Quarter Recap :: Oct - Dec

One more for 2025! I’m still drafting up some 2026 goals and getting those organized, and took some downtime post holiday frenzy.

Hikes

Total: 2! The shortest list of hikes this year, and that’s okay! The two that made the spot are ones I’ve been meaning to do for a while and wonderful. It was going to be three, but the third was cancelled due to weather and then the holidays happened.

• Indian Race Track to Red Mountain Lookout - completing a goal of visiting a lookout! Could see four mountains from the top (Helens, Adams, Rainier, and Hood). Also saw a drum gathering on our way down; it was odd asking “do you hear drums?” to the group. 😄
• Angel’s Rest - not as scary as I thought, and will be back! It was super foggy when we reached the top, waiting about 20min, and the view cleared! I know some folks do sunrise or sunset ones here, maybe 2026?

Red Mountain Lookout

Fog clearing in the Gorge coming down from Angel’s Rest

Run

Pretty low activity for this one, next to zero. I sort of restarted None2Run from the super basics, but had to pause for shin splint aches :( I assume this is related to my foot strain, gait was affected and did a lot of walking in the meantime. Next attempt starts tomorrow! No rushing this time.

Books

Total: 21! This beat my previous quarter, and December was highest read month all year. I got more into listening to books with the Expanse series, which eased in other books I could listen to as well. I have a goal of 40 For 2026, but I’m also focusing on more diverse settings around the world, reading off my shelf, and series completion.

61 books this year!!

Code

Early in the quarter, I was finalizing my CS50Web final submission, sent it in, and had a couple of stressful weeks waiting for the response. I PASSED! I started the course three years ago, and feels good to get this one done 😁

Otherwise, I’ve been working behind the scenes customizing my own Astro blog site to release soon-ish. I like this template, but there is so much more going on than I need and I wanted to organize posts a little different. Stay tuned for the official release 👀

feeling accomplished!😎

Life

Keeping up with a variety of events and outings (somehow); a mixture of a tech conference (BSides PDX), food + friend outings, and book clubs. This year, I partiicpated in a holiday card swap and in total, with familiy and friends sending in, 15 in total! I’d like to do it again next year, it’s fun to get non-spam/bill mail once in a while 😅

Holiday cheer with the void

While brainstorming possible posts and frequency for 2026, I definitely want to do more than these recap posts, but they are also a good reminder to myself what I’ve done. Prior to drafting this one up, it felt like the fall was a bit slower, but it was still a bit busy! Good busy. Once goals are all outlined and what not, that post will be up sometime this month. January is kind of a “settling in” month, especially after the holiday slump. Who knows, may coincide with the blog refresh… till then!

— H