As a retiree, I pretty much have all the time in the world to do whatever I want to do, including keeping this web journal up to date. But based on various missing pieces in the website since 2009, it appears I'm quite the procrastinator.

Since this is a hobby and maybe no one is even referencing it any more, most other activities take precedence in my life. This isn't a priority.

Case in point:  it's now March, 2023. I only recently finished the last 2021 web journal entries and now I'm hoping to whip through 2022's entries in a week or two. My plan is to be more succinct (not one of my strengths), combine several entries into one, and include fewer photos. We'll see how that goes! [Addendum: not so well!]

Maintaining our half-acre yard is one thing that keeps us busy! Jim snapped this 
picture of me working in the middle of the lantanas one day in July.

I do journaling on my computer every evening with a summary of each day's activities. I also have many thousands of well-organized photos. So it's pretty easy (just time-consuming) to go back and fill in those missing pieces -- or missing years -- in this web journal.

It's surprising how well most everything comes back to me when re-reading the journaling or scanning through the photos. In my mid-70s, my memory is still mostly intact.

So that's my plan for 2022 -- just half a dozen entries about some of our favorite activities and interests. There's a lot more that I do NOT write about on this public forum because of privacy and wanting to avoid controversy.

VFW activities keep Jim busy, too. This is (L-R) Stony, Rick, and Jim
at the WWII Heritage Days event at the PTC airport in October.

I especially avoid anything political on this sie. The closest I've gotten was related to the Covid pandemic. I'm not going to rant about that again because apparently now it's more endemic than pandemic and we've all just got to live with it (unless we die from it, of course).

I will say that Jim and I have gotten all our shots and boosters and we continue to willingly wear a mask when appropriate or required. We don't want to get someone sick who's vulnerable to disease, and we don't want to get any Covid mutation ourselves. So far we have avoided it. Or if we had it, neither of us knew we had it.

We keep the fur-kids properly vaccinated, too!  L-R: Holly (5), Casey (10), and Don (3)
lie on the quilt I bought to use for pet therapy with young kids at schools and libraries. (7-2-22)

I don't know how much longer I'll continue to update this website. It was more fun and useful when we started it for the 2005 Appalachian Trail Adventure Run/Hike and during the years when Jim and I were running ultra-distance foot races all over the country. From 2005 to 2017 we also had many RV travel adventures in the U.S. and Canada to share.

Now we're mostly homebodies.

That phase began when we bought our current house in Peachtree City, Georgia in spring of 2017. We quit extended and full-time RVing for a number of reasons spelled out in a web entry that year. Our home, yard, and dogs have been our sanctuary before, during, and after (?) the pandemic.

We haven't gone on a trip since we sold our Cameo 5th-wheel trailer in spring of 2019 (except Jim going to his foot races in nearby states). It's too difficult to travel now with three big dogs that we'd want to take with us. And RV travel has so significantly changed since 2020 that we don't know if we'll ever buy or even rent another RV.

Our Cameo served us well for ten years, including two memorable trips to Alaska.

Although neither of us can run anymore Jim continues to test his 100-mile mettle by walking several 24-, 48-, or 72+-hour events each year. There will be an entry covering the five races Jim participated in this year.

I enjoy long walks and hikes but no longer want to go beyond ten miles. I have no desire to compete after 30 years of training for races. I'll include entries with photos I've taken during hikes at Line Creek Nature Area and Sweetwater Creek State Park, and walks/bike rides on our city's extensive network of paved "cart" (multi-use) paths.

The photo at the top of the topics page and each of the entries is from Sweetwater Creek State Park again, as was the one for 2021. It's one of my happy places and has so many scenic views. The next photo is from Line Creek in October:

Jim and I do a lot of volunteering for several worthwhile organizations.

One or two entries will include our activities with the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), American Red Cross, Fayetteville Humane Society, CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), two assistance dogs schools (Warrior Canine Connection and Southeastern Guide Dogs), and the various types of pet therapy I do with Dapper Don, our Lab that was in guide dog training when he was a puppy. He decided he wanted to be a pet and therapy dog instead of a guide or service dog:

Don loves people so much that he didn't want to work for
just one person as a guide or service dog. (6-17-22)

Another entry will showcase flowering plants in our yard. Gardening is an ever-evolving process with successes and failures, and I've had my share of each in the past six years in this landscape.

Daylilies are one of the successes (6-16-22)

The last entry will feature several miscellaneous topics including other activities with our three Labrador retrievers and dogs belonging to friends, some of the books I've read and enjoyed this year, attending the Cotton Pickin' Festival, and a weird arson case in our town.

Next entry: revisiting Sweetwater Creek State Park (twenty times in 2022!)

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, Casey-Girl, Holly-Holly, & Dapper Don

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