Closing out 2025

Sitting here tonight watching the Citrus Bowl as the dogs are busy chewing on bones, and I felt like finishing out 2025 so we can enter 2026 with a clean slate.  

The week started with a snowy, windy day.  We started our Monday by taking Skateboard back to his long-term foster after his short stay with us.  After dropping him off, we headed home for a little quiet time while the girls enjoyed a Kong.

I met up with a group for lunch, and then came home and took the girls for a quick 1.25 mile walk around the neighborhood.  It was especially windy, making it extra cold when we weren't blocked from the wind, but it felt good to move and get some fresh air.  The rest of our day was spent quietly at home.

Tuesday morning was spent quietly at home, until we headed out shortly after noon to pick up Vanessa for a day of geocaching fun.  

I had planned a busy afternoon with a goal of picking up as many different geocache types as we could.  This was all inspired by the fact that geocaching had released a special Locationless geocache for 2025 to celebrate it's 25th anniversary.  This cache needed to be claimed before 11:59pm on New Year's Eve and required some creativity to find somewhere unique to take a picture with a number 25.

With only two days left in the year, we were running out of time to claim the cache.   So that inspired our whole trip to Bay City to get a picture of the girls in front of the M25 sign.  And since this is a rare cache type, it gave us the opportunity to find more caches types than normal in one day.   

This adventure didn't require any long walks which made it perfect for a frigid day.  The girls got out on a few occasions for some short adventures, but mostly they were happy to hang out in the warm car watching me and Vanessa as we  jumped in and out of the car.

By the end of our trip to Bay City, we had claimed nine different non-event caches and had stopped at two different events, for a total of eleven different types of caches.  The only non-event cache type we hadn't gotten was the rare Webcam cache.  And as luck would have it, there is a Webcam cache in Alma which had been unavailable for quite awhile, but had recently become available again.  When we discovered that the cache was available, we knew we had to go claim it to give us the very rare ability to finish all of the non-event caches in the same day.

Vanessa and I joked that non-geocachers wouldn't understand, but we just knew we had to do it, and I'm so glad we did.  On the drive home from Alma, the snow really started to fall, but we took our time and made it safely back to drop Vanessa off at home. Then I stopped to fill up the gas tank before heading home ourselves.  The girls ate a late dinner,  went out for their final potty break of the day, and then immediately crashed for the night.  We had found 12 different cache types for the day,  which is quite an accomplishment.  What an exceptional day of geocaching it was for us!  

While we were in Bay City, the shelter had reached out to see if I would be available to take Skateboard back into foster again.  His foster had some personal issues arise and needed to return him to the shelter.  Although, I couldn't pick him up on Tuesday,  I agreed to pick him up on Wednesday afternoon and keep him with us.  He hates being in the shelter so much and I hated the thought of him being there for New Year's Eve and New Year's day.

Wednesday morning, I attended a geocaching New Year's Eve event, then the girls and I ran some errands.  I fed them lunch when we got home and then I headed out to the shelter to pick-up Skateboard.   I made a couple of stops on my way home with him.  It was another snowy day, and I was happy to get home and settled in for the rest of our day.

I made myself some nachos for lunch and prepped some snacks for watching the Citrus Bowl and for our New Year's Eve celebration at home.  

I may have had an audience while I ate my nachos. 

Overall everyone was good while I ate and through the first half of the football game.  But, they started to get ansty after halftime because that is now normal behavior for Peaches when it is almost time for dinner. 

 

I sent them outside for a little fresh air as I prepared their food and then they came in to eat.  Afterward, they all wanted to go back outside, and Mina instigated a game of chase with Skateboard.  He also met Cody, the neighbor's pitbull, through the fence, and the little yippy dogs of my other neighbor.  There was some more playing, until I called everyone inside and I gave him and Mina each a bone to chew.  Now, as we reach the final two minutes of the Citrus Bowl, everyone is sound asleep again.

I'm looking forward to spending the rest of the evening quietly enjoying what remains of 2025.

As we close out another year, I have been reflecting on all that has happened.  2025 started better than 2024, with a lot of hope for brighter days ahead.  It ended without much fanfare.  In between there were losses and changes, things that are all just part of life and the stories that make up this chapter of mine.  

The Kong pictured above saw the end of its life and seemed like a fitting metaphor for this year.  This Kong is one of the first Kongs I ever purchased, making it around 22 years old.  I remember complaining about how expensive it was, but it proved its worth.  All of my own dogs and all of our foster dogs have used it over the years, and while it is a silly inanimate object, it has become part of our lives.  But Monday, Skateboard managed to help end its time with us.  Just another part of the cycle of life, I guess.

I said goodbye to my beautiful Willow Tree this year, too.  Another big part of my life for over twenty years.  

There were other changes, like a new roof and gutters, and other losses too.  It seems like change, upheaval, and loss may have been a little more prevalent this year.  Some people would say that all of this loss and change made 2025 a terrible year. But I'd prefer to remember it differently.

I will remember it as the year that Peaches celebrated her 13th birthday surrounded by friends.  And I completed the Hike 100 challenge for the 10th year in a row, and that the girls joined me for all 100 miles.  Or that I enjoyed Jack O'Lanterns Unleashed and the Hines Drive Christmas lights with Fiona.  That I visited San Diego for the first time and Mina first visited Iowa.  That we had adventures and enjoyed sunshine and spent time with friends.  And that we spent a wonderful summer week in the UP.  That we helped save dogs through fostering and transport, and that I helped make some shelter dogs lives better by ensuring that they got time away from the shelter and a nice walk.  And that I spent so many hours just talking to my dad and sharing stories and learning things about his life that I somehow never knew.  There was so much light and love and beauty and joy...that's what I want to remember about 2025.

For the first time in my life, the next chapter starts without my dad.  While his last few months were difficult. I will be forever grateful for all of special moments we shared.  As the cycle of life moves on, I know there will be more challenges ahead.  More change, more upheaval, and more loss.  But there will also be more joy.  If 2025 has taught me anything, it is that life is too short to not focus on the good.  

Wishing you all a safe, happy, health New year.  See you in 2026!