Annual Christmas Letter to Friends

December 4, 2010

Once again it is time to greet our family, friends, neighbors and whoever it is hiding behind the bushes – come out here now:

As the frozen white death falls from the sky, and the annual tradition of weeding out the broken holiday lights is finally complete, it is time to gather around the image of a fireplace on the DVD player with a cup of eggnog (ok, who drank all the rum?) and share our lives again.

So what has 2010 brought me this year?  Beer.  Really, what more could a man ask for?  My Christmas present from the kids last year was a beer making kit, and I have successfully made five batches now, and am continuing to learn about and enjoy this hobby.  Ever since I found a great deal on a kegerator from one of Diane’s clients I have been hoping to get it set up so I can have my own home brew on tap.  Other than brewing and drinking, I continue to work at The Design Knowledge Company and like it a lot.  I still am working with the band, and did another successful band camp, and still play with toy soldiers.  Yes, I’m a modern Renaissance man!

Diane’s year has not been quite so good, having been in the hospital a couple of times.  As she likes to put it, this has been her ‘rebuilding’ decade.  And she has been rebuilt.  I never thought I would be married to a cyborg, but she know has a completely new titanium knee, and is finally able to walk without pain for the first time in many years.  The Real Estate market is still down though we hope it begins to recover soon.  She was elected to be the Vice President of Membership of The Women’s Council of Realtors, and is expecting lots of trips to Columbus for meetings this coming year.

Becky took the big step of quitting her job at Coon Rapids high school to go completely freelance, and has not regretted it at all.  While still doing work for Sorenson’s video relay service, she is also interpreting at Le’ Cordon Bleu Academy, and may go full time there soon.  She and Lou are still together, and his puppy Burr-d loves her to death.   She still lives up in the snowy wilderness of Minneapolis and enjoying her life.

Jon had a bit of a rough year, with the school deciding he needed a little time to get himself together.  Luckily he took this to heart, eventually getting two jobs to pay his bills and get back on his feet.  He was able to get back in school for the Winter Semester starting in January, and is determined to get his degree (possibly in Business).  The biggest thing seems to be his head now, as he decided that heredity wasn’t working fast enough, and shaved his head completely bald! 

Katie has also had a frustrating year.  The concepts of going to school, getting a job, and being responsible for herself just didn’t seem to be coming together for her.  With a bit of tough love I told her that as once her current lease was up at the end of November, I would no longer pay ANY of her bills for her.  This finally got some action out of her, though not quite what I expected.  The weekend after Thanksgiving she was packed and on a bus to Albuquerque, where she is now living with her mother and starting a new life.

Erik graduated 7^th in his class from West Carrollton High School, and in the fall started at the University of Dayton in the school of Engineering, studying Computer Engineering.  He is sharing a dorm room with Zac Reed, one of his best friends for over 10 years.  He and Emily are still dating, and he seems to really be enjoying the change to college life.

            Matthew is a junior this year at WCHS and still in the marching band, having loads of fun playing baritone.  Finally reaching 16, he traded in his glasses for contact lenses (like all the rest of the kids) but refuses to admit how much he and Erik look alike.  While he is still in scouts (only needing his project to complete his Eagle), other things are starting to distract him, such as his girlfriend Jordan.

Scout was quite upset when the kegerator required his cage to be moved, and took well over a month to go back into again.  However he took it like a real trooper, and refused to let it interfere with his busy sleep schedule.  While starting to slow down a little bit, he is not looking to relinquish his spot on the couch any time soon.

2010 has been, as always, both a good and a bad year.  Even though it is starting to get quieter in the house with only one kid left, we know that the bonds of family will always keeps us close.  As always, we wish you and yours the very best during this season, and throughout the coming year.

Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers—
Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours—
Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!

Mike, Diane, Becky, Jon, Katlyn, Erik, Matthew and Scout

Just some quick whining to get it out of my system

Things really are not bad.  I have a great wife, a fantastic job for a great company, and we are really doing OK.  But, in the immortal words of Joe Walsh "I can't complain, but sometimes I still do."

So just time to fire off some random bitches to get them out of my system.

First winter.  I know it is part of the natural cycle and all of that, but even with the official start to winter still three weeks away I am already over it.  It was snowing (ok, just flurries, not accumulation) this morning on the way to work.  I think I would be perfectly happy to NEVER see snow again.  Unfortunately the only way to get that is to then have ungodly hot summers, and I don't like that either.  Or wind.  Or rain.  In fact I'm just done with this whole weather concept all together.

Add to that the fact that it is pretty much dark when I leave for work and when I get home.  My hibernation instinct is kicking in - I just don't want to do much in the dark but curl up into a ball and try to stay warm.

Next is construction.  Or is it destruction.  Whatever, it is the constant banging and noise from the other side of the wall as they remodel that space for us to expand into.  And it is only going to get worse, because once they actually open up the new hallway it is going to be right outside my door.  Not 10 feet down the hall, not across the way.   My desk faces the door, and that wall with the door is going to be the wall of the new hallway.  The new opening will be about where the light switch is.

I've mentioned this one before, but it still irks me.  The human body is simply very poorly designed.  The fact that for some stupid reason my fat thinks that it still needs to save more fat on top of the huge amount of fat that it already has makes not sense.  And that it won't burn the fat first either - simply the stupidest piece of engineering ever.

It is the holiday season - and god do I hate the crowds.

At least the elections are over, so we don't have to hear the constant political commercials with the politicians all lying to us about how they are not going to screw us over.  Now we just have to wait to see the true extent of the screwage that we have elected for ourselves THIS time.

And finally, people with stupid personal blogs who don't update them, and then when they do don't have anything even remotely interesting or funny to say, just a list of complaints without any solutions.  What a bunch of losers.

Stepping up

What ever happened to personal responsibility in our society? To people admitting that they, and no one else, is responsible for how they act.

It doesn't matter one bit that it isn't your fault. I don't care who said something that hurt your precious feelings. The world isn't waiting to kiss it and make everything better.

When you make a commitment you follow through, and if you can't you find a replacement.

During my divorce, the ex filed a (trumped up) restraing order against me. I was the coach of my son's OM team, and now could be within 100 feet of him. Did I just walk away? No, I found someone to replace me.

I've made mistakes, but that did not mean I did not have to keep my committment. Again during my divorce, I coluld have walked away from my responsibilities; instead I fought tooth and. Nail for custody of my four kids. Were the years of being a single father easy? Not at all, but I did not give up.

Keep your commitments. Follow through. Step up and be a man.

A new bra

Dr. Calvin Rickson, a scientist from Texas A&M University has invented a bra that keeps women's breasts from jiggling, bouncing up and down, and prevents the nipples from pushing through the fabric when cold weather sets in.

 

After the news conference, announcing the invention, a large group of men took Dr. Rickson outside and kicked the crap out of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(ok, I actually got this as an email from my wife, and I don't know where it originated.  Still funny)

Feeling old

A colleague of mine has been bringing her newborn into the office about once a week for everyone to see (she still has close to a month more vacation / maternity leave ). My own youngest turned 16 yesterday. My oldest turns 26 in November.

It just got me thinking a bit. My kids are starting to become adults one by one, and how many more years are there before I become a grandparent? Still a few away, but definitely out there.

I look back at when I last held, fed, bathed and cared for a baby, and I'm a bit surprised at how much I do not miss it. I like being a father, but as my kids are leaving home, it seems that the being with kids part is going with them.

A lot of the pelople I interact with are parents of young kids, and it is really surprising me that while I'm happy for them, I don't need to share it. I don't have any desire to hold Jessica's baby, and honestly most young kids of other parents I know are more annoying than cute.

On the one hand I find that I'm one of the "cool" parents that my kids friends all like (even to the point of soon runnikng yet another Pathfinder game for Matt and his friends), while on the other I don't want to be bothered by a bunch snot nosed rug rats. When did I get this old.

Now get off my lawn!

Intelligent Design - NOT!

A while back there was some furor over Intelligent Design - with a bunch of people calling it a scientific theory (because they had obviously never looked up the definition of a theory, as opposed to a scientific lawm or even a hypothesis).

The whole idea is rubbish, on so many levels. A classic argument is the eye, which sends images to the optic upside down. Obviously not designed, at least not with any intelligence. Or the classic joke about the placement of human sex organs (i.e. putting a recreation area right next to a toxic waste disposal site).

Lately I'm more concerned with another completely back asswards human design problem. Our bodies are set up so that any excess calories are stored as fat for when we don't get enough. A good idea. But what happens when you don't get enough to eat then? Do we use those same stored calories, that fat that we were saving for a hungry day? Hell no. If you don't eat enough then you hoard the fat, and instead start breaking down muscle. So once food becomes scarce, our bodies make it even more difficult to obtaqin more. And when we get more does it go back to replenishing the muscles it just broke down? Of course not, that would be an intelligent decision. It goes back to storing it as fat.

There is no such thing as intelligent design. If we were designed at all, it was by a commitee of idiots.

Yes, diets make me cranky, you want to make something of it? I'd smack you, but I'm too weak from hunger while my fat belly just seems to grow.

(And you thought I wouldn't find anything to complain about :-) ).

Rule by the minorities

One thing I have noticed the past few years, and that I have been curious as to when it happened, was the end of majority rule in our society.

It seems that everything is now based on taking care of the minorities - no matter how small they might be. We can't have anything that might adversely effect even the smallest percentage of people, even if it stongly benefits the vast majority.

The main example I remember is an article about new public toilets in NYC. They were from Europe, and were small, self cleaning, and efficient. The problem was that you couldn't fit a wheelchair in them, and when you made it big enough to do so, homeless people ended up moving in and sleeping in them. I believe in equal rights, and giving reasonable access to the handicapped, but in this case it was not possible. And because this small percentage of people could not use them, the city was sued, the project scrapped, and NOBODY got them.

Anlther case - some steakhouses used to have peanuts on the tables. There are some kids with peanut allergies - serious enough to cause hospitalization or death. To me the reasonable solution is, if you are allergic the DON'T GO THERE. But no, in our minority rule society the restaurant instead removes them - taking them from the vast majority who enjoy them for the sake of a small minority.

I won't even get into politics and the current approval ratings for our so called 'leaders'. They don't seem to represent the majority anymore.

To me it seems ridiculous to ever think everybody can have everything. Just because I can't do something should not mean that nobody can. Of course I'm in the minority for believing this, and it is the one case where the minority is ignored - go figure.

I can't complain, but sometimes I still do

As the classic Joe Walsh song goes, "Life's been good to me." Well maybe not all of the past, but my present is in pretty good shape. I have a great wife that I love very much. I have a fantastic job that makes decent money, and where I get to do new and interesting things, and where everyone is treated with respect. None of my kids are on drugs or in jail (we won't go into school/jobs for some :-) ). I'm not out of debt by a long shot; however I'm not over my head either.

So things are good, and therein lies the problem. I've got little to write about. My old job made me feel like the guy working with monkeys. Horrible, but something to write about. My first marriage was a long period of emotional abuse from which I will always have scars, but it generated great stories.

People just don't appreciate the hard times. It is from these that all stories and lessons in life come. You never heard your parents talk about living a block away fcrom school and walking over when it was mild and 70. Nobody makes a movie about the guy who goes to college, has a few good jobs, a nice wife, raises a family and retires to Florida to fish every day.

Not that I want to have something bad happen, but things going well doesn't make for exciting writing.

Not like the other kids

Something that I finally realized after forty years is that I don't fit in. I match no demographics, and seem to always be on the far side of any bell curve. This isn't intentional, but it seems to be the way it is.

I never set out to be different; and truthfully it still amazes me that I am. Take politics. I registered as a democrat many years ago, and haven't bothered to change it. However I have voted republican for the past umpteen presidential elections - because as much as I disliked the republican candidates, the democratic ones were worse. I haven't liked a candidate for president in 20 years or more.

I am a fiscal conservative but a social liberal. I believe the smaller the government, the better. I believe in helping people, but only those who are actively helping themselves.

I believe in personal responsibility. That alone seems to set me apart from so many in the US.

More than anything I believe that decisions should be based on rational thought, not emotions. I doesn't matter if my leaders can feel my pain, I want someone who can think about the issues.

It is time to quit trying to make people feel better, and instead make some good, rational decisions.

But that is just my opinion, and I keep finding out that it is the only one.

Still alive, still boring

Yesterday was the first time all summer I took a walk for lunch, simply because I was working off site where there was no place to get lunch within walking distance. It occurred to me then that I missed the time that I spent thinking when I walked. Not deep thoughts usually; I'm not that profound. But I had missed.

It turns out that with things actually going pretty well lately, it was those walks that gave me any ideas to write even this little bit. So now that I'm back at the office I hope to update more often, even if it is from my new Droid (that replaced my Blackberry) while I walk (like right now).