2014: Year of heaven, year of hell or somewhere inbetween? your year.

I as many have had some crazy years over the few that I have been here, for me 2014 has made the top two simply because the things that have happened to myself and my partner would be out of place in the grey area or skunk works forums.

I will not go into them right now but would ask how your year has gone and what you will take and learn from your experience in the time period we will look back on as 2014

a reply to: nonspecific

Bad:I lost 2 of my dogs this year.One was expected and the other wasn't. The one that was expected was my dog I had for 19 years,he was according to breeders probably between 2-4 years of age when I got him. The other My Boston that is in my pic,was only 8,she seizured to death at 4 am a couple of months ago.
I lost my job because I became disabled. I have struggled to pay my bills to keep my house and car.I will not see a Social Security check until this March. Somehow I have to keep hanging on.

Good: I will at least have Social Security to live off of. I have signed up for ACA and managed to get both health care and dental care for about $40 a month. This is a necessity being as I have an auto immune disease. Once on Social Security,you have to wait 2 years before medicare kicks in. Makes sense no?
I have 2 new dogs that are wonderful that I love very much and keep me company,as well as my one remaining cat.
My family has shown their true colors and came out to help me this year to hang in there. Taking me to appointments,giving money as needed,paying my car payment,paying for my meds,etc.
Despite having little,I managed to put aside money for both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners,so that if nothing else,I had the food to feed my loved ones for the holidays. Sometimes its the little things that really count.

I am hoping that the new year brings a change in my life so that I can relax and have my auto immune disease calm down so I can enjoy a bit better health. I also am wishing for the health,prosperity,and peace for myself and loved ones. I wish all on ATS no less for the coming year. Though I am not hopeful, I wish for peace and goodwill for ALL fellow peoples of the earth.

I doubt we will look back on 2014 much, I doubt we will care much about the past because I think the future is going to be much worse.

2014 was a quiet year for me to be honest.

Joined ATS or the second time after losing my original email & password...
I spent the better part of March/April on the Ward...
Lost my Grandfather during that time...
& converted to Islam.


Outside of personal experience...
Germany won an entertaining World Cup...
We watched as Israel treated Gaza to a form of Punishment I don't think even the most ardent anti-Semite would have expected...
We saw Putin stick his middle finger up to Europe, the States & especially Ukraine...
Of course ISIS began to hit the headlines, both factual & fabricated...
& sadly the Taliban came along to snatch the Terrorists of the Year award from under the nose of IS...

That's about it really.



Overall, as pesimistic as it seems, it sounds kind of Hellish.

a reply to: nonspecific

Hell is my heaven - without challenges I cannot evolve. This year was one of the most challenging year for me - working like a madman, attacking problems in physics, challenging my belief system, writing my novels, investigating the impossible.

This year, both my body and my mind got overworked. It was hell, but it was worth it - for what is hell except a mean to Heaven?

It is interesting that you mentioned dogs as I had not even thought about this.

At the start of the year I found out from my son that our old rescue dog that stayed with the family when I left had died.

We all knew he was old and thought he was around 12-13. It turns out he was about 18-20 years old and when we got him he was already 8-10, we all guessed he was 5 or 6. The vet said he had never seen a dog of his breed anywhere near as old.

I got another rescue dog earlier in the year and he is turning out to be just like the wiley old dog that the other one was.




a reply to: Dimithae

Got back into record collecting with a good set of headphones and just yesterday picked up album that upon opening it I saw it was gray marble so thats cool.

Got to see a lot of good bands live..Was able to see Samhain and The Damned on separate nights around Halloween. Got to see Opeth (for the 14th time) last week.

Started playing hockey again after rupturing my ACL two years ago.

Got a new 2014 jeep which is nice.

Professionally things are going very well..

Had to put 1 cat down which was frustrating but he had lived a long good peaceful life.

Overall 2014 was pretty damn good for me.

Sort of an in-between year. We moved halfway across the country with my mother & elderly grandmother to help care for her (grandmother) She's become very weak & frail, and can't live alone any more (too many instances of her in her own home falling & not being able to move for days on end until someone checked on her. I think her old doctor laid into her about it)
The entire moved was mostly paid by her, she didn't want to live in the south any more. It was a opportunity for us, because my husband can finally get out of an economically blighted area and find ample work for his field (industrial mechanic) However, he sustained a pretty severe rotator cuff injury that requires surgery & will put him out of work for some time with recovery therapy. A win in the sense that now there's literally work at every turn, but a lose in that he's going to be unable to work for a while soon. For the time being, he's doing temporary work that can accommodate very limited use of his arm.

Oh, and one elderly pet died during the move, another middle-aged one was euthanized shortly afterward. One died of natural (very) old age much earlier in the year prior to moving. It was not a good year for pets in our family..

I definitely had a crazy roller-coaster of a year.

Good: I got married to my partner of seven years.

Bad: my step-mother, whom I was close with died In a tragic car accident that my father was also involved in. I'm lucky to have him. He's having a very hard time dealing with her death. So so her daughter whom she talked to several times a day.

a reply to: nonspecific

my year was phenomenal. i can't imagine it could get better, honestly.

a reply to: nonspecific

The Bad:
-More family bickering/fighting.

-2014 has been a dicey year for me at work. I still don't know how my future is going to play out (which is annoying as heck).

-Had to pay out extra money for moving to a new place (lost my deposit and then some between my furry companion and Ex )

The Good:
-May have found a decent S.O. She's a very dear friend to me, and lately, has been showing promise for a "more than friends" style of date.

-Within the last couple days, I made a hiking companion - While her background is quite a bit rough, she's pretty much everything I could ask for: Very aware for her age, and could probably talk conspiracy talk all day long. And, as a guy, I have to say - she's not bad looking either. Right place, right time for me

-Finally in a new place, with more stuff in the area to do.

-Found 2 of the trumpets that I will be keeping for cheap; and got one of them back from the shop all nice and pretty (you can't beat a trumpet that has three different colored metals on it; although restoring it means it's basically worthless from a collector standpoint now).

-Still on plan to removing all of my student debt before turning 30.

In Short: Most of the year was pretty bad; this December has been quite interesting, and I'm curious to see what 2015 will look like.

-fossilera

As a pole dancing Ats moderator with an ass like that did anyone expect more?

If I were a big fat furry pole dancing texan I would be happy, plus we all know you are at the buffet whilst shaking that ass, with a shot and schooner hidden from sight.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan