In retrospect, how was your 2022?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I don’t know how to do a poll on this new format, but I’m just wondering how you feel about the past trip around the sun. Fabulous? Pretty, pretty, pretty good? Not bad? Okay? Meh? Not so hot? Bad news? Crap? Dumpster fire?

You get the picture. Ours was very good. Late in 2021, we made the decision to sell our house and leave Portland, and in January of this year started making moves to make that happen. We were able to sell our house for $80K over asking price, had an uneventful trip across the country to Minneapolis at mid year, sold the RV right away and got moved into the new apartment without a problem. Since arrival, we’ve had lots of contact with family who live out here and are enjoying life.

How 'bout all y’all?

2

Pretty good. We bought a house in 2021 so we spent a lot of 2022 making notes about desired future remodels and garden layout changes. That’s been a lot of fun. Even if we never make any changes we like this house a lot just as it is.

I inherited my grandparent’s classic Mercedes after my grandfather passed. Its in excellent shape and having it makes me feel like I’ve inherited a priceless family heirloom.

Both my kids are doing well and 2022 was good to them, as well.

My wife and I got to take a few days off and vacation on the Oregon coast, which was the first time since before the pandemic that we’ve been able to do that.

A significant amount of stress at work was removed when new admin came on board. They’re competent and willing to actually do some heavy lifiting, and helped us settle a long-running pay dispute. That alone was a highlight of 2022.

2019 sucked, although there was some good elements that year. 2020 was the pandemic year. Awful in all respects with the exception that I finished my master’s degree in May of 2020. The first half of 2021 sucked, the second half was pretty meh. Buying the house was the highlight of 2021.

Of the last 4 years, 2022 was definitely the best.

3

My baby left me, my mule got lame. Lost my money in a poker game.

A windstorm came just the other day. Blew the house that I lived in away.

I’m havin’ so much trouble, so much trouble. So much trouble, I’m about to lose my mind.

Other than that, not too bad a year.

4

Good to hear. Being able to actually leave the house to take care of shopping, etc. was a definite plus.

5

About 90% good 10% bad. And ended with a real “Bang”.

Got married just before the year started, moved to newer fancier digs a couple months before the year ended. All fun and personal progress, if a tad stressful in spots. Hope the sale of the old place goes well and quickly in early 2023, but the omens are mixed.

Had two close family deaths in 2021 and none in 2022. I much prefer “none” on that survey question.

2022 was my last full year of work. Which coincided with my best year ever for W2. So finishing strong. Damn shame it took so far into the twilight of my career to first hit my real stride.

Lost more “paper wealth” in the stock market in 2022 than in any other year. The loss dwarfed my wages. With luck 2023 will be the comeback, or at least the start of the comeback. “Sequence of returns risk” is real and right now I’m staring down that shotgun barrel wielded by the JokerPutin.

Earlier in Dec my wife’s son got engaged to a wonderful woman he’s been connected to for a few years. While hardly a surprise except as to the specific timing, this was the highlight of the year in many ways.


And now for the ending “Bang”. Fortunately this was one I watched, not participated in.

Around 11pm we’d walked a couple blocks from home to a nearby bistro. We’re sitting outside at the bar with a good view of the environs and crowd. It’s a comfy 75F+ with just a hint of humidity. Perfect night for music and yakking & Champagne with your favorite person. The bistro seats a ~200 people between inside & out but it’s just over half occupied. A crowd but not a horde. The sidewalks have groups of roving reveling pedestrians, and there’s a party atmosphere everywhere. The people-watching is awesome tonight. It’s spaghetti straps and short skirts weather for sure.

The bistro sits in the center of town at the crossroads of two minor arteries. Two lanes of traffic each way plus left turn pockets, speed limits 35 but most folks drive 45 on one street and 50 on the other. Tonight there’s a pretty continuous flow of cars keeping speeds reasonable, but it’s not congested.

At 1145ish we hear the telltale screech of cars panic braking & hear a crunch, quieter than one might expect for all the tire squealing. Yup, somebody t-boned somebody.

I didn’t actually see it happen but saw the immediate aftermath. I had clear line of sight but was facing the wrong way. I’m pretty quick, but the collision was over before I could turn around. The good news was they’d collided at a fairly low speed; lots of crunched metal, but nothing that looked likely to have killed anybody. The wreckage stayed in the center of the intersection. Had any cars been pushed to the curb, bystanders would have been mashed. Or had a car flown into the bistro, a lot of people would have been hit. Perhaps including us. :eek:

I suspect, but do not know, that what happened was the left turn arrow turned green and both opposing directions started turning while somebody in the straight-ahead lanes looking at a red light jumped the gun, stomped on it, and immediately plowed into a left-turner going across in front of them.

Here’s where the fun begins. One of the semi-crunched cars is a black SUV. It backs up a bit, the driver inexplicably opens the door, then begins to make a U-turn, apparently planning to hit and run. The car falters and dies. So this hefty 40+ yo woman jumps out of the SUV and takes off on foot down the middle of the main street. I only saw her cover about 25 yards before losing her amongst traffic, but I bet that was the first 25 yards she’d sprinted since high school. Given her plump physique, she wasn’t going to cover much distance at any speed, much less that speed. Tragedy ends with comedy.

Cops, fire, EMTs, and tow trucks came and went over the next hour as usual. EMTs left normally, not with sirens blaring, so apparently no major injuries to anyone.

Be careful out there. You have to get all the way through a year for it to be good. Coming up just 15 minutes short isn’t good.

6

My 2022 is firmly in the “meh” category. Work is still a total shitshow, the house is still falling down around our ears, but on the plus side we got out to see lots of live music and generally had a pretty good time.

Each passing new year moves me a year further on from losing my mother, and hopefully means her loss will get easier to deal with. So far, it’s been the single worst thing that’s ever happened in my life. However, 'im indoors and I are both fairly healthy and have no major problems, we have fun stuff planned for this year already and I’m sure it will be better than last.

7

Good and bad, I guess. 2020 was the pandemic, 2021 was losing my dog, my cousin, uncle, aunt and my Mom. Also 2021 was the Year of Living With Contractors, as a storm caused significant damage to our cars, house, etc. So 2021 is the worst of all time for me – 2022 had nowhere to go but up.

The good:

  • My wife joined me in retirement
  • We spent 67 days roaming around the eastern US in our RV.
  • We spent over 100 nights in 2022 camping (in the RV), an all time best for us.
  • We also took our “Bury the Hatchet” tour, trying to visit and reconnect with ~estranged relatives. This worked very well.
  • Texas escaped most of the bad weather issues in 2022. At least our area was mostly unscathed.

The bad:

  • Lost another Uncle (Cancer though, not Covid)
  • I had spine, back, neck, and joint problems, a first for me.
  • I had two scary retina issues resulting in ER visits.
  • The spine and neck problems started affecting our retirement travel plans.
  • I had to spend a month sitting completely still (well, mostly anyway).
  • Once I started getting better, I got rear-ended by someone messing with their phone – exacerbating all the above problems, and docs were afraid the retina was in trouble again – more scary stuff.
  • Had a bad fall while cleaning the boat, knocking myself around again.

For next year?

  • Finish wrangling all the players involved in getting my vehicle fixed (or replaced) after the wreck.
  • Get dashcams installed, professionally with hi end equipment.
  • Complete a few major trips around the US, seeing some National Parks we haven’t been to yet.
8
  • In February someone stole my catalytic converter, and USAA totalled my car.
  • In July I smashed my fingers in a log splitter, and they’re still crooked.
  • In December I had oral surgery. My jaw still hurts, and my lip and chin are still numb.

I hope 2023 is better.

9

I’m gonna say mostly good. :slight_smile:

The Good

  • In late 2021 I had bariatric surgery, so 2022 was largely focused on adjusting and adapting. I ended the year 80 pounds lighter with no more diabetes or hypertension, and in both therapy and a support group to help ensure I don’t wind up defeating the surgery (they make sure we understand from the get-go that it’s just a tool). I still need to work on the “exercise” part of diet + exercise, but I’ve already signed up for a spring softball league and I’m definitely planning to be more generally active in 2023.
  • I’ve been a volunteer with my local NAACP branch since 2020, and at the end of last year I decided to join the Executive Committee: my two-year term starts today.
  • One of my direct reports is challenging, and has been a fairly constant source of stress for me. Just last month I realized that I’m actually not a horrible manager: they’re simply not in the right role, and truly aren’t capable of doing more/better. Annual performance reviews are happening this month, and I’ll be working with my boss to figure out some recommendations. Although I feel bad that it took 2.5 years to finally recognize the true issue, because it hasn’t been a super fair situation for the employee, it was a pretty big relief to realize that I’m not the reason their performance hasn’t improved much.

The “Meh”

  • I’ve been a musician since I was 7 years old, and became a jazz singer in 2009 (not full-time: as mentioned above, I have a day job and also do some volunteer work). When live music finally returned in late 2021 I started getting a little work again, and seemed to be fairly well-liked on the local scene, but for some reason a few months later my interest in performing dwindled to pretty much zero. I first noticed it in February; it took until November to realize/accept that a change was actualy needed. My last gigs were in August. I’m still not sure exactly what happened/what’s going on, or what’s to come: I don’t know if I just need a break from music in general, or if maybe I want to look into something other than jazz. There’s a local jazz festival I go to every February, and I already have this year’s ticket and hotel reservation: I’ll see how I feel after that. For now, though, I’ve decided not to think about it much. Being a jazz musician has been a huge part of my identity for a long time…whatever this is, it’s a little freeing but also pretty disconcerting.

The Bad

  • In March, an old friend died of cancer. She’s retired Navy, and her ashes will ultimately be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery; we’re still waiting for that ceremony to be scheduled.
  • My dog’s age started to really show: she’s 14, and in 2022 she developed some mild arthritis in her hips and some muscle weakness in her hind legs (or, at least, that’s when I started noticing those things). I’ve always been aware of her mortality, but these days I find myself wondering how much time I have left with her more often than I used to.

The surgery stuff has been huge, so all in all I think 2022 was definitely more good than not. I’m very much looking forward to 2023, though.

10

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Charles Dickens pretty much sums up my year.

11

The downside to my year was that the osteoarthritis got worse. As in much worse. Over the last couple of years, my left knee has been warning me that it was coming and climbing stairs has been a sharp reminder off and on. After arrival here, it really got worse, as did my right thumb. I finally got in to see someone and got steroid injections for both knees, which has helped. It’s interesting that exercise, which causes more pain, is actually what you have to do in order to not end up crippled by it. I’m assuming that knee replacement may be in my future, but I’ll put that off as long as possible.

Also, my youngest is going through a painful separation which will most likely end in divorce since he caught his wife cheating on him. Young children involved, of course. My nephew had a pacemaker put in, which was not good news. But it cured his fainting spells.

12

Off to a good start so far. I just tested positive for plague. Sigh…

13

Well…

I got diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer (endometrial and spread to the lymphatic system) in April. I have since had 10 radiation treatments, 8 chemo treatments and surgery.

They believe they got all the endometrial cancer, the cancer in my lymph nodes is reacting well to the chemo (combo of good bone marrow and excellent chemo drugs) and my hopefully last chemo for the time being is scheduled for January 11.

Work has been nothing but supportive (I got lectures pre-surgery on not returning til I felt healthy enough to), and I went after and got a job in the accounting office - income auditor and payroll. Mostly I love it.

14

I’ve had worse years. So it gets a thumbs up from me.

15

My mom died at the end of August. 2022 can go fuck itself.

16

Every day took me one day closer to death.

17

Mine started out with a heart attack and bypass surgery and went downhill from there. However, I’m still here, waiting for one of those space aliens circling the planet to beam me up (grin).

18

2022 was a disaster. Got in a disastrous relationship, also lost my job. The only good thing that came of it was that I completed most of an accelerated-MBA program.

19

A dumpster, on fire, floating down a polluted river, also on fire, heading towards a freight train crash on a collapsed bridge. Also on fire.

Thanks for asking though.

20

I’d say pretty good, but not excellent. I am still a corporate drone, altho no longer dwelling in a cubicle as I WFH now. The job is just a job, and I have given up on having a satisfying career, but I am thankful to remain employed there for almost 12 years. Home life is meh, but my two yound adult kids are doing well - my daughter finished nursing school in late 2021, got her licence in 2022, worked a temporary gig at a doctor’s office and paid off her remaining small debt, and in December accepted a nursing job at a hospital in-state, in exactly the role she wanted. Win!

My FIL descended into the pit of dementia and we moved him into a senior care facility. He no longer recognizes any of us, and the man I once knew no longer exists. MIL is starting the descent. Loss.

One plus from the job is due to my tenure, I was provided a 4-week sabbatical, so I used that for a dream trip to Patagonia in December. I also ramped up other travel in 2022, going to Alaska in the spring and riding the Alaska Railroad from Fairbanks to Seward with stops in Denali and Anchorage. Two awesome trips at opposite sides of the world. I also got-in two solo bike trips along the California coast over the summer that were wonderful. Earlier in the year I went to Las Vegas to visit my brother for his reunion with his birth mother - that one was, interesting, but I’d still give it a plus because I enjoyed the drive to and from.

So, kid growing up and travel: plusses. Job and home life: neutral. In-laws health challenges: negative. In sum, I’d give 2022 an B+.