2022 Mountains & Valleys
My Adirondack Outlaw 2022 Year End Review
2022 was certainly a year of high peaks and steep valleys. Some days I felt like I had just successfully constructed and climbed my own mountain. Other days I felt like I’d just been run over thirty-six times by a snowplow.
First on the list of 2022 Adirondack Outlaw High Peaks:
Our granddaughter, Ari Rae Marra, was born!
And properly Bull Rush Bay baptized, of course.
Then we unexpectedly lost Paw Patrol Leader Captain Blue to lymphoma.
We gained two new Paw patrol members:
Gypsy Rose
& Princess Luna
Princess Luna
before once again suffering the loss of Senior Paw Patrol member Player just after Christmas.
Player
Our daughter Abigail Lyn moved into her own apartment in May (sort of).
Our son RJ & daughter-in-law to be Carrie & their dog Finley J. moved to Corning.
Carrie finished her graduate degree.
Both she & RJ landed exciting new jobs.
In the meantime,
RJ bagged a trophy Tom turkey.
Mom successfully survived triple bypass surgery.
RJ and I bought a boat.
1st thing somebody did was steal the license plate!
We had another great Monroe family Bull Rush Bay camping summer.
ADK Outlaw Style!
(And yes, there are warrants!)
Enjoying their throne
RJ and I somehow survived another perilous fall duck hunting canoe escapade.
Followed by a hit & miss bag (RJ hit, I missed) of deer hunting success.
Robin and I made plans for her to year end retire.
Then she changed course and told the hospital she wasn’t retiring until they settled the damned contract!
I put the finishing touches on ‘Monroe Mountain”.
Experts Only
Then mother nature stepped in and snowed.
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Hitting us with not one but Two “once in a generation” snowstorms.
In a month.
Watertown got as much or more snow than Buffalo
As for my 2022 Adirondack Outlaw writing adventures:
First and foremost,
An important announcement:
“WE DID IT!”
With a December 31st final day surge of 438
My adirondackoutlaw.com blog hit 10,440 visitors for 2022!
THANK YOU!
The year started off with Adirondack Outlaw riding high. It seemed I was hitting on all cylinders, regularly writing some of the most popular stories & getting rave reviews from readers at The Adirondack Almanack.
Then, suddenly, out of the blue, without warning, lightning struck. Someone in The Adirondack Almanack’s world decided that because I wrote stories about playing high school football for the Saranac Lake Redskins, I was somehow a racist.
And daring to write about it.
That was the end of that. By mid-February, I was once again following my own path as an Adirondack Outlaw.
I was never allowed to know who it was who made those accusations. They were allowed to do so like a coward, anonymously, and quite publicly. I cannot help but believe that what was really going on was quite simple:
Jealousy
My stories were far more popular with Almanack readers than many other writers on that site.
This has happened to me as a writer before. When my Adirondack Outlaw star begins shining bright, those who envy my popularity with readers conspire to get rid of me. I believe that someone associated with The Adirondack Almanack achieved their agenda.
Be that as it may, my break from The Adirondack Almanack proved to be a blessing in disguise! My adirondackoutlaw.com blog readership flourished. I flew past my 2020 record of 9,021 readers in early November. With a little help from loyal family and friends, I finished 2022 with gusto, blasting past 10,000 on the final day of the year. Final Number: 10,574!
I penned 55,000 words in 2022, posted exclusively on my blog after leaving the Almanack, in another 40+ Adirondack Outlaw adventures, poems & stories.
The average published book contains between 50,000 & 80,000 words.
So, in essence, in 2022, ADKO penned a book!
My top stories for 2022 were, in order from 1-5:
Captured Canoes
Drummer’s Debut
Lake Effect Life
Outlawed Athletics
Advanced Biology
There must have been one or more Captured Canoe entries from Norway, because I had a sudden influx of Norwegian readers regularly visiting my site.
My top 2022 blog story
Especially in Norway
I love getting international reads!
34 different countries visited my blog in 2022, with my top views outside the U. S. coming from Ireland, Canada, and Norway.
Late in the year, I had another surprise event occur. My story “Olympic Outlaws” was chosen by Harmonny Performing Arts Center for a live dramatic reading, right here locally at the Sackets Harbor Ballroom. It was a great evening. My whole family attended. The entire experience was a high honor, and awesome.
I also took a deep breath and did a little live read of my own. I attended a “Barkreader’s” event one evening in in Saranac Lake at The Adirondack Center for Writing and read “The River Calling” during their open mic, one of my 2022 most popular poems.
As a cancer survivor missing half a jaw and with no tongue, it’s a huge challenge for me to do a live reading.
Another Monroe Mountain conquered.
I’m glad I did it.
So, with all that in the books for 2022, the question now is:
WHAT’S NEXT?
What will 2023 bring?
I don’t have a crystal ball, but two very exciting events are already planned:
#1: RJ & Carrie are getting married!
#2: Robin is FINALLY retiring!
(at least that’s the rumor)
As far as my Adirondack Outlaw Writing career goes, at this point, there’s one event on my calendar: I’m planning on going back up to Saranac Lake for another of The Adirondack Center for Writing’s Barkreader’s open mic nights!
January 18th, 2023
I’m planning to read
“Serenade of the Loon”
Another one of my most popular poems.
Family & friends are welcome to join me!
To help ring in 2023 right, for those who do,
I’m buying a round of drinks afterwards!
Stay Tuned!
More info to follow
Beyond that,
I just plan to keep writing and sharing my stories on my adirondackoulaw.com blog.
THANK YOU!
&
HAPPY 2023
To all my loyal family, friends, readers & blog followers.
**********
Until Our Trails Cross Again:
ADKO
About The Author
rdmonroe5
Lifelong NYS resident. Raised in Saranac Lake. Cornell graduate(ROTC). Army veteran, Airborne/Ranger qualified, 10th Mtn Div, stints in Honduras and with JTF VI. 3rd degree Black Belt; 3x cancer survivor; published writer with several featured stories in Adirondack Life Magazine. Residing in Watertown NY with wife Robin & our 3 adult children. Loving Life. Living in the Day I am in.
Dick,
CONGRATULATIONS on all you well deserved success. I love you stories.
Keep writing. Keep drumming. Keep on keeping on.
Thank you, Bob! Happy New Year!
Bob, thought you might appreciate this anecdote: So, my nephew Forrest is a freshman music major at Berklee in Boston. He brought his roommate to our house over Christmas. He’s from Singapore. He’s a percussionist. So, I gave my nephew a portable phonograph player I had recently purchased and urged them both to learn to appreciate vintage music on vinyl. At the same time, I introduced my nephew’s Singapore roommate to Neil Peart’s percussion magic by playing “Working Man” on that record player, right through the drum solo(one of my teen inspir/aspirations). I also told him he should make time to explore the world of Led Zeplin and Jon Bonham. Then I gave him a pair of wooden drumsticks I purchased the last time I was in Saranac. I was surprised to learn that he did not actually own any! Apparently in Singapore a guy can get arrested for playing drums in their apartment. Thought you would appreciate that little story. Be well, Dick
A big Happy New Year to you and the entire, accomplished branch of your family on our tree! Sad goodbyes, exuberant welcomes, and all the ups and downs in between…you’ve experienced it all in 2022! Hoping 2023 brings only the best to your doorstep.
Much love from Aunt Susie & Uncle John (who can now say…see you later this year!)
Happy New Year Aunt Susie! Love to you & Uncle John.
Dear Richard, I found you through the Adirondack Almanack and immediately realized there was something very special going on here. Many a time laughing and occasionally getting wet eyed. I knew something had happened that caused your move away from AA but never knew what. The school I went to was forced by do-gooders who don’t care about tradition to change from the Indians to the Bears. We were so proud of the local heritage. I suppose the animal rights people will be after us next! Our history is being challenged every day by cold hearted haters, the same people who throw trash along our country roads and deface our public property. While none of us is without fault, to assume the worst in motivation seems to be a sign of the times. The freedom of speech and expression is being challenged by a community that takes the very words we use and twist their meaning toward evil. Stay the Outlaw you are, never succumb to the status quo, express freely, you are one of the exceptional Americans!
Thank you, Alan. I awoke to your comment. This may seem a bit unexpectedly melodramatic, especially coming from an outlaw, but I could literally shed tears right now after reading your comment. You just made my day. Happy New Year!
This is directed to Mr. Fisher. Dick Monroe knows that I support his writing 100% and disagree with the Adirondack Almanack’s decision to drop his column. I sympathize with the idea that changing names of sports teams for “political correctness“ is sometimes unnecessarily over the top. However, your categorization of “these people” as “cold hearted haters, and the same people who litter are roads, and deface our public property…etc“ is at least equally inaccurate and ridiculous.
Thank you, Bob You and Alan both, for being two of my most dedicated & passionate Adirondack readers. Bob, while I realize your comment is directed to Alan, for my part I think you each express valid feelings & points. This is a discussion & debate issue I urged, even pleaded, Melissa to have in the Almanack’s “Discussion Time” forum the minute the racist accusations were published. Despite all the other controversial topics they cover there, she refused to “poke that bear” (her words exactly, as I recall). That left me defenseless, and that’s when I left.
Hi Dick,
Indeed I wish Melissa had allowed this debate. I wonder if the “ higher ups” said no.
Melissa gave me the very distinct impression that both higher ups and big money donors were involved.
Humm?
Their loss.
None of whom, however, ever had the courage or professional courtesy to step out of the shadows.
Bob, I respect your right and opinions. Our opinions find their base in our experience and perspective. Yours and mine may be different but not without merit once the perspective is understood. I believe words to be our only real means of communication and understanding. They can also limit us. I have a difficult time understanding why any person knowingly defaces our landscape and vandalizes our communities. If it’s not the extension of anger and hatred, then please inform me. I’m sure you don’t think the trashing of our history and vandalism of our language will lead to anything other than greater division. Faith is an openness to what I don’t understand and unable to comprehend. Only in faith in the infinite higher power do I find hope.
Alan,
Like you, I detest the littering of our landscapes and the defacing of anything. It was only your equating those abhorrent actions with the people who advocate for changing names and wording that are insensitive to certain groups of people like our indigenous population. I see no correlation.
There are two kinds of history
One is the mythology of what we would like to be real. The other is the factual history of what really happened which is often not so pretty.
A prime example in our nation is how we are dealing with the many Confederate monuments and memorials. I don’t agree with destroying them, but I do agree with removing them from places of public praise into museums and other places that can educate people about the reality of who these people were. Like it or not, they were traitors to our country, and cupholders of the barbarism of slavery.
I can go on and on about perception versus reality. just one example: Charles Lindbergh, and Henry Ford, who we grew up admiring, were antisemites and Nazi sympathizers and supporters.
It doesn’t negate the greatness of our nation and the continuing quest to form a more perfect union, but, to hide from, or deny real history, in order to perpetuate what we’d like to believe, only harms us in the long run.
As for having faith in a higher power, that’s another discussion altogether, except to say that, as long as one does not try to force their beliefs on another, we should all be free and unafraid to believe and have faith in what we choose.
Amen. Shalom. Salaam and
Festivas ✝️☪️✡️🕉️☯️☮️🎊
Bob,
Thank you for the clarification of your perspective. I also am judgmental and do not condone slavery or what was done to the native Americans. This said, I believe we as third-party observers feel safety in judging history from a perspective of separation. We tend to emulate those people we admire and judge badly those we don’t. I find it disturbing that we villainize persons based on their faults and failures with disregard for their best qualities. There is good and evil in the world, always has been and most likely always will be. I can’t help but wonder if we will be judged by the same measure we deal. Perspective is the touchstone of understanding. God knows there is way much I don’t understand! Unless I have it wrong though, there were many poor people in our history that were indoctrinated by accepted thought. That accepted thought could have been from ignorance, greed, power or necessity. I’m not sure that putting monuments of historical figures on display automatically implies praise. Certainly, these persons, were they able, could be their own worst critics in retrospect. Just like us hindsight is usually 20-20. There are no historical figures in whom, that if they existed, I could not find a fault. Will hiding them in a museum and removing them from history books, good and bad together be beneficial. We will never really understand in any detail who these people were. We can’t put them on trial, ask questions, demand explanation. In conclusion, the best we can make of it, identify and learn from the bad things so we don’t repeat them and cherish the good.
Alan, I just want to clarify that I am not in favor of “hiding” anything in amuseum. First museums are not for hiding but to exhibiting. Second, I would like these things to be presented in a new edicutational way for people to learn real history as opposed to the mythological version many of us were fed in our youth.
“Hello World”,
I would like to dialog about my understanding of the greater power. When I was a boy, I would stand for lengths of time staring into the night sky trying to envision infinity. (Remember, that was before we knew there were millions of galaxies out there.) A foolish thing, I know, but something happens in my brain when I try. It’s like the super computer that begins to calculate the incalculable and bursts into flames due to overload.
God the infinite. Mankind has always, as near as history can recall been haunted with his inability to grasp the infinite and unattainable. Mans solution… make someone or something that represents that power. Man made the infinite into the finite. Man made God in his own image or imagination.
Some great men in history demanded that they themselves be revered as god. Some carved images, man like or animal like to fill the void. No honest or sane man has seen God. Even Jesus Christ tried to help his apostles understand who God was but didn’t claim he himself was God the father.
The very things that make up creation or evolution if you prefer, when discovered by mankind he claims as his own. There is nothing that I discover that didn’t already exist. I didn’t know what it was or how it worked but it did exist and did work as intelligence commanded.
If complexity and purpose are an indication of intelligent design then I can’t take credit for the workings of the universe and earth. I might be able to take some limited credit for my knowledge and understanding but upon closer examination even that is suspect.
WOW! There’s a lot to ponder, philosophize, discuss and dialogue here.
If our esteemed host Dick Monroe is in favor, i’d love to continue.
What say you kind sir?
I will be honest Bob, the role of “discussion moderator” is somewhat unchartered ground for me. However, as we enter a new year, if my blog can somehow serve a purpose as a platform for constructive dialogue & voices, I am willing to undertake that endeavor. However, as An Adirondack Outlaw wounded & scarred by his share of editorial shrapnel, I offer this cautionary note: words are far more powerful than any guns, knives or ammo. I trust that all voices who choose to participate will take that to heart. With that said, Happy New Year to all! Let the drumbeat of dialogue carry on!
Dick,
Your words are words of caring thoughtful deliberation, and great wisdom.
If this dialogue continues, you will make a great moderator.
I am truly grateful to know you through this platform.
Thank you for being in our lives.
B
Dick,
As I read the numerous responses in this thread, I was struck how comfortable your readers were, sharing their thoughts. I, too, think your blog might include yet another purpose. I won’t repeat all the items in Bob Meyer’s response, but…ditto!
I truly wish we had people such as yourself, in Congress. You have a talent of listening, acknowledging, and responding in such a way that brings people together.
I feel so lucky to call you family as well as friend…
Aunt Susie
Love ya Aunt Susie, I’m truly glad folks enjoy & feel comfortable sharing their thoughts on my blog. But there ain’t no way in HELL I’m ever runnin’ for Congress! God Bless America! Happy New Year
Re: not running for Congress.
A very wise decision. 😏
Been under the weather a few days so have been predisposed. I agree with Bob, Richard would get my vote but I’m afraid running for office has become a blood sport, especially in higher office. “Mountains and Valleys” says so much about the lives we live. Joy, laughter, pain and tears. Richard is so willing to share it all. The salt of the earth giving life flavor. Thank you!
Thank you, Alan. I appreciate the endorsement. No worries of me ever running for office though, too many outstanding warrants! Then again…given the current rogues gallery representing us, that could be the perfect hideout! An Adirondack Outlaw’s presence in Congress might easily go completely unnoticed! Glad you are feeling better. Hapy New Year!