2010 has had it’s way with me…
Another year comes and goes and I fondly remember some of the goals I set when 2010 started.
- Have a draft for a book by my birthday.
- Have at least some clue as to whether or not we're going to be able to get a $1.5 million loan for 8-acres in the semi-rural down South.
Alrighty, while I'm typically not one to ever have New Year's Resolutions or Set Life Goals or any of that cheesiness, I'm also typically not one to set goals and then fall so woefully and pitifully short.
2010 is disappearing like morning mist in the sunlight and certain parts of my life are just as up-in-the-air as ever.
Still don't have a book, though have some killer ideas for two or five, and even have a proper outline for one. But I haven't actually written anything, so that doesn't count for much.
Still don't have much of an idea on Hillview, our dream property down in Oakford, and we're coming up on almost 2 years since initially talking with the old bloke about buying it. FRUSTRATED.
I'm also not one to typically make excuses for things, but I can say that 2010 did actually walk right up and kick me squarely in the jewels like few other years before it. 1997 wasn't my favourite, but it wasn't brutal. 2004 didn't do me any favours, but it certainly opened doors that changed my life for the better.
Nup, none of 'em have smacked me so brutally in the face like 2010.
It started slow with a heartbreak and suitable recovery (more details on that in the future maybe), then led in with my back injury and a screaming trip to the hospital. While I thought it quite neat to be shooting a .44 Magnum from a wheelchair for wife's birthday, I do remember thinking, "You know, I really miss walking..."
I'd barely recovered in time to watch Mother Nature try to drown me by hurting my roof and putting water all in my house. It wasn't devastating, like some of this week's flood over East have been, but I'm here to tell you that 6 months on cold concrete floors do little to elevate your mood. All 3 kids sleeping in the same room and 2 rooms being unused is frustrating for them as well, I'm sure. The contractors that the insurance company hired STILL HAVEN'T SHOWN UP YET. 6 months later... what the hell is bloody insurance for anyway? Next time I'm sticking a $5 bill in a coffee can every week and we'll just use that. Screw insurance companies, seriously.
We barely got a few weeks peace before my son's classmate was killed on a busy road near here. That'll leave you feeling gut-kicked, no question. Puts floods and concrete floors into perspective too.
Mother's Day came and went with some nice, long and drawn out dramas in wife's family. Silliness abounds when people either say too much or nothing at all. I try to only speak when spoken to unless I'm drinking, in a new group of people, or both. Ha, I'm kidding, I shoot my mouth off as much as the next guy, but I rarely, if ever, say something I don't mean.
The ensuing 2 months proved one of those flat dips, where a small businessman knows he's been working his ass off and sending out invoices, but no one is paying. Hard to know how to feel about bad luck like that, but when the folks that usually pay early are paying late, and the folks that usually pay late are paying later than ever (or not at all), then you get real broke, real quick.
We ate noodles, lots of 'em. For a while.
End of July and 2010 decided that it wasn't quite done with me yet. A Biff, Baff, Bowee came in the form of a friend of mine from High School dying in a river accident. There are those moments in life that seem to last forever even though you know that the days are actually coming faster than ever, and in only a couple of days I had to figure out if I was even going to make it back for his funeral, if I was going alone, and how I was getting there.
I made it. Every penny we had and a rather sizable loan from my brother-in-law to put us further in debt, but I made it. I got back in time to send him off in a style befitting his wishes, which was good. And I got to see lots of folks again, which was good too. There are many stories from that short trip, but another time perhaps. I think I'll put 'em into a book.
Back to reality just in time to land in the Invoice Dip again and here we are. 2010 isn't done with me yet, but I have a feeling that the rest of it is going to be quite good.
In fact, I have it on very high authority that it's going to be Quite Good, IF you know what I mean. Heh heh. Oh SHOOSH, I don't know what I'm talking about, just play along though m'kay?
If things change, and even if they don't, I'll keep you posted. Until then, I hope you put on your Gorilla-coloured glasses and read sticker books full of kite-dancing pigs.
Mad Loves All.
