2024. The Year End Review. The Ross
Well, my fellow flying monkeys, it is time for the annual Ross Review!
Overall, it has been a good year. Slow. Steady. But with a catastrophic shock on November 6. Yes, that.
The primary shift in 2024 has been the ever-dawning awareness that I am not the Ross I always have been. As I wrote-in my Year End House report: “Vital Ross has been permanently replaced by Slow-Motion Ross.”
It is now obvious that my famous energy is but a shadow of What Was. It has been difficult to come to terms with this but now, and the end of 2024, I get that I will never be what I was for the previous 66-years.
While I now get this I do not have to be happy about it though. Harumph!
In 2024, I also lost my title as Crazy Cat Person, as the last cat out of 14 I saved as kittens departed for Florida. I am now down to three. And three does not qualify as Crazy.
My newest addition arrived, as happens so often, via the infamous Cat distribution System, where cats find YOU, not the other way around.
In July, I stepped into my big red storage shed. A few moments later I stepped out, and a kitten was sitting on the porch deck staring up at me, as if magically placed. “Hello. Where have you come from?”, I inquired. She declined to answer. And, thus, New Kitty2 was welcomed into Ross Land. I am quite besotted with her. She is full of personality and quirky behavior.
One of the best nights in my entire life happened in February when I invited members of my family of choice, all kindred spirits, to the Cross House for dinner. A few weeks before I had not even known that I had assembled such a family. I love each one of them. Each is utterly fabulous. After becoming a voluntary orphan in 1992, I feel blessed to have such a wonderful family in my life.
The biggest shift this year results from the terror of 11/6.
After being a news junkie for many years, I have now gone cold turkey and withdrawn from all news. I simply refuse to spend another 4 years importing toxic shit. To repeat: I simply refuse to spend another 4 years importing toxic shit. Instead, I will devote myself to my own Project 2025, as I detailed here.
In my Year End House Review, here, I was startled by how much I accomplished, considering what a struggle everything now is. Proof about the value of my patented Baby Steps Method™. Many days I would drive all the way to the Cross House, manage perhaps 15 minutes of work, and drive right back home. But…things had moved ahead a bit. And Eric has proved a Godsend. When I just don’t have the energy for X, he comes by and helps (he lives a block away). We also laugh a lot. We should have a YouTube vlog!
I am thinner today than I was a January. By ten pounds. Squee!!!!!!!!
My body has excreted all the lead I ingested a few years ago. This is big, great news.
I have no expectations for 2025. But I will only devote myself to things that enrich my soul.
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I feel you Ross and you’re a welcome guest anytime in the Aylor house. 2024 has felt rather bleak. You are never without “family”.
Aaron, I have family of choice across the globe, like you and Breanna. Those seated at my dining table though are all local. We visit often.
It will be fun to see the Aylor house again. My one visit was so rushed.
Great Annual Review! Chosen family is the best and I am with you on avoiding the news. Too high a price for my health and I have plenty to be getting on with in my own life. I look forward to watching your 2025 journey!
We love you Ross. You and the family group are a treasure.
Sounds like a wonderful plan for next year.
Chosen family and avoiding the news, and adopting kittens from the Magical Cat Distribution system, check, check, and CHECK!
Blessings to you for 2025, however it unfolds, I’m sure you will have many delights to share with us…
Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to you!
I agree with Greta: avoiding the news, adopting kittens, and embracing chosen family are excellent ways to cope. Most people I know are avoiding much (or all) news. I check once a day to make sure I haven’t missed something major, and that’s it. Blessings for the new year.
As the saying goes “too soon old, too late smart” but I also think you have found a measure of grace. Thank you for sharing your wonderful life.
My hope is we are all able to make baby steps progress in our lives.
What a sweet little kitten! A bright spot in an otherwise difficult time. And how fantastic that all your rescued cats have been adopted, that must feel wonderfully rewarding.
I say Crazy Cat Person is not numerically dependent but a state of mind, of being. No matter the number, you will always be a Crazy Cat Person if that is how you identify. I’m not sure you even need to own a cat to bea Crazy Cat Person.
I think there may also be a Dog Distribution System but it works a bit differently. Cats seem to find you. But dogs seem to get found.
My reaction to the shock seems to follow what others are doing. Intensive nesting. The gate will be up on it’s hinges tomorrow and I’ll be starting the fence panels. Taking down a tree, pruning, gardening. (I got an eggplant this year! I just don’t know what to do with it.) Did a lot of baking this Christmas and I’m cooking more.
NewKitty2 looks to be quite the charmer. I think she knew exactly what she was doing and already has you wrapped around her little toe.
I have become an involuntary orphan and at some point in the not too distant future will become one in actuality. I have accepted that I will not be entertaining any large dinner parties. I will not be making any Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Fourth of July or New Year’s feasts for large groups. I’m have no need for service for 12 or even 8, so I am downsizing. I’ll be keeping limited place settings of my beloved Salem Royal Rose Bouquet and Spode Christmas. For every day I am purchasing some single mismatched plates and bowls of Italian ceramics because they please me and since it is just for me I don’t care if they don’t match. I want every day to be fun. Everything else is going to go over the next few years. Downsizing the books. Downsizing the cookware.
You are three years ahead of me, or behind, depending on how you look at it. I turned 70 in October and suddenly felt old. I also felt the limited time I have left to do all that I want to do. While I get things done it takes me so much longer than it used to. But I’m retired and I make my own schedule so I just need to learn that things are going to take me longer and adjust for it. And take a day or two off if necessary without feeling guilty. But I also feel the need to push to get things done as I have such a long list and I have no idea how long I will physically be able to do what needs to get done. I don’t have an Eric.
I have expectations for 2025. I have a list of 50 things I want to accomplish. If I can do even 20 of them I will be pleased. I recycle the list every year, eliminating what has been done and adding more that needs to happen. So while it is a never-ending list I am hoping with each year each thing on the list will become more and more minor and faster and easier to accomplish. Maybe the list will even get shorter.
You are healthier, happier and accomplishing so much. You know your direction, have set your goals and are moving toward them. May this coming year be all you wish it to be and more.
Thank you for the inspiration.
Glad to hear the high lead levels is a thing of the past, and that your baby step method continues to bear fruit. It’s been an encouragement to me when I’m struggling and tasks are overwhelming. I’m learning to make lists and figure out what the next step is, even if I can’t finish a project all at once! I too, was heartbroken at the decision to return to letting his Orangeness lead the country. I hoped we’d make better choices as a country, and my takeaway is that we’re just not ready for a female lead-not yet anyway. 😢
Here’s to a focusing on what brings us joy and baby stepping into 2025.🥂 I wish you all the best with your beautiful house(s).
I’m glad to hear your lead levels are down, and you’ll be consuming less news! Toxins for both the body and the mind. It’s a shame because the news should be informative rather than inflammatory and provocative; at this point, I have found it’s been telling me exactly what I predicted would happen a year ago if we landed where we are. So, I am putting my head down to work in my community.
Hope and acceptance in the face of insurmountable odds are Radical acts. I wish you the best of luck on your far more hopeful Project 2025 from Buffalo!
I have a very similar photo of my NewKitty2, only he’s a ginger. After losing all our kitties to various things in the last couple of years, we were not in the “market” for another cat until Spousal Unit gets his hip replaced (wheelchair bound). But the Cat Distribution System had other ideas, and in October two ginger kittens decided they’d come home with me, 10 days apart. They are goofy, zoomie, absolutely adorable and totally loving, who think that wheelchair is a rolling toy.
Yes, Crazy Cat Person doesn’t depend on the number, only on the fact that CCP adores cats.
Welcome, NewKitty1 and NewKitty2 to Ross’ homes. You’ll love it there.
Hi, Arkay.
I think the title “Crazy Cat Person” is universally understood to mean a person with a LOT of cats.
And I don’t think 3 cats qualifies as a lot.
You’ve accomplished a LOT in the past year — and in the past 10 years since buying the Cross House. It’s gone from being a sad, sad eyesore to a bright spot on 6th Street.
Question: Is “secreted” the correct word to use in this sentence? “My body has secreted all the lead I ingested a few years ago. The is big, great news.” I think you might mean excreted. And I think “The” should be “This.”
Fixed! Thanks, Barb!
I second all the good points and wishes already expressed by my fellow flying monkeys—still smiling from that! I must add, from the pictures of your lovely party, those wine glasses are so gorgeous!