So it's the end of 2017, and that means it's time to review the year and give you My Top Ten For 2017.
10. Turning 50
I'm half a century old! My God, it just doesn't seem possible. Course, I'm relly not complaining about it, because a LOT of people don't even get to turn 50, they die beforehand. And the birthday itself really wasn't bad and quite uneventful. Which is, frankly, just how I wanted it to. It's just crazy to think I'm that freaking OLD!
9. Road To The White House
My favorite boardgame, for the last 25 years or so, has been The Road To The White House! I loved this game. When I lived back in the apartment, I played it at least once a week I'm sure, usually more than once a week. Ag would play it with me. Phoenix, when he and I hung out, would usually play it. Anytime Johnnie visited, we'd play at least once game.
But for the last ten years perhaps, and certainly for the last 8 (because that's how long I've lived here in the house, and I never played it here), I've not played the game. Until this fall.
When Ghostie graduated Law School and took the bar (which he passed, congrats Ghostie!), I told him now that he had free time I'd teach him to play. I was joking, but he said he wanted to learn. So he and I have been playing it since....October? Perhaps September. We play about once every other week. And it's still as much fun as it always was! Whether I win or lose is irrelevant, I just love playing the game!
8. The Flu
I get the flu once a year usually. Feel sick for a few days, rest, drink a lot of fluids, and then I'm over it. Not THIS year! I started feeling sick on a Saturday in January, and I'm telling you, this flu kicked my ass!
I was sick for like ten days. I was off work and entire week. I have NEVER in the 21 years I've worked at this job EVER been off sick anymore than three days at a time. I just couldn't beat this thing...without a trip to Urgent Care and some anti-biotics and things to help with my cough, I don't know that I could have beaten it. I don't know what it WAS that I had, but damn, I NEVER want it again!
7. The Theater
This year, I went to the theater multiple times....and enjoyed myself at each and every one!
Saw this in January (right before getting that horrific flu, see above), with Michelle, Lynn and Susie at the Kennedy Center in DC, and featuring a meal beforehand with them and VUBOQ!
Saw this in April with Michelle at the Kennedy Center in DC, and I'm pretty sure this too included a meal with VUBOQ beforehand!
Saw this in May at the Old Opera House in Charlestown WV, with Michelle, her mother Betty and our mutual friend Celeste. It was a....different play. Unusual. But entertaining. And one of my old fuckbuddies had a small part in it as a butler!
Saw this at Williamsport High School in April with Michelle. (We go to see their productions every year, not only because we like supporting high school theater, but the co-directors of the plays are the wife of a co-worker of mine, and the other one is an occasional fuckbuddy of mine)
Saw this in July at the Maryland Theater in Hagerstown with Michelle, Betty and Celeste again. The same fuckbuddy who co-directed Guys And Dolls played the Scarecrow in this one.
Saw this in July at the Kennedy Center with Michelle and Lynn. And even though the play, food and company were fantastic, the rides down and back were HORRIBLE. Traffic jams, Metro closings, shuttle buses, torrential downpours, closed Metro stops. Just horrible.
And finally, I saw this in December at the Hershey Theater (in Hershey PA, duh), with Michelle. Not the best performance we've seen of Kinky Boots, but it's always a fun time!
6. Home Improvements
I had several things done to the house this year to improve it.
In May I had the old wood of the back porch replaced with that vinyl stuff. No painting or rotting of wood like before. And, since the old carpet on the porch floor was green (like the shutters) and getting ratty, I had it replaced with this spiffy new grey color!
In June I repainted the front porch. It was last done in 2010 and it was faded and chipping in places and very much needed it.
In July, my old fridge finally went KAPUT! So I bought a new one.
In November I FINALLY got the trench in basement fully filled in. The plumbers had to dig it up to replace a pipe back in January of 2012! I didn't start filling it in until Last fall, I think it was. It took six different times and I have no idea HOW many bags of sacrete to fill it in. But now it's done!
5. Physical Therapy
My left shoulder and bicep have been bothering me since the spring of 2016. I finally mentioned it to the doctor and he got me to physical therapy the end of the last year. I went three times a week, starting the first week of January through the end of February. I was improving so much, the therapist cut it back to two times a week. And then, in April....I plateaued. I wasn't improving anymore. I could feel it, she knew it. So the beginning the May, after doing another assesment, she said she was discontinuing my sessions, as I wasn't improving. I still had several sessions left that my insurance would pay for, if I needed them for anything else the rest of the year. But she gave me directions and long rubber bands to take home and to keep practicing with and wished me good luck. And I did the same to her....
...and promptly did no more exercises. At all. And now, not only has my left bicep reverted to the way it was last year, but now my right bicep hurts the same way. Don't know what the outcome is gonna be on all this, but that's where it stands now.
4. Anxiety
Yep, my old enemy anxiety came back this fall. And at times, with a vengeance! One night, I couldn't get to sleep and I think I had a panic attack in bed. But I got through it. At times, it was almost crippling. Still, it wasn't as bad as it was a few years ago when I had to go on meds for it. And in the last two/three weeks or so, it's kinda subsided and gone away. But for most of the fall, it was a continual, unwanted, companion.
I guess this is something I'll have to deal with for the rest of my life.
3. Visits
I had a number of unexpected, yet wonderful, visits this year!
In April, FDot visited for a week! We went to the Gettyburg and Antietam Battlefields. We took a tour of my workplace. We walked along Carroll Creek in Frederick MD. We ate at many local places. He met and got a meal from Mama Polt. I had an amazing week, and I hope he did too. And I'm looking forward to a return visit sometime.
In June, I got to hang out with two very old and dear friends. Thirty years ago, there were five of us who inseparable over the summer and beyond. Now, we've all kinda drifted our own way, as happens. My friend Duff and I still see each other every year for the Super Bowl, he hosts a party at his house. We've done this for over 20 years. But I've not seen the other three for years. This year, Scott tried to get us all five together for a meal, but only three of us could make it. So me, Scott (in the middle), his son, and Duff (on the right) had a breakfast/brunch one Sunday morning in June. It was amazing to catch up with them (well Scott specifically, since Duff and I are kinda caught up). Scott mentioned doing it again, and we both were for it. Hopefully it happens.
In August, Long Island Travis came down for a weekend visit! What a great time, of fun, hanging out, bedtimesexxyfun, walking around, waching tv, and eating at the Waynesburger and from Rutters. He loved Waynesburger so much we had food there all three days he was here. For his Christmas present, I got the Waynesburger logo and made him a t-shirt with it on. Hopefully he too will make it back for another visit sometime soon!
In October, my Fairy Godfather Mark, who moved back to Michigan more than ten years ago, made a trip back here. He stayed with friends of his in Hagerstown, but he came up one evening to visit me. We ate at Waynesburger and hung out at my place catching up. It's like he hadn't even been gone that long, we got on so well. He says he going to try to come back once a year, and that would be great to see him more often!
In November Dr. Ryan With The Cupcake, who lives in San Diego, was in DC for a conference. I made the trip down once Saturday evening and we had a fun time, going to the National Zoo, walking the streets of DC and eating in a Chinese restaurant. I've met most of the Puntabupeeps, he was one of the last I hadn't yet met (Mel and Mush I think are the only remaining ones). And he's just as much fun and great company as you'd expect of a guy who mailed a banana cross country to Craiggers in Long Island a few years ago!
2. tRump destroys America
Everything this man and his administration are doing to this country, from legitimizing neo-Nazi, to vilifying the Free Press, to throwing 24 million Americans off their health care, to gutting social programs so billionaires like him can get obscene tax cuts, to throwing a lighted match onto the dry tinder that is the Middle East by moving our embassy, to making us the laughingstock of the world, to insulting all our allies while cuddling up to the world's dictators (in Russia, Philippines, Turkey, etc), to daily violating the Constitution's emoluments clause by having foreign governments spend money at this businesses, to lying every single time he opens his mouth....everything they are doing is destroying the fabric of this country. Even if we are lucky enough to get a Democratic Congress next November that can halt his destruction, it'll still take decades, if not generations, to repair the damage these people have done to the foundations of our nation. It is indeed a dark time. Other than the Civil War, it is certainly THE darkest time we've ever had in the USA.
1. Diabetes
The end of may, my lower left leg went numb up to my knee.
I started immediately eating even better than I have been and walking more. And it went away. Although since then, I have periodically had numbness and tingling in my toes, foot, ankle and lower leg. It's VERY scary. And it shows me how UNseriously I have been taking my diabetes in the last 17 years. I've been trying to do better. And have succeeded, somewhere.
In March, my A1C (long term diabetes number) was 9.4. In July is was 9.4 still. In November though, it was down to 7.6!
7.6 is still not an optimal number, but it's a helluva lot better than 9.4! I hope to keep it lower or even get it lower still. It's not been the best over the holidays, sometimes, but that's to be expected. After New Years, I can get back to what I was doing in the fall and hopefully get and keep the diabetes under control!
So that's my list of events for 2017! I hope everyone has a great New Years celebration! I'll seeya all in 2018!
POLT
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