This Is Our Year

To quote the scholarly group Onyx, “This is our year, aw yeah, last year’s outta here…” followed by the n-word more times than I’d like to repeat. I’m paraphrasing a bit, and it was meant for the year 2021 when we thought the previous 12 months were a fluke, but the point stands.

I’ve found it all too comfortable to dwell in a black-pilled mindset about things, be it life, the universe, or anything, as my recent few articles have alluded to. Finishing them was an exercise in pulling teeth, just to overcome the insane desire to not want to do anything productive. But then I think about my 10th great-grandfather, who came home to a triple axe-murder homicide and was left only with his infant son, who had managed to sleep through the ordeal, and I realise that things could be a little worse.

With that outlook, I’m going to keep the sarcasm but drop the cynicism and try to enter 2026 with a laser focus. And I hope you join me.

And before you get any rascally thoughts of multi-level marketing schemes, cast those aside to the realm where cynicism applies in that one unique case. No, I ask nothing of you that won’t benefit you alone and no one else. Well, unless your goal is to help others… but you get the drift.

For the past twenty-two years, my personal friends’ forum written in decaying ASP Classic has had a yearly tradition of posting a goals thread and then checking in a year later to see if we managed to achieve anything. Often, life takes you on a wild journey, and the aforementioned goals have been long forgotten as a relic of your past self, but it’s the attempt that counts. The format is simple, though: list 5-10 things you hope to complete in a year’s time, with the final entry being “Not die.” It helps you finish at least one, and if not, well…

So, while the traditional end-of-year articles feature top ten lists and year-in-review-type fairs, I’m not looking back. Ironic, sure, for a nostalgia site, but it’s a little different when you’re looking back twenty years, not several months.

Now, without further ado, let’s see what my lofty goals may be:

Finish Restoring at Least One Cemetery

Two summers ago, I took an interest in old cemeteries. Well, I always had an interest, but I started actually doing something about it. Starting with a long-since-abandoned family lot, it grew into larger projects as well as getting involved with local groups who know what they’re doing.

The main problem being: there’s still a lot of unfinished breadcrumbs in my wake, so I need to get several buttoned up before moving on. Two are rather small projects, and one will lead into the next goal, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. The smaller ones will only require resetting stones in the ground and possibly epoxying things together as needed. It should be manageable.

The other has been in progress since August 2024, so it’s quickly blown out of control. It was mildly cleaned up several years ago, but prior to that, there was only a 1952 survey, which counted about 24 graves. After several months of prodding and poking, I found 32. So the vast majority of them are not above ground and resting on pallets, just waiting for me to finish. It’s going to be a long haul, but I’m hoping that it’s in good shape by the end of the season.

Attempt Stone Carving

Here’s where I double-dip. But in my defense, the original goal is in motion and has a chance. This pipe dream may or may not happen. There’s every chance I just never get around to ordering the tools. I may not find any time to practice even the basics. There’s a better chance I suck at it and never produce anything that ends up in the public’s eye. But you never know.

I omitted one cemetery from the description above, and it was actually the family lot that started the process of trying to restore them. I’ve been sidetracked in many which ways, but the main problem was that some of the stones are just in such terrible condition; it’s not simply a matter of bonding them back together. One is missing a large section, and another is just completely gone. I do have the husband’s stone for reference, but it’s not a simple task to try and recreate it. I lack any such talent or skill, but I was able to source out some 18th-century marble from deep in the ground when a prior repair broke in half. There was no need for the lower portion, so I’ll attempt something with that.

A more realistic first step is creating some initials on a footstone in one of the planned restorations, so with any luck, that can be a decent proof of concept.

Progress in Novel Series

Back in the dark lonely days of 2020, we were paid an awful lot to stay home and do nothing. I neither stayed home nor did nothing, but there was enough time between defying the governor’s orders to take a stab at writing. I began with an idea I had floating around in my head and then just saw where it went. I can’t say it’s good, but somehow it spun off into several other books, where a side character then became the lead for the subsequent effort.

In the time since, I’ve gone back and endured the cringe in an attempt to salvage the amateurish writing and try to make the series at least somewhat cohesive. Will I tell you the name of them or where you can find copies? Certainly not! But my goal is to finish two that are halfway through their initial draft and then maybe stop finding typos in the very first chapters of the others. At that point, I’ll try to get one printed and figure out the self-publishing landscape.

Start Building Shed

This was a summer 2024 project, and finances went south (yes, all connected to my sour mood of late, so this has been an ongoing sore spot). But my plan is to go slow, brick by brick, quite literally. I figure I can spread the expense over a longer period of time rather than charging it all on credit and paying interest. Plus, I can theoretically dodge the permits and such if there’s no huge construction project going on over a random weekend.

I have no idea what I’m doing, and I’ll probably end up killing myself after a pile of concrete lands on my head, but it’s better than spending the six grand they want at Home Depot.

Vend at Least One Market

I realized I’ve been spending a fair amount to attend the various expos and markets lately, so it only makes sense that I spend EVEN MORE money by trying to get a vendor table. Will I have anything novel to sell? Likely not, but I’ve been spinning the 3D printer non-stop since August, and I’ve amassed several bins worth of stuff that seemed cool at the time. But realistically, what am I going to do with it all? Storing it in the attic is a recipe for disaster since it will all melt, so it's best to see if I can make a quick buck somehow. I’m sure I can dig up endless things in storage as well, so perhaps this can double as a general spring cleaning project, but with a financial incentive.

Not Die

Hey, we can only hope.

Now it’s your turn to think of things. Let me know in the comments, and we can encourage each other to push forward and focus on better times.