Happy Another Year

Let's get one thing out there right now:  I've spent somewhere north of 125,700 minutes working in 2017 year.  Give or take...  I find this depressing, but there is no end in sight.  And while not all the time is unpleasant, I do really enjoy the paycheck most of all.
I've spent around 153,000 minutes sleeping (or laying in bed wishing I could sleep).  I guess this is needed.
I'm embarrassed to admit I've probably spent 89,000 minutes watching TV.  In my defense, some of that was just background noise.
I probably spent 54,000 minutes cooking and eating.  Sadly, I ended the year 4.2 pounds heavier than last year, but any of that which was due to smoked ribs is worth it.
I've spent 20,900 minutes commuting - although some of that has been on the motorcycle and only a comparitively small amount of that time was stuck in wretched traffic.
I spent around 3500 minutes mowing the lawn, with another likely 3000 minutes doing other house maintenance.
I probably spent 2800 minutes just grocery shopping.
I might have spent 1200 minutes doing maintenance and repair on motor vehicles.  The MGB being rear ended in 2016 was the major contributor to that.
I can definitely look back at 2017 and see highlights of the year - more good than bad even.  It would even be hard to say 2017 wasn't a good year.  I spent somewhere around 38,900 minutes on vacation; that is the time that matters most.  Still more time than commuting.  And I know that places me in the lucky-SOB category.  Two minutes and 37 seconds of that was watching a total solar eclipse.
I spent somewhere around 18200 minutes walking the dog - the older one is sadly too old to go on walks anymore.  I pedaled my bicycle around 10,000 minutes.  This is offset by the time spent eating ice cream (maybe 2000 minutes).  Is the ice cream worth it?  Maybe, but maybe not.
It was a good outdoors year where around 4700 minutes were spent hunting or fishing.
About 11,700 minutes were spent riding my motorcycles - it should have been more.
I spent somewhere around 1700 minutes reading books.  This could be added to 4300 minutes spent reading magazines.
I spent 2200 minutes in the shower and around 600 minutes shaving.  It would be hard to justify even this amount of time based on my appearance.

As I look forward to 2018, it would be nice to think the mundanity of all the 2017 minutes would not be repeated, but I suspect 2018 will look a lot like 2017.  So Happy New Year is inaccurate, and maybe overly optimistic. 
Happy Another Year.

January 1, 2017

Do we celebrate the end of the old year?  Or the beginning of the new year?

I won't admit what time I fell asleep on New Year's Eve, but will admit it was well before 12:00 AM on January 1, 2017.
This seems a fitting end to a year that was pleasant but unremarkable.  I probably prefer bringing in the new year in a more contemplative manner.

I sort of already wrote an end-of-year post that was just supposed to just be about cornbread pecan waffles.  I did start out the first morning of 2017 with some of them.

Like previous years, I time lapsed my back yard in 2016.  As with the year 2016, it is somewhat unremarkable.  There was some winter and spring snow.  Soybeans were planted in the spring.  There was lots of mowing and some swampage in the summer.  Soybeans were harvested and things started to die in the fall.  Winter came with one snowfall for December.

I've reached a point where I will never try to predict what 2017 will bring, nor will I set any major goals.  I'll spend too much time at work.  I plan on traveling at least enough to keep things interesting.  But I know that at this point, there are more unknowns than knowns.
That may be the magic of throwing away the old calendar - knowing that there is more continuity than novelty.  So celebrations near 11:59:59 on December 31 probably represent neither ends nor beginnings ... but something else altogether.

Cornbread Pecan Waffles

In 2012, I wrote about Pecan Waffles, but I was not making Cornbread Pecan Waffles - which are much better than any other kind of waffles.

I think 2012 was a pretty good year.  Maybe pecan waffles help.

Thinking back and looking at what has been written over the last year, 2016 has had the typical highs and lows. The one consistency has been cornbread pecan waffles nearly every morning where I woke up at home but didn't have to work.

I didn't travel as much as I should have in 2016; there were no impromptu trips for a day or three away. But the two big adventures, Hawaii and an epic motorcycle tour out west, were phenomenal. Deer hunting was fantastic, and would have been even if Mr. Big hadn't walked into my 95 grain bullet on Thanksgiving.

The summer was quite mundane - I have no one to blame but myself. I'm in a new job which is either good or bad. There was lots of lawn mowing. The swamp in the back yard continues to be wretched. There was lots of dog walking. There was lots of bike riding. There was a heinous, protracted election, with a very surprising ending. This will either be good or bad, but should have value as entertainment.

Since pecan waffles seem to correlate with reasonably good years, I'll share my secret Cornbread Pecan Waffles here.

Cave quid vis Recipe

*Note:  The world is not exact.  Life is not exact!  This recipe is not exact.

• A couple tablespoons of vegetable oil.
• 1 egg
• Somewhere about a quarter cup of milk
• 1/2 box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
• About an eighth cup of old fashioned oats (NOT quick oats - they are loathsome)
• A heavy eighth cup of smashed up pecans.  More if you are rich.

Combine in a bowl.

Mix with a spatula.  More milk and/or old fashioned oats (NOT quick oats - they are still loathsome) can be added to make the mixture slightly thick.

Let the batter sit for at least a half hour.  The corn meal and oats will absorb some of the liquid, making the mixture thicker and the grains softer - this helps the final texture.

After allowing the batter to sit, lightly spray the waffle iron with oil and heat it up to temperature.

Once up to temperature, you can cook the waffles.  BUT!  And this is important!  Do not goob up the waffle iron by letting batter fall all over the place.  Images like the one below from Waffle House should inspire dread and self-hatred.  Any batter that does spill should be cleaned up immediately.

Cook the waffles.  

Notice that the waffle iron does NOT look like this.

This recipe makes enough for 3 waffles of a size where the iron doesn't spill out all over the place.

Eat the waffles - syrup not needed.

Correlation does not mean causation!

But I still plan on making Cornbread Pecan Waffles into 2017.

2015: Saudade

Somewhere around late August, too early, I started looking for the end of 2015.  Not that 2015 was a bad year ... overall.  I didn't use my vacation time too well, but that which was used appropriately, I enjoyed.  Planned trips worked out and the impromptu ones were a brief hoot.  Some longer term issues at work have (largely) improved, and my work hours allow me to leave when I want more often.
I may have even been pushing for the end of the year, but it was like pushing on a rope; time will pass at its own rate.  Never faster, never slower.

"Certainly a measure of this reactionary navel-noodling can be attributed to the standard metaphorical casting of autumn as the season when winter's deathly breath first fogs your rose-colored glasses, but on a more fundamental level I think it has to do with the reaping of gardens and good intentions, both of which tend to come in well below spring's predictions." 

Michael Perry (Truck - A Love Story)

Christmas came with the winter solstice behind it and the new calendar waiting to be hung on the wall, but Christmas morning woke up to 50 degrees after a Christmas Eve bike ride warm enough to wear shorts.  

On a rational level, I enjoyed the uncharacteristically warm December; my heating bill certainly has.  The warm weather made for more bike riding and some of the most comfortable deer hunting I've had.  Yet, the lack of winter was bringing with it a sense of prolonging a year that needed to end, the warm weather behaving as a nagging sense that something is unfinished, the epoch won't advance until some beastie somewhere is set free.

For the fourth year, I've time lapsed daily pictures of my back yard.  I very likely have the most photographed back yard in the township.  Proof that the year started and is over.

Bronnie Ware's Top Five Regrets of the Dying is repeated all over, so it isn't included here.  But it is worth rereading occasionally.  The last regret is one that seems to request attention after 2015.  Happiness is a choice.  It sounds so easy, and it probably can be.

There are already things to look forward to early in 2016.  An annual trip south is actually quite close.  A trip west, very far west, to scrawl a few difficult check marks on of the bucket list is being planned.

Since Christmas, winter does seem like it may have arrived.  With winter winds and daily highs nearer freezing, the calendar can be changed.  I'm not sure if the beastie has been slain or set free; only time will tell.

Looking back over the four years of time lapsed video brings with it a sense of hope.  Winter, in some form, will always come.  Winter will relent to spring, bringing green and good intentions.  Summer will bring the deliciousness of muggy mornings and evening walks watching the Queen Anne's lace and chicory grow.  Fall will bring the hopefulness of the treestands.  And winter will come, yet again, with the right mindset, accompanied by happy reflection since happiness is a choice.

Thanks for everything.

Hello 2015, But Lets Hold Off on the Resolutions Until Later

Goodbye 2014 and Hello 2015

It is tempting to be upbeat and suggest that 2015 will be better than 2014, that we'll all lose weight, make more money, read more books and make better friends.
More than likely, 2015 will be about the same as 2014 and potentially worse.  This is not something that is completely outside of anyone's control though.

There is a tendency to make "New Years Resolutions" on this day.  The changing of the calendar is an arbitrary time point, and probably not the best one to try to make big changes.
For some, this marks the end of the "holiday season" and just getting back to normal can be painful enough.  Meteorological winter has just started, but real winter is already going in full swing.  Now is the time when there is a justified tendency to sit back indoors, watch more TV, eat more food which may be less healthy, see more movies, etc.  I will argue, this is the worst time to try to make life changes in the form of New Years Resolutions, or any resolutions.
No time is a bad one to eat less potato chips or eat less marshmallows; one of the realities about life changes though is that it is too easy ensure failure by making changes that will be detested while changing too much at one time.

Winter is about death.  All the trees look dead, the lawn looks dead.  More wildlife dies in the winter because it is harder on animals than most people know.  Even many animals that hibernate will not return.
Spring is probably the best time to make resolutions in the form of anything beyond trivial changes.  Things come back to life in the spring.  The spring weather brings more excuses and opportunities to be outside.  The grey winter begins to change into warmer weather.  Spring comes with longer more frequent dog walks and (pedal) bike rides.  Spring is time to start riding motorcycles and thinking about vacations, about motorcycle touring.

I am ready to detox after the food fest that has been going on for the last several weeks.  But, I think I'll save the bigger changes for later.
Spring is the right time to make changes.  I'm going to put a Google Keep reminder in for Easter Resolutions.