2024 Whimventure® Recap
Happy New Year... Wait? Happy New Year?!?
Many people start their new year on January 1st, but I tend to look at my birthday as the start of a new year for me. This year I'll be 59 (so very old in the eyes of many) and since I am retired I've been working on my "bucket list." This was something I started to write out before retirement, and as time has gone on, I've had to update and my thoughts have changed, and I realize just how much control I have over things (not as much as I thought). As of today, I'm up to 76 items on my list and have accomplished around 8 of those things. Two I removed because I just don't see them as feasible, which is sad, but such is life. I'm sure I'll continue to add things as situations evolve.
What Has Been Accomplished?
Be in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - 2023
Find a geocache in every state in the Continental United States (I'm still missing Alaska since I visited there Before Caching/Cecil - B.C.) -2024
Blog at least twice a month for a year. Substack is being tested for this purpose in the future.
Visit Billund, Denmark and tour LEGO House -2024
Visit the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY - 2023
Try Curling
"Think deep thoughts while embracing the darkness of a total solar eclipse." - 2024
Use my U.S. Passport at least once per year.
As you can see my list is part challenges, part location based, part just silly (whimsical).
Last year, towards the end of November the term Whimventure® was first coined to describe my running around without a care or thought for the future. The Dursleys* said I did things on a "whim" and frowned upon this action. 🙄 I, on the other hand, embraced it. As my kindergarten report card stated "His temper has been better controlled for one thing." Wait, that wasn't it- "He is a little too independent at times..." So if you tell me what to do, or scoff at my actions, I'll just redouble my effort. As a teacher I found that when told what to do (with fidelity and intentionality) I was miserable. I enjoyed teaching when I could do whatever it took to meet the children where they were, and not by some consultant's script. As an anxiety filled introvert this kind of demonstrates what kind of person I could have been if I had lived a slightly different life... i.e. not been retained in third grade, or realized that many of my high school friends, weren't. I understand that was a painful part of my life, but something that made me the person I am today, and someone who I am proud to be (warts and all). Would I change my life? I've said it before- I've read enough Science Fiction to know that changing the past usually ends up bad. I’ve even read the story the concept of the Bootstrap Paradox came from. Oh, do I care about the future? Those who know me, know I am anxious about the future and actually plan things out carefully, obviously the Dursley’s don’t really know me very well, if at all.
Since I retired, and after seeing how public school teachers are being treated by the state of Indiana and my former school district, it is a decision I don't look back on as much as I thought I would. I have done a heck (once an elementary school teacher, always an elementary school teacher) of a lot of things. I decided to make a list of the things I have accomplished this past year many I would not have done without the support and urging of Sue. Most of these have blog posts about them that you can find on mygeekodyssey.com. As for a list, here goes nothing...
HeroesCon 2024 - my current favorite Comic Book Convention
Gen Con 2024 - My favorite "local" gaming convention
Return to work at the LEGO Store
New York Comic Con (Bruce)/Rhinebeck (Sue)
WonderFest 2024 - Really cool, may go back in 2025
CXC 2024 - -Awesome for artists and lovers of the cartoon/comic arts
Macy’s Balloon Test Flight (on the way to NYCC)
Electric Light Orchestra Concert in Indy
LEGO Fan Tour Billund, Denmark - Everything is Awesome!
Touring Denmark & Sweden Discovering Thomas Dambo's Trolls!
Aviation Trail (Ohio)
Aullwood Audubon Trolls (Ohio)
Bernheim Forest Trolls (Kentucky)
Cheekwood Trolls (Tennessee)
Seattle Trolls (as part of MTTS)
Wyoming Troll (as part of MTTS)
The Neon Museum, Las Vegas
New Jersey Troll (on the way to NYCC)
Visit Geocaching HQ (as part of MTTS)
Detroit Lakes Trolls (as part of MTTS)
Olympic Swimming Trials Indy - yup! sportsing
Visit the Grand Canyon (as part of the GWXX Trip)
GeoWoodstock XX, Flagstaff
See the Dave Stevens Retrospective at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco
Curling (yep, back for a second season)
Wright-Pat Museum (part of the Aviation Trail)
Help out at Indiana Comic Con
Solar Eclipse - We just stepped out onto the driveway, but still it was awesome.
Visit my brother Rob and his family in Washington (part of MTTS)
Many of these I highly recommend, some - not so much. Some are extremely exclusive (like visiting my brother's family or flight testing balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade) others, they kind of let anyone in. 🙄 Some were not technically a Whimventure® unless you ask the Dursleys. Most required some planning ahead. A few were pretty much grab a bag and go for a weekend away.
What says “Whimventure® more than Trollhunting?
I'm already planning for items to try for in 2025, some are repeats, some are entirely new. Only time will tell what Whimventures® we will actually do. All I can think is the Dursleys will not be amused. As for those things I've removed from my bucket list... Like I said, I'm sad about them, but some things are completely out of my control the Dursleys have spoken.
* “the Dursleys” is a term I started using in October of 2024 to describe people who look down upon and are pretty fanatically against anything they don’t feel is “normal” by their limited view of normality. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense." - Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 1. Pretty much, Muggles don’t know about the Wizarding World, Dursley’s know about it and hate anything to do with it. Unfortunately, I have discovered I am related to a few Dursleys 🙄 Who don’t seem to approve of Whimventures® or unplanned “fun.” R.A. Heinlein used to talk about “Mrs. Grundy” in his stories, I’ve just updated the concept.
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