Goodbye 2024, Hello 2025

2024 has been a roller coaster of a year. That much is certain. Many things have happened and I don't even know where to start.

February

First thing I can think of is that in February, I built, with the help of my Woman's Father. It is a desk that I had been wanting for quite a while and I couldn't find anything that matched online. So, out of some long planks of wood and some 4x4 lumber, I built a L-shaped desk. I originally had my two gaming monitors on the desk but my Pilot (i.e. Best Friend), was getting rid of his widescreen monitor and I took it over. One of my gaming monitors now works for my work laptop so I can have a second monitor. I like the layout. Tho, I have figured out that I will need to get a place mat/mousepad for the keyboard/mouse as just with bare wood, no treatment, just bare but sanded, is starting to show wear on it from my bare skin hitting and touching the wood. I know, I could stain it, protect it with some coating of sorts, but I wanted it au naturel.

In that same month, my Woman...

and I, celebrated 20 years together. We went to a place called Hodak's in St. Louis. That was where I bought her our first dinner and at that time, I didn't really know her except that one day, I knew we were going to end up together. We ate, reminisced of good times and how we got together, and came home to an enjoyable evening. It was a great time and yes, the food is always good at Hodak's.

May

Me, Raeana, and my Pilot, went to St. Augustine, to celebrate the life of my Pilot's Dad...the only Dad he knew. His sperm donor of a father that brought him into this world is a piece of shit. We don't talk about him. My Pilot's Dad passed away and after he received the ashes, we went to the ocean. That is all I can say about that. Afterwards, we were tourists and toured the city and overall had a blast. I do want to go back on better terms with that city as there was much more to do and we didn't have nearly enough time to do so.

I believe during that same month, Raeana's cousin, Lyrina, passed away. Two people that I knew, were gone. Things have been rough for me but not as bad as Raeana. She practically raised Lyrina from when she was born until her passing. Well, not literally raised her but Raeana was around when the adults wanted to do things, she kept Lyrina in check and looked after her. When Lyrina had gotten older, she and Raeana had become not only close cousins, but very close friends. Losing Lyrina had taken a chunk out of Raeana mentally. It is good to note that Raeana is doing better, slowly. She is taking it slow to recover and is doing extremely well. She has her bad days and good ones too. That is ok. Healing takes time.

June

I had somebody rear end my vehicle whom I call Beast. Yes, I name my vehicles. They have personalities too. I ended up with a $2,000 bill to fix cosmetic damage only. No frame work, no broken metal, just the outside was damaged. The other person who hit me, well, he had to be towed. I was at a stand still and that person hit me. That person had no insurance, I have full coverage. Mind you, my vehicle is a 2017 Nissan Armada SV without the SV badging. Their vehicle was a Honda Civic.

Also in this month, Raeana got a tattoo of the local group we are a part of. We as in myself, Raeana, and my Pilot. The group used to be bigger but last year, that group accused Raeana of being abusive towards me. I could go into detail but the tl;dr is that we left that group of friends due to them being toxic and a few other things, for us. For us, they were toxic. Too many things started to happen and trying to reason with them to figure out what was going on wouldn't have fixed matters. Besides, how can you come back from one of those members taking you out for a drive to talk to you one on one, state that your love of your life is abusing you mentally (Which, by the way, is not happening. If that were the case, I would have nipped that in the bud right then and there with Raeana and ultimatums would have been used. Just saiyan.) and you go on a long rant in not only defending her but yourself and telling that person they are wrong. They drive you back to your home and all is done. How in the hell do you come back from that and try to hang back out with them? You can't. So we left. Getting back on track, Raeana got a tattoo of what we used to call our D&D group and still refer to that to this day that we are a part of that group. Hell, we started to do that when we found a new group to do some LARP'ing with, which I will get to shortly. The tattoo came out great and you know the saying "Once you get one tattoo, you want another one." Yeah, she wants another one, but one that honors her cousin, Lyrina. We are still trying to come up with an idea or image to use. I will update when I can on that.

August/September

I can't remember when we started, but it was one of these two months. We found a group called Lost and Found Studios. They have a monthly LARP that happens at a local public park. We go there with our popup camper, aptly named Hestia, and camp and play the weekend away completely in character. We chose our D&D characters. I am finding this to be very fun. In my mind, it is a better alternative to Dragon Thrones and Evermore, two places we have gone to try to have an immersive RP experience. Plus, it is practically in our back yard. a 45 minute drive later and we are there ready to go. I do need to upgrade my kit for clothing. I need to get myself into a new kilt. I kinda need to lose some weight first, to be discussed later. Great group of people. All kinds of great costumes that people have made. Truly a sight to behold. I can't wait to bust out Hestia out of storage and start to go into February and beyond!

In September proper, we did go and do a mini-road trip down historic 66 and hit up a few places. We ultimately ended up at the Uranus Fudge Factory and spent time and money there. For those that have not been to one, please go. You will not be disappointed.

Summary

In essence, this year had ups and downs. I got an award for "Employee of the Quarter" at the beginning of the year and did get my 2 Year award for being at my place of work. We visited places that we haven't been to either in a long while or at all. We celebrated and cried over various things. I am sure I am missing things but this 2024 was a mess, i.e. a dumpster fire. I wish that 2025 will be better.

Things to Do/Plan

My goal for myself is to start to lose some weight. Starting at the beginning of January after New Years Day, I am going to cut back on some of the food I eat and start some light exercise. I am going to limit the amount of food I eat with some game play. I have a PS5 with Beat Saber. I want to start playing that, getting myself to move, do that a few times a week for maybe an hour or two per session. I want to intersperse that with some walking and maybe some weights at home. I have some small weights that I can get started. I know there are exercises I can do at home and I want to do that first and foremost. I think if I do all of that and drink more water, I cannot quit coffee but I can stop having soda, then I should be on the right path. I have to figure out when I am hungry and either substitute that with water or see how far I can go. I know that some of this doesn't sound right or correct but that is what I will be doing. I want to lose some weight without having to resort to pills or medicine. Once I lose a little bit of weight and keep it off, I will go more extreme with the exercises and go see a doctor to see what else I can do.

I want to get more into doing more home lab stuff. I want to host my own stuff and utilize that. I want to build a new server to house all my stuff. I want to rip all my DVD's and some Blu-ray's so they are available on the network to watch. I want to build a gaming PC for our TV as the PSVR2 can now be used in Windows with Steam, which I have and it works quite well.

I want to get more into Amateur Radio. I already hold a General Class license but I think I want to study for the Extra Class License. That is the highest I can go as an Amateur radio operator. I also want to get my GMRS license as well. I want to build a better portable antenna and build a box that I can house my ICOM 7100 in for use and get a new radio for my home station. I want to make more contact through digital modes and even over voice. I also want to get a new antenna for my radio in Beast. The one I have is ok but there are better ones out there.

I would like to get a new radio unit in Beast but that will be expensive, much like what else I want to do for the year 2025. Getting that replaced with something newer, more up to date, and be able to use Android Auto, would be a big plus. I would also like to upgrade the mini-subwoofers in Beast to a newer speaker. The ones in it are great, I just don't want them to pop as they are OEM.

I want to start posting a little bit more to Bluesky and Instagram with pics of my son, Tantor. Yes, I know Tantor is a dog but he is our son. You cannot tell us otherwise. If you do, we will ignore you.

Otherwise, to sum it up. good riddance 2024 and hello 2025! I hope and pray, not only for myself, but for others, that 2025 will be better, more prosperous, and easier than 2024. I will see you next year!