After a couple of five-hundred years’ displaced pop culture references, here’s my “Happy New Year” post. So it’s 2025. The lovely spouse and I stayed up until midnight, barely, chilling with friends (virtually), as another friend did an online New Years’ Eve show via Twitch. We enjoyed ourselves, and that’s really what it was all about.

I’ve no idea what 2025 is going to bring, though I expect a bunch of political uncertainty and cultural and societal anxiety. At the very least. Things are kind of messed up, and I don’t expect them to settle out anytime soon. I remain thankful that I’m in a (relatively) secure place in life, though it’s likely to much less so for so many other people, and losing President Carter a couple of days ago put a bit of a spotlight on that, given that he’d spent so much of his life in public service working to bring security to so many.

It’s gonna get weird. Have that helmet ready.

Anyway, 2024 was a mixed bag. Life personally and within my household was (on the whole) good. People got jobs, achieved academically, and we welcomed a couple of beloved furry friends into the family. For me, I worked my tail off in the day job *and* in the side gig. I’m recognized as an authority and valued resource within my work group, made some positive organizational changes, and it looks like there’ll be more coming. I leveled up significantly in my musical community, and released some music I’m really proud of, and folks seem to like, and have a bunch of neat gigs lined up for the coming year with hopefully more on the horizon.

That said, we also lost a couple of beloved pets, faced significant health challenges we’re working to overcome, and hit a couple of financial challenges as you do, and it’s taking a bit build that safety net I’m lucky enough to be able to have at all (points back to the second paragraph…).

But, we’re still here and doing what we can.

I’ve been busy enough that I haven’t necessarily done record keeping as comprehensive as in past years for my usual “by the numbers” end-of-year list, though I can certainly do something more abbreviated:

• miles hiked or biked – 1672
• books read – 56
• shows played – a lot
• bars and breweries mourned – three
• net pounds lost – five
• records released – one
• records appeared on – two
• compilation records we didn’t get done – one
• number of times I had one of my songs covered by a Logan award nominee – one
• conventions attended – three
• conventions missed due to COVID – one
• hospital stays – one
• pets gained – two (plus a bunch of fish)
• pets lost – two (and a bunch of fish)
• flat tires – three bike, one car
• seat belts shredded – three
• times I actually went to the office – none
• times I had to go near the office to get my login card unlocked because my cat walked on the keyboard and typed the wrong thing in the password field too many times – one
• “big time” concerts attended – seven
• much smaller concerts hosted – two
• sense of existential dread – ongoing

Anyway, that’s the gist of it. Strap in, folks; who knows what’s coming up next.