Year-End Wrap-up - Ten Year Anniversary

Introduction

It is hard to believe that 2019 is wrapping up so fast, and also equally unbelievable that I have been doing these articles for ten years.  We are on the verge of wrapping up the year, and also beginning a new ten-year run on these articles to see what and how they impact you, the reader.  Let us now do the year-end perspective, as well as giving a glimpse into what I plan to do in the coming year as well.

On the Home Front

2019 has been one of those years that has been both good in many aspects but also extremely challenging in others.  A lot of important events happened this year that need to be recapped, and they entail a lot of areas. 

First, after many years of struggling with credit issues, I have finally resolved and settled many past bills that had been hanging over my head for at least the past 5 to 6 years.  It is good to have that mess cleaned up, and it has opened other doors.  With revamped credit and a relatively good financial outlook, things are taking shape that have been needed for some time.  And, that has opened doors to other things as well, including a very important one that I will now talk about.

Earlier in the year, we got a letter from the park we live in that offered us a buying option for our place, and it was a nice one.  We were offered downpayment credit based on what we have been paying into our place the past couple of years, and at the present time, we are still in the process of completing the paperwork.  The implications of this are that we now have a place of our own, and are able to get some nice roots established.  I will probably elaborate more on that in the coming year.

This has also been a year of medical challenges as well, especially for Barbara.  In April and May, she had two consecutive procedures for cataract removal on her eyes, and she has now gotten completely improved eyesight save for a small complication with a "floater."  My year medically has been fairly good as well - I only had one incident just the past weekend with esophagitis, which essentially means that I got irritation on my esophageal lining due to swallowing a piece of extremely hot potato on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.  Although I spent an unpleasant 8 hours in the emergency room due to difficulty swallowing, everything checked out fine.  However, as I write this I do have an appointment with my new doctor in regards to my blood pressure, which was somewhat high and caused the ER physician some concern - I was actually diagnosed with hypertension back in 2010, and at one time was on lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor derived from the venom of a Central American species of viper that helps regulate blood pressure.  Lisinopril is a tricky medication though, as some people (particularly women) develop reactive side effects to it - Barbara was on it for a long time and developed a nasty, lingering cough.  However, when I took it I was never adversely affected by it.  Whether or not I will be given a prescription for that or for another type of blood pressure medication remains to be seen, but getting my elevated blood pressure under control is definitely important.  And, that leads to the next major thing.

In November, I reached the half-century mark of my personal existence, as I turned 50.   Reaching that milestone is still something hard for me to comprehend, as it only seems like yesterday that I was a 20-something college kid (in reality, it has been 23 years since I received my Bachelor's).   Being 50 does have its advantages though, in particular, the AARP membership I now have, and that I guess is a perk that comes with age.  There have also been a couple of more milestones I have reached this year, so we'll visit those now too.

In September, I officially received my 3rd Degree as a Knight of Columbus.   The ceremony took place over near Mount Airy just this side of Baltimore, and it was a neat ceremony to be part of.  Granted, I was way underdressed for it - Knights generally are somewhat formal in their ceremonies, and I was supposed to wear a shirt and tie but didn't, as I went straight from work to the ceremony itself.  This means I stood out like a sore thumb, but thankfully my brother Knights didn't make an issue of it, and our Council Grand Knight Fred Nugent didn't even mention it.  However, I am learning from it and next year for my 4th Degree I will have the suit ready for the ceremony, which more than likely will be in Baltimore.  Being part of the Knights of Columbus for the past couple of years has been a good thing, and although there is some controversy about the new regalia, I am still glad to be part of this great organization. 

The other major step I took was becoming a Maryland Notary Public just last month.  For many years, I was a Florida Notary, and therefore am familiar with the responsibilities.   My swearing-in was on November 15th at the courthouse here in Hagerstown, and I have a four-year commission.  I don't recall it being that formal in Florida when I was commissioned there back in 2005, but I kind of appreciate a little more formality - it gives a bit more authority to the office. 

The final thing on the "home front" is some new additions to our household.  In July, we went to visit my sister-in-law Sue's place in Indiana, as Barbara's cousin was getting married in Milwaukee at around the same time.  Barbara's sister Sue has a lot of challenges right now, as she took on a huge responsibility with a fixer-upper farmhouse, and she also has limited funds.  But, while we were out there, she gave us something that has provided some joy to us, and also a little more responsibility.  Back when I was a teenager, my mom worked for an old lady who had a pet zebra finch, and to be honest I really became enamored with that little bird.  A zebra finch is a tiny bird with a sound reminiscent of a squeak toy, and they are actually adorable little birds.  Returning from Indiana, we ended up bringing five of them back with us, and even as I write this now, they are sitting next to the desk chattering like a bunch of little monkeys.  All five are males, and they are the cutest little stinkers honestly.  We look forward to being blessed with many years of enjoyment from those little birds. 

Calling and Vocation

As far as my church work this year, it has been very limited to teaching a group of sixth-graders at our parish, St. Joseph's in Hagerstown, on Sunday mornings during the school year.  As my Master's is in Catechetics, I am putting my degree essentially to work by teaching the faith to kids, and this is now my third year doing so.  The class that started in September is a somewhat smaller group this year, as I only have seven total, but they are a sharp and well-behaved group.  My current class is also very diverse, as it includes a girl whose folks were from El Salvador, a Filipino, two Sri Lankans, a young lady whose father is Kenyan, and two regular American boys.  I love diversity though, as I learn a lot about them as well, and that is one of the rewards of the calling.  At this point, I am debating about continuing a fourth year, so we'll see what happens.

As for my own faith, I have found myself leaning more in a traditionalist direction, although I want to address some concerns.  I have always been fairly conservative in my faith, and as a Catholic, it is no different honestly.  I am not anti-Vatican II like some fellow Trads are, as I understand that there are good things that have come from the Council, but at the same time, I see issues with implementation.  As I have mentioned, I am not technically part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, as instead I am part of the Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter, a diocesan structure that is comprised of former Anglicans like myself who have retained what is called patrimony, meaning that those distinctly Anglican traits of our faith that don't conflict with Magisterial teaching are allowed and encouraged.  As such, I am more traditionalist than many people at our current parish, which is a regular Roman Catholic congregation, and I have felt the conviction to do some things differently.  For one, I have begun taking Communion on the tongue rather than in the hand, and I also say the parts of the traditional Mass that coincide with the Novus Ordo Mass the parish we attend uses.  However, I am a little different than most Trads because simply I cannot fathom being anti-this or anti-that when there is no reason to be anti-whatever in those cases.  For one thing, the abundant amount of anti-semitism I have noted among Trads hinges on a hatred of Jewish people, and that is not something I will tolerate or condone - I have pulled out of a number of Trad groups on social media over that one, as some of these individuals are even engaging in Holocaust denial conspiracies and even glorifying Hitler, whom they forgot was as much anti-Christian as he was anti-Jewish.  I am also not totally on-board with even a lot of the anti-Protestant rhetoric that some Trads spew, as it is hateful as well.  It is one thing to have a disagreement with Protestants and to even pray for their eventual reconciliation with the Church, but it is quite another to spout some of the hateful vitriol against Protestants I hear from some self-professed Trads.   As for the Jews, it is also one thing to pray for their conversion and to even criticize some of their resistance to Christianity, but it is quite another thing to harbor a blanket hatred for them as a people.  Trads need to get their stuff together, and until they do, there are just some of them I would prefer not to be associated with.   Anyway, that has been my spiritual journey this year.

Other News

In recent years, I have made it a regular objective to check hometown obituaries, and I have an archive of obituaries of people I have known over the years, as well as family members who have passed on.  This year, I lost an aunt who passed away earlier in November, and it is almost surreal as she was an aunt I had known most of my life.  Angie McDaniel (1939-2019) was the middle half-sister of my maternal grandfather Dave Strahin.  When my great-grandfather, Charles Judson Strahin, passed on sometime around the year 1932, a couple of years later my great-grandmother remarried to a man named Delbert "Mose" Turner, and with him, she had five children.  The oldest, Ruth, passed away back in 1976 I believe - she had multiple sclerosis and was largely incapacitated.   The next one to pass on was my uncle Robert "Bonzo" Turner, who was the second-youngest.  He passed away in 1977 from a diabetic coma.  The third to go in this line was my Uncle Delbert Jr. "Teak" Turner, who was the second-oldest of this family - he was found dead in his apartment in Parsons in 1995 or 1996.  The youngest of the five, my uncle Joe Garland Turner Sr., died in 2005 from cancer.  Aunt Angie was the last of my grandfather's five Turner siblings, and she had been in declining health for a number of years, as her weight kept plummeting so much that she barely weighed anything.  Fortunately, in October I was able to see her one last time and to be honest, she looked bad - she was not the same lady I remembered from years ago, the aunt who bought me Goldfish crackers when I was a kid and also made so many delicious homemade items, including peanut butter cups, at Christmas.  I have a lot of fond memories of her from when I was little, as she always treated me well despite the fact that over the years a sort of feud has existed between Mom and the rest of the family, so I haven't seen as much of her.  Her passing still has me in some shock, as it is hard to believe she is gone.  But, at least the memories are eternal, and she will live on there. 

My Expectations for the Coming Year

As I have reached the 50 mark agewise and am now also looking at the end of the second decade of the 21st century, a lot of things cross my mind. What do I hope to accomplish this coming year?  I am going to briefly set out some objectives now.

First, as for writing.   My articles for next year are going to more or less continue in a sort of vein that I am currently in, that being in-depth theological discourses on SPT, reviewing more restaurants and also posting new recipes on "David's Culinary Page," and here I want to begin some more insights regarding past memories and such.   Some of the issues I want to take on concerning SPT, in particular, include some analysis of Frank Peretti's two books, This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness, both of which I have read several times over the past 25 or so years.   Those two books, published respectively in 1986 and 1988, are two of the most riveting and engaging pieces of Christian fictional writing to have been published in years, and well over 30 years after their initial publication, they are still avidly read.  I personally try to read those at least every couple of years and am in the process of doing that now.  I want to do an article about them analyzing both the strengths and weaknesses of the books, and I may do that in January if circumstance allows.  Another area I want to tackle next year is regarding traditionalist Catholics, as an evaluation needs to be done as well as maybe some historical background on them.  Dr. Taylor Marshall has done some work in that area, as has Fr. Dwight Longenecker and I will be using their material for some inspiration and to provide a framework to work from.  I may also do a nice ten-year perspective on DMM as well regarding our ten years of writing, and that will probably happen in April or sometime as it is the mid-point of my anniversaries for all three blogs.  Therefore, I encourage you to stay tuned.

Our home is also going to be getting some makeover and restructuring, as we do need a utility shed outside to house our lawnmower and also a lot of stuff we have piled up in the house now.  Even after 3 years of living here, we still are getting situated, and Barbara and I want to accelerate that a bit this year.  We need quite a bit in the house - a washer and dryer, some work inside the house, and also we need to upgrade our furniture somewhat.  This is now more important with buying the place being a reality, as we need to now step up and take more responsibility for our home, as we'll more than likely be here for many years to come.  Talking about this now does have its exhilaration for sure, as homeownership is definitely a big step for us.

The culinary page will also receive some new attention, as I want to begin to focus not only on restaurant reviews and recipes, but also some good articles about foraging for wild edibles and a few agricultural things - we now have raspberry plants outside, and those will be providing us with berries and other things for culinary experiments.  Also, I have discovered a source of pawpaws, and will be attempting to grow those this year - I will be starting the seeds in the spring and will see how they turn out.  I may venture as well into doing some hunting and fishing and would like to showcase more wild game in my recipes and other endeavors.  And, we still have new recipes to try, and new restaurants to visit, and I want to begin doing more of the latter in my home state of West Virginia.  This gives an idea of what we will be up to this year as far as culinary arts are concerned.

My music collection will also be focusing mainly on obtaining rare vinyl LP's of stuff I once had, and that includes both my vintage big band collection as well as my gospel music library.  I also will be looking into a couple of monumental CD collections, one of Stravinsky's works and the other the 24-disc centennial collection of Duke Ellington's recordings.    My music collection, however, has grown to about where it needs to be, so less emphasis will be directed to it than has been in the past.

Now that I have given some basic objectives for the coming year, let us now wrap up.

Conclusion

2019 has been a year of challenges - I have had good things happen, and also some really rough points.  In summary, it was not the best year on record, but thankfully it was also far from being the worst also.  As we enter 2020, I wish everyone reading this a blessed holiday season, and may 2020 be a great year for you as well as me.  Thank you, and will see you next year!