A Seat at the End of the Water at the End of the Day at the End of the Year

I took a seat at the end of the water, at the end of a day on the end of the year and thought back to 2013.

I don’t do resolutions, so much.  My attention span is too short for those.   But, I do like to take inventory and learn from the year that has passed.

If I judge the year in hours playing video games with my kids, I think that number comes in around 50 hours. Less than some, more than others.   If I judge the year in shutter clicks, this was a 25,000 shutter sort of year.   Less than some, more than others.  If I judge the year in software projects, I think the number is around 8, at least 2 being pretty big.    If I judge the year in income, well — I’ll leave that to the accountant dude.

Then I think back to 2013, it looks like I worked on a bunch of different projects for a bunch of very different people in a bunch of different industries.    I missed some deadlines, I beat some deadlines, I missed some estimates, I beat some estimates.

I spent less time barefoot on the beach than I would have liked but I’m happy that I seldom found the need to wear socks in lieu of comfy boat shoes.   I spent more time fighting crazy computer problems caused by ‘upgrades’ than I’d care to admit.

I lost out on some professional opportunities and got pulled into a lawsuit (that I tried to prevent) as a witness trying to arbitrate a deal that was good for all parties, even at my own expense.    At work, some days I got railroaded, other days appreciated but I think I tried to have fun at both.

I told a few white lies, a bunch of harshly worded truths, a couple dirty jokes and a story or two.    I called, The President, a democrat, names, out loud - towards my television on more than one occassion.    I called, The Speaker of the House, a republican, names - out loud - towards my television on an equal number of occasions.

I was kind to strangers most of the time, even when they annoyed me.  I tipped well, even when the service was fail and I opted for fake smiles instead of real frowns.   More importantly, I enjoyed plenty of real smiles, along the way.

Yep, that was 2013.   A pretty good year.  

I’ll have another please.