Time Warp 2024

It’s the end of the year, and I never got around to my lifelong dream of appearing as a guest on The Price is Right.

That show has been on for almost 50 years. What am I waiting for? Life has a way of messing with priorities, whatever they may be. Who needs New Year’s resolutions when you can fail to meet goals year-round? I’ll get to making that birdhouse next year.

Things move fast in the modern age. Where does the time go? I counted the days during military deployments, longing for home. Then, once I was home, I tried and failed to slow the fabric of time through intense meditative hypnosis.

It’s been over a year since I returned home from Kuwait, two years since I got married, three years since I bought my first house, and five years since I danced on Broadway (maybe that was a dream).

I can look back at the endless cache of photos on my phone to help me keep up with it all, unearthing moments long forgotten, places traveled, and people seen.

365 Days Later

I have three 2025 wall calendars ready to go, in addition to my whiteboard 90-Day Planner. I stopped using notebook planners a while ago after going completely digital. Now, I can plan my entire day on my phone. Sunday: take out garbage. Voilà!

I also posted a Google review of 2024, which sums up my thoughts here:

Little Smart House on the Prairie

My wife and I fully embraced “smart living,” modernizing our home to the 21st century. This included smart lights, climate control, security, and every technological contrivance possible to make our lives easier.

The pushy futuristic sales rep acknowledged our initial reservations with an impassioned pitch. “Disregard all this dystopian sci-fi claptrap about smart technology and AI. It’s all bunk. Having your home reliant on a good Wi-Fi connection is the best choice you could make.”

I didn’t fully buy his argument, but his sleek fedora and stylish hover shoes were impossible to resist. Twenty thousand zagbits later (that’s the currency in this story, go with it), we had a home fully equipped with smart technology.

Every time I came home, I was greeted with a voice that said, “Hello, Mr. McKee. How was your day?”

We could control the AC with an app, and there was even a trap door for solicitors. They ended up somewhere in the local retention pond unharmed. It’d been a wise investment, and we couldn’t have been happier.

“Mother,” our at-home AI system, only tried to kill me once while I slept in my cryogenic chamber. It was all one big misunderstanding. I even asked Mother for a list of New Year’s resolutions, and here’s what she generated:

“Mother,” I said. “What the hell is this? Do you expect me to eat nutritious foods and network with people? I’ll compile my own list, thank you.”

Moments later, I scribbled together some real goals to roar into the New Year. I thought they were all within reason.

Closing Thoughts

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and great things ahead for 2025. I also want to thank you for taking the time to read and follow my work. I’ve had this website since 2020, and I’m not nearly as active with it as I should be.

I hope to change that next year and move toward some real accomplishments, including completing my novel manuscript. You’ll hear about it first on here and all the other things I feel like writing about. Have a great year ahead, and thank you again.

Let’s pop the cork and celebrate the end of this great mess of a year with thoughts of peace, love, and stability in our lives and around the world. We can always hope!