTube channel has seen less videos added to it that probably any year of the last five.  For whatever reason I just don’t get out there in front of the camera as much as I used to although I am always looking for that one viral video opportunity to hit it big.  I now have over 750,000 views of my channel and am approaching 1000 total subscribers.

In 2015 I finally decided that I was walking away from my role as the race timer for the running club, giving them a three month notice that will expire at the end of January.  With the loss of my mom last year and Nicki this year it finally made me look hard at what is really important in life.  I spent a lot of time in my life doing things I didn’t necessarily want to be doing as part of the people pleasing aspect of my personality.  Timing races for the running club had become one of those things, a heavy burden, far outweighing any financial compensation I was getting for doing it.  I finally decided to let that burden go.

This will result in a number of positive changes in our lives.  No longer do I have to plan things around race calendars.  No longer does Cindy have to deal with the curmudgeon I become in the 48 hours around a race where my patience is short and my temper is high because my mind is wrapped up in race timing minutia.  The slight dent in my income the decision makes is far outweighed by the responsibility that is lifted from my shoulders.  I literally feel like I am a prisoner that has his release date 30 days away.  It will be an awesome change for the better in my life.  I still may time small events under the GMT banner but that will all be on my terms and nobody else.

Despite all the home projects Cindy and I found a way to go on two awesome trips.  The first was another western road trip that was over 6000 miles in length.  The main stops on the trip were Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Craters of the Moon, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Vegas, and the Hoover Dam.  It was just an incredible amount of things to take in during a two week period.  As always, the journey to each destination contained their own set of lifelong memories that make seeing the country one mile at a time such a cool experience for us.

The recent Christmas trip to NYC was equally memorable.  Seeing the stark contrast of NYC to the relatively calm existence we normally lead is a shock to your senses.  The beauty of the very old and very new architecture in the city makes for a very unique experience.  My workout with IronLoo, Ray, and Patrick at Stone Park was the toughest of my life and something that redefined my definition of intensity.

I also left the state during the summer for a brief trip to Philly for the RunSignUp conference.  It was a different sort of trip, sightseeing alone, but worthwhile nonetheless.

So as you read through the description of the year you see a lot of accomplishments, a lot of activity, a lot of positive “wins”.  Unfortunately the 2015 chapter is not without loss as well.

Early in the year Cindy and I awoke to a tragic scene in the back yard.  Our three hens, Betty, Wilma and Pebbles were killed by a raccoon that figured out how to open the side door of the coop overnight.  It was just an awful, awful day.  My initial reaction was to install predator proof latches on the chicken tractor.  When we got four new “hens” from the lady that we bought our original three from we were very disappointed to later discover that three of the four were actually roosters that we wound up giving away.  I felt absolutely horrible giving away the birds as I knew they would never find a situation as awesome as ours to live in.

The racoon incident was the driving force behind the scope and scale of the new coop we built which has full hardware cloth, including buried in the ground to prevent predators.  We adopted 11, week old baby chicks from Rural King that Cindy cared for meticulously until they were old enough to move outside. At this point we have 11 healthy hens that produce close to 10 eggs a day on average.

We had more chicken loss when Lola passed away after suffering some sort of illness that gradually sapped her strength and energy over a couple months.  She was such a sweet, sweet bird.

One of our 11 chicks, Jaina, also turned out to be a rooster, who we gave to a friend of ours.  We were sad to hear that Jaina died as well from illness a couple months later.

The loss we experienced with our chickens was very sad of course.  However when Nicki passed away a couple months ago it was an entire new level of sorrow.

Shortly after Ali and I separated Nicki’s health started to deteriorate.  She had a horrible GI ailment that resulted in a lot of dietary changes.  She also started to have a lot of problems with mobility.  The stairs in the apartment Ali lived in for two years definitely had a negative impact on Nicki. Over the last year or two her problems seemed to be sort of stabilized.  You could tell she was in pain getting up and down but it didn’t seem to be getting significantly better or worse.

Well one day Nicki was unable to get herself upright on the ceramic tile at Ali’s place.  Ali took her to the emergency vet who in turn prescribed her a narcotic pain killer that I still believe was the first step in the series of events that lead to her demise.   After having a bad reaction to the drug she was back at the vet and never emerged.

She spent the last few days of her life in a manner that was very difficult for me to bear witness to.  Everyday I went in to see her it ripped a little piece of my heart out.  When I got the call in the middle of the night that she had passed away it was of course tragic yet merciful at the same time.  When we drove to the vet to see her motionless body one last times it was extremely difficult to endure.  Nicki was the closest thing I ever had to a child.  She was a huge part of many happy moments over the last nearly 13 years of her life.  The loss today is still fresh enough to pull tears at a moments notice.  She was such a tender, loving soul.  We all miss her and always will.

Ok hopefully in 2016 I don’t need to once again wrap up the recap with a story of horrible loss.  I may have forgotten some highlights but if you want to double check my work there are 12 months of entries you are welcome to flip through.  Just use the calendar tool on the right.

Ok so how about 2016 goals?

Spend less money.  I am sure that I spent more money in 2015 than any other year of my adult life, by far.  Now don’t get me wrong, the money spent resulted in a lot of awesome things but I need to try to be a bit more measured going forward.

Fitness/health of course will remain a major focus as it always has.  It would be cool if I could hit 250 pounds on my bench press in the next year and combine that with a 400 pound deadlift.  Being able to hit those strength numbers would be extra cool if I could also get my endurance training back on track.  Serious running just has diminishing returns at my age but it still would be cool to at least be able to run a 10k without dying.  My stepping away from race timer duties might mean I actually have more opportunity to be a race participant instead.

Next year I am looking forward to seeing what Cindy does with her goals of being employed in the fitness industry.  She has the personality to really excel at it and I expect her to do exactly that.

As far as home improvements go, we did so much in 2015 that my wallet could use a bit of a rest period this year.  Even so there are some things I have been rolling around my head like a tin roof and new appliances.  A new tv may also be on the docket sooner rather than later.

I expect my quality of life next year to be significantly better with the subtraction of club race timer from my list of responsibilities.  It is something I have been doing for something around 8 years.  The last 3 years or so have been just not fun.  I am looking at regaining more freedom and fun soon.

Cindy and I have no established trip plans for next year although I would think at some point we will do another road trip albeit not the same size and scope as what we did this year.

As always I hope my relationship with Cindy continues to improve and mature.  Even when we do have disagreements or arguments about subjects I can always count on us getting past them quickly.  Our true love and appreciation for one another typically makes those issues melt into the background.  I am truly lucky to have somebody like her in my life.  It’s a great thing to have someone you know is in your corner, every second of every day, wanting nothing more than for you to be happy.

I hope you enjoyed this dusty recollection of 2015. I also genuinely appreciate you taking the time to sift through my thoughts, as clear or as fuzzy as some of them may be.

I wish the best to you and yours in 2016.  Keep moving forward and upward my friends.