Dear Grandkids,
2020 has been one of those years that most people would just like to forget. And in many ways I would agree. But in other ways it has been an awesome year. Yes, a year that has created new challenges but also a year that has created new opportunities. But such is life. Every year will be like this in one way or another. Here is my annual end of the year round up… by the numbers.
0 – I am more than happy to report that I had zero kidney stones this year.
1 – I did however have 1 CAT-Scan – which showed that I DO NOT have any kind of unusual growth in my head. I had to get this checked out because I started having some hearing loss this year in my right ear. So if I ask you to repeat something sometime instead of being annoyed at your aging granddad instead rejoice that I don’t have a brain tumor.
1 – We added one more grandkid to the clan this year thanks to Scott and Mary. Haddon was born back in late February and has been a joyful delight to the family.
2 – I can officially check off a bucket list item. I can now solve both a 2×2 and a 3×3 Rubik’s Cube.
3 – As you are no doubt aware we again held the Reyner Family Disc Golf Invitational over Christmas. One day you will be included in this if you choose to do so. But this year I am proud to announce my 3rd place finish.
4 – To date, there have been 4 members of our family that have tested positive for Covid-19. In all cases, it was a very mild version of the virus. We are hopeful that 2021 will be the year of sayonara to the coronavirus.
9 – Apparently there is this thing called the enneagram that has been around for a long time. I am kind of late to the enneagram party but this year have enjoyed exploring how it works. It is a tool that is used to describe the different personality types that people have and I have found it very useful. I am a Type 9 – which probably explains why I like the Hebrew word “shalom” so much.
15 – Back in October, Nona and I went waterfall chasing and managed to see 15 waterfalls in the western part of NC. We would love to introduce some of them to you sometime as we enjoyed the pristine beauty of nature in our great state.
18 – Back in March we started zooming with our College Age group from church but started meeting in person (socially distanced as much as possible) in July. We now meet in our church worship center so we have plenty of space to spread out and average about 18 people each Tuesday as we ponder Scripture together.
27 – I have now been serving at Ridgecrest Baptist for 27+ years. I serve with a great staff team led by a great pastor alongside great people seeking to know and follow Jesus.
44 – This is the 44th Pop Pop Epistle of 2020 that I have written. Hopefully I am around long enough to write 1000 of these to youse guys and gals.
36,600 – Back at the beginning of the year I set a goal to do 100 pushups each day. This morning I counted down my final 100 of the year and am pleased to report that I did not miss one.single.day. during the year. This tells me a few things: 1) I was healthy enough to do them every day which is a good thing and 2) a worthy goal is very motivational to me as I seek to pursue health in my advanced years.
4,717,062 – One of my other fitness goals was to keep walking and to minimally get 70,000 steps each week – an average of 10,000 steps per day. As of this writing at 4:43 PM on December 31 I have over 4.7 million steps for the year (a daily average of 12.8k). And for the 4th year in a row I have not missed a week of getting at least 70,000 steps. That works out to 208 straight weeks.
So anytime that you want to call and congratulate me on any of these numbers I would love to hear from you. But just so you know, the number that I love the most, which I did not even mention, is 8 – which represents all of you: Grayson, Bowen, Keller, Miller, Asher, Audrey, Ezra, and Haddon.
Never ever forget that you are very loved!
Pop Pop