It's been a year already?

I can't believe it has been over a year since I posted on here. Where has the year gone? I am now just over ten months from retirement. It is still a struggle to come into work. It has been harder recently as I had a wonderful solo hiking and camping trip to Big Bend National Park. It just re-enforced how much I love hiking and just want to be outdoors. I was not looking forward to returning to work as once again we were without an Operations Manager. So we are leaderless here now (which isn't a bad thing) but the senior bosses are clueless as to what goes on here and what was in the works. We are in the process of getting new event management software, but no one knows much about it. They are looking to me to take the lead on it. I'm really not interested though as I had begged the former boss to hold off on it until after my retirement. The catering department is barely functioning, and the building needs so much work and equipment upgrades. It's a mess. Once they hire a new manager it will fall on me to train them. This will be the third manager I have had to train. I had really hoped to coast to retirement this year. That won't be an option now.

Life once again has been pretty uneventful. Let's see, we had the total solar eclipse last April. We had a perfect view from my backyard. Fantu and I went to Cloudcroft New Mexico for five days and did a lot of hiking - that was also in April. In September we went camping in Colorado for several days. Then stayed in Manitou Springs for two nights and hiked up the Manitou Incline and back down the Barr trail. I can tell you that we were so proud of ourselves for making it to the top of the incline. 2768 steps up a .9 mile steep incline and the down a 3.1 mile trail. We are going back this Autumn to take it on multiple times. It is the best training I can do to prepare for the Inca trail next year.

As I mentioned up above I went on my own to Big Bend. I tent-camped at the Chisos Basin campground and hiked a total of 24 miles with altitude gains of 4660 feet. My longest hike was 8.5 miles with an altitude gain of over 2000 feet. I really enjoyed the solitude on the trails. I hiked early each day starting before sunrise so I was well ahead of the crowds on the trails. It was so healing to be out in nature and in such a beautiful place.

All four kids and the grandson are pretty much the same this year as last. Same jobs. No new partners. No marriages or babies in the planning stages. They are all just working on careers and surviving.

I am looking forward to the next twelve months. I have already committed to a teaching position in Nepal. I'll spend eight weeks in the Himalayan village of Salleri teaching English at the Buddhist Monastery and local public school. I will stay in Nepal another month after that to do some trekking in the mountains before I head home. I am currently learning the language (Nepali) and will start my TEFL training this Autumn. I still haven't committed to Peru yet and may wait until after September to do so. I will start conversations though later this Spring. I plan on volunteering in one of the Animal rescue programs in Cusco for a few weeks and then hopefully do a 5-day Inca trail trek to Macchu Pichu.

So I guess I'll post a few pictures of my adventures this past year.