Looking Back 2022, Look forward 2023...

 

2022?  Less Blog Posts than 2021 but a few more than 2019 or 2020...nothing approaching the Glory days of Blogging, when I posted/penned more than 265 stories back in 2008, the first full year of this ... the first 5 years in fact were busy, I often wonder how is it that I even took the time to do that stuff, but I was newly retired and had some time on my hands...what will 2023 bring?  I suspect somewhere between 15 and 25 posts depending on how the again brain and fingers feel.

2022...

My mom passed away in mid January, the 19th to be exact, in Naples, Florida, mentally in good shape right up until the stroke two day prior, she passed peacefully at 97 years 9 months and 5 days...a long and good life indeed.  I had been to Florida the previous October {2021} so I got to see her one more time, and talked to her with my wife and middle grandson, just 2 days before the stroke.  We would hold a celebration of life, drinks and food included, in June, about 150 family and friends showed up...it was a grand time to celebrate her life.

Youngest son Hal and I got a chance to see the Cincinnati Bengals play and win the AFC Championship game in Kansas City...after years of misery, the Bengals finally made the Super Bowl for the first time since 1989...the close last minute lost to the Rams did little to dampen what was a great comeback season.

The rest of the winter was kind of a blur...winter when I was young I didn't mind, I knew how to Snow Ski and keep myself busy...now days in my 70s {74 this coming March}, I despise the long months and short daylight days of winter.  Youngest Grandson turned 1 on my and his birthday March 16th.

With Spring came our first Vietnam "Sky Cops" reunion since the phony COVID Bullshit and lies began, we held the 2022 version, first since 2019 at the Hope Hotel on Wright Patterson AFB and the Air Force Museum the last weekend in April...it went "OK" but I realized that old farts don't drink or stay up late, except for a few of us, like me...I have decided {with very little help for this year} to scale this year's back and likely end the practice...to many folks have passed and to many are aging not so well.

Got to see the two older grandsons do well in their sports throughout the Spring and Summer...Kasyn was a top notch soccer player in both seasons, and had an excellent summer swim season as well.   The middle grandson, Kam, came in first in his age group at the Cincinnati Red's camp in Centerville, thus qualifying for the "Top 10" competition at Great American Ballpark after the Reds vs Brewers game in late September...he also had a great swimming season.   Their combination Home Schooling and Christian Schooling is serving them well...in athletics and academics.

Patricia and I took a quick vacation to Brown County, Indiana, after missing the cabin getaway in 2021...this was in early August...that came in~between Vietnam Reunion visits to Howard County in both early June and mid September...those, like the Dayton Reunion, are not what they once were...sadly.

No Florida trips or Rick Pearson Pond Visits this year either...but the fall was fairly busy..

In early October we headed to Wisconsin for a couple of days, and wife's step mom celebrated her 90th birthday, then a few weeks later I soloed it to the Chicago Bergs and stayed with oldest son Sam for a weekend as we took in the Ohio State at Northwestern game...The Buckeyes won, but not by much over a weak Wildcat squad ...foretelling what was to come, as a loss to Michigan was followed by a 1 point lost to eventual National Champion team, Georgia, on the final night of 2022.

That was 2022 in a quick look nutshell...

2023 will come up in the next post...Stay tuned...