2017 – The Year In Review

The Gilmartin Chronicles – 2017

What a year 2017 has been. I gotta say that things, for me personally, went pretty well and things were pretty calm. Y’know I’m healthy, happy, and my basic needs are met. There are still a few days left in the year as I write, so I guess there could be a surprise or two left, but…meh…pretty good all things considering. First the news.

Emerson & Keagan:

I could almost copy and paste last year’s entry. Emerson is wrapping up his lower division stuff in mechanical engineering. He’s hanging in there, and, for now, I’ve told him, that’s the game that needs to be played. He’s living at home for his sophomore year, but I don’t really see him that much. I’ve seen an increasing devotion in him to his studies and it is good to see. Emerson has his BMW, which he babies, and a pretty tight group of friends who pull him out of the house whenever he has a break. Occasionally I stumble upon clues about who he is dating, but Emerson keeps that stuff to himself (mostly).

Keagan is almost as unavailable. She is doing the whole college app thing weaved into her six-day a week dance schedule. She already got one scholarship to a school in Arizona. I’ve lost count of how many out-of-state schools she is looking at, and I think if she goes to one of them, it may be a long time before she is back in Colorado. She is just that independent and eager to go make a life for herself. She is far more fearless than I was at her age. I’ve done nothing to lobby for the schools she is applying to nor do I have any special devotion to the ones I attended, but I am not going to lie that I was pleased to see her apply to my alma mater the University of California, Davis, -probably because I could see her really fitting in and being happy there. She also interestingly applied to California Lutheran, but I think that was largely based on the fact that one of her best friends is already there. I think the operative word here is ‘California’. Keagan, I think, thinks high school boys are stupid. GOOD GIRL!! Good girl.

Theresa:

Theresa moved into a new role at her nursing home and I am not entirely sure I know what she does. That’s okay. I am moving into a new role at work, and she is not sure what I do. We get to introduce each other at parties like we just met or something. It seems kind of weird that we are both switching things up almost at the same time.  What is important is that for most weeks we both have the same Friday, which means a fairly regular date night. I LIVE for date night. I’ve really come to depend on that end of week respite, which I start looking for and sometimes begin talking about on Wednesday or Thursday. I really really like my job and the people I work with, and sometimes, if I can ignore the shadow of some of the things my co-workers do (because I work with really good, smart people) I can even be self-impressed with what I’ve done in a ‘Phew! I did that?!’ sort of way. I mean maybe the rest of the Justice League dusts off the work week with a nonchalant ‘what-evs’, but I am pretty sure Bat-Man, who may be as good as he is, such as that is, because he just plain has to do more push-ups than the others, -maybe he feels a deeper burn when all is said and done. That’s right. I’m Bat-Man, and by Friday I am looking to hang out with Theresa…over my Bat-tea… and a Bat-steak or a Bat-salad depending on whether I got my miles in for the week. The parenting thing is winding down, but that hasn’t stopped Theresa from her legendary cupcake bake-a-thons. I think she made 300 a few weeks ago, and I am on retainer to deliver the castoffs to folks at work. Those things are going to kill me.

Matt’s Year Explained Through Cycling:

I can explain 2017 through cycling because I did so much less of it than last year. If you are putting in a wood floor over the weekend or replacing the Jeep’s valve cover gasket, you are not going for a 6-hour bike ride. A wood floor, several home repairs, a fishing trip with Sebastian and Uli, a couple of hunting trips with Sebastian and Andrew, an online coding course, the FULL eclipse in Nebraska (which was totally awesome by the way), and a myriad of other things that make for a well rounded productive adult life while hardly touching a maxed out vacation balance all served to drive my yearly total down from over 5000 miles for each of the last two years to what will likely be 3600-3700 this year. Both the annual ride down the coast (530 miles) and the Triple Bypass (119 miles) were canceled, and I just plain wasn’t out as often or as long locally, but I am pretty pleased with what got done as an alternative. I was at work a lot more too. My company moved into a building that is suicidally inconvenient as a cycling departure point. I don’t get out as much as I used to, and I can tell.

That’s the haps for 2017. It’s been a quiet year out there in the FOG (Friends of Gilmartin). I’ve always had a pretty diverse group of friends, and I think the political climate has sent some folks to their respective corners perhaps to wait out the count. Mmmm…we may be waiting awhile. Things were pretty good for me, but I can’t say I like the vibe that has sent several people into the background.

Predictions and Disclaimers:

-DUNKIRK for best picture. –JAXX our male cat gets adopted out. Yeah the Christmas cards are the same as last year.

Pax vobiscum, Matthew