Looking back on the past 355 days, it’s hard to rate how this year was for me. Things just never took hold in definitive positive or negative ways. I guess 2019 gets a grade of a ‘C’.
I stayed pretty healthy save for a two day battle of chills & fever a few weekends ago. However, back in February I suffered a badly gimped up knee after a fall on my icy driveway. My right leg stayed planted while my left slipped down and pointed out in an ugly way. Had the angle of my leg gone out just a degree or two further I would’ve had a Joe Theisman-like injury with surgery for sure. I hobbled on a cane for five days and the left lower hinge didn’t totally heal for over a month.
DOWNS & UPS
I attended the wake of former baseball teammate Brian ‘Bubba’ Mc Carthy who passed away from cancer. Bubba was a great guy and a year younger than me. His passing really blew my mind. It’s just another reminder that our time in this life is limited.
The two days of York’s Class of ‘79 reunion was a fantastic time; filled with great laughs, reminiscing and happy reflections on the good ole days and what’s happened in the forty years since. I was thrilled with the warm embraces and smiles shared with former classmates.
The Sammy Llanas surprise birthday show for my closest pal Bobbo back in June was another stone groove! The former BoDeans member and co-founder put on a helluva show with his band and it was the perfect way to close out Bobbo and his family living here in Illinois. They’ve all moved west but the echoes of the good times had in that house are still heard. And they always will be!
On top of everything else, Bobbo became a grandfather for the first time to a sweet little buckaroo named Archer Ford Ciciora.
I saw Elton John in concert in February at the Allstate Arena. Captain Fantastic put on a fine show and yet it reminded me how much I miss my sister Marianne who was a fellow Elton fanatic and took me to my first several EJ concerts.
The swim season was a terrible letdown. This was due to the cloudy and cool weather we had all summer. Of course as soon as East End Pool closed for the year we got sunny skies and temperatures in the high 80’s & low 90’s with loads of humidity for about a month. Still, the laughs and bonding my fellow East End regulars and I did were fun as always.
I saw lots of movies and really enjoyed the Beatles never existed fantasy “Yesterday,” “The Peanut Butter Falcon” and “The Sound of my Voice”, the documentary on Linda Ronstadt. I thought the highly touted “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was just O.K. Finally as disturbing as it was, I was mesmerized by Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker.” I still need to get around to screening “The Irishman.”
Musically, my favorite new track was Justin Moore’s “Some Day I Gotta Quit.” This is a poignant song for those of us dealing with addictions and bad decision making. I mean check out these lyrics: “Between the whiskey and the nicotine, the wrong girls in the right jeans and all the other fires that keep burning me I keep lit, it ain’t never gonna happen some say oh but somehow, some way, some day I gotta quit.”
Another favorite was “Buy My Own Drinks” by the female trio Runaway June. That song actually came out in August of 2018 so I was a little late to the prom for that one but no matter,.it’s still a great tune.
Naturally I could not get enough of the Ken Burns documentary PBS series on Country Music.
Work wise the 2018-2019 school year was my best in teaching. There were more challenges than anyone could count and I really shined as a consistent and reliable educator. (That was reflected in the pay raise I was given and the yearly bonus paid in the fall)
So far, the 2019-2020 school year has been a rough one, I have a difficult class of kids with serious personality clashes. They can barely stand each other and all efforts to find common ground and peace for them have so far failed. Let’s see how the second half of the school year pans out. Some sanity has been maintained thanks to my assistant Lisa Ivins. I attended Lisa’s wedding this year which was a good time that included some of the best food I’ve ever had at any wedding.
I DOUBT MY STUDENTS ARE ON DOPE BUT THEY SURE HAVE PROBLEMS GETTING ALONG WITH EACH OTHER.
We arrived at the 10 year mark since my mother died and the 5th anniversary since my sister Marianne passed away. Mom, Mary and my father who left this world in 1993 are never far from my thoughts.
Al Flash and I created several new parody music videos that aired on The Channel 9 Morning News, all of which were well received. We have more shenanigans in store for that show in the New Year.
I spent much of the year trying to be better to others. This started with simple things like often times letting someone with just a few grocery items go in front of me in the check-out line at Jewel to writing letters to an elderly East End swim mate who is now in a nursing home. Also, I took more time than ever offering encouraging words and support to those who needed it, from my own students to Facebook friends and others.
So 2019 is about to end and I look forward to turning the page and moving on to what will be my last year in my 50’s. Yow!
What’s to happen in 2020? Who’s to say? I don’t make resolutions because that’s a surefire way to see them not happen. I just plan try to be better to myself and we’ll see where that takes me.
