Year In Review - February 2024 thru February 2025

Another year, another boring summary of that year's trip around the sun. (For those struggling with insomnia, I have a series of these: 2024, 2023, 2022.)

Here's this year's picture, meant to suggest that it's been relatively cold here this winter. (I actually do dress like this on especially cold days; the key to staying warm is "layers, layers, layers".)

Health: My knee and back continue to cause sporadic issues but they don't normally prevent me from doing much. I somehow managed to hurt my hip. I'm not sure how it happened; my best guesses are pulling stubborn weeds out of the ground or trying to open a sliding glass door that doesn't slide very well. On the bright side, staying away from the door and with no wintertime weed-pulling activities, the hip issue seems to have (temporarily?) gone away.

As I'm wont to do, I got flu and COVID vaccinations in the autumn, and (thus far) I haven't gotten sick this season. (I do worry that this might be my last year getting vaccinations, since there's a pretty good chance the next Health and Human Services Secretary will be an anti-vaccine nut job.)

Teeth: The dental implant that started over a year ago finally got completed. When last we left my tooth, I had an especially messy tooth extraction and was waiting for it to heal up before going on to the next steps. And although things got off to a messy start, things ended extremely routinely. Both the implant and the subsequent artificial tooth went off without a hitch. My impression is that in olden times a tooth problem like this would have put me on the road to dentures, but dental implants are an (expensive) alternative.

Lifestyle: I did have a chilly experience this winter. One Friday night the fan that circulates heat in my apartment was running continuously while the apartment got increasingly chilly. Apparently the furnace died at a fairly inopportune time; while I wrote a "trouble ticket" about it, they don't even check those until Monday morning. Fortunately there is an electrical heater in the apartment too that can be used in these situations, though it could only keep the temperature between 52-56F (11-13C). Nighttime was colder. On Monday morning things moved expeditiously; they replaced the furnace within the day.

When renewing my driver's license a few days ago, I had the option of getting a non-photo license renewal or to gather a bunch of documents and get a "real ID" photo driver's license. I opted for the latter, figuring having a photo ID seems to come in handy. In the past I would get the photo license on the day that I get this taken care of at the Motor Vehicle Department, so I was surprised when they gave me what looks like a letter on regular old stationary saying "this is John's temporary license". Apparently the photo ID is created later and mailed to me, theoretically within 20 days. Oh well, at least the process is underway.

I decided to join the North American Butterfly Association last year. Mostly this meant that instead of participating in just the Duke Farms butterfly count, I also participated in 1 other count that was mostly at Hobler Park, Skillman Park and the Perennial Garden at Colonial Park. I think I may try and do a 3rd 1 this coming year; I think there's 1 at Great Swamp too.

Volunteering: This is similar to prior year's summary. All my volunteering was done for either Duke Farms or Raritan Headwaters Association. A pretty good amount of time for both organizations entailed removing invasive species of plants. Both organizations also plant trees/shrubs, though Raritan Headwaters does more of that. I probably planted trees at 5 different locations, the 1st of which was an effort to plant 800+ trees/shrubs.

Aside from the above, the volunteer opportunities are a bit different between the 2 orgs. I spent some time as an "Outdoor Educator" (basically talking to visitors about some nature topic) or "Property Ambassador" (basically walking around to see if someone's lost or has questions). In contrast, at Raritan Headwaters I coordinated a "stream cleanup" (in my case it was more of a reservoir cleanup) where a group of us rambled around picking up garbage and recording the items. And I also helped Raritan Headwaters with the setup for a couple of their fundraising events. I'm doing the stream cleanup again this year; if you're available on April 12 and love picking up trash, let me know.

Social: I still get together with a dwindling number of my old fun league softball team (the Aardvarks) most Tuesdays for lunch, usually at Chimney Rock Inn, Martinsville Tavern, or Thirsty's Restaurant and Tavern. And a subset of the old Service Delivery team and I get together for dinner approximately every 2 months, almost always at Foccocia Pizza n' Pasta. (If you have any association with either of these groups and would like to join us, let me know.)