2014 - A review.....

2014 went by in a whirlwind, as usual, when looking back in time. It started out badly, with Dad passing away in January. After a few months, life started feeling somewhat normal again and we resumed our "normal" lives: trail riding, street riding, Jeeping, and working on the house. We reached a milestone - 20 years of marriage - and we even still like each other - most of the time. People say "aren't you supposed to love each other?" We always love each other - we just don't always like each other. It doesn't take us long to get over it as we both enjoy our sleep too well to fight for long since neither one of us can sleep when we don't like each other.


In a nutshell - Jim agreed to take on the job of Fire Chief for the volunteer fire station closest to the house, and I am on the board. We both stay busy with work and projects around the house. Talk about projects - we bought a '78 Ford F150 to fix up, a Jeep, a retired ambulance to turn into a camping RV, bought a parts Cadillac to fix up the one Dad gave us a few years ago, a fire truck, several old John Deere tractors...and more that I can't think of right now. We bought an old camp trailer that we gutted and Jim sheet rocked and made into a work shop so I have a place to putter with my crafts and jewelry making. We fixed up the bunk house so guests have a place to sleep if they want to sleep somewhere other than the couch or the camp trailer. We hosted a ride and had several friends show up. We plan on reviving that annual tradition.



We took a couple of motorcycle trips - kind of. In August I rode to Wyoming - my longest solo trip. The Sabmag group met up in Cody, Wyoming, so I decided to join them. It was during Jim's busy season, so I went alone. It was a cathartic trip for me - I needed some alone time to think, and what better way to do that than on a bike! I bonded with my little SV650. Up until that ride, I wasn't really sure it was "the bike", but it performed excellently and is the perfect size for me. Later in the year, Jim and I flew to South Carolina and borrowed a couple of bikes from a friend and rode with him to Hunt's Lodge in Tellico Plains, TN., for another Sabmag ride. We rode a Triumph Sprint ST and a VFR. The VFR was both our favorite, and had me reconsidering the SV. But that's another subject... We had an excellent time and are going to do more riding in 2015 than we did in 2014. We realized how much we've missed our friends and riding and getting out and away from home.



So, here's to 2014, and on to 2015. Our goal for 2015 is to finish started projects and to simplify. We have accumulated way too much stuff. We purged a lot of stuff when we went on our trip in 2007. It's all back - plus some! Time to simplify! We're tired of being tied to our stuff and working for our stuff, so we are going to sell what we can, pay off what we can, and make more time for play.