2024 was a shitty year. The End. Thanks for stopping by.
Seriously, 2024 was not one of my favorite years in recent memory. It started off badly in January when I lost my car to flooding due to one of those “storms of the century” that seem to happen every couple of years these days. (You can read all about it by clicking here, and its aftermath here.) 11 months later, I’ve adjusted to not having a car, a difficult thing especially in Southern California. I’m now relying on walking, the ferry that goes from Coronado to downtown San Diego, and the occasional rides via Lyft and the kindness of friends. Those two blog posts I linked to above explain my immediate feelings when I lost the car and how fate lent a hand into the whole thing. Suffice it to say, I was sick of driving in California—the roads, the crazy-ass other drivers, the high cost of maintaining a car (insurance, parking, gas)—so somebody, somewhere did me a favor. Still, there are days when I wake up and really miss the freedom of having a car and just being able to get up and go—somewhere, anywhere. I love my little island home, but it’s nice to get out and about.
And don’t get me wrong, I still do. I walk every day—most days, twice a day—and try and meet my goal of five miles each day. At that rate, 1,825 miles would be my total for the year, and I’m happy to say I’m already past that, with a few days left in the year as I write this. If everything goes as planned, I should top out at around 1,940 miles for the year, which is 20 or so miles less than last year. The missing ingredient with this year, however, is the fact that I didn’t travel anywhere. Last year I had a two-week trip to England which netted me an additional 75 miles or so, bringing me up to 1,962 miles for 2023. (Yes … I take notes.) I love to walk; it keeps me sane and I’m lucky to live somewhere beautiful to walk each day, with more than pleasant weather and little rainfall to contend with
Home, 2024 edition.
And as I stated earlier, I love my little island home, pictured above, and I think 2024 is the year I became much more of a homebody. While I have high hopes of travelling back to my beloved England in 2025 for a trip to celebrate a milestone birthday (I can’t believe I’m typing this, but I will be 70 next June), it will most likely be my last trip overseas. Here’s where my friends all laugh at me and say “But Gary, you always say that …”, but I really think it’s true this time. The high cost of travel, including flights and hotels, make it so that (I can only afford it when I have a lot of hotel points), plus the fact that airports, flights—especially 10-hour ones—and fellow travelers are absolutely no fun anymore, make it highly unlikely that I’ll be taking any more trips anywhere. The sad state of some of the cities I love here on the West Coast—Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, not to mention San Diego—make it unlikely that even the short-jaunt, multi-day visits I used to love will ever happen again.
So I’ve learned to love my apartment. I bought new balcony furniture this year, and while right now it’s difficult to sit out there (the sun is on it almost constantly throughout the day and even an umbrella doesn’t offer much shade), I love having this extra outdoor room. My lease will be up here in 2025—one of two major uncertainties in the coming year, the other being the unfortunate return of Orange Jesus, this time with a ton of nutjobs in his wake, all of which conspire to make my Magic Eightball answer “Outlook not so good,” each time I shake it. I will soon know how much more I’m going to have to pay for my already-expensive little slice of heaven. Staying here as long as I’m financially and physically able is the major goal in my life.
2024 saw the arrival of a new drug in my life, Januvia. I’ve battled Type 2 Diabetes for about a dozen years now (probably unknowingly longer) and this drug has helped me a great deal, but it’s also at times a roller coaster ride of blood sugar levels. I finally got my A1C down to below 7.0 again (6.7, thank you very much), but I’m currently experiencing high numbers in the morning. And in a rare showing of some kind of backbone for once in my life, I am once again seeing a dentist on a regular basis. For many years, my fear of dentistry (which usually resulted in gagging the second any dental instrument entered my mouth) contributed to me horribly neglecting my teeth. I now feel I’m getting back on track with a new dentist whom I like very much (I’ve only ever had ONE other dentist in my entire life who I trusted and liked) and who is local enough to walk to, a major consideration without a car. The only drawback is my usually great health care plan has absolutely crappy dental coverage, so I’m doing the whole thing out of pocket, so it’s a drag on my finances. But it’s something that has to be done.
The saving graces of the past year were my YouTube channel (@TalesFromMySpinnerRack) and my love of books. For the past year, I’ve written, produced, designed, and narrated 12 videos—one each month—on the comic books I loved growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s. It’s been a wonderful experience for me, albeit a time-consuming one. Researching all the topics, writing all the episodes, producing all the graphics, and then finally recording the videos has been an incredibly busy time for me each month, so much so that I feel I’m neglecting other areas of my creative life, such as this blog. I hope to rectify this in the coming months with a whole new look for this website—and Tales From My Spinner Rack!—which will help re-energize me to write more and post more often.
A very welcome side effect of my YouTube episodes are my Tales From My Spinner Rack LIVE appearances at conventions. In 2024, I returned to both WonderCon and San Diego Comic-Con with panels at each show. I feel in the past year I’ve really honed my delivery and writing skills for these live presentations and have finally found a groove where I’m relaxed and comfortable with them. Years ago, I very easily stepped onto the stage of Comic-Con’s Hall H to introduce panels in front of 6,000+ audience members, a skill set I didn’t know I had, and while I was no Eddie ibrahim (who is, really?), I was pretty good at it, at least for a couple of years. My introverted self is never really crying out for attention, but I have to admit, I do enjoy doing these live episodes of Tales From My Spinner Rack! a few times each year. These presentations then become the basis for YouTube videos in the following month, so there’s that bonus, too. Both WonderCon and Comic-Con were also very enjoyable experiences for me this year, the me that is still—and always will be—a comic book collector. I had a great time at both events.
And then, as I mentioned, there were books … lots and lots of books. You can look at my “Books” category to see what I read over the past year (I post monthly book reports here, usually on the first of each month). My idea of nirvana is a book or a magazine in the mail; I wish I’d get one every day. I have an overflowing TBR (to-be-read) stack which has migrated to my two-shelved coffee table with books, magazines, and comic books (most of the latter procured through my local comic shop, Now or Never Comics, in downtown San Diego, conventions, and eBay, the curse of my existence at 4:00 AM when I can’t sleep).
So, you’re probably wondering right now what was so awful about 2024 for yours truly? Well, after writing all this out, maybe it wasn’t so bad, beyond the loss of my car and the outcome of a horrible election, which will have lasting effects—for everyone, not just me—down the road. My life is pretty cushy, with only occasional brushes with stress (almost all self-induced) and worry. The one thing my mother left me with was the “worry gene”—in fact, I get worried if I don’t have anything to worry about. But on my best days, I realize what a lucky guy I really am: I’m reasonably healthy and financially secure, I live in a great, beautiful place, I have wonderful friends, and I have a creative outlet that keeps me busy and active. 2024 was bad for a couple of major reasons, and 2025 is certainly one big question mark right now, but you know what … I’ll just keep going, one step at a time, like I do every day when I go for a walk.
Thanks for reading. Happy New Year!
@innocent-bystander.com 
Happy new year, Gary! I’m a bit trepidatious about 2025 too, but it sounds like you have a plan to keep doing the things that are most important to you right now. Probably I should come up with one myself!
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