Looking back and forward

It seems impossible that a year has passed since the last time I did one of these recaps.  The speed which time passes at this point in my life is pretty staggering.  Well whether I like it or not, the calendar says it is time to wrap up yet another year.

Ok looking at my 2010 goals I did a pretty piss poor job of hitting them, wow.  Probably the worst job I have done with this since I have been blogging.  Let’s look at the 2010 goals one by one.

Finish painting the interior of the house – nope, our bedroom and bathroom remain stark white.

Paint the exterior of the house – nope.  It really needs it.  It seems like such a big job, I am having a hard time kick starting myself to do it.

Screen in the front entrance of the house – yes, sort of.  Instead of going through the hassle and expense of screening in the entire landing I instead installed a $150 retractable screen door that still allows us to have the front door wide open to allow cool breezes to flow through the house.  The dogs love it.

Replace the water equipment – no.  I managed to fix some of the problems that I had with our water equipment.  It is performing better but our water is still not great.

Camaro – nope.  My insistence that the Camry gets paid off first has continued to delay any Camaro purchase.  The delay has also caused my eye to shift upward to the convertible model that will be available during 2011.  I still am trying to figure out how I can get one with out causing undue financial strain to the budget. I did actually test drive a 6 speed SS back in January.

Muscle up – No.  I had several physical hurdles to achieving this feat of strength including surgery on my shoulder to remove skin cancer and tendinitis that was borderline debilitating at times. In recent months I have been making some steady progress but a muscle up still has not happened.

Road trip – YES.  We had a fantastic trip out west in June even with the mechanical problems that threatened to derail us more than once.  We saw and experienced so many awesome things.  It makes me yearn to have a life that has that sort of diversity in it instead of the one I exist in where the weeks just melt into one big blob of sameness.

State of mind – No.  I won’t be starting any motivational speaking tours any time soon.

Kid – No.  Ali and I have had a couple discussions about this.  Ali hears the clock ticking and I have on a pair of noise canceling earphones.   It is subject matter that continues to be a source of anxiety on both sides.

So if you are keeping score, I failed on 7 out of 10 “goals”, the .300 average wouldn’t be bad if I was batting 6th for the Phillies but in the game of life it is pretty disappointing.

Let’s recap what I DID do in 2010.

2010 was a year filled with memorable physical events as well as the accompanying videos documenting them.

Who can forget the EPIC 300 challenge between Jeremy and Randall at the end of January?  I used my pull up / jump station that I constructed quite a bit, using it for many work outs including my self coined 50-50-50.

I dead lifted 310 pounds and did a pull up with an extra 60 pounds hanging from my body in 2010.

Jeremy and I had an unexpected solid performance at a volleyball tournament where we managed to take second place.  On our march to the finals we handed Randall an embarrassing loss that will be the subject of stories for years to come.

I had a number of personal firsts/bests this year.  I competed in my first triathlon which turned out to be one of the more grueling physical challenges I ever endured.  It was quite satisfying to see my ability to bike and swim get better as I trained.

I set two running distance bests in 2010, first running a 10K in October and then running 10 miles just last weekend.  Neither of these attempts were made with much forethought.  I just sort of decided on those days I wanted to see if I could do it.

Ali had a huge year with her running and triathlons.  She completed several half marathons and triathlons.  She keeps aiming higher on the endurance events ladder.  I am very proud of the effort she has put in.

Although I missed on the majority of home improvement goals, we did have some upgrades.  We took advantage of government incentive programs twice, first replacing our washer,dryer and dishwasher and then replacing our home HVAC system in September.  We spent HUGE money between the two upgrades but we are seeing some payback with significantly lower electricity bills.

I did do some old fashioned construction as well, resurfacing the dog deck with Trex composite lumber as well as building a ramp for the smaller shed. I also cleaned out the garage to make room for the Camaro that isn’t there, including installing shelving on the cinder block wall.

I had some personal wins with my Mr Fixit business fixing an O2 sensor in the Tacoma, several timing clocks,  the air compressor, various tractor problems, serpentine belts, idler pulleys, broken scoobas and more.

I got involved with Lost in 2010.  I digested 5 season of the show via Netflix in a month and a half and just finished season 6 last week.  It was a great show but I am glad I waited to watch it in that condensed time period, it made the storyline much more compelling and fresh. I also digested Firefly in the same manner, another great show.

I did a lot of broadcasting in 2010.  I broadcasted many work outs, but later in the year, after discovering the wonders of justin.tv, broadcasted things like making the dogs dinner, fixing time clocks, driving to work, a yard sale, playing WoW and more.  You name the stupid, mundane thing and I probably broadcast it.  Some people may say that this interest I have with broadcasting many aspects of my life is an indication of some sort of personality disorder.  I wouldn’t argue against that.

I have really become quite good at timing races.  It is a blend of IT knowledge and athletic events which I find I really enjoy.  I timed my first cross country meet in 2010.  I also invested a lot of time and effort in creating a store for the running club that we have been “selling” memberships and races out of for a couple months.

I joined a new gym in 2010, Retro Fitness.  It allowed me to escape the plethora of stupid rules and the dreaded LUNK ALARM at Planet Fitness.  I really like the new place and have no major complaints.

I acheived my 4th Windows server certification in 2010.  It joins my MCSE on NT4, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003.

I cut cable in 2010.  I finally got sick enough of getting $150 bills each month from Comcast for internet and basic HD service, to do something about it.  I installed a huge HD antenna by the small shed and have been using it to grab HD over the air for free.  I supplemented this with streaming content from the internet.  I really haven’t missed cable tv at all.

I snagged a normal amount of techno goodies in 2010.  Some of the highlights were the new Iphone 4, a 32 inch LCD tv for the bedroom, a Tivo Premiere, an Ipad for Ali, and an Xbox 360 to name a few.

I had a nice Trek road bike given to me by a gym buddy.  After a tune up at the bike shop it was almost as good as new.

I ended my brief ownership of my dad’s Moto Guzzi motorcycle in 2010, selling it to a dealer in the midwest.  The bike needed a lot of TLC and I wasn’t interested enough in motorcycle riding to spend the money to provide it.

We actually got neighbors again in 2010.  The house to the right of ours was for sale and then vacant for a long time.  Finally it was purchased via a short sale by a nice woman who has two kids.  We get along with them just fine.

I discovered the joys of shaving my own head in 2010.

We actually hired a service to clean our house once a month.  I am still in the process of evaluating if it is worth the money or not.

We bought family memberships to the water park.  We went there almost weekly for a period of time doing endless laps in the pool.  I really enjoyed it.

Mom got back on her feet in 2010, getting her job back albeit on a part time basis.  She also got knocked back off them when she had knee surgery and a groin pull.  She has been finding out just how ridiculous the rules governing social security are.

The most memorable event of 2010 for me was our road trip out west.  It was a full two weeks of seeing the country one mile at a time.  With stops at Mt Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Craters of the Moon, Aspen and White Sands among others, it was just fantastic.  We overcame some potentially huge negatives when the van left us stuck twice.  Who can forget my “L sitting across America” series?  Watching Old Faithful, in the snow, in mid-June is a memory I will never forget.  I love road trips.

As far as world events there are a few that stick out for me.  The health care fiasco was such a mess.  What got passed was so watered down it hardly seemed worth it.  The right wingers succeeded in making the name “Obama” synonymous with anything negative.  Now anything and everything is his fault.  I think I heard a guy that got a flat tire the other day blame it on Obama.  So many people have such short memories and are such light thinkers.

Florida actually elected a crook for Governor, capitalizing on the wave of anti-Obama sentiment.  That sentiment was actually powerful enough to vote in a guy whose company he ran was fined 1.4 billion dollars for Medicare fraud.  He ran the most disgusting smear campaign I can ever recall.  He spent something like $60 million of his own money to brainwash the headline only readers and more or less purchased the election. It was very sad.

Of course the biggest story was the Gulf Oil spill.  It was an epic display of failure in every conceivable way.  I feel fortunate that no oil actually washed up on Naples beaches but I am quite sure that there will be tons of repercussions down the road after having millions of gallons of oil pouring into the Gulf for a couple months.  Hell the Gulf of Mexico was already a mess before the spill.

Ok this is long enough, I am sure I let out some highlights but oh well. Let’s quickly set some new goals for 2011.

A lot of the fails for last year are carry overs.

Painting – Finish painting the inside of the house and paint the exterior. Yea that’s a lot of painting.

Camaro – maybe THIS will be the year

Muscle up – despite a physique that is totally not made for this movement, I want to get one

Road trip – well we are supposedly going to Ireland with my dad in late 2011 but I am also thinking about another June road trip, maybe this time to the far northeast.

Fitness goals – I plan to continue my triathlon training.  I’d like to do more events next year.  I enjoy the challenge and sense of accomplishment.

Home tech – I need to upgrade my home server. It is getting long in the tooth.  We depend on it quite heavily.  I am also WAY overdo in replacing my personal computer.  Hell I bet I have had it for at least 5 years.  I used to upgrade my puter every couple years.  A Pentium D just doesn’t cut it.

Head – I have been feeling like I have been in a rut for a long ass time.  It feels like I am way overdue for something BIG to happen. (positive or negative I am not sure)  When you read this blog you get a sense that I do have a lot of things going on on a daily basis, which I do.  However in the big picture I have been grinding through the same routine more or less for a decade.  It seems like a fork in the road has to be coming.

In some ways I feel like I have become the pit crew for Ali’s life where my main role is to support the homestead while she pursues her interests.  It isn’t a role I desired when Ali started her consultant business a few years back.  Even Ali somewhat recognizes this and has encouraged me to venture out more on my own to do things that fulfill me.  Who will let out the dogs?

New Years this year will likely be spent at home.  I may ask Ali if she wants to go to the casino to watch the ball drop but I don’t know how receptive she will be to it.  It will be mobbed.  It may just be me and stroked-out Dick once again.