Yeah, I know, I’m about a month late. But the month of January was lost to me – lost in travel, stressful life changes for my Dad, airplanes, bad hotel beds and oddball Airbnb stays. Twenty-six days of the last forty-five on the road, all in Kentucky (and a little in TN). I decided somewhere along the way this past month that I would declare the end of this trip as my de facto “New Year”, so it starts for me on 2/4/20. Woo hoo!

But it starts with a thud. In one of the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry movies (Magnum Force, 1973), Clint has a line “A good man always knows his limitations” *.  Well, I haven’t been a good man, because I’ve definitely exceeded my limitations. Too much stress and too much travel. After a completely sleepless night last night in another crummy Hilton room, I started the day feeling wrecked. Everything hurts, my brain at about 20% efficiency, blurry eyed and rapid pulse. That’s a tough way to start a travel day, even headed home. So as New Years’ Days go, it’s stereotypical – starting tired and hurting, though not due to drinking.

* From IMDB, the screenwriters for Magnum Force are Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, John Milius and Michael Cimino. Can’t forget those writers!

Intellectually I know all the travel has been worth it, but physically it’s hard to make that case. We’ve created and collected some great memories the last month and a half, including:

• Working with my brothers to clean Dad’s garage and attic
• Working with them again to move them from the house to the apartments
• The satisfaction of knowing that we’re doing the right thing, every time I thought about it
• The satisfaction of knowing we found them the right place to be at this point in their lives
• K and I going to the Bluebird Cafe for a concert in the round
• Driving with Em to and from Nashville
• Spending time with Hudson, who is growing so fast
• The weirdness of knowing my buddy Mike is going through pretty much the same thing at the same time

But all that’s behind me now, so on to the logical New Year. I intend to:

• Read a lot
• Write a lot
• Improve my golf handicap
• Claw back some of my health

And in general, lay pretty low for a while. I’m very much looking forward to those simple things, starting right now.