Dear Blog,
I don't normally post year in review blogs. However, as the title of the blog states...
(anywhat)
Cycling was by total distance a short run. My odometer reads 5744km, and I started the year at 3597 for a net gain of 2147km. I always end up riding some on my back up bike, which doesn't have an odometer, and also I sometimes forget to push the odometer back on after walking a section, so I reckon probably I really rode more like 2300 or so clicks. A typical year for me is 3000-3700.
By new counties was also a thin one. I did two trips in Indiana. In the first, I knocked out 5 counties in 3 days for the north east corner; Allen, De Kalb, Steuben, Lagrange and Noble. I had intended a sixth that trip, but was simply not in condition and shortcut the route back to my car. The second trip I really wanted to get some of the hilly counties to the south, but still wasn't really in shape for it, so I reduced it to a two day ride in the south east, through Ripley, Switzerland, Ohio, and Dearborn counties. That second ride was a truly great run. The first day was about 45km, hot, relaxed pace, really beautiful country, really quiet. It was everything I needed it to be. The second day, I had a more ambitious plan, including over 110km and some big hills, and running the entire length of Hogan Creek and Hogan Rd. By the time I was really fed up and ready to stop, of course I was just 20km from my car - very much part of the plan. I was pretty wrecked after that, so the decision to make it a 2 day was smart.
No Kings protest in Ft. Wayne IN.
By new States, I crushed it. I biked through 9 new states this year, and repeated 5. My previous best was in 2018 when I biked through 6 new states. The states new this year were New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachussets, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont in the first trip and Maryland and Virginia in the second trip. The first states trip was a big camping road trip with my daughter - an approximate replica of a trip my mother took with me and my brother about 30 years ago, up the coast and into Canada, back across Quebec and through Niagara back home. Juniper doesn't have a passport, and I didn't have as much time off work built up, so we turned around in Maine. As well, we biked around at each car charging location, and a few extra rides as well, to get all the new states. She biked in 10 new states herself.
Old PA Turnpike, Juniper's 3 state biked in.
I guess if I were to track all the counties from those states, it would be more like 30 new counties, but that's not usually how I count things.
The second states trip was to my grandfather's funeral. I took Sy with, and again biked at the charge stations, and also around near the funeral. We stopped at the old PA turnpike made hike and bike trail. Sy walked and I biked. The last time we were both on it, we were in the back of a tan minivan, on our way to grandma and grandpas in the mid nineties.
That was the second funeral this year, the first being in May for uncle Pepe. There were things that got in the way of it being a really strong year for distance, including these funerals, and more details below. I don't regret how I spent my time - and I hope to really focus on getting some distance and longer rides in next year.
Chittendenbrook campground, VT. This creek just kept going like this for kilometers.
(swimmingly)
Juniper likes to respond to questions of how X went with x-ey, ie how was camp? Campy, etc. I take her to swim lessons once a week most of the year, and when she said it was swimmy, I taught her the word and usage, swimmingly. It's right up her alley, and no matter how her swim lesson really went, she'll say it went swimmingly.
I also got her her last kid bike this spring. Here are all her bikes to date.
For my part, I have been chugging away at a goal to get into really proper form and compete in the water for about a year and a half now. Or two and a half? The details fuzz on me. I have injured my shoulder so many times, that as of now, I'm still just building back up to my training goal of 1000 yds, 3 times per week. Today I swam 850, and actually managed some power. I spent a lot of the fall building back up - my upper back on the left was atrophied from disuse after a really bad injury in March. Regardless all these details, the downtown YMCA, where I do my swimming when the outdoor pool is closed, they have a binder with lap tracking and rewards. Today I finished the first goal of 900 laps = 25 miles. I got a little pin with the Y logo and '25 miles' on it. I'm pleased as punch with it.
I also did some laps over the summer outdoors, but with biking and moving house, it wasn't a ton. Maybe another 100-200 laps. My goal for winter is to swim 1000 yds, 3 days per week, in preparation to swim my first competition after my next birthday, which will put me in the 40-45 or 40-50 bracket.
(moving on up)
My partner Raychel and I moved in together, in June. The details are many and frankly onerous to type. Legally, I co-own the house with my mother, who has a 25% share that she put up in cash. I have the remaining 75% share which I put up in mortgage. I also drained all 30k of all liquid assets in required maintenance and upgrades, fencing, smoke damage restoration, paint, hardwood floors redone, electrical upgrades for the car chargers and new ceiling fans. Moving truck was drop in the bucket in comparison. Moving was hard, next time I'll pay movers, if there is a next time. I wouldn't mind if the next I relocate permanently it's because the kids are putting me into an old folks home. Raychel pays the big bills of gas and electric. I pay all the small bills and the mortgage. She does dishes, I do laundry. We watch Star Trek and share meals. It's a gay old time.
The house is huge, and the estate is huger. The backyard is an irregularly sloped 120 feet to the back fence, which sits higher than the roof, and 96 feet across. The front yard isn't small either, and is also steeply sloped. Living in a valley and having significant grades to consider every time I walk or bike away, is entirely new. I've always lived on a big old patch of flat, with maybe a 1 meter rise or drop in the back, and a small hill nearby about a house tall.
The house itself is one of those split entry houses with the garage on the lower level, but you walk out the second level in the back, and onto a porch halfway between levels in the front. It's 2500 sq ft inside - the largest house I've ever lived in. Between the landscaping and new interior, it's a palace by any standard I ever would have set for myself. I'm grateful for it every day.
(segue)
I started hunting this year. I harvested a rabbit from my backyard - not entirely within the scope of the law. Trying to stay straight and narrow from there forward, I've learned a bunch. Mainly that I need to get some access to private land, because the public is too busy with hunters to ever expect to catch much. I also need to sight in my shotgun - it's on the TODO.
I started playing chess in a serious way last December. I rose from about 950 to 1200 on chess.com before switching to lichess, and rising from 1476 to now 1700 on that platform. With Dayton go and dayton chess clubs, if I wanted to, I could be playing over the board a couple times per week, but...
(fit to burst)
I have way too many hobbies and obligations. I have taken some time to take stock and figure out what all I have on my plate. At least 9 hobbies, some of them dormant. At least 4 service obligations at church. At least 4 different forms of fitness that I dedicate a lot of time to. At least 4 different musical endeavors that I would like to put time into, but if you haven't noticed, there's no way I could do all this, and be a good parent, and even pretend to do my job.
So, something's got to go, probably. Maybe I'll figure out what, in 2026.
Cheers and N/A Beers,
-Ian Hogan,
Phd, senior software developer, principal research scientiest,
father, partner, musician,
chair, Ladies of the Abyss, music committee,
member in good standing, right relations, nominating committee,
Swimmer, cyclist, climber, archer, hunter, home cook, and I'm trying to read more regularly,
1700 lichess, 8kyu online-go, 6kyu AGA,
amateur linguist and all around curious fellow.
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