2015 – The Schizophrenic Year

(I had to use “schizophrenic”, I already used the roller coaster analogy.)

For almost all of us, every year has its ups and downs, highs and lows, sorrows and joys. (Insert your own dichotomy pairs here – I’ll wait. Done?) It’s a fine line to a certain extent – no one really wants it to be too frantic or hectic, but no one wants it to be too boring and dull either.

2015 might be the most “dynamic” for me in quite a while. I’m not sure that I’ll miss it.

The bad – well, obviously, my mother’s passing last month. I’m glad that we got to see her in July for her 80th birthday,

and given her condition and how it had deteriorated after the stroke, it wasn’t a surprise, but there are still some strong emotions involved.

We had to put down our cat in February,

and our dog a couple of weeks ago.

The house is an empty place without their demanding and cuddly little presences.

On the good side, obviously, the great job I finally found after a long period of unemployment was the highlight of 2015. So far things are going very well and I’m looking forward to seeing what adventures and challenges the new year brings there. Having a regular pay check again is short on suckage as well.

There were three NASA Socials for me this year, to tour SOFIA in February,

see the LEAPTech demonstration in May,

and the fantastic trip to Washington, DC in April for the Hubble Space Telescope 25th anniversary.

That’s a pretty cool trio of events. I enjoyed myself and geeked out a lot.

In addition to the Washington trip, The Long-Suffering Wife and I had three trips in 2015, to Vermont in July to see my mom,

to North Carolina in April to see a friend of hers and a friend of mine from high school,

and to Indiana in September for a niece’s wedding.

In the air and at the hangar, we had a great airshow at Camarillo in August,

saw the Blue Angels at Point Mugu in September,

and had “Fifi” visit us for a week in March.

Getting the opportunity to fly in “Fifi” from Camarillo to Palm Springs was also one hell of a great treat.

I got to meet some of my heroes,

and saw the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum for the first time.

Most importantly, I, my kids, and The Long-Suffering Wife are all healthy and well. This is particularly important since there was one serious scare in particular in early 2014, but so far things are going very well in that regard.

In summary, there were a handful of really deep lows, but there were an awful lot of highs, many of which were pretty stinking good. 2016’s highs don’t have to be quite as big as 2015’s (although I wouldn’t complain if they are) but I could happily live without the really lousy lows.

Call me selfish.

I hope your 2016 triumphs are as satisfying as mine were in 2015, and your 2016 tragedies are more like inconveniences with attitudes.

Happy New Year. Welcome, 2016!