Weekly Ephemera #168

The Holiday season has come to an end and, frankly, it felt like the shortest Holiday season ever.

• On New Year's day, after a quiet New Year's Eve, I took down the wreaths, lights, and ornaments from the front yard.  I took down the Christmas tree.  The Wife took the rest of the indoor decorations.  I will be stuffing everything into the furnace room closet this week sometime.
• I didn't walk this week.  I decided to take the last week of 2025 off.
• We watched the finale of "Stranger Things", which was a good end of the series.  Unfortunately it ended wide open for a sequel series.

Best Photo Of 2025

We had a quiet New Year's Eve watching the celebrations around the world.

I looked through my favorite photos I took in 2025.  From the three trips we took, plus a few I took in between the travels, I ended up with twenty-six that I would call my favorites.  Of those, my favorite is a simple one taken in Chichicastenango, Guatemala.  It shows a can of burning incense and flower petals on the steps of a church/mayan temple.

"Smokey Faith"
by Bruce H.
(Taken on the 13th of February, 2025)

I can't wait to see what photos I capture in the coming year.  I just have to keep my eyes open.

A Homer's Travel's Look Back At 2025

2025 was a mix. On the negative side there was politics. It sucked. This year successfully destroyed my news-junky nature.  By the fall, I was no longer paying that much attention to news.  I kept myself informed but I didn't dive deep into it.  An early year, low-grade prostate cancer diagnosis was a cherry on top of the crappy part of the year.

The positive side included a return to Guatemala where I spent my teenage years, the completion of the Wife's Camino, and a trip to the Balkans and Malta.  In general, these trips, and my life in general, were pleasant.  No major drama, no major issues, and a smooth year was a nice change from the last few years of turmoil. 

Let's look back at 2025, shall we:

• January:  Our Christmas cactus bloomed for the first time, weeks later than usual.  It's time sense, like mine, has been way off.  This would persist throughout 2025.  I had disappointing medical test results.  I explained how I rate books.  I avoided news on inauguration day ... but it still happened.
• February:  Despite avoiding the inauguration, I still Doom scrolled, which also persisted throughout the year.  We went to Guatemala for two weeks, a sort of homecoming for me (I documented the trip in March posts).  
• March:  While we were in Guatemala, the first snow and cold of Winter arrived and was missed.  I had a kidney stone removed.  The prostate biopsy done during the stone removal found the presence of low grade prostate cancer.  For some reason, this really didn't bother me.
• April:  Tariffs were announced and we divested.  I kind of regret doing that.  I thought about forming an escape plan.  Our roof finally had the hail damage from last July repaired.  I added more metal sheeting on the she-shed wall to hold our ever-growing travel magnet collection.
• May:  We spent a long weekend in Minneapolis celebrating family and antiquing.  I finally photographed the Great Britain and Guatemalan magnets.  We got a new Pope.  We had a houseguest.  We returned to Spain to finish the Wife's Camino.  The day we started walking would have been my Mom's ninetieth birthday.
• June:  We walked the Camino the entire month of June.  The Wife had no foot issues and we never took a break.  I worked through some issues that darkened my mood and surrendered to the experience.  This was the first month since I started Homer's Travels that I've never posted even once.
• July:  We finished the Wife's Camino including walking to Finistere and a visit to Muxia.  I decided not to document every day of the Camino.  We had a low-key twenty-eighth anniversary celebration as we were too tired to do anything.  Our dog-friend Cooper stayed with us for a week.  I turned sixty-two.
• August:   We went to an underwhelming Santa Lucia Festival procession.  The anniversary of my Mom's death came and went.  I celebrated my faithful backpack and its retiring.  I had another bad blood test and am now on diabetes medication.  An unwanted vole was found in a planter.  Starting in late July and through August and some of September I really didn't do much.  I had a period of powering down, quiet, and a lot of television watching.
• September:  Another doctor's appointment.  No bad news so that's good.  I posted about our Camino magnets. Another autumn arrived.  Another rapture did not arrive.  We prepared for another adventure.
• October: We traveled most of this month in Greece, Albania, Northern Macedonia, and Malta.
• November: I started documenting our Balkan and Malta travels this month.  Iago got a proper burial.  We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with family.  I had my last doctor's appointment for the year and I seem to be doing ok.  We had our first snow.
• December: 
• Hiking: 2025 was a good year for walking.  This year was my third highest number of miles walked at 1,043 miles (1,678.6 km) over 115 hikes, the second highest number of hikes since I started keeping records.  The Wife's Camino contributed a large chunk of those miles.
  
• Books: I set a goal to read fifteen books this year and, unlike last year, I met my goal.  I read nearly everyday including while we were traveling (which is odd for me) though I slowed down a lot near the end of the year.   Here are my Goodreads Stats for 2025.
• Concerts, Shows & Music :  We went to a few concerts this year. With the Wife, I went to Bob Dylan. I also went to Kansas and Rilo Kiley by myself.
  
  I listened to a lot of music this year - mostly during naps and on long airplane trips. According to Spotify I listened to 2,184 songs from 1,075 artists for 44,358 minutes, so I listened to fewer songs, from fewer artists, for more time than in 2024.  Spotify thinks I am sixty-nine years old.  This actually makes some sense since my taste in music came from my brother who was five years older than me.  Here is my Spotify 2025 Wrapped if you want to explore what the shuffle button did music-wise this year.
• I posted 93 times this year. Not as many as 2024 but good enough I guess.  As usual, I think I need to write more. 

What will 2026 bring? We are going on a southwest road trip which will include visiting with friends.  We are planning a Cape Town, South Africa trip in the summer and a northern European trip including northern France, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg in the fall.  Other than that we will be trying to keep our sanity intact and brace ourselves for what 2026 has in store for us.

Here's to a Happy, Prosperous, and Healthy New Year for all.  May you all find happiness in 2026.

First Bloom

Yesterday, despite it being late this year again, one of our Christmas cactuses has bloomed.

December 30th bloom.

Weekly Ephemera #167

• We had a quiet Christmas.  We went to see a movie ("Marty Supreme") which the Wife and I thought was Meh.  We ended the day with yummy steaks on the grill.
• I hiked three times this week for a total of 22.5 miles (36.2 km).  The walks were uneventful.
• We started watching "Stranger Things".  This is the last season and it seems to be a fitting finale so far.

Merry Christmas!

Weekly Ephemera #166

Not much happened this week.  Just a relaxing week overall.

• I walked three times this week and did a good 23.1 miles (3.2 km).  The walks were uneventful though I learned not to park under a tree.  My car was covered in sticky berries/bird poop.
• I watched a couple good things this week.  The first was the third installment of the Knives Out franchise. "Wake Up Dead Men".  It probably wasn't as good as the first one but it was still entertaining.
  
  The second thing I watched was "The Amazing Digital Circus".  While I watched this on Netflix, it was first available on YouTube.  There are currently 7 episodes and the episodes do not come out in a fixed schedule,  varying from one month to seven months between episodes.  The show is a bit twisted and the seventh episode blew my mind. 

Weekly Ephemera #165

• I walked three times this week.  The first one was ... interesting.  This is what happened:
  

  I was walking in a middle-class area in Omaha called Benson.  I noticed three boys, sixteen to eighteen years of age (not sure) at a corner.  One of them flagged me down.  Now, I often get asked for the time or someone asks for cigarettes or a light, so this wasn't unusual.  What he asked was unusual.
  
  Boy: Can I ask how old are you?
  Me: Why do you want to know?
  Boy: Are you forty-five plus?
  Me: Why do you want to know?
  Boy: I hear when old people think too hard the blood drains from their d!cks and they go floppy.
  
  Ok, The kid is being an asshole for his buddies.  I give one of my standard answers to assholes:  God Bless, Jesus loves you, or 
  
  Me: I'm happy for you.
  Boy keeps on talking about flippity-floppity d!cks, not getting it up, and stuff.
  
  He's sort of blocking my way though I could easily have gotten around him but instead I said:
  
  Me: So, do you sit around thinking about my d!ck all day?
  
  He kinda moved out of my way and I walked away hearing him ranting at me. I didn't really hear what he said but He did say M*therf*cker and fa**ot.  They didn't follow me.
  
  I'm not sure if I handled that the right way.  My last statement did confuse him a bit.  I think he saw me as an easy mark and me throwing it back at him kind of stopped him in his tracks.  I'm sure his 'friends' were having a chuckle, too.
  
  All I can say is, I'm happy it ended well.  Omaha has had its share of shootings and stabbings.  It could have ended much differently.

  For the week, I walked three times for a total of 21.7 miles (34.9 km).  The second two walks were uneventful.
• On Tuesday our garage door spring broke.  Fortunately we had it fixed by the end of the day.
• I put up the big balls in the oak tree on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, we had a big wind come through.  I was finding big balls over a block away from our house.  I didn't find all of them either, though I did find one that wasn't ours, so I think I broke even.

2025 Malta Travels

Leaving the Balkans

We left Northern Macedonia returning to Albania.  We stopped at a park where we had a boat ride, drank coffee and drinks, while we fed the ducks.  We stopped at a park for lunch at a nice restaurant.

Our last night we had our goodbye dinner near our hotel.  We all would be leaving very early to home or, in our case, the island of Malta.

We arrived at Valletta the capital of Malta and were able to get in our room right away despite being early.  The Wife took advantage of the pool while I rested in the room.  I joined the wife and we ate lunch at the pool restaurant.

As we ate, we watched yacht crews preparing their boats for the 600 km Rolex Middle Sea Race.  The race would start the next day.  117 crews started and 110 finished.

Later in the afternoon we walked to old town Valletta previewing our walking tour planned for the next day.

Neptune fountain outside old Valletta, Malta.

Valletta, Barrakka Gardens, St. John's Co-Cathedral, and lower Valletta.

Our guide picked us up at the hotel and we went on a walking tour of old Valletta.  He explained the history of Malta and the city.  He pointed out government buildings and historical landmarks.  We stopped to have lunch in an outdoor restaurant.

St. John's Co-Cathedral.

After lunch we visited St. John's co-cathedral.  The cathedral is beautiful and full of Maltese history.  Our guide gave us a detailed tour pointing out sculptures honoring the builders and contributors to the cathedral.  The tour ended with a Caravaggio painting, 'The Beheading of St John the Baptist'.  Our guide pointed out things we would have missed and he made it interesting.  He covered the life of Caravaggio who led an interesting life.

Caravaggio's "The Beheading of St John the Baptist".

From there we went to the Barrakka Gardens overlooking the port and two old cities on the other side of the harbor which we would visit the next day.  This was also the place to view the start of the boat race.  Fortunately it was earlier in the day and the crowd at the garden had dissipated by the time we were there.  The view from the gardens was interesting as you could get a feel for the old architecture of the city.

Senglea, Malta seen from the Barrakka Gardens.

The day ended with a walk through lower Valletta, the less commercial and more pedestrian part of the old town.  We say normal life here with less tourism.

Vittoriosa City, Senglea Gardjola Gardens, Marsaxlokk, and Hypogeum

Narrow streets in Senglea.

Today our guide took us on the other side of the harbor to explore the other old cities.  We visited different parts of these cities learning about the history of the cities.

We visited the Hypogeum, an archaeological dig under the city.  The Hypogeum guide took our tour group through the digs pointing out religious and burial areas.  The tour was well done and very interesting.

We stopped at a park for a view of the harbor from another angle and we enjoyed the views and a lookout post.

We ended the day in Marsaxlokk, a traditional fishing town.  We visited the market and had lunch along the town harbor.

Island of Gozo, Calypso Cave Terrace, Salt Pans, Dwejra Inland Sea, Citadel Old Capital City, and Victoria

Today we left the main island of Malta for a day trip and took a fast ferry to the Island of Gozo.

We stopped at archeological ruins and explored the history of the islands.   We visited the Calypso cave terrace to admire a panoramic view of the bay and valley.  The cave itself was not open to visitors due to it being hazardous and damaged from previous visitors.

The salt pans along the Mediterranean sea.

From there we visited the salt pans where salt has been collected for many years.  The views from the viewpoint were amazing.

We visited the Dwejra inland sea and enjoyed more views of nature, cliffs, and arches.

Dwejra inland sea cliffs and arches.

The day ended with a tour of the Citadel and the city of Victoria where we learned history, and, naturally, went shopping.  The Wife and I are big travel shoppers though we usually have something specific to the location in mind.

Mdina Old Capital City, Rabat, Hagar Qim Temple, Dingli Cliffs, and Blue Grotto

Mdina old capital city.

The last day of our tour combined history and nature like most of the tour.  We first explored Mdina, the old capital city.  We walked through the narrow, winding streets learning about the history and culture of the city.

We toured parts of Rabat including a lunch of Pastizzi a specialty from the area. We did more shopping and visited a church.

We visited ruins of the Hagar Qim temple.  The impressive ruins  are partially covered to preserve it.  At this point I was a little ruined-out but it was still interesting.

Lastly we visited the Dingli cliffs and the Blue Grotto.  We were going to take a boat ride here but the wind made the seas choppy so we only say things from afar.

Free Day

Our last day in Malta was a free day.  We spent hours by the pool, me reading, the wife swimming, and we ate lunch poolside.  In the afternoon we walked back to old town Valletta and had some ice cream and finished our last minute shopping.

Our hotel pool.

The next day we returned home after three weeks on the road.  It went smoothly despite the government shutdown.  In the end, Malta was a nice way to end our adventure.

Photos can be found in my 2025-10 Malta Google Photos album.

Weekly Ephemera #164

• It was an odd week for me.  I was in a do-nothing mood most of the week.
• I watched more episodes of "One Piece".  I still have a ways to go.
• I was going to walk three times this week but I ended up only walking once.  I walked 7.25 miles (11.7 km).  As I said, I was in a do-nothing mood.
• I tried to replace a spark plug in the snowblower but I simply discovered I am a crap small engine mechanic.  I gave up when I couldn't even get the boot off the spark plug.