Summary of the Year

Oh my, it is the end of the year, almost, and it has been a very long time since I have posted. Alas, I fear I got sucked in by Facebook.

At first, you think you will only be socializing with your online friends but own now. You get sucked into playing the games. Ah yes, the games. It started out simply with FarmTown which "farm", you start out plowing your field and planting a few crops then selling them. Next you move on to expanding your acerage and purchasing buildings. You ask your friends to become your neighbors. You send them gifts and they send them in return. Then you populate your farm with the animals you buy and receive as gifts. It snowballs from there. When you sell your crops it allows you to by other things form your farm. The kicker is you can purchase more farm coins with real coins (this I do not do). And on and on.... Of course there is a time when your crops are ready to harvest and if they are not harvested they spoil which is not good. It makes you look like a failure as a farmer and when you neighbors come to visit you farm it looks bad.

As you can see it can get very complicated and time consuming and this is only one game. Before you know it you are farming in a couple of other farm type games, running an amusement, living in Yoville and maintaining several houses. There are do many that keeping up with them is like having a second job.

I have pared down the games I participate in and am coming back to the lighter side. I am knitting more and reading more. I think I am recovering very well.

This year has been eventful. I am still working at not for the government. I past a year in September. I think this is almost the longest I have been on a contract in years. Hopefully, this one will last till I retire. Would be nice. I have made many new friends and lost a few. This is the way of lift.

I have reconnected, via Facebook, with may of the people I went to high school with. I got a message one day from someone who said he thought I had gone to school with him and that there was a group for me to join. We started getting together and now have a pretty large group. It has been fun getting to know them again. There are now plans for our 40year reunion and I am really looking forward to it. I went to the 20 year but had not gone to any of the others.

The interesting thing I have learned from seeing these friends again is that so many of the things that seemed so important back in the school days really were not that important after all. It does matter any more who is popular and who is not. Too bad we did not know it then.

It is this time of year I take stock of the past months. All in all it has been a pretty good year. I am healthy and have friends who care about me. I have money in my pocket, gas in the car, and food in the frige. When it all comes down to the bottom line those are the essentials. That is about all I can ask for. The rest is gravy.

I am knitting many things ranging from a hat, for myself, socks for my mom (she really liked the ones she got for Christmas), and oh yes, a Clapotis for my wonderful friend Nancy.

I have been to Portland to visit my sister and her family. This time we went to the shore and small towns along the cost. Must go back in the Summer when we can go in the water. It is so beautiful there. Of course, we had to stop by the Tillamook cheese factory and have ice cream. It was great. It is so much fun being with my niece and nephew at the age they are now, 7 and 15 (almost). Looking forward to someday moving out there to be closer to them.

My family did Christmas early this year. It is so much cheaper for my sister's family to come before Christmas and then they can be in their own home for Christmas day. I also enjoy being in my own home Christmas day. It is a log less pressure.

Am looking forward to a great new year. I am going to do my best to start it off well. I hope you do too.