I received my copy of the 2018 Appalachian Trail Hikers Yearbook (https://hikeryearbook.com/) this weekend but haven't had time to look at it in detail. However, the photos that I submitted are on pages 38 (Happy Hermit, bottom left corner, summit of Mt Washington on 04 July) and 151 (lower right, summit of Mt Katahdin on 05 September). I meant to submit an "end of hike" photo when I reached Harpers Ferry in December to replace the Katahdin photo, but I forgot and missed the editorial deadline.

Which reminds me - I must scan the print photos that I received at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Headquarters when I started and ended my hike, and add these to my online photo album. I am organizing my trail photos and working on the captions now.

I found a few folks listed in the yearbook whom I know from the trail. Production, Camo, Wildfire, Glider and 50/50 are there, as are both Peppermints (who summited Katahdin the same time that I did). There is a Penguin, but not the Penguin whom I know. The Woods Hole Hostel and owner Neville has a nice two page spread, and venerable trail maintainer Bob Peoples of Kincora Hostel is also listed. I need to spend more time to see if there are others that I recognize, though several folks that I hiked with are not listed, including Rockdawg, Seabiscuit, OldNSlow, Shirtless, Cinnamon Girl and Wilderness Hawk.

In other news, two Best Buy delivery men removed my very big, heavy and long-dead 2003-vintage 38" widescreen CRT TV on Friday and left a new 55" 4K Smart TV, which I installed that evening. I spent part of last week clearing years of clutter from my living room to make a path to carry out the old set, but I still have a lot of cleaning left to do. At least now I can watch TV while doing so.

Welcome to my new blog! Every post prior to this is an import from my Google+ profile. I just posted what I believe is my last entry to my Google+ profile as I migrate over to Blogger. If you followed me over from Google+, thank you!

This blog is very much a work in progress. The theme and layout may change several times as I get settled in, but I expect to keep a dark background with light text.

I have several months of Appalachian Trail thru-hike updates left to edit.

You'll note that most of the photos in posts imported at original size, really too big for the blog. I resized and fixed layout of photos in the 21 December 2018 post and may continue to do so in previous posts, or just delete the photos and provide a link for each day to the appropriate album in Google Photos. I did not lose my photos in the Google+ transition, but I do need to weed out duplicates and accidents (thumb, ground, etc) and add captions.

I've been enjoying my time as a new retiree since I finished the trail. It's very nice being able to eat and sleep regularly again! I'm dividing my time between catching up on 2018 TV and movies (On Demand, DVR, RedBox), and walking two miles each way to the movie theater a few times per week (I joined AMC Stubs A-List, https://www.amctheatres.com/amcstubs/alist).

I am also spending at least an hour every weekday in the fitness room and lap pool of the local recreation center to keep some of my hard-earned muscle and avoid gaining too much weight. I started my AT thru-hike at 175 lbs (near maximum healthy weight for a 5' 11" man), ended at 130 lbs (underweight), and am trying to stay at 145 lbs (lower end of healthy weight). It's tough not eating every snack in sight like I did on trail!

I'm also procrastinating on my house clean-up and renovating my master bathroom. Speaking of which, I need to clean up my living room to make room for a new TV being delivered this week.

Thanks for following!