The Highs and Lows of 2007 - The Lows

Time for that annual recap of 2007. Surprisingly, it was difficult to come up with 10 things that were worthy of making the list. And unlike past years, some of them won't have a link to a specific post. Certainly there was strife in the world, but that doesn't count for this list. Funny how certain items on this list will also be part of my "highs" for 2007! This is what makes my "lows" list:

"The 10 Low Points of 2007"
(from least low to lowest of the low)

10. Finances - Didn't really get into much of this during the year, but I have no money. I get occasional windfalls, which I immediately spend on things like plane tickets, but in general, I have no money. Lord help me if I ever really need something. A new/better "regular" job would help, but my current situation is quite flexible, and that's something I need. Without the wife, kids or pets, I'm doing OK. But I'd love to have some money.

9. Smoky Forest Fires - This only reaches #9 because it's become sort of a common occurrence around here. This year was a bit worse than normal around here, smoke-wise. We also had a major fire north of town. But most of the smoke came from the southwest of here, and while it didn't affect me directly, the continuous exposure couldn't help but give me some headaches and make me cranky. But then again, who would know?

8. Elton John Tickets - For the first time ever, Sir Elton was giving concerts in Bozeman and Missoula. I was online instantaneously as they went on sale. Through gross incompetence in Missoula, and lack of awareness in Bozeman, thousands of people in Montana were left without tickets to either concert (though the ticket broker in Pennsylvania didn't seem to have problems...). Within an hour of going on sale (and selling out in less than 30 minutes), you could buy tickets on eBay at a 500% increase. The good news--he was so impressed with Montana that he scheduled another concert for April '08. I've got tickets. About as far away as possible from the stage, but hey!, I'm in the building!

7. Loss of bloggerfriends - Nothing specific here. Just the usual numbers of people that just quit blogging, with or without notice. It's frustrating. A new twist this year--bloggerfriends that switch to Myspace (eek!) or Facebook. It's like they've moved to a foreign country (not including Canada). You like to visit, but only when you can, and there's all sorts of different rules and customs and things. It never feels like home. Some are successful at dual, or even triple, citizenship. I am not. And I've found that if I can't get that daily dose of Blogger/Wordpress goodness from my friends, the communication starts to falter. And when that happens, the closeness usually suffers. Wish it didn't...

6. Imposters - OK, I've never specifically written about this, but it's severely bugged me for the full year. That would be the tendency of posting pictures, especially for HNT, and trying to pass them off as their own. Not what like Vixen does. She doesn't infer that the pictures she puts up daily are of her. This has been going on for quite awhile on a few sites, and I finally broke down and confronted one offender. On a happy note, she doesn't do it now. The whole idea of HNT was to expose ourselves, not what we think people want to see. While my trusting nature believes that the pictures posted on our sites are our own, I hate seeing when people take advantage of that trust.

5. Cancer/Death - And other severe conditions. Too many to link here. Again, relatively low in the list, because it's unfortunately become "routine". Saucy Wildcat, Evening, Mermaid, Michelle's daughter Meagan, Charlie's dad, Biscuit's dad, my dad, and the others that I can't think of off the top of my head. And the death of Moose's mother. It's a cruel, sad thing. I might as well mention the deaths of two men who had a profound effect on me--my mom's obstetrician when I was born, and my high school band director, who was a profound influence on me. And there was the girl from my high school class who was run down by a drunk driver. The list just seems to grow and grow...

4. In Cahoots & the Mob Rules Horns - After over 10 years of playing together, the band called it quits. Kind of. In mid-September, we announced at our last gig that it would actually would be our last gig. In actuality, most of us want to continue, but I'll admit that having some time away has been nice. I think we'll meet in January to discuss the future. I hope we kick it back up again. But we'll just have to wait and see.

3. Love is fleeting... - As I mentioned for my last HNT, the whole "love" thing came and went. At the time, it was surprisingly painful. Surprisingly, because it was a long distance thing, and we'd never actually met face to face. It's not like I spent a fortune on dinners and gifts and weekend getaways. But emotionally, she did a world of good for me. And hopefully she got the same from me. Then it was over. As I said in the HNT, things are fine. She's very happy. I'm happy for her. Life goes on. But there IS a little space in my heart that could use some filling...

2. This Body Is Going Downhill - Didn't really think about it until my knee heard the phrase "a little arthritis..." But the body is showing its age. Not like I take care of it. The BP at one point was xxx/xxx. I weigh more than Vixen and Stealth together (well, I imagine that most of us do...) I had a molar extracted after it unexpectedly just crumbled apart. I damn near broke my leg. Twice. I tore ligaments in my fingers. My back, which was broken to some degree twice in my youth still bothers me at times. Both rotator cuffs are damaged to some degree. I have no ligaments left in my right ankle. My legs have been abused beyond acceptable levels. At least I still look good!

1. Betcha - By far the lowest point of the year was almost a full year ago. I mentioned it as one of the posts that defined my blog. We held off on this for a couple of days, hoping to find proof on way or the other. The update, if it can be called that, is that we know nothing more than we did that fateful week. Did she die? Did she just allow us to think that while she got out of blogging? Are one of the newbies around her actually the reincarnation of her? No way to know. It's hard to believe that we couldn't find any sort of proof or documentation of the accident. And there were some things that came to light in the week after, but nothing about her death. It's hard to close the book when there's so much unknown. One thing I'm relatively sure about--the "character" of Betcha is dead. Never to return. I still miss her...

That's it. The lowest lows for 2007. Time to work on the highs!