It’s amazing how refreshed my mind feels after a week of decompressing on the ski slopes. With a de-cluttered mind and some sore muscles, I was eager to reflect on the year when New Years Eve rolled around. So I sat down with some coffee, and then 5 minutes later I felt nearly dizzy just thinking about everything that transpired over the last 365 days. It has been a busy year, and if I had to describe 2022 with one word, it would be “change.”
I thought about writing in detail about all of those changes, and then I suited up and went snowboarding in the rain. It’s not that I didn’t feel like writing, but I’ve really come to value the precious hours away from the computer these days. Hence why this website hasn’t been redesigned in 6 years, I haven’t fixed various things on here, and I only write one personal blog post per year 🙂
Nonetheless, I do think it’s important to take stock of the year’s events. So here’s my much abridged bullet point version:
I went from barely knowing how to snowboard, to cruising all over the mountain at Snowshoe and Silver Creek. I tracked 284 runs total.
Russia started a horrendous war and changed geopolitics forever.
We transformed the original RecRe MVP app into a full on SaaS platform with multi-tenancy. RecRe now provides a full rental management platform (hardware and software) to universities.
I experienced St. Patty’s Day in Savannah for the first time in honor of my child hood best friend’s bachelor party. 10/10 would recommend St. Patty’s Day in Savannah.
Life moved on beyond COVID for most of the world. Olivia and I did finally come down with COVID in September. 10/10 would not recommend. I couldn’t speak for days.
We hired our first two full time employees at RecRe.
The Supreme Court lost its way… There are over 4,000 different religions in this world. Who is wise enough to say which, or if any religion should influence all of our lives? No one. Keep that nonsense out of the courtroom, and out of the doctor’s office, please.
We hired a new Lead Developer at Storyware, allowing me to step away from the day-to-day work there and focus more on RecRe.
Briggs got married. Briggs is my childhood best friend and we’ve literally known each other since we were born. Seeing him get married was like watching my own brother get married.
With COVID settled down… We had a family reunion in The Smokeys!
Olivia and I finally took our trip to Europe. COVID delayed this trip a few times before. Olivia went for a work even in London, and then I flew over and we explored southern Britain.
While I didn’t manage to surf anywhere in the US, I did surf a wave pool for the first time. And in England of all places.
RecRe launched at five universities.
I cooked a lot. And then some more. If I wasn’t working this year, I was probably cooking.
We didn’t see the coast much over the summer, but we enjoyed some good family time at home. My mom spent the summer with us in Richmond.
Olivia and I went to Iowa for the first time… For our first music festival.
I went back to Vegas for the first time in nearly two decades.
RecRe saw over 575k minutes of rental usage in 2022.
I started making time for reading again. I finished four books in a month for the first time in… Well, I don’t know how long 🙂
Speaking of reading, that’s enough reading of bullet points. Scope out the photos below for more of a glimpse into 2022.
Olivia and Cocoa admiring the ice and snow in Richmond on January 3rd, just two days after 2022 started with 60 degree temps.
Olivia on a powder day at Snowshoe in mid January. This was her first black diamond on a snowboard.
I logged a lot of scenic evening sessions at Silver Creek last winter. I took this photo on a Friday evening in January.
Cocoa continued to enjoy exploring in the snow.
Olivia and Cocoa in February by the village at Snowshoe
Olivia all suited up and ready to ride. Valentines Day week at Snowshoe.
Griffin, my business partner at RecRe, having fun with LEDs during a RecRe weekend last winter.
Here’s my “RecRe portrait” taken by Griffin last winter.
I found that ski lifts are really fun to photograph last winter.
More ski lift photo fun.
Cocoa ate yet another pair of my sunglasses in 2022. Fingers crossed that his tastes have evolved.
Morty continued to supervise in the kitchen.
Spring came early, the tree in our front yard bloomed beautifully as always, and it snowed a day later.
As ski season came to an end, I went down to Savannah to celebrate St. Patty’s Day and my best friend Briggs’ (center) bachelor party. I’d like to thank Mike Lynch (right side of photo) for teaching me Briggs’ new name, “Ricky Goochland”.
I attempted to create “Cocoa-exclusion zones” in the yard to regrow grass in Cocoa’s favorite zoomy zones. Cocoa wasn’t happy about it, but it did work. He also managed to get himself banned from the front yard in 2022 because he gets far too excited about anything happening on the street.
The backyard in early spring. I’ve been putting my agronomy education to work.
I continued to wage war on ivy in the backyard. I’m slowly ripping it all out and re-seeding… I’ve just about won!
Cocoa explored a bit more of the river at home.
Mitsy continued to explore new boxes.
Mitsy continued to get stuck in strange places.
Mitsy continued to offer much assistance during the workday.
Cocoa kept my feet company most workdays.
RecRe won the award for Innovation in Development from the Shenandoah Valley Technology council. I was thrilled to accept this award at JMU in April.
I discovered cooking with the fire pit in 2022. Here’s some shrimp on the Breeo in the backyard.
I experimented with roasted jalapeños a LOT this year.
Yes, much of my free time was spent cooking in 2022. And I found that cast iron is great for pizza.
I made several SUP trips underneath my favorite bridge in Richmond. I can’t take enough photos of this bridge.
Here’s Briggs and I on his wedding day in June. I’ve known Briggs since 1990.
Olivia spent her birthday at Dollywood in June!
We went to Dollywood as part of a family reunion in the Smokey Mountains. Here are some of my cousins behind us on the log flume 🙂
We also met some famous wax people on our family reunion trip.
Olivia and I stopped in Charlottesville to lead a group in the annual Charlottesville Ale Trail “Walk Our City” event last June. We were testing out some new LoyalBrew features as part of this year’s event.
Here’s Olivia watching a competitor in the UCI World Mountain Bike Championship at Snowshoe last summer.
Cocoa went on some new hikes at Snowshoe last summer. He didn’t always want to pose for a photo.
Cocoa continued to be fascinated by the deer neighbors at Snowshoe.
Morty shocked us all when I caught him with a vole for the first time. I suppose little Morty is all grown up now that he’s a real hunter.
I had fun with the griddle at Snowshoe. Nothing cooks brunch or tacos like a griddle.
Cocoa started to get a little better at posing for photos on hikes.
Cocoa went paddle boarding for the first time and loved it.
It sure was nice to attend some Richmond Flying Squirrels games for the first time in years.
We enjoyed some old familiar spots along the river in Richmond.
We explored some new spots along the river as well. I had never photographed RVA from this angle.
I hadn’t photographed RVA from this angle either.
I took mom up to Snowshoe during the 4848 music festival on her birthday.
Here’s one of mom and I together from Snowshoe on her birthday.
Olivia and I spent the 4th down in Colington, NC with our friends Aaron, Carrie, and Sue. It was so nice to cruise the canals on a SUP for the first time in years.
I found that ski lifts can be fun to photograph in the summer months as well.
We went to a music festival in Iowa with some good friends. By the way, Iowa is a bit warm in August.
We took my mom up to Sandy Point on Labor Day. She showed us where she and her sisters would spend their summers on the bay. I had heard about this place my entire life, but hadn’t seen it until this year.
We opened the first RecRe warehouse in September. Here are boxes awaiting deployment at our facility which is just down the road from JMU in Harrisonburg, VA.
Here’s Ian, another of my best friends. He talked me into buying this Traeger at the State Fair in September. Zero regrets. We’ve had some great cooks on the back patio since then.
Briggs (AKA Ricky Goochland) and I went shooting one day this fall. I think Briggs and I last shot guns together 15 years ago.
Here’s Olivia and I in front of the Tower Bridge in London.
Mike White! Mike White lives in London now and he was a great tour guide while Olivia and I were in London.
Here’s the surf park we went to in Bristol, outside of London. Finally, I got to surf a wave pool for the first time. And Olivia learned how to surf as well! I wish we had a photo of us together all suited up.
Olivia along the river in Cambridge.
Here we are at South Sea Castle in Portsmouth.
This is one of my favorite photos from the trip to Britain. I took this by the water in Portsmouth.
Me, Olivia, Mike White, his lady friend Sam, and their pup Sherlock in London.
Olivia was very excited for Halloween. We had so many trick or treaters this year!
Here’s the RecRe team in Vegas this fall.
The Wood Family – Thanksgiving
You can’t grill on a holiday without some shellfish. Here’s mom enjoying some clams on Thanksgiving.
That’s a lot of music streaming. In other words, I had another extremely busy year of work.
Olivia and I at Snowshoe on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Olivia was very happy to get back on the snowboard in November, and so was I.
Olivia’s hopes and dreams came true when we saw Jerry Seinfeld live in December.
Olivia did some good work with the Christmas lights this year.
The Wood Family Christmas light outing at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens
I snuck back up to Snowshoe for some powder on December 23rd… And I snapped this photo when the windchill was -35 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Wood Family on Christmas night. Cocoa doesn’t let us take family photos without him now.
Cocoa received some little snow boots for Christmas. He sure didn’t like them at first.
Olivia snapped this photo of Cocoa and I on my birthday. Cocoa is now happy to explore in his new snow boots.
Looking down at the lake at Snowshoe on December 28th. I can’t wait for more days like this in 2023.
What’s Next?
I realized something wild while finishing this post. Today marks 10 years ago that I moved to the North Shore of Oahu. Obviously that was a huge move, and one of the most defining decisions of my life. Moving to Oahu occurred after a period of immense change, and that move brought about quite a bit of change as well.
So now I’m quite eager to see what changes, and what defining moments lie ahead in 2023.
