End of The Year Update....

 Wow...2023 is gone already?
I was sitting here minding my own business and working on the "Late November/Early December" update when I look at the calendar and it's 12.31.2023.
Where did the time go?
I didn't do an end of year update and reflection last year. Too much was going on, and I was trying to get my head sorted out. So, I am going ahead with a short one for this year.
Read on, if you wish.

2023...A Year in Review....

So January 2023 rolled in, and I realized the projects I need to get done. Naturally I made of list of things I wanted to accomplish, and then promptly disregarded it.

But I DID clean up my painting desk in preparations for all things planned, grand, and glorious...

(A clean workspace?!?!.... What kind of MADNESS is this?!?!?!....)

With January here, I restarted my interest in working on my Western town of Rimfire, (Arizona Territory), and finished up the Newspaper Office, and started re-working the Sheriffs Office and Jail.

And January rolled into February....

February came in, and for those chilly days, I made up a pot of Jambalaya, with extra stuff in it!

(MMMM-mmmm!)

And there was some work done on figures or buildings, but nothing was finished. 

March wandered in like a drunken sailor....

And like the whirlwind month that it is, I finished a large batch of figures, including these:

A large batch of figures, fantasy, animals, colonial, and Western, rounded out the entire batch.

I was also able to finally finish a long dormant project, the livery stable conversion I had done from an old ERTL Cowtown barn.

I also named it after my best friend, who passed away in 2021 due to covid pneumonia.

With April coming in, I was on a mad figure painting roll.

I cranked out a nice batch of Western, Fantasy, and Gangsters and G-Men from "The Chicago Way", among some others, (including redoing my 20+ year old paint job on my "Voodoo Zombie Master")...

So far my mini completion count was going along nicely.

So with April and May, we also had company from Colorado. My wife's best friend came to visit, and her husband and me took off one day to the Indy Motor Speedway.

And I fixed them dinner...

Speaking of food...

I got a chance to try out a recipe for "Robber Steak" from the literary classic, "Dracula"...

The recipe was simple, I think though that next time I am going to try them on the grill and see how they come out.

Meanwhile I laid out a short version of my Western town to get an idea of how it would/could look....

(Not a bad piece of real estate...)

And I also worked out designs for my first scratch-built brownstone for my gangster games.

("Dis ain't a bad piece o' prop'ty eidder...")

And we found GOOD KIMCHI!!!!

(Oooooh yeah...)

And then towards the end of the month my work rate shot up...

First was a bunch of fantasy figures, including these.

And then I followed up with some pulp/horror figures...

(Yeah, if you watched Saturday morning TV in the 70's and early 80's you know WHO these guys are...)

(A RAFM "Call of Cthulhu" character figure, reading from an ancient book of evil knowledge while holding her cat in an underarm death grip. Emotional support animal or unknowing sacrifice to a dark elder thing? YOU tell me....)

And I repainted my 20+ year old voodoo zombies and a couple of pirates. These were figures from my infamous Pirate game I ran at Triple J's back around 2000. 

First up, the voodoo zombies.

Please not that a lot of the pics here show the figures to look "glossy and shiny" and that is not the case. It's the case of me using a cheap Iphone 10 camera, and the lighting.

(Voodoo Zombies!!!!)

And Pirates!!!

And then June ended, and July and August blundered in like two sleepy toddlers wandering through the house early in the morning.

My motivation essentially ground down to a halt.

And the high point of those two months was the new fridge for the game room.

We caught it on sale at Best Buy and it now holds a lot of tasty drinks!

And then suddenly summer was ending and it was September and October....

And I was dragged kicking and screaming into the 18th Century.

(Truth be told, with the pirates, I was always kind of skirting the edge of it.)

I have quietly decided to build a fictional 18th Century "imagi-nation", and right now, the starting point is going to be an island in the Caribbean named "Bloodworth Island". It's a recent "acquisition" from the Spanish by the English in one of their never ending wars. The current port has been renamed "Port Haven", and it's a haven of scum, villains, ruffians, ne'er do wells, mangy dogs, lower class men and women, and screaming brats.

Truly the new governor will have his hands full in the coming days.

But my painting queue was full....

(The table seems quite busy today....)

And the governor of the island...

("Lord Whitehall, the newly established and arrived Governor of the recent English * ahem *,  "acquisition" of Port Haven on Bloodworth Island. He is NOT impressed at what he sees, hears, or smells. .  He knows that although he is technically "ruling" the port, (and supposedly the island, no matter what the French, Spanish, Dutch, and other scum may say), he realizes that his rule is only as good as the troops he has to enforce it.  "Hmph!" he says to himself, (and no one else in particular). "No matter then! If I have to hang a dozen or so pirates and their supporters in this dreg of a town to establish my presence and order, then I guess the gallows are going to be quite busy soon."  Although under orders from His Majesty, he also knows business and how to turn a profit as it may be...

"Although there is always the possibility that a few coins contributed to me, may keep someone from having a short drop and a quick stop..."  He then changed his thoughts from the matter onto whether the port had a decent claret on hand for his dry palate and if so, where would he find it?")

("The Righteous Reverend Task, ( a very determined man in the manner of John Calvin and Cotton Mather), preaches the "true word" to the people of Port Haven.  Having recently arrived to the newly acquired island that is flying the English Flag, (at least in this part), everywhere he looks is bathed in sin, sin, and even more sin. The sinners are plentiful, and the sin is overwhelming. So many souls damned to the eternal fires of the lake of fire created for the Devil and his minions.  He also knows that there are witches here in town, or at least those that practice some form of the dark arts of sorcery. He has read the tracts and studied them immensely before embarking upon his journey from his comfy home in the Massachusetts Colony to this festering abominable pool of unholy deprivations.  Nevertheless he shall root out the witches, or practitioners of dark evil magic and cast them out, and bring the true word, (as interpreted by him), to all those that would hear his holy calling...")

("Nigel Tandy's musical talent and abilities, weren't enough to keep him from barely escaping England with his life, due to his dalliances with the ladies of the local gentry, (of which a few illegitimate children were born), and fleeing to Port Haven, and finding a nice, easy (by the standard here), comfy position as his Lordships musician.  By day, he plays and composes at his lordships will. He is also in demand at night for soirees, balls, dances, dinners, evening entertainment and so on.  Despite knowing what almost happened, he also understands that "pretty, rich, women are his weakness....his Achilles heel.", and knows that it will only be a matter of time before his roving eye catches the looks of one of the local upper crust ladies.  The fact that she may have a heavy purse would be an extra pleasant surprise.  But until then, it's time for him to play (once again), "Traipsing through the green meadow" on his piano forte to the delight of some of those upper crusters that wouldn't give him the time of day otherwise.")

But it wasn't ALL "Caribbean goodness..."

I decided about mid year, that I was wanting to run a Fury of Dracula Board Game for Halloween. It was going to be rp'ing, period dress, and dinner included. Unfortunately while this didn't happen this year, it gave me a bit of a head start for 2024. 

I didn't like the solid grey figures that FFG had in the box, so I painted them up per the cards.

I was dismayed and disappointed a little on the Dracula figure as there was so little facial detail.

But I did what I could.

(Dracula....)

(And the hunters...)

Maybe this year I will get to run it.

And then as usual, I had "Dremel issues".

(Oops...)

And my wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with amazing Mexican food!!!!

(October 13th, 2012... Eleven years married and she hasn't killed me yet...)

(An anniversary feast!)

And that rounded out October....

(There's treasure everywhere!)

And we slipped into November...

November my wife and I did our Turkey Day dinner at Fogo De Chao in Indy.

(Mmmmm...delicious red meat. It's not food if it doesn't bleed...)

And I found myself being dragged kicking and screaming into the 18th Century, with more figures being painted up for the period.

("D'nembo moved slowly through the countryside, pistol and cutlass at ready. His eyes slowly and carefully scanned the tree-line up ahead for anything. Truth be told, he would he happy to hear the sounds of life around him; the squawk or chirping of birds, or the occasional sound of a large animal. But here, there was no sound.  Only silence. Which to D'nembo meant "Nothing living was around him."  And this worried him greatly...")

"Lord Mitchell looked on with slight contempt before sneering at what he saw in the town that he had recently arrived at.  Muddy, badly constructed cobblestone streets; dirty, ramshackle buildings, mongrel dogs wandering about, screaming women and their crying brats, drunkards everywhere....                  And the smell.  Good Gods the smell!   

"No matter." He said to himself. "A few quick roundups of the press gang will clear this dung heap of the drunkards and put them to good use for once in their miserable lives.  The whores will be cleaned out, the dogs shot down, skinned, and the meat given to the natives as they will probably eat anything. It'll take a bit of work to make this into a proper English town under the Governor's rulership and his Majesty The King's command, but it'll get done. But first, I need to try to figure out where I can find a decent claret, or a bottle of sherry, or even a decent bottle of port in this miserable place...."

This figure is named in honor of my best friend Mike Mitchell, who probably shares his need for a decent claret, sherry,  or bottle of port right now....

And quite a few others, to include fops, gentleman duelists, adventurers, ladies, and so much more....

(Checking future ship projects out for size and scale of figures...)

(Possible game table size...That's a lot of land and water!)

(And finishing up some buildings...)

(As well as a cornfield scenic...)

And then the highlight of the month, was Loreena McKennitt in concert in Indy.

I had waited 30 years to see her.

I wasn't going to miss it.

It was more than I expected.

And then December arrived.

And the Christmas season was upon us...

And the house was decorated for the season.

And I decorated "The Elvis"....

And I hung up my custom made, green velveteen stocking (with leopard skin top, and nuclear green silken lining) with care....

And we decorated the house....

Tree up, lights up, all up....

And I remembered Dan on the day....and at the hour I was told....

("So fill to me, the parting glass....Goodnight, and joy be with you all....")

And Christmas Day arrived!

And our neighbors came over for dinner.

(Christmas morning and my wife's stocking is packed. She made out like a bandit...)

(The "after opening frenzy" loot beneath the tree...)

And then we set the dining room up for our meal....

And Santa brought us some of these!

And our neighbors came to dine....

And the house was decorated and glowed with Christmas magic, and it was indeed, once again, "A Hallmark Christmas Movie Set House."

And then, suddenly....that was it.

2023 is over with.

I got some buildings finished, a few closer to being finished, some more stuff worked on, and about 136 figures painted to completion.

I didn't get a chance to get everything on the list I made, and ignored done, but I knew that wasn't going to be the case, as in often times, real life gets in the way.

But overall I think I did pretty good.

My VA disability came through, and my health has improved.

I have a wonderful home, and a wonderful wife, and neighbors.

If I had any wishes for 2024, it would be to reconnect with my brother, and my kids. I do know though that communication is a two way street.

I thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and my God for all the amazing things he has brought forth into my life, and where he is leading me. I trust in him faithfully and know he has my welfare in control for 2024 and beyond.

For all that read this, I wish you joy, peace, happiness, blessings for 2024.

Thank you all for being a part of this incredible journey and this blog of mine.

Michael T. Murphy

Indiana

12.31.2023

(Cheers and best wishes to you for 2024...)