05, the year that flew

Each year seems to go quicker than the last as I age. I guess after close to 40 of em, they start to become a blur. Before I recapped my 2005 experience I wanted to see how I did with my goals for 04 posted on last year’s end of year entry.

Let’s see…..

Go an another cruise – nope, didn’t get it done but did tons of other traveling to make up for it.

Complete Nicki’s dog run – completed and turned out better than imagined

Less time laboring – my weekends are definitely more laid back than in recent years

Ali working PT – Ali now works 4 day weeks, we have been able to make the transition without hardly noticing the financial impact

Decision on having kids – Nope, no closer to making a definitive choice, that is a tough one.

So all in all I did a decent job of hitting my 05 goals. 2005 had lots of stuff going on, both good and bad.

One of the biggest events of the year was of course Hurricane Wilma hitting Collier County, the first direct hit our county had in over 40 years. I watched out the back window as our pool cage was knocked down like a deck of cards from the relentless wind. Being in the middle of a hurricane was a bit scarier than I imagined. I’ll never forget the sound of it all. We lost power for 4 and a half days. Those days were highlighted by my efforts to maximize our comfort level during uncomfortable times. The recovery process in our area went very well, much better than expected. Today you can barely tell a hurricane roared through 2 and a half months ago. However getting someone to come out to fix any hurricane related damage is a frustrating challenge.

05 was the most miserable I ever experienced in regards to traffic. The morning traffic situation in my area degraded to the point where many days it could take 90 minutes plus to go 23 miles. It was true drudgery having to blitz through getting ready every morning, knowing that every minute we left after 6:30 am could multiply into many more minutes of sitting in traffic. Thankfully the opening of an additional lane of traffic in the congested area late this year has stemmed the tide and made our commutes much more bearable.

This past year we continue to watch with amazement as the real estate market in SW Florida continues to explode with almost comical property value increases. Our house has approximately tripled in value since we bought it in 2001. The 2 pieces of land we bought as investments have more than doubled in value in 14 months. It makes us look like we are real estate geniuses when in fact we just got very lucky with our timing.

We did more travelling this year than ever before. Partially because we had the timeshare and partially just because Ali said we don’t go anywhere. This year we went to Key West, Las Vegas, Palm Springs and South Beach. Travelling is more feasible now because our new neighbors are able to watch Nicki which is a god send. It was great to be able to travel so much. Hopefully the trend continues.

Speaking of neighbors, we lost our long time neighbors, Dee and Paula as they sold and moved up closer to the Tampa area. Like many others, they cashed out on the huge equity gains and were able to put themselves in a better financial situation by moving to a less expensive area. However we have become good friends with our new neighbors, Rick and Doug, on the other side of our house. It is awesome to have neighbors that are cool. Sorry Jack, you aren’t on that list.

I am still wearing my invisalign braces (the tops) My bottom teeth are finally done but I have months to go on the top yet. This has taken way longer than we were originally told, however they are working, albeit slowly. Ali is done with her treatment plan. I look forward to being able to smile without having to think about my top teeth looking like Billy Bob. By this time next year I should be braces free.

I played less volleyball in 2005 than in 04 but not because of a physical limitation. Basically I was spending a ton of dough driving all over the state so I wanted to cut back. We had dramatically less success this year on the court this year than in 04. I attribute most of it to the main tour that we play on switching to rally scoring. Rally scoring totally f’s up my game by making me less aggressive. Oh well I still had fun playing.

Supplementing volleyball as my major athletic activity, running has become more of a focus in 05. Years ago when I lived in PA, I ran once a week and had worked myself up to being able to do as much as 5 and a half miles. My goal was to run a 10k at some point but before I could accomplish the goal, my bad knee flared up and I shelved running. However since my knee has been more or less healthy for the last couple years I was ready to give it a go. Earlier in the year, I suggested to Ali we start running together on Sundays. At first, Ali couldn’t even do a mile without stopping. She has made remarkable improvements since then and now we have run four or five 5k races and one 4 mile race. Ali is really into running now, she actively pursues finding races for us to run in. It is really cool to see her into it like that. It is even better that we can do this together. She has made steady improvement in her times. Last night we ran a mile and a half at a 9:20 pace. Her immediate goal is to run a sub-30 minute 5k. Long term I would love for us to be able to do a 10k. Running is great mental and physical exercise.

Speaking of exercise, this year has been a good one as far as my aches and pains have been. Drink your flaxseed oil. The chronic wrist problems I was having have subsided and my strength levels at the gym in many areas are as good if not better than they have ever been. I can only cross my fingers that it continues. I am still hitting the gym 4-5 times a week.

My personal hobbies in 05 were dominated by the discovery of World of Warcraft. This game has dwarfed all my other hobbies. I flew my planes maybe a half dozen times all year. I have no desire to buy another “fun” car. To gain an idea of how much WoW has become entrenched in my leisure activities, all you have to do is a search on my blog on how many entries refer to it. I knew of Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games for years but always dismissed them as something for Dungeon and Dragon geeks. I considered them boring and I scoffed at the ridiculousness of people paying a monthly fee to play a game. Even so, in January I got around to installing World of Warcraft. I was a huge fan of Blizzard’s other RTS games so I figured I could at least give it a shot. It didn’t take long for me to get addicted hard core. This game was wired into things that really appealed to me on many levels. Visually the game is beautiful, the scale of it all was mind blowing, and the complexity of it which was at first overwhelming, became very appealing after time. The never ending list of things you can do in the game fed into my personality, electronically communicating in a virtual world with thousands of other players simulataneously was cool beyond words. For a time period, my addiction to the game was getting unhealthy. On weeknights I would basically ignore Ali and stay up until midnight, 1 or even 2am playing. It was crazy and I throttled it back. However now, almost a full year later, I still love the game with no end in sight of my addiction. In some ways my WoW playing has been negative as it sometimes dominates my thinking and insulates me from doing other things. However in other ways it has been good. My dedication to the game really dried up a lot of that nickel and dime spending I was doing on the side from living on ebay. I attribute most of our ability to actually save some money this year to WoW. For the 15 bucks a month I pay for the game I literally get dozens of hours of entertainment. Who knows, maybe that is like saying people that are hyped up on speed get a benefit because they never sleep so they get a lot done. 🙂

As mentioned, the major purchases this year were very slim in comparison to recent years. I bought some gadgety stuff like the GPS for the car, a new universal remote control, a used 21 inch monitor for my puter and the chip to mod my xbox. For the house, the major purchase was the new dining room furniture and a new mattress for our bedroom.

I discovered Jack LaLanne this year. I always knew of him but just from his appearance on infomercials primarily. One day I saw the Tivo recorded his show and I just happened to check it out. It was one of his original shows from the 50’s or 60’s. I was immediately hooked. His energy level, overwhelmingly positive attitude, humor and outlook on life really appealed to me. Many nights Ali and I would go through his routines with him from the show that aired that day. I was really pissed that ESPN classic stopped broadcasting his show. Ali bought me Jack’s entire DVD collection from his website. I love this guy. I wish I could adopt more of his positive attitude into my daily life.

I stepped out my comfort zone and did a month of ballroom dancing classes with Ali. I am not nuts about it but it wasn’t as bad as I expected either. I at least know enough that I could get out on the floor with Ali and not look like a total boob.

I’ve gone through a lot of introspect (is that a word?) in 05. At times I felt so flustered and wrought with anxiety I didn’t know what to do. The lack of a big event in the forseeable future created much doubt and confusion for me as to what I should be striving for. I’ve never been the type that was ok with things staying status quo, I always need something to be aiming for. My inability to be satisifed with things is a benefit in some ways and a curse in others. I am sure I’ll continue to struggle with it.

Ok so how about some goals for 06? Well I am looking forward to getting the pool cage rebuilt. Unfortunately with our insurance deductible, the rebuilding process could cost us 6 or 7k out of pocket. In quick order I also expect we will be replacing our water cleaning equipment and our pool pump. I want to travel more in 06. I am hoping to do another trip to Vegas with Keener and hopefully be able to line up a cruise this year. Financially I have a big but possibly attainable goal of being able to pay off the mortgage. I don’t think it will happen in 06 but I will be working hard to pay down the debt to a level where selling the 2 plots of land could wipe the slate clean. Being mortgage free would make a tremendous impact on our lives and I think it is doable. I would love to see us be able to run a 10k before 06 expires. I will play probably the same amount of volleyball as 05 with no big expectations in mind. I just want to play and have fun. I want to jump out of a plane this year. Yea I would still like to be confident in a decision on kids in 06 as well.

Last year at this time I had just under 8000 blog hits, this year I am at 13,000 plus, so readership has been steadily increasing which is a cool thing. Even if noone read it, I would continue to pound it out because I find it therapeutic to spell out what is rolling around my head.

Since we are running a 5k New Year’s Day, I haven’t made any plans for New Year’s Eve. We may go to the casino to get a shot at winning a new Jaguar or we may just ring it in at home, I don’t know.

I hope your 2006 is properous, safe and fulfilling.