“I am sore wounded but not slain
I will lay me down and bleed a while
And then rise up to fight again”― John Dryden
I’ve already used ‘Year of the Honey Badger‘ in 2020 due to COVID. So 2024, which ends on a political note that seems guaranteed to create hardship and drama for millions of people, must settle for the fierce little Devil from Down Under.
How to come to terms with a 2024 summary. Highs and lows. Shock followed by shock until it seems we have to change the definition of the word. Zigs and zags. Tears and joy. Maybe all years are like this but this one does seem particularly troubling.
As these things go, my little family and I are coming off a great year. Lots of fun times and travel and puppy raising and no real drama. So we are really very lucky in that sense. On the other hand, we now have hanging over our heads the prospect of another Trump presidency. This time with fewer guardrails and an emboldened fascist mentality.
So this is the dilemma. While our lives remain fortunate, our experience remains overshadowed by the unnecessary hardships and drama that Trump and his merry band of gangsters will impose on the most vulnerable people in our society.
Between these extremes is where we find ourselves.
Before I continue, I have to say that in the coming year we should all quit using the word journey so much. As in, ‘my journey has been especially painful‘ or ‘I’m so proud my journey has brought me to this moment‘ etc. We’re all living life folks — not driving to Myrtle Beach for the weekend.
Let’s start with Jimmy Carter – a truly beautiful man. Jimmy finally died. It was time. His last two years have been tough – long term hospice. He was the best president of my lifetime. He faced some very difficult challenges and covered a lot of ground in his 4 years. He always led with compassion and thoughtfulness and fierce intelligence. He did more good for the world in his post-presidency than any other president has done in a lifetime.
Noteworthy events in 2024 are set down below for historical review when I am old and want to be reminded of the blessed life I lived.
In January, our leadership team went live on Workday at UMass Memorial Hospital with 26,000 users. This was the culmination of 2.5 years of planning and execution to replace a decades old stack of technologies that were unsustainable and not fit for purpose in the modern era.
It may seems strange to some for me to include a work event in an annual re-cap, but I always take my work more seriously than I should. It consumes a huge chunk of my time and emotional energy and so it deserves a paragraph or two.
Replacing a suite of aged ERP application for a large, sprawling hospital system is no small thing. At our peak, we had around 200 people toiling away in unison (mostly) to re-create all the financial, HR, technical, and supply chain processes necessary to run a $5B hospital system with more than a dozen locations. While it was not easy, our outcome was good. Excellent in fact. We went live with no major business disruptions. Patients were serviced and billings sent and received and employees and suppliers were paid and 165 integrations connecting boundary systems to Workday did their thing to tie out all the tens of thousands of routine transactions necessary to keep things moving smoothly.
I’ll leave it there on this topic. I’m proud of the work we accomplished. As I write these words, I am in my last few days at UMass. After 3.5 years I am moving to a new hospital system to undertake a very similar challenge there. I will start at Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa on January 13. My time at UMass has been good, and there is some follow-on work I could remain to help with, but the organizational structure has changed and the work is no longer enjoyable for me. So best to take this win and move to another game.
In 2024, Black Dog Ridge matured fully into a magnificent homestead. The work Kenny and I did there together became fully realized as we tidied up all the loose ends. Of course the view is the main star of the show, but the house fits beautifully on that little spot on top of a high ridge overlooking a long flowing bend in the Greenbrier River. It’s a spectacular place. Peaceful, serene, relaxing. I consider myself very fortunate to have a fully functional home in such a remote and amazing place. It’s a healthy contrast to the chaos of city life and all the emotional exhaustion that comes with interacting with people and information so densely for each hour of our waking time. It’s amazing what a walk in the woods can do to restore a sense of sanity, or simply sitting on a rock looking down at the river. Perspective in abundance. Balance. Gratitude.
I was semi-apologizing to mom the other day about not being around the Ohio home more and she simply said ‘I completely understand. You’ve always been a loner and need that experience in your life‘.
Our little Jungle Fox is also maturing. She turns 3 this year and now looks and acts more more like a young adult dog than a puppy. She still has the border collie energy but she is also learning to listen and fit into the variable landscape of our lives. She seamlessly flows between West Virginia and Somerset and Columbus. She is a seasoned hotel client and easily endures long car rides with no drama. She mostly interacts well with other dogs and people. She is still a little rambunctious at times and can even lay down a slight nip on someone if they frighten her or taunt her. But mostly she is good. A good dog as the saying goes.
We had a few road trips this year and visited some of the worlds most beautiful cities and places. Amsterdam, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Berlin, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Atlanta, Tampa, Cape Town, Windhoek.
We drove 2,400 miles in about 10 days to go to Tampa with stops in Knoxville, Atlanta and Chattanooga on our way back up to West Virginia. We had a good visit with Marvelous Marv and Kathleen and young Marvin and his Brittany and their two girls.
In November, we drove to Toronto with an overnight stop in Niagara where we had a great dinner and enjoyed the beauty of the area. There are virtually no tourists in the winter so it was quiet, which was nice. In Toronto we saw The Boss on one night but otherwise walked the city to see what there was to be seen. Such a great city. Very beautiful and we had some lovely meals and drinks before and after exploring.
We went to Scott and Emily’s wedding in Nashville in August. It was a lovely time although it rained a lot as one of the hurricanes had moved North and was devastating Asheville and areas to the east of us. But we explored anyway and as always found a way to make the best and have fun. It was my kind of wedding. Short work on the ceremony and lots of focus on partying and celebration.
I got some good time on the motorcycles this year. More on the BMW, because it’s such a badass bitch of a machine, but the sexy Triumph is competent on the local roads. We also put a few thousand miles on the convertible on those days when it seemed the only thing to do. In June I did the always fun ‘Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride’ as a fundraiser for Men’s Health’. You know. Poor men don’t get enough attention in this world.
In June we flew to Missoula and then drove to Butte for our annual get-together with the old rugby boys. Always a favorite trip. I shed a lot of blood and fought a lot of battles with those guys over a 20+ year career. Strong bonds are formed in those extremes, not unlike the military. We drank some beers, reminisced, walked around town a bit, tossed around a rugby ball and had a nice picnic at the city park. A few of the Butte Crabs rugby team showed up to party with us. Great long weekend in the beautiful and much missed West.
In July, we put on the road to Canaan Valley Ski Resort in Northern West Virginia to meet up with the Ascend crew. We bunked in a nice cabin with Eric and Celeste and Cary and her man. Marti has some roommates that weekend as well so she got to work on her social skills. We took some great long hikes and enjoyed the camaraderie.
Brittany and I took an impromptu trip to Chicago for a whiskey tasting but we also managed to catch up with Jesse and Nick. Of course the requisite trip to Starbucks Reserve Roastery and some of our other usual haunts.
In April I flew to Amsterdam to meet Sjoerd and Shane for one of our international trips. After a long day of partying for King’s Day, we took the train to Berlin where Sjoerd showed us around. For some reason, in all my time in Germany, I never made it to Berlin.
In a strange set of coincidences, the flat we rented was built literally right on top of the bunker where Hitler spent his last weeks and where he and Eva committed suicide. And – we were there on the anniversary of that date. So there were some tourists hanging around outside our building getting a look at the historical scene such as it remains.
The big trip of the year was our 3-week visit to Namibia and South Africa. Truly an epic trip.
We started in Swakopmund and Mondesa and spent a week there, preparing for and then participating in MYO’s 20-year anniversary celebration. It was a deeply emotional moment for me. To reflect on the early days when we had no campus, no classrooms or offices, and only 15 learners. We had no supporters and were about as scrappy and raw as an organization could be. Then, in 2024, we have over 250 learners in pre-school and grades 4 – 8 coming each day for a nutritious meal and 3 extra hours of teacher led curriculum. our alumni are doctors and lawyers and engineers and military officers and airline pilots and businesspersons and entrepreneurs.
We met up with quite a few alumni both in Swakop and Windhoek and it was awesome. Humbling. They are beautiful, talented, smart young men and women who have overcome incredible odds to reach their goals and come to the lives they are now living. It was a scene man. Scott, Sjoerd and Freddy came in to visit and support me in our MYO celebration.
On Friday night I hosted a beautiful desert dinner to celebrate this amazing milestone.
Next we drove North to Etosha, spending the first night in okaukuejo where we were blessed with 50+ elephants quietly slinking into the water hole just outside our cabin. We also saw giraffes, rhinos and different antelopes there that night. We then drove all the way across the park to the east side where we stayed a beautiful private safari camp called King Nehale. We stayed there two nights and did a couple more game drives. It was a great trip for all, but particularly for Brittany and Terri who had never been on an African safari.
Next we drove downcountry to Windhoek and spent a few days there catching up with alumni and friends. We had a lovely BBQ at Beverly’s house in Windhoek which felt like old times although much nicer digs.
Next we flew to Cape Town for a few days. One of the world’s most beautiful cities. We walked the city and all around the harbor and had some amazing meals and found some great coffee shops. We of course took the drive over the mountain to Cape Point to see the penguins and baboons and hike around the point.
We finished off this trip with 3 days in Franshoek for wine tasting. We drove to Stellenbosch one night to meet up with Master Moyo and Chrystal, one of our MYO alumni and current scholarship recipient, but otherwise were in Franshoek. Definitely one of our highlights for the whole trip. I will definitely be returning.
Although I’ve been to Southern Africa dozens of times over the past 20 years, this was really a remarkable trip.
What else? We painted the Somerset House, built a patio, and I completely water-proofed BDR. We had a lot of smaller weekend trips and moved between OH and West Virginia each month. We hosted family and friends for holidays and parties, hiked, biked, swam in the river, and walked more than a 1,000 miles with the little dog.
at Namib Futures, we received our approval from the IRS for our 501(c)3 and Frieda and I kicked off a new initiative called Emerging Namibia.
Trips are already planned this year for Alaska, Spain, Pittsburgh and New Orleans. I hope to get back to Namibia in May for a couple of weeks. We will back in Missoula or Spokane for the rugby reunion. Lots of trips to Florida for work and to visit Marvin and Kathleen. Chicago nearly always calls and there is a great place in Vermont called Dog Mountain that we hope to take Marti.
There’s more. Of course. Always. But this is enough. My routine posts during the past year covered pretty much everything in detail.
Much love to all my people. 2025 is likely to be a wild ride but we’ll get through it together.
Humbly Submitted.
Robert Myres – Flanker, Portneuf Valley Rugby Football Club (ret.)
The Martini Tales 