Is it Year in Review or Year End Review? Either way, let me warn you before we get started. I should have said a bottle of Whine, one of those big magnum suckers, because if you read further you are going to get drenched in it. You’ve been warned, proceed at your own risk:

I was reading some of my old posts the other day and came across one I made in my first year of blogging. It stated that I was just a simple cog in the big machine of life and that it only took four things to make this simple boy happy. Those are food, alcohol, football, and sex. I’m going to amend that to add one other thing; being in nature. Now, I am going to discuss these five basic things and how well they are going. Did ya hear that? It was the cork popping out of the whine bottle. Buckle up.

Alcohol

Figured I’d start with the obvious first. If you’ve read this blog any amount of time then you already know that in 2018 I was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. I haven’t had a drop of alcohol in over six years, unless you count that accidental swig I took off my Dad’s beer last July 4th when we were grilling bratwurst. I absentmindedly reached for my Zero Alcohol Beer as I was rotating one of those sausage delights and grabbed his by mistake. A few drops made it down my throat before I realized it. So, I guess I have had a drop (or two), but just like the crimes of Hunter Biden or Trump, they don’t count. It wasn’t hard to stop drinking, but I sure did, and still do, miss it during social times. However, I still had the other four things to keep me happy. No biggie.

Sex

You may have already seen the post I made about an unfortunate side affect to the liver transplant I had. Yup, no snap in the turtle after that little operation. You may have also read the follow up post I made about how I had gotten that snap back when I was on intravenous steroid treatments to halt the rejection of my transplanted liver earlier in the year. A most welcome side affect, among another not so welcomed one we’ll talk about in a minute. Those treatments went on for three weeks in which time I made good use of the regained ability. In the follow up post, I wondered if that ability would remain after the treatments. Alas, just as Gandalf did, John Thomas the White sailed off to the Grey Havens taking his power with him right after the treatments ended. So the Sex Nazi says, “No nookie for you!” This was a big chink in the armor, but I still had three things left.

Food

I’m not sure if I consider myself a foodie. My wife and I certainly like to eat tasty things. We like to cook tasty things. We like to try different things and derive much pleasure from the whole experience. Enter that other side affect from the steroid treatments I was talking about above. Steroids can cause your taste buds to swell up and lose their ability to do just that; taste. At one point, I could taste absolutely nothing. Everything tasted like cardboard. It was just like when I got COVID and lost my sense of taste then. Unlike then, my sense of taste has not fully recovered like it did when I got over COVID. I’d say it oscillates between 75% – 85% of full functionality. I can taste things, but sometimes they don’t taste like they should. Then there is the stinging. Some foods, and I can’t even nail down which ones because they change, will cause my tongue to start stinging like I just shoved a nest of Murder Hornets in there. I never know when this is going to happen, so every meal is like a crap shoot for me, and crap is what it taste like sometimes. So, needless to say, my food experience has been more of an eat to survive thing as opposed to a culinary desire. To show you how much this has affected me, after my transplant I dropped from 260 pounds to around 220, which for my 6’2″ frame was a respectable weight. Since the steroid treatments I struggle to maintain 195 pounds. Even to do that, I have to drink protein shakes everyday. Three down, two to go.

Football

Football, ah, what can I say about football these days? I’m talking about the NFL. I used to be a hard core junkie. Of course for my team, but also just for any football game. I watched it, I watched news about it, I played fantasy football. Several years ago I had to give up the fantasy football because I just became too angry when things did not go my way. Then years later the NFL decided it needed to be the spokesperson for social justice issues. Don’t get me wrong, some social issues are important, I just didn’t see the need for a sports venue to be the platform for it. This put a sour taste in my mouth as did many others I know. Some of them quit it all together. I was too much of a junkie still for that level of protest. However, my enthusiasm for the game has lessened a great deal. I pretty much only watch my team’s games now and you probably already know who my team is. The Dallas Cowboys. If you are not in the know, they suck ass this year. I rarely make it past half of one of their games before I turn it off. So, as far as football is concerned, I’d say I have to decrease my enjoyment level by at least half. So 1.5 things left to make this simple boy happy.

Nature

Ah, nature! Whenever I get down or things are just not going my way, a stroll through the woods or an overnight hike will always make me feel better. I will always have nature, except that I don’t. Both the liver rejection episode and the aggressive treatments left me back at square one as far as energy levels are concerned. I thought I would recover as well as I did after the transplant, but that has just not happened. I’m better than I was six months ago, but still a long way to go. I can’t even walk from one end of my 30 foot RV to the other without getting winded. A couple of months ago, we were landed in northern Idaho. A beautiful place to be in nature. My good friend, Rebecca Wallick, who used to live there (and is moving back, so happy for her!), gave me some wonderful info on trails to hike in the area. Despite the way I was feeling, I was determined to get an overnight hike in. I scouted one of the trails she told me about in my jeep and then got all packed up for the trip. The morning of the hike I woke up feeling like total shit. Despite that, I tried to go anyway. When I couldn’t even lift my backpack to strap it on I knew it was no use and I cancelled the trip. Turns out, that a new medicine that my transplant team put me on was have adverse effects on my body. When I discontinued that medicine, things did start to get better, but the effects are now something else I have to recover from. It’s going to be awhile before I get back to nature.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this year has pretty much sucked. To make matters worse, two months ago, my liver doctor who had taken over all my medication prescriptions from my general practitioner decided he didn’t want to prescribe me Lexepro, my anti-depression medication, any more. He wanted me to go back to my GP for that. Only problem, my GP is in Virginia Beach, a place we haven’t been to in quite a while. So, it was to nobody’s surprise when she said she wouldn’t prescribe it to me until she had a face to face visit. Due to prior commitments, that could not take place until after the New Year. Just like that, the anti-depression meds I had been taking for five years were suddenly gone. If you’ve ever been on them and heard the doctor tell you not to ever quit them cold turkey, believe me when I tell you there is a reason for that. I descended into a dark pit of hell without those meds. I’m not going to get into all the depressing details, but for a good bad month, things were bleak and it was probably a good thing that I had to leave my guns in a storage unit in Missoula, MT before crossing the border into Canada. After just about losing my mind I begged my transplant coordinator to get my liver doctor to refill my prescription. She came through for me and now I am back on the Lexepro and doing a lot better in that department.

Speaking of Canada, that is another bone of contention with me right now. I love Canada! The nature here (even if I can’t currently take advantage of it) is magnificent! Wait, let me amend that former declaration, I love most of Canada! Know the part I don’t love? It’s called the lower mainland of British Columbia, which is basically Vancouver. You’ve probably heard people say how beautiful Vancouver is, but what they are really saying is how beautiful the areas that are within a couple hours drive of Vancouver is, not the city itself. For the last two months, we have been landed right in the middle of that city. Oh, the city itself is technically called Burnaby, but don’t let that fool you, it’s basically Eastern Vancouver. It’s the LA of Canada only colder. It’s dirty, crowded, congested, and it rains all the time. If those things don’t bother you, then more power to you. It’s certainly not my cup of tea. I got into this life to get away from cities. What’s that? I live in an RV, so why don’t I just go somewhere else? Because we are here for a very good reason, and I’ll clue you into that here in a sec.

If you’ve read this far I need to apologize for all the spilled whine. I know some of the Big Five things to keep this small cog happily turning along will never come back, but others will. I’ve been down before and just like then, I’ll pick myself up by my bootstraps. There’s one shinny thing on the horizon. After almost 38 years doing the same job, I am retiring on the last day of the year! We already have a lot of freedom in this lifestyle but for the past four and a half years I have still been working a full-time job remotely. This restricts us to where and how long we can go to some places, but no longer! With no job to worry about, we can pretty much go where and when we want. I am very much looking forward to that.

For the reason we are landed in the middle of a city, and it’s a very good reason, last month we welcomed the birth of our first grandchild! Miss McKenna graced us with her presence! So, even though I hate being in a big city, it’s totally worth it to be able to visit with her! Look at how cute she is! Going to spoil her rotten!

All right, enough Debbie Downer for now. Don’t worry about me. I’ll get the train back on the track. Oh, did I tell you there are train tracks right next to this RV park and they go by 24/7? There I go again! I’m gonna stop while I’m behind.

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