I quickly re-read my final post of the year, and it is the only post this year with no mention of Trump. I’ve either normalized this situation or decided to give him less space in my brain.
I will get the elephant out of the way immediately. We can all agree, I would hope by this point, that Trump is by far the worst president in our difficult history. He is responsible for more pain, anguish, drama, heartbreak, needless deaths, and frustration than any before him and almost certainly any who may follow. This has been perhaps the most painful year since I’ve been keeping records. More painful even than COVID.
There is no way to reflect on this year without acknowledging the Trump Reality. We will speak of him no more in this post.
Today is day 2 of the New Year. In spite of our pledge to slow things down a bit in 2026, we are on the road for the first 3 days of the year.
My life has always been defined to some degree by movement. Sometimes too much. Sometimes too little. 2025 felt about right. Brittany is an understanding partner in this affliction, for which I am thankful. Marti just hangs on.
This year and for the foreseeable future, our travels will be tempered a bit as we must take our duty in making sure Ed and Rita are sorted. Mom remains very active and needs to get out of the house a few times a week to shop and just to maintain her sanity. Also, I think we both are feeling we need a bit more home time. For us, that means going between Brit’s house (which she just bought) and my homes in Somerset and Black Dog Ridge.
As I look back over my posts and photos, it looks like we had a lot of fun. Lots of great meals and drinks and time with family and friends and exercise and quiet time and crossword puzzles and walking Martini and driving and flying around all over the place. I battled a tough consulting gig that was never a good fit for me, but was able to get disengaged in November and seem to be in a better place at Akron Children’s Hospital.
We went to protests, made a nice garden, visited with my family and Brittany’s, hiked, hung out with the Jungle Fox and generally wrung as much fun as we could out of the year, given the difficult backdrop of circumstances affecting so many others.
I remind myself daily that my life is blessed. Really. I am fortunate and take nothing for granted. I’ve struggled a bit this year with the weight of the sadness of the political, environmental, and social realities of our times, but I continue to reasonably function. I’ve stepped up my time and financial commitments to my charities as a way of assuaging the guilt of living a good life while so many others do not.
At BDR, major shit was underway most of the year. We built a 2.5 car garage and doubled the size of the basement. Said goodbye to the wood burner (it will move to the distillery) and cut in a fireplace in the living room. Most significantly, we built a kick-ass detached bedroom in the tree canopy. World class shit if you are into treehouses. If not, it probably just seems weird.
Our time at BDR is precious, although the construction has been a bit disruptive this year. But it will be done soon after this post goes live. Like any house, there will be ongoing projects, but I will be prepared to announce major construction is complete after these projects wrap. Thankfully, as the cost has been anxiety inducing. I tell myself it’s a good long term investment and I hope this is one of the times I am correct. But investments only pay off if you sell — and I don’t want to sell BDR.
It’s a very special place. The Greenbrier has at times flooded its banks, and at other times reduced to a creek-like flow, in the normal cycles of untamed rivers. But it’s always there. As are the trees and the wild animals who share our land.
Martini is maturing. She is becoming a fine young dog. She listens a bit more and sometimes obeys. She is often aloof, but affectionate at other times — particularly with Brittany. She is family of course, and we love her. She’s a good hiker and a thrill to watch on the move. She is insanely athletic with beautiful movements as she flies through the forest, hopping over obstacles and ducking under others. She’s a powerful force for her size. Like Mandela, she does not love other dogs but grudgingly allows them to co-exist.
We hit our stride at Emerging Namibia in 2025. We have work to do, but Frieda, Petrus and I have plans for this delightful project. Frieda will take on more of the technical and infrastructure work and we hope to start bringing in some podcasts, video interviews, and other mixed mediums and events.
At Namib Futures, we expanded our reach from 3 scholarships in 2025 to 15 in 2026. The cost is not insignificant, but it feels right. I can see the maturity and results of those young people we’ve invested in over the years and so I know this is an effective mechanism for doing some good in the world.
January we visited Pittsburgh. It was insanely cold as a city surrounded by 3 rivers must be in Winter in this geography. But we got to hang out with Eze and caught up with some of Brittany’s family and friends. This is when I discovered Brittany’s nickname in high school was ‘The Hammer’. Apparently she got into a few fights and wasn’t always the passive victim. So that was interesting and a little terrifying.
In the coming year, I need to start working more with Eze. He needs more exposure to rugby to counter the useless time watching soccer. He also needs to hear some Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Mark Knopfler, Emmy Lou Harris, Townes van Zant, John Prine, Jerry Jeff and Van Morrison.
To be clear, his parents have not asked for my input.
Brittany and I attended our 2nd annual Wonderball. Always a spectacle. Now we must find our outfits for 2026 version.
In February, I met up with my traveling mates Shane and Sjoerd. It was a great trip, as always with my little band of brothers, but it is well chronicled in this medium, so no need to re-write history.
It’s interesting and a little fun when certain things come together. Andris, one of our MYO alumni who was a PdD candidate at Oxford on a Rhodes (now a PdD in Electrical Engineering) was interested in a conference at MIT. I have a friend who teaches there in the Engineering Department. We worked together for Andris to get his abstract submitted and get his visa and he was able to come. He stayed with Pierre and Inbal in Cambridge and flew to Raleigh to meet with Leonard and Sandra. Everyone pitched in and it all worked out.
In March, Brit and I spent 4 amazing days in New Orleans. The weather was perfect. Not hot and not cold. We ate and drank and walked the historic streets. We saw the world’s greatest dog parade as the Dog Krewe runs a week after normal Mardi Gras ends. We had oysters at Drago’s (of course).
We visited Raleigh for an MYO board meeting, Pittsburgh again for Kara’s birthday, NYC in May to see Clooney’s ‘Good Night and Good Luck’ and an updated version of ‘Glengarry Glenross’. Again we were blessed with beautiful weather and some great meals and a lot of steps hoofing it around Manhattan. Brittany checked another Starbucks Reserve Roastery off her list.
In August we took a lovely western road trip from Park City to Lava Hot Springs to Jackson Hole and down to Pocatello and back to SLC with long hikes in Park City, Lava, Teton National Park and a mammoth 18-mile hike to the top and around Scout Mountain in Pocatello. I got to catch up with all my Pocatello peeps which always makes me very happy.
In September, I flew to Switzerland for some solo hiking in the mountains for 4 days and then met up with the boys for Oktoberfest. Switzerland was amazing. I have only been out of the cities once before and it is a stunning countryside no matter where you go.
We took mom and dad to some shows and nice meals. We try to get them out of the house when we can. It’s getting more complicated with dad as his demential worsens.
I bought a tractor – a nice one, for projects around BDR. We hosted a Juneteenth party at BDR and Shanna came to came to visit along with Scott and Emily and a few other friends.
We drove the convertible in nice weather and I rode the motorcycles as much as I could find time. We had great meals at home and out.
For the first time since I started this blog I had a martini every single Friday. I will try to continue that tradition.
Brittany and I have now completed the New York Times Crossword puzzle for 39 Mondays in a row. We are getting better on the other days and improving each week.
We also have a tradition of having breakfast at Waffle House on Christmas morning. We kept that tradition alive in Roanoke.
We had planned on attending a New Year’s Eve party. But when I found out the hostess was a non-apologetic Trump Supporter, I just couldn’t do it. Besides, Marti wasn’t feeling well, so we opted for a quiet dinner and good night’s sleep.
Life is good for us and we are thankful and appreciative every day.
Humbly Submitted
Robert Myres – Portneuf Valley Rugby Football Club, Flanker (ret.)
The Martini Tales 