I feel like I let the year slide between my fingers 🖐️

It’s been a tough year. Inflation and high gas prices have taken a bite out of my budget – the things I spend the most on for my trips, gasoline and food have gone up dramatically. Work has been busy, remote work has gone away and I don’t like to battle traffic to head up north and set up camp after dark on Friday evenings. My truck is getting old and more mechanically dubious with bigger repair bills, jacked up by inflation.

Part of the problem is its getting harder and harder to find novel, memorable things to do close to home. I’ve done a lot and seen a lot over the years and while new, memorable things make the time more worthwhile, they are harder to find during these times.

At this same time I’m trying to cut expenses to address inflation and the sometimes sluggish growth of the market these days. The flip side is buying new investments is cheaper due to the down markets and because I’m making really good money, relatively speaking at work. I’m well aware of the benefits of compounding over time.

Too often this year gone by I’ve taken the easy way out, the low stress, low planning way. The free walk to the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center or the Nature Bus to Thacher Park. Or when I do trips, I stick with the most familiar route that requires little planning. I’ve done little to find new paths, just instead staying the course, working towards a better future.

I have made getting my steps in and learning R programming and geostatics a major part of my learning experience this past year. I’ve tried to advance my knowledge about computer programming in a wide variety of languages and advanced techniques. Certainly having YouTube on my phone has made it easier to advance such things. My knowledge of R programming has made a lot of complicated tasks easier both at work and for map making and analysis for the blog.

I probably should have done a lot more during the summer that was. But I was busy and I’ve not transitioned as well as I would have hoped back to working downtown with the lack of flexibility of remote work from camp and the Adirondacks. The ailing truck has become more of an issue but the truth is lately I’m just so damn busy and when I have free time I like to relax and not rush places.