Well, here goes again with my feeble attempt to put together
a wrap up for 2015. It has been a good
year in some respects, but a poor one in others - poor being the operative word
here. Seniors who live on a fixed
income have been suffering low or non-existent interest rates for about eight
years now, and it doesn't show signs of improving anytime soon. I'm certainly glad that I planned ahead, but
I would sure like to see more than the paltry returns I get on my savings and
investments.
Health-wise, it was a pretty darned good year until the very
end, when both Judy and I had dental problems.
Mine was a back molar that needed a root canal and, of course, a crown
to complete it. Judy needed a crown on
one of her lower front teeth, and the one she got (temporary) is the wrong
color. I hope they will correct that
after all the $$$ we spent.
We took several road trips this year. We visited Corning Glass Museum and the
Finger Lakes in the spring. Then we
tried to visit six national parks in 14 days; Grand Teton, Yellowstone,
Glacier, Arches, Canyonlands and Black Canyon.
We did manage to get to every one of them, but the tail end of our trip
was rained out and we hightailed it for home, skipping another part of the
itinerary in Alabama. Well, as it
turned out, we got our opportunity to make the Alabama trip a long weekend one
in the fall, and I finally got to visit the Unclaimed Baggage Center in
Scottsboro. I have to go back there
sometime and spend a day or two browsing.
This turned out to be my lucky year for the Augusta National
(a.k.a. The Masters), in that I finally got to go to the final round with Jeff,
my son-in-law, and we walked just about the entire course. We arrived a little after noon, so the first
two or three pairs were back in the clubhouse by then, but we got to see all
the finalists and watched Jordan Spieth win
the Green Jacket (Well, we didn't stay for the ceremony, but we did see
him)
My work with Roadtripamerica.com now includes an advisory
role for anyone who is planning a road trip and wants advice on routes,
attractions and accommodations. It is
neat to help others plan an itinerary with lots of activities and sights to
see.
Another nice side benefit of working online for
Roadtripamerica.com is that I've befriended several other advisors, one a lady
of about my age from Australia, (they call it OZ) who is way ahead of me in her
travels. This year she took a 182-day trip that crossed the United States
east-to-west to Alaska and back to Boston and then north-to-south to Key West,
Florida. to finish the trip, she drove
out to Colorado and put her truck in storage for her next adventure.
I'm already in the planning stages for two road trips next
year, one to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the early summer and another up
to New England for fall foliage, one of my bucket list items I've decided is
past due.
My granddaughter now has her very own bassoon and she is
quite accomplished on it. Maybe a
philharmonic career in the making, there.
And her brother plays both clarinet and Tenor Sax, so maybe jazz band
for him?
My grandson has changed from his job at Lowe's to one with
Columbia County, where we all live here near Augusta. He is part of a 3-man drain team (storm drains, not sewers) which
they maintain. When it rains, as it has
for about the past week, the crew is not able or required to go down into the
drains, so there is a lot of paid down time; a pretty nice piece of work, if
you ask me.
That seems to be the only noteworthy news from this past
year, so I won't bore you any further.
Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year in 2016, and I hope to be
around to do this again next December.
