A Look Back at 2023

2023 was a year of change, a year of success, and a year of fun. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights!

In 2023 our family unit saw a couple of big changes. In January, after many months of no updates, Susan’s medical retirement from the FAA was abruptly approved. After more than 25 years of federal service, she was given 24 hours to remove her belongings and wrap up the dozens of projects she was overseeing. Once the shock wore off, Susan began pouring her newfound free time into lipedema awareness and her new shoe company, LegsLikeMine. Throughout the year Susan wrote and published several books, spoke at multiple conferences, and worked with designers to create lipedema-friendly shoes, which should go on sale in early 2024. It should surprise no one that Susan is busier than ever.

Also this year, Morgan graduated high school. This fall, Mason and Morgan moved out and into a duplex. Just like that, Susan and I became empty nesters. Our home is more quiet than it has been in 20 years. Even though the kids live only twenty minutes away, we are always excited when they stop by the house to visit.

And finally, our cat Noodle passed away this year. Noodle had a history of abuse and hid from us for a month when we first brought her home from the shelter, but she warmed up over time and was one of the sweetest cats we’ve owned. A year or two ago she had a seizure that affected her equilibrium but nothing else. After Noodle passed away, Carol (our other cat) became lethargic and bored which led to a new addition to the cat family, Bobbi McGee. Bobbi is all kitten and loves to play (I have the scratches to prove it).

In 2023, Susan and I both turned 50 years old. For my birthday, Susan rented two Airstream trailers located at a local drive-in and a bunch of our friends came out to watch a movie on I believe the hottest and most humid evening of the entire year. For Susan’s birthday, I asked my buddy Andy to help me build one of those oversized Adirondack chairs for the backyard, and boy did he deliver! Susan painted the 8′ tall chair bright red and it can be easily seen over our fence while driving past our neighborhood, and quite possibly from outer space. The chair sits poolside and has been a fun addition to our backyard compound. We have been in this house for five years now and if we ever move it will take some logistics to relocate the chair which weighs more than half a ton.

Last fall, Susan and I, along with our friends Jeff and Heather, took a cruise to Cozumel. We had so much fun visiting the pyramids of Uxmal, swimming in a private cenote, and visiting Mr. Sancho’s. Susan and I spent so much money at the casino that we were offered another free cruise, which we’ll be taking advantage of next year. Last summer, Susan attended a conference in Minnesota and the two of us spent a week there. Along with the Mall of America, we toured Paisley Park (Prince’s home/compound) and visited all kinds of crazy things, from the world’s largest candy store to the Spam Museum, the Pizza Hut Museum, and the Evel Knievel Museum. It was such a fun vacation. Also last summer, I attended Boatfest, a vintage/retro computer convention in West Virginia for the second year in a row. This year, my buddy Jeff went with me and the two of us rented a Class B motorhome for the trip. We had a great time and learned that, among other things, mattresses in Class B motorhomes aren’t very comfortable.

In October, Susan and I was invited back to serve as parade judges for our town’s local Czech Festival Parade. It is so much fun and such an honor to get to participate in the festival in this capacity. Susan and I got all dressed up and sat on a stage right in the middle of Main Street, judging all the parade floats.

In the spring of 2023, hail rained down on our cars and home. Morgan’s brand new car sustained more than $10,000 in hail damage, which took several months to prepare. My car also took substantial hail damage. All of the vehicles parked in our driveway had their windshields smashed by the hail. Because of the hail we had to have the roof on our home and my workshop replaced, along with many of the gutters and window screens. We spent a lot of the summer listening to contractors replace the roofs of all our neighbors.

In 2023 we lost several celebrities, but the ones that affected me the most were actor Paul “Pee-wee Herman” Reubens, musician Sinead O’Connor, and the world’s most infamous hacker, Kevin Mitnick, who I had the pleasure of meeting and communicating with many times over the years. Other notable celebrities who passed away included Monster of the Midway Dick Butkus, former Price is Right host Bob Barker, and one half of the Smothers Brothers, Tom “Slithery Dee” Smothers. Finally, I was terribly saddened this year to learn of the passing of my old dear friend, Josh Erichsen. Josh and I met in high school and was one of the original members of the Nasty Pirates. Josh was funny and smart and will be sorely missed.

Over the past year Susan and I continued to visit local casinos and for the first time I was able to track all of our casino activity (except what happened on the cruise — that’s for the best). In 2023, Susan and I visited local casinos a lucky 13 times. We spent a total of 22.25 hours in casinos. I spent $2,480 and won $4,517; Susan spent $1,745 and won $807, so there’s that. Combined, we spent $4,225 at casinos and won $5,324, for a total of $1,099 in profits. We also had a lot of fun, sometimes with friends and coworkers, ate a lot of Indian Tacos and drank a lot of free 4oz cups of Diet Dr. Pepper. All of the money we spent came from previous visits and so none of this actually cost us anything out of pocket. You can view the raw data right here.

And finally, along with all my podcasts and game streams, in 2023 I continued my deep dive into the “vanlife” community. I spent a lot of time and money working on my van and driving everyone around me crazy by talking about vans and vanlife. Under the moniker BigRobsVan, I wrote a bunch of blog entries, gained thousands of followers on Instagram, and created two dozen videos on YouTube. I try to keep my vanlife content separate from everything else, but if any of that interests you check out this page for links to all my BigRobsVan social media accounts and content. It’s not for everybody and that’s why I don’t push it here, but if you find videos of me freezing while sleeping in the parking lot of my local courthouse entertaining, you might want to check it out.

Thanks for following all of our adventures, whether it was on RobOHara.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube. Here’s to health and adventure in 2024!