Less than half a day from now the 2010’s will come to an end.  Ten years ago today I posted this Decade in Review for the 2000’s.  I thought it would be nice to do that again for the new decade.  Be prepared, this one is going to be all over the place.

The first big events of the 10’s happened quickly.  We bought a house in 2010 and adopted a cat a few days later.  The house became a home quickly and the cat became the focus of about a billion crappy photographs.  The kids finished elementary school and middle school.  One finished high school (first in her class) and started college.  The other has a couple of years of high school left to go.  They both earned their drivers license and started embracing the larger world around them.  Personally I’d like them to stay a little closer to home, but that’s not gonna happen.

Both kids embraced music in a way that will never stop making me proud.  They both are accomplished pianists.  Harry is also a percussionist who wails on mallets and a guitarist.  Bellana is a vocalist whose skill level is world class.  She’s stunningly good.  There have been countless school concerts.  There have been a bunch of school plays.  Bellana was the lead in her last middle school play and one of the main characters in her last high school play.  They both also took turns in the pit band for the theater group on top of all of their other musical obligations.

We traveled a ton this decade.  So many destinations I can barely keep track.  We explored all over New England, especially the mountains in New Hampshire.  We went to New York more times than I can count.  We took trips to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, Ontario, Quebec, and California.  I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch too.  San Diego is still my favorite destination.  Orlando and Disney World is probably the top destination for the four of us.

My wife, my beloved, has been tearing up the world professionally.  I’ve always known she was brilliant, but not so long ago her company gave her what is effectively an employee of the year award.  When I talk to her coworkers they universally tell me that she is the best in her field.  I’ve had all sorts of executives tell me that she is amazing and indispensable.  It’s never been a surprise to me.  I mean, I know.  I’ve known it for years.  I’ve known it for more than a decade, in fact.  It’s always great to hear her coworkers gush about her greatness though.  I love it.  I love her.  On top of all of her professional triumphs she also managed to sneak in finishing her bachelors degree.  I am so proud of her I can’t even deal with it.  I just love her so much.

I’ve somehow managed to make the past decade a musical one for myself as well as the kids.  After Harry started playing in a band his guitar teacher put together I got jealous and joined a band myself.  Amazingly we’ve actually been able to get a little bit of work here and there.  I’ve let myself go a little nuts with gear, but it’s all in good fun.  I still love to play and have no desire to stop.  I stress out when the band’s schedule conflicts with the family schedule.  It doesn’t happen often but it tears me up when it does.  Family clearly comes first.  Always always always, but it still bothers me.  We haven’t had much work over the last year or so.  We’re hoping to pick things up in 2020 which means I’ll likely be conflicting more.  I’m looking forward to playing, but not looking forward to the stress.  I’ll work it all out though.

I should also mention, musically speaking, that thanks to my wonderful wife I was able to see my favorite band ever about 200 times (slight exaggeration).  Rush called it quits in 2015, but before then I got to see them a ton of times.  I shared them all with Jen, and shared two of them with Bellana and Harry.  I’m so incredibly thankful that my family indulged me with all of that.

What else.  I became an uncle two more times.  My brother and my sister each had their second child.  I’m Uncle Robbie four times over now.  Three nephews and a niece.  I love them all very much.

My mother had a health scare that she recovered from.  Jen’s aunt had one that she likely will never recover from, and her uncle passed away.  All in all we’ve been pretty lucky with our family’s health.  The one terrifying exception being Harry’s diabetes.  It was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced and it was the most difficult week of my life bar none.  Nothing even comes close.  The positive that’s come out of that is how Harry has responded.  Words cannot express how proud I am of the way he’s tackled his condition.  He’s owned it and showed it who’s boss.  I’m never far from entering a state of diabetic freak out for him, and that pisses him off (as I type this, his continuous glucose monitor isn’t updating and a teeny tiny part of my brain is preparing to panic.  It won’t, but it’s ready to if need be), but I can’t help it.  I never want him to go through anything like he did that fateful week again.  If that means he gets mad at me now and then, I’ll take it.

What else, what else.  I’m still working for the same company.  I did get a promotion and I am much more comfortable with my situation than I was the last time I wrote a decade in review.  I have a great group of guys working for me.  Things are going well for the group.  I’m pretty pleased.

I have to say this… it’s silly to say this, but I have to say this… Star Wars came back.  We got a full trilogy.  After Obi-Wan passed The Force torch to Luke, Luke passed it to Rey and Rey ran with it.  Glorious movie goodness.  That probably belongs in a Lifetime in Review post more than a decade in review post, but this is what we’ve got.  Also, Baby Yoda.

We had a Stanley Cup.  We came within a heartbeat of three but we got one with two heartbreaks instead.  We also got a couple of World Series.  There was a softball championship and a little league championship too (I’m pretty sure they were both this decade).  The kids didn’t take to baseball quite the way I was secretly hoping, but that’s okay.  I’d much rather have a couple of bad ass musicians than baseball stars.  No contest.

What can we expect in the 20’s?  More of the same, I hope.  Another high school graduation in 2021, a couple more college degrees (at least), lots more music from everyone, more professional greatness from my love is guaranteed, obviously more pictures of the cat.  More love for my wife.  More love for my step kids.  The usual.  There will be ups and downs but the goal is for those ups to drastically outweigh those downs.  I’m looking forward to finding out what happens.

I said in the 2009 post that it was The Decade of Jen.  The 2010’s was also the Decade of Jen.  Everything I have, I owe to her.  She’s the love of my life.  She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.  I adore her.  I’m crazy about her.  I love her so much.

Here’s to the 2010’s, and here’s to the 2020’s.

Happy New Year.

Our New Years Eve plans have changed a few times since last I mentioned it yesterday.  We’re still doing Boston, but now I’m going home first.  The weather was utter shit all day yesterday, and it was utter shit so far today, but it’s supposed to get warmer and dryer.  Please let this be true.  I don’t know if Harry, Jen, and I will make it to midnight in the city, but we’ll do our best.  Bellana will and if we bail early I’ll drive back into the city to pick her up.  No problem.  All bases are covered but one.

The one being our driveway.  We got a little snow yesterday, and then a little more over night.  We also got a lot of freezing rain so when I went outside to clear some of it off the driveway I was expecting it to be difficult.  I didn’t expect it to be so difficult that it broke my friggin’ shovel.  Not just any shovel, my favorite shovel.  The red one with the curved handle.  It was all dig, scoop, dig, scoop, dig – the handle bent in half.  What the what?

RIP red shovel with the curved handle.  You fought through many a snow war with me.  You cleared many an icy snow bank and you dug out that fire hydrant many times.  You were a good shovel.  An honorable shovel.  You were my friend and my comrade and my ally and I will never forget you.

Hip hip… (this is where the reader needs to say, “hooray.”)
Hip hip… (say it again)
Hip hip… (say it one more time)

I just walked to my car.

I know we are not even two weeks into Winter, but I am so tired of being cold.

When I started this useless blogging bullshit for reals back in November of 2008 (meaning when I started posting things publicly, instead of privately on myspace, which started in February of 2006, I think) the idea was to try and post at least once a day.  That got out of hand really fast as for the next few years I was averaging closer to three posts a day.

As time went on I got lazier and lazier and when I look back at 2017 through mid 2019 I wasn’t even close to posting once a day.  I still don’t know why, but on June 1, 2019 I decided out of the blue to get back to the old ways and post every day.  Since then there have been exactly two post-free days, July 31 and September 4.  I’m still posting a lot of quick camera phone posts but I also made myself write more.  While that’s been nice and all, it usually results in totally useless and pointless drivel like this post you’re reading right now, and when the post is actually about something it’s likely something that the 10 previous posts were about as well.  Can you say repetitive?  Repetitive.  Also, repetitive.  Also: Run on sentences.

Anyway, it’s just this dumb thing that I do.  I haven’t done anything to try and increase views, though I have spent a little more time reading other people’s wordpress.com posts and that can sometimes bring readers in.  If that happened know it wasn’t my goal.  I have seen a pretty dramatic uptick in views though.  Now you have to understand.  Two views in a day is a dramatic uptick from one view in a day.  That’s the kind of numbers we’re talking about here.  I did the math for 2019.  I figured out the average views per month for the first five months of the year, prior to writing more, and for the last seven months.  The average per month increased by about 250%.  So it’s more like one viewer turned into two and a half viewers.  None of this has any meaning at all, but I do have the word “analyst” in my job title and sometimes looking at statistics kinda fascinates me.  When I was a kid it was baseball stats.  Today it’s idiotic, blathering, moronic, blogging stats.

It’s fun for me.  Piss off if you don’t like it.  Oh and you can expect the start of RPM Challenge posts any day now.  Speaking of repetitive.  You’re welcome.

Happy New Years Eve Eve.

I’m having a hard time accepting that tomorrow is the last day of the decade.  I’ve heard people talk about it before, the older you get the faster time moves, but I’m experiencing it for myself and damn if it isn’t scary.

I met my wife and my step kids in 2007.  We got married in 2009.  We bought a house in 2010.  All of those events feel as though they just happened.  The day after tomorrow is 2020.  How can that be?  Jen and I will have been married for an entire calendar decade.  Why does that feel surprising?  Why does it feel weird?  Not bad at all, just weird.  It’s like giving physical form to an abstract idea.  10 years isn’t weird, a solid contiguous decade is.  I don’t know what I’m talking about, just ignore me.  I’m 48 years old and I haven’t got all the metaphysical stuff figured out yet.  I’ll get there someday, probably 10 seconds before I snuff out.  Maybe not being able to wrap our tiny brains around things is actually the reason for everything.  I’ll shut up now.

Tomorrow night we’re going to give First Night Boston a shot.  I’m a little worried because the weather is garbage right now and the forecasts say it could be garbage tomorrow too.  I have to work so Jen and the kids will be in town long before me.  Bellana has plans to meet friends somewhere in town and whatever they are doing will run until a little after midnight, so once I show up it will be Jen and Harry and me.  I’m not sure what’s on the event schedule.  If it’s raining or snowing still then hopefully we’ll find something indoors, at least for part of the night.  I plan to take my camera in to work with me so if anything interesting comes along I should be able to snap a few pics.

I haven’t really thought of any resolutions for the coming year, other than losing weight which is always on the list and always fails, but I think I am going to resolve to not refer to the coming decade as “The Roaring 20’s” as some people are starting to.  That name is already taken.  We need to come up with something new.  Unfortunately it’s probably going to be “The Nazi 20’s” but hopefully that idiocy will go away quickly.

We’ve had sleet and freezing rain for most of the day so far, but it’s snowing right now.  I’m too old for this shit.

Happy New Year’s Eve Eve.

Mr Tree will come down on Wednesday so enjoy it while you still can.