2024 wrap-up post: The Struggle To Be Real

 I'm struggling to summarize the last 12 months in a sentence. For the most part, I worked to solve old health issues and struggled with new ones. I'm getting older and my body isn't afraid to let me know it. I'm sore when I shouldn't be, my neck is always irritated, I rupture a disc in my low back just coughing. I'm outside as much as before, but I'm trying new things. I wonder if saving all my money til I'm too old to really enjoy it is a good idea. I set myself a new goal for retirement, or at least a career change in a dozen years. I started paying more attention to finances. I am becoming more myself. There are bad days, when I can't sleep and my truncated attention span keeps me from reading even two paragraphs in a book without my mind wandering, but for the most part I view my life positively. I wish I had more time during the week to see people. I wish I could pass my enthusiasm for things I love on to my children without overwhelming them. I wish for a lot of little improvements. But I'm working towards them. The death list is always an interesting project. Some of the names I haven't thought of in years. Some were my friends. This year's last entry was my cat for the last 15 years. 

Carl Weathers

Wayne Kramer

Toby Keith

Mojo Nixon

Christopher Ruppert

Fernando Venezuela

O J Simpson

Dickie Betts

Alice Munro

Bernard Hill

Steve Albini

Paul Auster

Morgan Spurlock

Willie Mays

Donald Sutherland

Shifty Shellshock

Shelley Duvall

Richard Simmons

Shannon Doherty

Naomi Pomeroy

Lou Dobbs

Bob Newhart

John Mayall

Greg Kihn

Phil Donahue

James Earl Jones

Dame Maggie Smith

Kris Kristofferson

Pete Rose

Paul Di'Anno

Phil Lesh

Quincy Jones

Rickey Henderson

Jimmy Carter

Boss deHaan

I always enjoy the part of the wrap-up where I look back through albums that came out 20 years ago. I still listen to a lot of these, but some of them bring me back to a particular place or project or even a beautiful dream. 

Air - Talkie Walkie

Probot - Probot

Xiu Xiu - Fabulous Muscles

TV on the Radio - Desparate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes

Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans

Ratatat - Ratatat

The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free

The Secret Machines - Now Here is Nowhere

Wilco - A Ghost is Born

Alterbridge - One Day Remains

Mastodon - Leviathan

Arcade Fire - Funeral

Stars - Set Yourself On Fire

The Faint - Wet From Birth

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus

Green Day - American Idiot

Interpol - Antics

William Shatner - Has Been

Elliott Smith - From a Basement on the Hill

Isis - Panopticon

A Perfect Circle - eMOTIVE

I picked up a few more albums this year, though some with more forethought than others. A couple of them, I just like the sound, not even the songs in particular. 

Nothing - The Great Dismal
Nothing - Dance on the Blacktop
Messa - Close
Greta Van Fleet - Starcatcher
Green Lung - This Heathen Land
Alda - Passage
Scale the Summit - The Collective
Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power
Grave - You'll Never See
Lord Dying - Mysterium Tremendum
Vanum - Ageless Fire
Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
Opeth - Ghost Reveries (LP)

What can I say about books? I think I'm reading about seven at a time. I have one at work, one at my daughter's drum lessons, one a slow project on music journalism, one a re-read manual on how to raise children, another is a graphic novel, another is planning for my future, also there's one about an rpg system that I want to run. There are probably others I'm forgetting. 

Here's what I read this last year: 

Cornelia Funke - Inkheart
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest
Patrick deWitt - The Sisters Brothers
Nathan Hale - Treaties, Trenches, Mud & Blood
Cheryl Strayed - Wild
Michael Azerrad - Our Band Could Be Your Life
Hope Larson - Compass South
Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying - A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century
Homer - The Iliad (adap. Roy Thomas)
Beverly Cleary - Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Walter Isaacson - Steve Jobs
Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
Ursula K LeGuin - A Wizard of Earthsea
John Dos Passos - U.S.A.
Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Frank Herbert - Dune Messiah
Hope Larson - Knife's Edge
Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment
Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness
Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe
Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
Guy de Maupassant - Bel-Ami
Morgan Housel - The Psychology of Money
Diane Duane - So You Want To Be A Wizard
Apollonius Rhodius - The Argonautika
Frank Herbert - Children of Dune
Ursula K LeGuin - The Tombs of Atuan
Stephen Hawking - A Briefer History of Time
George R R Martin - A Game of Thrones
Bill Bryson - A Walk in the Woods
Patrick deWitt - Undermajordomo Minor
Lois Lowry - Number the Stars
Stephen Davis - Hammer of the Gods
Alice Munro - Dance of the Happy Shades
Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet On the Western Front
C J Cherryh - Merchanter's Luck
C S Lewis - The Last Battle
Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
George Saunders - Tenth of December
Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha
Caitlin Major - Manfried the Man
Bill Perkins - Die With Zero
Lucy Knisley - Woe

The accumulation of board and card games continues, though this year I sold more than I bought, financially speaking. 

Blue Lagoon
Secret Hitler
Tortuga 1667
Hansa Teutonica Big Box
Skull w/ the Aztec promo
Gunrunners
Pandemic: Fall of Rome
Azul
Vale of Eternity
Anomia: Party Edition
Navegador
Arctic Scavengers
Splendor

I put a lot of miles on my hiking boots again this year, visiting the following places:

Tom, Dick and Harry Mt
Trillium Lake snowshoe
Salmon Butte
Herman Creek Pinnacles via PCT from Cascade Locks
Wilson River pt 1 - Elk Creek to Kings Mountain
Pup Creek
Mosier Plateau
Memaloose Hills
Ohai Trail, Maui, HI
Makamakaole Stream: 13 Crossings
Lahaina Pali Trail from Ukumehame trailhead
Waimoku Falls via Pipiwai Trail
Wilson River pt 2 - Kings Mountain to Diamond Mill
Lyle Cherry Orchard
Wilson River pt 3 - Diamond Mill to Footbridge
Marquam Trail to Council Crest
Coyote Wall Labyrinth +
Wilson River pt 4 - Footbridge toward Keenig Creek
Mt Hood summit attempt
Dog Mountain long loop
Ramona Falls
Timothy Lake backpacking
Elk Mt - Kings Mt loop
Eagle Creek backpacking
Frog Lake Butte loop
Wildcat Mountain via Douglas Trailhead
Falls Creek Falls Loop
Paradise Park from Timberline Lodge
Double Peak from Discovery Lake
Burnt Lake
Larch Mountain Crater Loop
Goat Rocks Wilderness - Snowgrass Flats Loop backpacking
Devil's Peak from Cool Creek trail
White River to Timberline Lodge (+ Silcox Hut)
Indian Heaven - Blue/Deep Lakes Loop backpacking
Silver Star from South trailhead
Hunchback Mt trail from Zigzag Station
Salmon River (day hike)
Hamilton Mountain
Lower Macleay to Pittock Mansion loop
Elk Mountain Loop
Tom, Dick and Harry Mt
Angels' Rest to Devils' Rest loop
Tamanawas Falls from Polallie trailhead
Barlow Trail to Upper Twin Lake, Palmateer Point
West Zigzag Mountain

Totals were 444mi, with 84,790' gain, which is 16.1mi vertical gain over 53 hikes - each averaging 8.4mi, 1600' gain, 190'/mi gain

I think that's most of it. It was a lot of miles and a lot of time to myself, to reflect, or just let a two bars play through my head for an hour and a half.