The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a great time to reflect deeply on the events of the past year, searching for meaning and ways to apply their lessons to life.  But that takes a time commitment I’m not willing to make right now, so instead, I offer you this hastily assembled and arguably thoughtless list of my 2025 highlights. 

As I scan the past year in my mind, these are the first 25 things that strike me as “good enough to be considered a highlight”.  Most come with no explanation- I want to keep it short so I don’t lose you as a reader halfway through. Also, the items are in random order.

I guarantee that I’ve given this list no thought until right……now.

1- Ally (daughter) and Alec got married

Read https://fiveoclockshadow.life/2025/08/14/ally-alecs-wedding/

2- Bailey (daughter) and Tom bought a house

3- Our Memphis & Cincinnati road trip

Read this: https://fiveoclockshadow.life/2025/06/26/travel-road-trip-2025-part-1-cincinnati/
And this: https://fiveoclockshadow.life/2025/06/27/travel-road-trip-2025-part-2-memphis/

4- Eagles win the Super Bowl!!

Read this: https://fiveoclockshadow.life/2025/02/06/go-birds-super-bowl-stories-all-humans-can-relate-to/

5- Bethany Beach week

6- Wildwood beach week 

7- I started watching Ted Lasso

8- Solo beach retreat

9- Fever Pitch gets off the ground with some great gigs!

http://www.thefeverpitchband.com

10- the Fever Pitch prison gig

Read this: https://fiveoclockshadow.life/2025/12/18/then-this-happened-the-prison-gig/

11- We finally got an EV!

Read this: https://fiveoclockshadow.life/2025/09/25/owning-an-ev-no-garage-no-problem/

12- Neil Diamond gig week at Totem Pole Theater

13-Norah Jones Tribute

Bailey is so good at channeling Norah Jones and we finally got a few chances to perform the tribute show we put together.

14- Spur of the Moment Easter Beach Trip

Got the idea at 4pm Thursday and left at 4:10pm

15- The Brooklyn Wedding Gig

Story coming soon!

16- I “discovered” Barbra Streisand

Long story, but after decades of under appreciating her – I took a listen to her first Christmas album and oh my goodness!😅

17- They took out my wrist cancer before it killed me

Read this: https://fiveoclockshadow.life/2025/05/22/then-this-happened-the-wrist-thing/

18- Sledding at Akron Park in January

I still love it even in my mid 50’s! 🛷

19- $9 Flyer tickets!!

The upside of your team sucking really bad 😎

20-My brother in law Rich gave me another batch of pepper cheese deer bologna

If you think this is overhyped nonsense, it’s probably because you’ve never had any.

21- I made a lot of good music with people I like

22- Our Family Band musical fundraiser for the homeless raised a record $4,000 + dollars- we’re still collecting BTW…

Music and donating info in caption

https://giveahand.com/fundraiser/new-holiday-music-aids-lancaster-homeless

23- Back to back half marathon weekends were fun*

Not counting the parts that sucked!

24- Tammy didn’t divorce me despite my constant attempts to annoy her for my own amusement 

Post upcoming…

25-  I could fill this spot on the list, but I’m leaving room for a last minute buzzer beating highlight 😁

Good things happen to those who wait until…. the last minute.

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