2018 Is Here

Happy New Year, we've made it folks. But where did the rest of 2017 go? I've been asking myself that more than anything in these days surrounding the New Year holiday. Did it just blow by like so much of our adult lives? Did I just work my ass, and time, away while crumbling to bed every night?

No, it's much different than that. The days between the months of June and now have been pretty hairy, especially September through November, after the requisite August calamity of work. I mean "hairy" in the terms of excitement, rather than just grinding the grind of work life.

Of sorts, this is a summary of 2017. It's hard to slice time to write this stuff, so we all get a photo cascade in return.

While the temperature sits at 17 degrees fahrenheit at the moment, I'll take us through a rather more pictorial roundup of a photo montage of the remainder of the Summer.

DWG Recreation area, June

State Gamelands 38, June

McDade Trail with Tara, July 4th

Delaware paddle, July 8th

I'll break here to speak a bit more about our trip to New Hampshire with our good friends Natalie and Paolo to their family cabin on the lake. This was in the 3rd quarter of July, and likely the calm before the storm for some of us.

We'd decided to pack four persons and all baggage, boats and gear into my extended cab Toyota. Tight. This was a six-hour trip... or eight? It's defensible. Nat has a fantastic family cabin-on-a-lake situation. Like real nice nice. I mean, it's a cottage-type situation, but it's a great place on a lake, so certainly kayaks went with us up yonder. We packed our booze, some board games and some distinct lack of giving a shit for several days. We saw loons.

I'll just drop some of the choice photos below from a lovely, relaxing long weekend.

A loaded rig, shortly after arriving. Loaded.

View from fire tower

I also got some time on my new bike in August. I mean, of course I did. I was trying to keep the weird slow frantic grind of August at bay. Part of the remedy was my new Cannondale Bad Habit, which was part of a deal for a cracked warranty claim on another Cannondale bike.

Tara, myself and her brothers and kids had a nice family camping trip in mid August. Something easy and approachable for the kids to get into. We camped at Worthington State Forest, which is as remote as 15 minutes away from home. Not to diminish the campground however, I'd camped here with family nearly every year from the time that I was 3 years old until my late teens. I'll drop the photos below.

Glad I bought a pickup

Once the calamity of late August subsides for me, I have some time to spare. It's time to regroup, re-energize, Summer is still here, despite the department stores full of Winter clothes. In a way, this is the prime time of the Summer. The kids have gone back to school, the tourists have abandoned their forays onto the river, and we have this kingdom to ourselves. We planned an early September river camping trip, and pulled it off nicely.

Out at 6 or 7 AM to drop boats. Peace.

Booze cruise crew. Scott, me, Jaime, Tara, Jen, Jim, Jason

You know what? September isn't done yet. Summer isn't done yet. Let's throw in another Summer outdoors trip, maybe the last one for the the season. This was with the Edge of the Woods crew, up to the Adirondacks and Lower Lake Saranac. It's one of those great caravan-esque trips you get for maybe a handful of times in life. It's a road trip paired with paddling and camping and partying in one package.

And there we have what we'll call the emotional and spiritual wrap-up of Summer 2017. Despite all the other bullshit going on, I can recollect just writing this that I had a pretty decent year. I just want to keep this going... but even better. If anything, I want to be more youthful in the coming year(s). I have to capture some essence of that live wire I had when I was younger. It's the demon of all aging people, but it really means something for me. It's imperative, and essential.

I'll leave with a Christmas tree cat, Tommy, blurry in all his glory, in summary.

-g