I did manage to snag a Whimsical Raps Silhouette in the first minute of its becoming available (and an hour later it’s still not sold out, which is no doubt a record for them). Also I grabbed the Neutral Labs “Nuts” cards for the Elmyra’s distortion section. Whether those should count as the final purchase of 2024 or first of 2025 given when they’ll ship/arrive doesn’t much matter.
It is ALMOST the new year and I guess it’s time to come up with some goals.
Looking over 2024, I didn’t really commit to much, and given that I didn’t disappoint myself. As I saw someone say recently “I’m not making any resolutions, it’s time for the years to be better.”
But I do have a few things.
- I want to get through 2025 with my head held high and my joy intact. The politics and news are likely to be one shit-tsunami after another but I’ll just keep remembering the “you have no power here” Glinda quote.
- Once again… people are wrong on the internet but it’s not my job to fix it.
- On gear trades/purchases:
– I really do not need more little desktop synths, so, no more.
– I need no more controllers, what I have now is awesome.
– I love my Eurorack setup. If I decide Planar is redundant with Silhouette, I’ll allow myself to trade that if I think of something worthy. And there’s always the “Spectraphon Factor” (something new and too obviously awesome not to make room for). But otherwise I’d like to just leave the module selection alone.
– The software is abundant and great. I have no objections to picking up something else small and cool, but really… I absolutely don’t need more synths, and I’m flush with effects too. Instead of thinking twice before adding anything, I’ll think three or four times. Instead of spending money on more music gear, it’s going to wardrobe updates and to some home repair stuff. Which brings me to: - Get the unsafe backyard deck taken care of.
- Clean up and organize stuff a bit around the house.
- Keep trying to get those walks in at Mallard Lake, and maybe other forms of exercise. We are looking into getting a membership somewhere to swim, for instance.
The Christmas trip went… okay.
The car rental was super smooth this time. We wound up with a Nissan Rogue, considerably smaller than the Hyundai Palisade we rented for our second honeymoon trip. That made it considerably more fuel-efficient and generally easier to drive, but it was packed quite full with 4 people, luggage and gifts, especially on the the return trip. In terms of fancy tech, the Rogue isn’t as luxury but was still more than fine, with a less obtrusive driver assistance thing, blind spot cameras, Android Auto etc. And not trying to book through Expedia but using the Enterprise site directly worked much better.
The motel sucked, there is no getting around that. The office was being renovated and they were temporarily using a laptop on a desk in a storage room surrounded by piles of random supplies and junk. They were surprised we wanted two rooms (even though I reserved them) and they weren’t adjacent, but at least one was on the first floor so my parents didn’t have to deal with stairs. The concrete treads of those stairs were literally crumbling. Nearly every piece of furniture in both rooms was damaged in some way, and that is no exaggeration. Paint was chipped off the walls in several places. The carpet, where it went up the baseboard, was really badly frayed. The bathroom door in our room was also cracked all around the door handle like someone had tried to bash it open or slammed it super hard into the wall or something, and there were cracks in the ceiling. We had throw pillows instead of proper bed pillows, and no hand towels or wash cloths for the first night/morning. In my parents’ room, the shower had no hot water and the phone didn’t work. The bed itself wasn’t awful, but still a mediocre hotel bed (we’re very used to our hybrid foam/spring mattress). The two good things we could say: it was relatively cheap, and they kept the rooms clean (if still ugly).
My mom was sick the second night, so she and dad stayed in their room for the next day. And there were heavy rains for much of the visit, threatening to flood my in-laws’ house as has happened on prior Christmases (but not quite managing to do so). My dad was having some not-so-great days in terms of memory/cognitive function and was confused about where we were a few times.
Still, I think everyone generally had a good time (when not sick), the drive was mostly fine, our hosts were gracious and I think it’s good to get my parents out of the house once in a while. They told me a couple of days later that yes, they had a good time and thanks for bringing them along. 🙂