ABCs of 2025
It's that indeterminate point at the end of December where days have no meaning, obligations disappear, a meal could be a plate of cookies, and end of year lists are showing up everywhere. Here's mine:
A - Arts Festival - The Cathedral Village Arts Festival was the only festival I attended this year. QCIB, Suzy's reading, and Megan Nash were the highlights.
B - Bring It On - The Globe Theatre is back in their home and the highlight of last season had to be their presentation of Bring It On. I wouldn't have thought such a high energy performance could be staged in the round, but part of the joy of going to the Globe is seeing how they manage to stage things.
C - Cataracts - In late September, I was about to head out for the evening and cleaned my glasses shortly before going. When I stepped outside, I noticed a smudge and thought I had somehow managed to leave a smudge behind despite my best efforts, but when I took off my glasses to check, the smudge was still there. I talked to my optometrist about it and she told me that I am developing cataracts. At some point in the future, I'll need surgery to get them removed, and after that I may not need glasses except for reading. That would be very weird.
D - Deer - There was a deer hanging around the University this spring. It seemed pretty chill with all the people who took its picture.
E - Easter - My Vancouver cousins came to town for Easter. I baked chocolate tarts and decorated them with mini-eggs.
F - Figurines - An unknown person has been leaving small plastic figurines in various places at the University. I've seen a few of them with at least one living on top of a florescent light fixture in the Education building for at least a couple of weeks.
G - Glasses - After my optometrist visit, I bought new glasses.
H - Hosted - Had my mother, sister, and brother over for Christmas Eve. Maybe one of these years I'll again host other people.
I - Ice - Someone I follow on social media posts a lot of pictures of snow flakes. I was curious if it was possible to take similar pictures with my cell phone. The answer is maybe (I've managed some decent shots of individual flakes) but my favourite picture was this inverted snow flake shaped melt pattern on a manhole cover I saw while walking home from the Artesian in late November.
J - Just one key - The D key on my laptop broke off. I was going to attempt to replace the keyboard but upon investigating the repair manual, that wasn't possible (at least not without replacing basically the whole machine). Instead I bought a new Alienware laptop instead. There was a deal when I bought it where 64 GB of RAM was essentially the same price as 16 which, given the huge spike in RAM prices now, seems amazing.
K - Kitten - Technically cat, but whatever. Along my walk, there's this one house with an orange cat named Tigger who, if he's outside when I pass, will insist that I pet him. There was one time that he was sitting on the house steps and the sprinklers were on. When he saw me he ran part way down the sidewalk and then decided to cut across the lawn whereupon he got wet. He stopped, looked confused, then darted under the truck that was parked on the street before coming back out and complaining to me.
L - Live Music - I went to about 20 live music events this year and about 20 other non-music events. Compared to some years, that's a surprisingly low number. Some music highlights: Laila Biali, Geogia Harmer, and Amy Hillis playing with the Symphony.
M - Mudjacking - Following the massive water main work last summer, the city again closed College Avenue this summer to repair sidewalks and repave. The sidewalk in front of my house was mudjacked which left a sizable drop to my lawn. It was eventually all fixed up, but I'm hoping there aren't any more street projects for a while.
N - Nutcracker - Another year, another Nutcracker performance. This time it was the Royal Winnipeg Ballet who came to Regina. I managed to snag the very last seat in the theatre.
O - Ohio - Travelled to Ohio with my mom for a family wedding. It was a lot of visiting family and not much time to explore, so I didn't really see too much. There was a forested area near where we were staying that I explored a bit (in spite of the 30C temperatures) and there was a street market on Saturday where I had a brown butter citrus sage cookie. The wedding was at a farm at the edge of Columbus with the ceremony held in an old greenhouse.
P - Pelicans - During the spring melt, there were a couple of pelicans hanging out where the path I walk on would normally be except for the flooding and they actually let me take their picture.
Q - Quite close - A new coffee shop, Cozy Haus, opened four blocks from my house. It lives up to it's name and is very convenient both in location and hours. I should really be hanging out there more often than I am.
R - Repairs - I've done some minor repairs around the house that I've left on the back burner for literally years.
S - Sandhill Crane - Came across the wayward sandhill crane a couple of times this summer. It was elegant and impressive and I hope it is okay.
T - Tomato - A tomato I grew (with help from my mom) won the most unique tomato prize at the Farmers' Markets tomato festival. I dubbed it my Cthulu tomato.
U - Uncle Sunny - My favourite place for a quick meal. The beef satay sub may be the best sandwich in the city.
V - Video games - Played a lot of Timberborn and some Mini-Motorways and Aviassembly (and of course things like Wordle.)
W - Wedding - My (second or something like that) cousin Kristina got married in late September. They invited my mother to the wedding and I went as her plus one. This involved many things I wouldn't have done otherwise - buying a suit, travelling to the states, travelling with my mom, non-stop socializing with relatives for five days. The suit looked sharp and my mom enjoyed herself, so mission accomplished, but I did end up with an oversocialization hum in my head that lasted for a day and a half afterwards.
X - XX - I received my pin for working 20 years at the University. By the time of the ceremony it was actually closer to 21 years, but close enough. Counting my time at the public library, I've been doing this sort of work for a bit over 30 years now.
Y - Yellow - My sunflowers did surprisingly well this year. In past years, the squirrels would often chew off the heads shortly after they started blooming, but this year they were much later. The bees really appreciated them too.
Z - 'Za - The pizza place closest to my house which was never particularly busy and was always a bit strange appears to have gone out of business. My other favourite pizza place (Famoso downtown) has also closed.