Some thoughtful Christmas gift giving by my family added a few interesting books to my library.The Bourbon Bible, by Eric Zandona, is an interesting read about all things bourbon. The book is divided into three sections, starting with the history and b…

Om Malik, who has quickly become one of my favorite bloggers, wrote a post about slowing down and scaling down in life.

He makes a few good points that you should go read, but I want to expand further on one point – go analog. I think I’ve been doing this …

Another beer from the Starr Hill Winter Tour variety pack, Snow Blind Doppelbock is one my favorite winter seasonal beers.The beer is a deep brown color with a thin beige head. Sunlight peaking through give the beverage a reddish tint. A rich cara…

In Virginia you can move to strike the evidence against you, which means that the Commonwealth hasn’t even made a bare bones case against you. © Andrew Flusche for Andrew Flusche, 2019. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

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2018 is over, and we’re looking forward to a fresh start in 2019. As is my custom, here’s a quick look back at the past year. As cliché as the year end review may be, it’s still an interesting exercise for me.

The past year was a slower than usual year for adding content to these Musings. As mentioned a few times previously, life just got in the way.

Despite life’s distractions, there were 57 days in 2018 in which I got in some shooting activities, either matches or pratice. I participated in six state or regional level events; the Chesapeake Cup, Virginia Indoor Regional, AAF&G Lt Col Matt Mathys Memorial IDPA Match, Maryland State IDPA Championship, Virginia State IDPA Match, and the Potomac Grail. I was also very fortunate to travel with three friends to participate in the IDPA National Championship held in Talladega, Alabama. In addition, I also managed to get to 16 local IDPA matches. There was also a two day competition focused training class which was a lot of fun. The matches, combined with range trips to practice culminated in about 8500 rounds fired in the year.

I wasn’t too remiss in exploring the craft beer world this year. While I wasn’t as diligent at keeping records as in the past, a quick review of the year’s checkins on Untappd shows about 123 unique beers tasted in the course of 2018. In the slow sipping category, some 23 different whiskeys, mostly bourbons, made the list as well. In a newer addition to my pleasure time, this fall I started tracking the cigars I enjoyed (often with the aforementioned beverages.) There were 42 different cigars tried in the second half of the year. That number is not extraordinary, but they certainly contributed much needed relaxation in a busy and hectic year.

Dealing with some family members’ health struggles, combined with a new role at work, had me missing some desired range time, as well as limiting our family adventures and vacation time in the past year. Although we didn’t get around to an actual family vacation last year, Colleen and I did enjoy many weekends away taking in some college football games this past fall. Those trips also provided some extra opportunity to enjoy good drink and food. I am looking forward to reversing the pleasure travel shortfall in 2019.

Looking forward, I’m already registered for two regional IDPA matches in early 2019, and expect to shoot the year’s first local match within the first week of the new year. There are some beers currently queued up for review as well. Even more exciting, there have even been preliminary talks of summer vacation plans, a discussion we never quite got around to in 2018.

I am honored that you’ve continued to read these Musings over the past year. It’s been especially exciting to meet so many readers in person, and to share the fun times. I have some ideas for more stories to tell, so stand by. Here’s looking to new adventures in 2019!

So I actually managed to push a blog post every day in December. And by every day I mean there is a post dated for each day of the month. I actually wrote ahead by a day or two for much of the month. I’m sure you are wondering what …