Goodbye 2025, Good Riddance

The year 1992 was not a good one for the British Royal Family, so much so that Queen Elizabeth described the year as an “annus horribilis.” I think most people can figure out what she meant by that. Thanks to my three years of Latin in high school, I was able to immediately translate that to a “horrible year.” Dear reader, I declare 2025 an “annus horribilis.” Goodbye 2025! Good riddance!

This is primarily due to the nightmare we’re living through. The convicted felon who occupies the White House has created nothing but turmoil in the first year of his second term. He’s not just a failed leader, but a failed human. He doesn’t have one single positive human attribute. Yet, here we are!

I don’t want to give him more oxygen. I have seen several social media posts from people pleading with the media to skip the 2025 recaps. We all lived it! No need to remind us of what we had to go through. So, I’m going to focus the rest of this column on the good things that happened in 2025, most of them personal.

For me, and for many of you, sports is the perfect antidote to the depressing news of the day. The Buffalo Bills began 2025 with yet another playoff appearance. The Bills beat Denver and squeaked by Baltimore to reach the AFC Championship game. But, alas, the opponent was our post-season nemesis, the Kansas City Chiefs. Well, you know what happened…

The 2025 Bills season has been a roller coaster of emotions. As of this writing, the Bills are a respectable 11 and 5. Yet, we have no idea what kind of team we have entering week 18 and the season finale. Is it the team that came back from 21 to beat the New England Patriots a few weeks ago? Or is it the team that laid an egg against the then woeful Dolphins? The Bills will have to win on the road to get to the Super Bowl. Unlike all the other teams ahead of them in the AFC, Buffalo is playoff tested. They could make a run! But none of us would be surprised if they flamed out on Wild Card weekend.

Baseball was an important part of my life in 2025. For the first time, I joined my son and grandson at a sporting event — a Detroit Tigers baseball game on Father’s Day. It was a glorious sunny day. I just reveled sitting there with my two special guys. In the eighth inning, Grandpa took his protege to the gift shop to buy a giant foam Tiger paw and a souvenir baseball. That day was the best gift my son and grandson could have given me.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Cleveland Guardians. Cleveland was the Bisons parent club during the Herd’s championship run in the 1990s and 2000s. My son spent eight years living in Cleveland, enabling us to see a handful of their games. So, when Detroit and Cleveland faced off in Major League Baseball’s Wild Card round, I didn’t know which team to root for. The Tigers won the series. I was also rooting for the Toronto Blue Jays, the Bisons’ current parent. Seeing a Major League game with my son at Sahlen Field when the Blue Jays played there four years ago remains one of my best sports memories. So, I was all in for the Blue Jays, especially in that unforgettable Game Seven against the Dodgers.

I bought a new bicycle this year. It was time to replace the aging 1990 Huffy I had been riding. I ride the neighborhood streets of Snyder and North Cheektowaga. On occasion, I’ll load the bike into the back of the RAV 4 and ride on one of our local trails. Peddling along the beautiful Niagara River at Niawanda and Isle View Parks on a warm summer day never gets old. I ended 2025 biking 141 times, amassing nearly 1,500 miles. The last ride came a couple of weeks ago. It was sunny with temps in the 40s. The roads were dry, though I had to watch out for the occasional icy patch along the side of the road.

There’s no better place than summer in Buffalo. Once the temperatures hit 70, the patio furniture comes out. You’ll find me most afternoons sitting on the patio, listening to Jazz on the Bluetooth speaker and reading a book. During a summer visit, my son met up with some old friends for a picnic at the Harlem Road Community Center park. They used to play soccer together at the old Northeast YMCA 35 years ago. Now, they were playing a pickup soccer game with their kids. Talk about a special moment!

My wife and I traveled to Ann Arbor in late August for our grandson’s sixth birthday. His parents rented a bounce house. The little one was so excited, as were the 20 or so friends invited to his party. The following Monday was his first day of school. Both sets of grandparents joined Mom and Dad walking him to school. It was quite the procession! Our ten day stay in Ann Arbor culminated with Michigan’s home opener at the Big House. My son lives a mile from the stadium, so it’s a quick 15 minute walk to one of the most storied landmarks in college football. 

In October, my sister invited my wife and me for a quick stay at our favorite resort in Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio. I was hoping to take a bike ride along a trail that follows the Lake Erie shoreline. It was too windy and rainy, though I did take advantage of a brief dry spell for a walk. The winds off the lake were so strong my Apple Watch recorded a loudness alert! 

I turned 70 this year. I still can’t get my head around that! We have our aches and pains and health issues. But that’s expected at our age. As a friend of mine describes these years: “We’re late in the fourth quarter of life, hoping for overtime.”

So, maybe 2025 wasn’t all that bad! It is probably best to focus on our personal joys and blessings as we take down our old calendar and put up the new one for 2026. It’s hard! But we can’t let the divisiveness that is so much a part of what’s happening in our society dictate our lives. Turn off cable news. Set aside your phones for an hour or two. Just enjoy life! If you see me passing by your house on my bike, give me a wave. And as Van Miller used to proclaim, “Fasten your seatbelts!” The Bills are in the playoffs. Could this be a January and February we’ll never forget? (Note, I haven’t even mentioned the Buffalo Sabres nine game winning streak as 2025 comes to a close!)