Best Wishes for a very happy New Year Everyone! This morning I was thinking to myself how overjoyed I was to finally close the door on this current year. According to a site I was reading regarding Chinese astrology, the year 2023 was supposed to be the “worst luck” for anyone born in the year of the Rooster, Horse, Rat or Rabbit. Immediate assumption – I was a Rabbit. Looking back on it, this past year lived up to that prediction. Up to this point in my running career, I had made it to every single starting line. Banged up at times, feeling under the weather, sure, but my ass was on that line to let the chips fall as they may. That streak was ended thanks to the “root of all evil” (as Tim over at Off Center & Not Even has accurately coined it) and a devilspawn tree. The 50K ultra trail race lost and still doing nightly therapy to try and get the broken elbow back to something closer to pre-break mobility. Then managed to blow my back out the day before the 50 mile ultra race. More recently, for the second year in the row we planned to head out to Arizona only to have Linda come down sick the day before. Canceled it last December and had to delay our departure this year. As I began to mentally list all the shortfalls for the year I started visualizing giant ears, button nose and those monster feet of the Nevada Jackrabbit.
Then I stopped and smiled – because that is EXACTLY what you do when you encounter one of those absolutely adorable creatures. My outlook changed immediately and a flood of counter offers came flooding in.
Hit the jump if you need a shot of cuteness to right any frowns.
The sound of my elbow impacting the tree still startles me out of a deep sleep. I’ll be thinking about the DNS (Did Not Show) at the ultra on every one of my training runs until I walk to that starting line for redemption this year. Barely being able to stand up to walk to the 50 mile starting line definitely frayed my nerves. The delay for heading south this year potentially cost me some late counts on my birding Average Year….quick..think of the Rabbit!
….but those setbacks don’t overshadow all the things that did go right. That elbow didn’t compound fracture and saved my skull which would have been critical that far out in the woods. I made it through the 50 miler and set a new bar for what can be endured and the birding this year was phenomenal even with the late season setback. Early tally puts my Average Year count at 340 species – 42 more than the previous year. Embrace the Rabbit!
There were plenty of other brightspots in the year. Unlike the year before, no family member remembrances (upd: unfortunately, we did have a difficult loss in our extended Intrigued family). The Haunted Trail was a complete success (Note, both the trail build phase and night walk posts were published this last week – link here and here). Even losing two months of hard training from the incident and the race itself, I still managed to set a new personal record of over 1,360 miles for the year. Best of all, Intrigued had another great year. Exceeded our monthly post quotas, wonderful followers and our reach continues to broaden. Needless to say, none of my wild ideas or adventures would ever come to fruition without Linda’s unending support (especially during the ultra races!). A tremendous thank you to Brad, Jan and Allyson for bringing us along on their adventures and all the rest of the Intrigued divisions that keeps this tiny enterprise afloat – yes, we even appreciate all of you in the legal department.
Being in a much more positive frame of mind, I even did a quick check – turns out I am actually a Goat and not a Rabbit on the Chinese calendar. Wow, must have really sucked to be a Rabbit in 2023 hehehehe.
Before letting you go, just wanted to again express our appreciation to all our readers. Time is one of the most precious gifts we have and for you to share that with us is truly heartfelt. Best wishes for you in 2024 – be safe, be happy and especially this year, never let the click bait media and fear mongering politicians try to divide you.
Life Intrigued 