100 Things That Made My Year - 2023

 100 Things That Made My Year - 2023

1.  (major highlights). We made major improvements on the house.  We redid the dated, gross bathroom upstairs - new title everywhere, get rid of the soffit, fixed plumbing behind the sinks/vanity, new vanity, new bathtub, new lights/fans. (Also ran the electric from an unused jacuzzi electric line.... before this change, ALL of the bathroom and the rest of the second floor was a single circuit).  We got the basement waterproofed.  (The workers found a ton of cracks in the walls they had to fill.) These two projects were $18,000... far more than we had laying around.  In September, great joy when there are big rains... and no water.
2.  We cared for the house more -- I replaced the attic fan, added more insulation to the attic, seal coated the driveway, added plastic along the N and E edges of the house along the foundation to divert water, fixed a dimmer switch, created a "fake" dining room table leaf with dad's old router, changed the electric cord in a lamp.  I replaced a washing machine pump.  (But it broke again in a few months and we had to buy a new washing machine.)  
3.  During mom and Dad's house-cleaning, I inherited a great deal of dad's tool... many ancient.  
4.  Garden successes: the front landscape looked really good in the second year, used the second raised garden bed differently (back by fireplace, behind the house) to grow eggplant, shishito peppers, cucumbers). This leads to additional pickling.  I read (from our CSA newsletter) about Fall Planting -- which I never knew the right time for -- and so plant a bunch of greens and radishes just after Labor Day.  
5.  I got back to running.  In the first half of the year, I was going out just for a mile at a time.  By June I was still running just 1.5 miles.  In July I am running 2.5 miles, then 3.0 miles.  In August, I'm running 3 miles at 7:25 pace (including warmup).  By the end of summer, I was doing 3x/week regularly and doing 4 miles around Spring Rock Park.  One of the things that helped me maintain the habit was building a habit that anchored my running week:
6.  Running at Fullersburg Woods on Fridays.  This started at the beginning of the summer when I got done teaching summer school on Friday.  But then it became a string of them.  Maybe I did 18 in a row at one point?  I think I missed 2 from June through December.   Almost always I was listening to one of Todd's playlists or one that I was crafting myself. (see #11)
7.  Our trip to Granor Farm in February for a dinner for Jennie's bday.  This leads to us buying a couple cookbooks by Abra Behrens.
8.  Road Trip to Indy for Spring Break with HG.
9.  Road Trip to Door County.
10.  Lost some middle age flab.  (roughly 186-176) 
11.  (people) Exchanging Weekly Playlists with Todd (and Larry joins the text group).  Todd's idea of "the sourdough" -- which is what Spotify comes up with as "suggested songs" or "next songs" based on your own playlist.  For a couple weeks, I make my own playlist, then a sourdough. Larry always with a bon mot.  Which leads to...
12.  Going out to Hey, Nonny as couples (on a cold day in November).
13.  Concerts with Todd and Julie: NRBQ in December, Rami and the Reliables, Son Volt, and Delvon Lamar in August, 
14.  Andy Warhol exhibit at the College of DuPage, especially the sunset series (blog)
15.  Caravaggio exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago.  Visit the Japanese Art.  Ippo: Maple and Bird.
16.  Continuing to be interested in Japanese art, continuing to use them very often for blog images
17.  Discovering poison oak in the back yard!
18.  Nam Jun Paik. (one of the many things I learned from PBS documentaries).
19.  Pewabic Pottery.
20.  Following up with doctor about chloresterol.  Getting on Crestor... watch my C number go down about one per day.  Doctor also has me on a nightly vitamin D.  So, I am one of those people with a pill box now.  Every Sunday morning, as I wait for J to come down for coffee, I do the refill.
21.  Learning about new music from WFMU DJ Michael Shelley and a Ted Gioia playlist on Spotify
22.  Getting book ideas from other teachers in the men's bathroom in school.  One time I was sharing that I was reading Left Bank by Poirier and SS teacher Chris Freiler tells me about one of his favorite books of all time, which leads to seeing for myself:
23.   One of my favorite books of the year: Sarah Bakewell How to Live: A Life of Montaigne; Some others: I Married a Communist, 
24.  Joining a CSA midsummer and into the fall.  This leads to a huge amount of learning about how to cook vegetables I didn't even know about - parsnips, leeks, brussels sprouts/somethinge else combined.
25.  I became a bit obsessed with some old music this year, especially Scarlatti.  Also "found" Mozart violin and piano sonatas.  I began listening to a single classical music piece each day, often with headphones.  I listened to some Mahler movements again and again.
26.  Some of my favorite music albums from this year: SZA, Big Thief, 
27.  Buying used books from Abe Books.  Dead cheap.  Often they come from GoodWills around the nation.
28.  Messing around with DALL-E -- often to create images for the blog.  
29.  Aerogarden!  I used it to have fresh lettuce and herbs in late winter and early spring.  I put my tomato seedlings around it to capture the light.  (Jennie didn't like it much bc you could see the strong light through the front window.)
30.  First cherry tomatoes (mid July), soon pints per day; cucumbers for pickling (7/26), shishito peppers for grilling, raspberries (7/3)
31. Granor Farm Dinner with Jennie for her birthday, led by Chef Abra Behrens, which leads to:
32. one of my favorite cookbooks: Behren's books - Ruffage, Grist,
33. Trip to Madison, Governor Dodge, Mineral Point (in May?)
34.  Two road trips with HG: Indianapolis and Door County
35.  Renards squeaky cheese curds in Door County
36.  Todd invites us to Lake Kegonsa house in July; see lots of old friends; in general the no-BS friendship with him and these old friends
37.  Another year of poetry.  I tried to make each 1st, 11th, 21st in blog a poem.  I read several books by Jane Hirshfield. (blog). Counting Descent (above ground?) by Clint Smith also a favorite.
38.  A cleaning habit: listening to Cool Tools podcast while vacuuming.
39.  Biking with J to downtown LaGrange for coffee at Blackberry Market or to the library
40.  Dad always available for house project conversations (less with physical help), but advice on electric projects, whether I should be concerned with X
41. I completed my 25th year at Hinsdale Central and started my 26th year.  (In December I reviewed information from TRS and found that June 1, 2030 should be my retirement date.)
42.  Jennie was promoted to English Department Chair at Nazareth at the end of her first year.  She thrives in her first year.
43.  Jennie's Jeep passed 50,000 miles.  We had to repair the (oil pump?) for $x.  
44.  My Touareg keeps on chugging.  It got pretty close to 144,000 miles by the end of the year.  I replaced the battery for the first time in January.  I added AdBlu in December.
45.  Finally hung framed prints in living room (prints from X in Madison that we bought at the Farmer's Market)
46.  Fall raspberries in the garden!
47.  Bike to work!  Feel lucky that I live close enough to work to ride my bike.  In the spring I rode 55 times.  In the fall, I did 40 times.  
48.  Beginning to read 25 pages a day in October, as a habit, and getting through a lot of books.  
49.  In tears after PBS "Cafe Susana" and after "August: Osage County"
50.  Get back to practicing guitar for chunks.  Do 13/15 days in August. Memorized Bach prelude, memorized Scarlatti, memorized Satie Gymnopedia, quickly learning Giuliani/Handel
51. Huge change for Mom and Dad who sold their home at 202 Stratton and moved into the Moorings this year.  I helped mom and dad a lot:  lots of talking through, taking loads of stuff to donate, lots of moving-in related things, building a financial spreadsheet
52.  I wrote a number of thank you notes at work this year.  I tried to do a few every Friday (before that habit expired).  
53. I bought everyone in the department a coffee from our school's new coffee shop.  
54.  I helped dad with modifying his huge oak desk.  I helped him do some electric work in the new condo, installed a floating shelf, cut some boards (with his circular saw) to cover shelving, cut down mom's sewing table so that it would fit in the the room).
55.  I gave Anita and M&D small bottles of pickles from garden cucumbers.
56.  Merlin bird app.  Taking sound shots in Bemis and Fullersburg and Door County and Governor Dodge.  (blog)
57.  Continued to do a good job with making weekly a pot of beans (black, pinto, white, chickpeas) in the InstantPot.   Continue to build cooking "habits" -- InstantPot Oatmeal once a week (1 cup of oats, 3 cups of water); Start making rice and freezing it (and quinoa, and barley)
58.  Began a new sourdough starter and made some really good, crunchy and huge sourdough
59.  New healthy habit:  daily flossing.  Seeing little bits of stuff that comes out in a rinse after a floss -- after I thought all was out.  
60.  Alistair Humphrey's idea (which I had pre-plagiarized) Take a picture every 1 KM on your run.
61.  In June, I wrote my 1000th consecutive blog.  The series hit a hiccup later in the year, but by November, I was back at it daily.  
62.  Things begin to get better between CCL and HDL and me.  There are good signs.  J and I visit Minneapolis and watch CCL XC meet.  I go out to dinner with HDL a few times.  He calls me several times, frustrated with KBL.  I begin sending them weekly Spotify playlists.  (All the progress ends on Xmas.)
63.  J being available to talk to me when things aren't so good with them
64.  Max Richter - music in the Leftovers, but later in the year other stuff on Spotify,like "Light at the End of the Day"
65.  The passion of NRBQ fans... first at the Rami and the Reliables concert, exchanging bootlegs of other shows, and then the generation-spanning fandom of the actual NRBQ show
66.  haiku: continuing to build a list of favorites (about 75) that appear on Twitter here, my own list of haiku that I did (about 100 of them) for a couple months and sporadically later here.
67.  doing strings of 30 mins of HW after daily exercise; building the habit of 30 mins of HW... normalizing it, getting stuff done that harder to do at work, maybe making it less other and onerous.  30 mins being very doable
68.  Successful move of mom and dad into the Moorings from 202 Stratton -- getting rid of stuff, selling house, moving, getting acclimated
69.  the new Willy Wonka movie
70.  trying to fill every 4-5 PM with exercise - running, lifting weights, yoga
71. trying to eat the frog every day at work
72. trying to do 3 acts of kindness every day
73. realization: I don't need more meditation instruction right now, nor relationship instruction, nor weight lifting, day-planning, etc instruction... I just need to do it, to make these things a practice
74. The futurist question: imagine the thing is already done and ask... how did we get here? (thing: major change in the world)
75.  Idea:  there is no holding ourselves up, there is only "being held up" (blog) Hendren (11/15) - we are dependent animals, Rowan Williams (12/6) This habitual screening out of the fact that we are interdependent
76.  Books that left biggest impact: Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing, Bakewell's How to Live
77.  Happiness is the sense that Important Things are Happening to Me (12/25)
78.  Walks with J at the Morton Arboretum in several seasons; a cathedral of pine trees on one trail, the first time when leaves are down, one after the first snow
79.  New work routine: in a 30 minute chunk of time, do 10 a sprint of email, of closing tabs, and building my eLibrary catalog (of links that I need, put in some order on a spreadsheet); this is similar to an existing "opening" routine of 10 mins clearing off desk and getting things set up, 10 mins triaging email, and 10 minutes timeblocking the day.  (This is the normal 7:30-8:00 part of the day.)
80.  J begins doing an afternoon capucino in her Xmas gift espresso maker.  She calls it the Latte Lounge.  Often there's a small sweet treat.
81.  I entered a few months of old journals into the DRL 2013 History spreadsheet.  (A snapshot of daily life 10 years ago for me.). I did some of these while reading them into Google voice recognition.
82.  Home ownership: mouse poo behind couch, setting traps, spraying tomatoes with cayenne v. chipmunks.  The bucket of death.
83.  Make apple cider donuts.  (after Katie, next door neighbor, brings them over). I buy 2 donut pans from Walmart.
84.  Comport food - based on Madison Sourdough sandwich - small slice of good ham, slice of provolone, arugula, olive oil.
85.  Music and podcast and audiobook set up.  Listen to Audiobooks while I do major outside house projects.  Listen on small Bose speaker.  Run while listening to audiobooks (for first half) and music on second half of run on new Schokz bone-conducting headphones.  Use AirPod Pros while vacuuming while listening to Cool Tools.
86.  Amazon same day delivery: ordered headphones by 7, get them by 11 am.
87.  Stephen King.  I listened to a bunch of Stephen King.  The last time I read anything by him... maybe high school?  I read Billy Summers, Holly, Mr. Mercedes, Fairy Tale.  This leads us to watch Misery. And then Dr. Sleep... but J is frightened from that one.
88.  Stopped by nature: moonlight on the floor of the house in the AM and PM of same day, orange locust leaves filling gutter, gincko's yellow leaves, gincko's drop after 26 degree night.
89.  TV: PBS World on Fire, Frida Kahlo documentary, Baratunde nature shows, the Crown season 5 and 6
90.  In November, December, the accumulating "first signs" of winter -- the first puddle freezes, the first frost, the first snowflake, etc.
91. the idea: seek out discomfort  (blog)
92.  the idea: love is a normal experience
93. the idea: being happy means feeling that important things are happening to me
94. the idea: convert a chore into an opportunity
95. the question: so what? why is this important? what is this connected to?
96. Nick Horby's idea of My People in his book Dickens and Prince.
97. Meditation: I started the year by taking more detailed notes from 10 of my "regular" guided meditation recordings on InsightTimer.  The idea was to have "instructions" from 10 core ones so I could become independent of them.
98.  idea: radical incrementalism of fun (3/17)
99.  idea: small pleasures (3/4) and the pleasure scale (3/7)
100.  idea: love is a normal experience (4/12)