2024: May It Go Away and Never Come Back

Yeah, that was a year.

CW: death, discussions about grief, natural disasters, exercise, alcohol references, food

The bad

The year was almost symmetrically bookended by grandparents dying: my maternal grandfather died of COVID in mid-February (extremely suddenly, too), and my paternal grandmother died of complications from dementia and organ failure (not at all suddenly) in late October. They were two very different styles of grief, too: my grandfather didn’t want any funeral services or getting family together, so it’s kind of like… ok, what now, while my grandmother had a very traditional Catholic funeral with all the ceremony and tears that go with that. The latter hits extra hard every time they mention my late daughter, too. The upside, though, is seeing family members I haven’t seen in a long while (some of whom it’s been since my grandfather died in 2019, but part of that is also due to COVID and just living 6+ hours from most of them) and sharing in the good times over a pint of beer or two. The people at my parents’ favorite local brewery went above and beyond to host us for a wake after the wedding.

The less bad

Hurricane Helene

I was planning on staying with my maternal grandmother on the way back from DjangoCon US in September. She lives outside Asheville, NC, and it was late September, which you may remember was when Hurricane Helene hit. Fortunately, we texted a bit leading up to the planned visit and decided it would be better to drive straight through rather than risk getting stranded (she is not in a particularly flood-prone area, so her only damages were being without power for a few days and internet for a couple weeks, leading her to miss college football games). As a result, I drove straight through the feeder bands the day before Helene hit, and the rain was obnoxious enough that my windshield wipers failed, scratching my windshield. I was lucky enough that there was a Walmart at the exit where I stopped to get lunch (saving me from having to find another exit to buy new wipers). However, in typical Walmart luck, the 26-inch wiper I bought for the driver’s side window was actually 28 inches long! The inner package displayed the larger size, but that wasn’t visible from the outer packaging. After trying to install it once in the driving rain, I went back inside and had to wait for what felt like an eternity (mostly because I was soaking wet despite my raincoat) to get it exchanged. The second time worked and I was on my way and made it home without major troubles aside from bad traffic in Knoxville.

Holiday blahs

Also, I feel like I’ve been really out of it this holiday season. Things I usually handle easily were way more error-prone than usual. I sent my secret santa gift to the wrong person somehow! This was after buying for the right person and everything. I really struggled to figure out gifts for people, but that is pretty typical for me.

Injuries and illnesses

My kid broke her arm both above and below the elbow at the back-to-school picnic in August. That was a particularly brutal time but she made a full recovery.

My dad got sick on Christmas morning (some random 24-hour virus), disrupting Christmas dinner plans, which was definitely annoying but it couldn’ve been much worse.

The good

DjangoCon US

DCUS 24 was a lot of fun to organize once again. After 3 years of running the program committee, I’m happily handing over the reins to Afi, who will do a great job. I’m looking forward to mentoring her and seeing how she can make it her own. Look for an announcement for the 2024 host and dates very soon.

Cycling

I’m at 5,534 miles for the year on 301 rides (but I believe that may count stationary bike rides), covering 185,182 feet of elevation gain. For those of you not used to Freedom Units, that’s 8904 km of distance and 56.4 km of elevation gain. I’m going to get one more ride in on the 31st, but that’ll still leave me slightly ahead of 2023 (5410 miles) and slightly behind my lifetime best of 5626 miles (2022). I’m not gonna lie, if the weather were going to be better tomorrow, I’d seriously consider riding for a century (100 miles) just to hit my lifetime record since I have the day off.

Speaking of which, I also completed my first century in July! It was 96 °F (36 °C) when I finished and quite humid. IIRC, I went through 7 liters of water + Gatorade, 1 beer at my local bike shop, a brisket sandwich, and lots of smaller snacks. I still bonked hard by the last 15 miles and was struggling hard. I needed to eat more food along the way. I still had the energy to host people and grill a tasty pork loin after that, so I didn’t do too badly!

Soccer

I’ve boosted my craft both in refereeing and coaching. In April, I completed my AYSO Intermediate Referee certification, which mostly means I’m officially qualified to referee U-12 games. In June, I went to Knoxville for the Section 5 games, in which teams from Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and the Florida panhandle all got together to play a tournament over Father’s Day weekend. It was great getting to meet a whole bunch of refs from all over and trade tips/tricks. I even had to file a couple of incident reports for medical issues (one heat-related, one broken leg with a pre-existing condition). I also continued my knack of being very bad at laying low and made a name for myself quickly, leading the Section Director of Referees to recruit me for his staff for TBD responsibilities to come nexxt year.

I’ll be taking the Advanced Referee and Referee Instructor classes in January as well as taking over as Regional Referee Administrator, meaning that it’ll be taking even more of my time.

In coaching, I’ve also done more, becoming a Coach Instructor for U-10 and U-12 level coaches. More importantly, though, my kid’s team had a truly excellent fall season, in which they jelled well as a team and ended up finishing second among North Alabama AYSO teams in the November tournament (which my kid and I missed due to my grandmother’s funeral, sadly). It was a really fun group and I’m hoping to get more teams like that.

Food

We cooked some really good food this year. A few highlights:

• I’ve gotten pretty good at making a gluten-free flatbread pizza in my gas-powered Ooni oven. The first try failed absolutely miserably, but once I discovered Caputo Gluten Free Flour, the dough just worked the way I wanted it too. Once I got a proper IR gun for measuring the internal temperature in the oven, I really got it dialed in.
• We cooked some more quality Spanish recipes, including a classic tortilla, a big Spanish Empanada, patatas a la Riojana, and our usual Christmas Eve tradition of paella
• I’ve also done some staples very well, including a Thanksgiving turkey, smoking my own bacon, some flank steak tacos, BBQ pork shoulder, and a whole lot more. Looking through my photo archives makes me hungry!

Wrap up

Despite the setbacks, it was a pretty good year for me overall. Granted, my baseline for a bad year is very low. Let’s hope things continue to improve.