A New Year Beginning’s

A New Year Beginning’s

By Allan Olson

A New Year brings new challenges, new goals, new ideas and for many a reflection on the prior year.

I really don’t have much in the mind for new goals or new ideas – I have some goals I would like to set, like most people – be a better parent, a better spouse, better with finances or other such things, but I’m not one to set new resolutions at the end of the year, hopefully I will get better at all such things as I set forth on another years journey of learning.

As for challenges, well 2015 had some highs and lows – but mostly it was pretty kind to me – for which I’m grateful. I still have my health and family, work and friends and I had plenty of laughs throughout the year as raising a family of four great kids will provide.

The last week of the year was probably the most challenging with Marcus breaking his thumb on Christmas day – but it hasn’t slowed him down any and he is adapting well to being a left handed little man with his arm in a cast.

Also on the last Tuesday of the year, I ended up with a little encounter from a whitetail – normally I like encounters with them – but when I’m looking down the barrel at them with my scope from my deer stand in November, aside from that, I would mostly prefer they just keep to themselves and take of their business.  However, I was heading into Bemidji Tuesday night and the next thing I know one those mighty beasts decided to take my vehicle on in a battle to the death. The deer suffered immediate consequences but the vehicle was heavily wounded in the battle of metal vs bone. So this wasn’t an ideal way to end the year of 2015 – but for now – I just hope that the insurance payment that I make every month will be put to good use and I will soon have my vehicle back on the road again or a replacement vehicle – just as long as I get back to my two vehicle family soon.

The remainder of 2015 was still a lot of fun – on Wednesday afternoon, I hit the road with the kids and went geocaching, we didn’t get lost, mad at each other and in all had a fun day together.  Thursday – the final day of 2015 – the morning was spent working, the evening was spent having fun. That evening my niece showed up with three cousins she was watching and the fun began as the kids ran all around the house for the majority of the evening.  A little later into evening – two adult friends showed up and we began diving into the food, visiting and playing a couple games. This year – we all made it to midnight to welcome in the New Year, except Marcus and Alivia but we woke them up and made them celebrate with us. The next day, Alivia who had about a three hour nap prior to midnight said, because we woke her up she then stayed up until about 4 a.m. Since I was in bed by 12:30 and probably sleeping by 12:35 a.m. – I never heard a thing, and surprisingly – neither did anyone else.

So our big New Year’s Eve party – was a home for minors – eight kids’ ages 2-18 – which suited me fine as my beverage of choice that night was a big cold glass of water.

On New Year’s day – Abigail and I along with the dog, went for a walk in the woods in search of a geocache, aside from that we didn’t do much of anything. On Saturday – we started cleaning the girls room once again, took their beds apart turning them into separate beds again instead of bunk beds and worked on improving the quality of their room. We also had kids working on the living room, boy’s room and other areas of the house. In addition, we finally finished – the mud room downstairs as we cleaned it – again, scrubbed the floors and finally laid the linoleum for that room that we purchased near a year ago and we also installed coat hooks in there for some extra jackets.

Saturday afternoon – Abigail and I also found another geocache close to Turtle River. Alivia tried joining us but the wind coming off the cold ice from the lake was too much and she returned to the vehicle and waited with the others. After some searching – we were finally able to make the discovery and headed back to warmth and a trip to the stores for some supplies.

On Sunday – since my original plans to attend a geocaching event on New Year ’s Day failed – because of the vehicle mishap – I hitched a ride with a geocaching friend to a different event. The event was in Aitkin, Mn – a town I had yet to visit and while my caching partner of the day had been in town prior, several new caches had been placed since her latest visit so we still had plenty to find. The event started at 9 a.m. which meant a 7 a.m departure on my last day to sleep in - but I also decided that I was going to take the opportunity to be kid free. We left the event about 11:30 a.m. and did some geocaching around town and a few stops on the way back before we finally arrived back home 12 hours after departure – in all we made about 30 new finds for the day and I’m less than 300 from 2000 finds in almost four years of adventures.

For all my family, friends and readers – I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016 – thanks for reading.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.