Good Bye 2010/Hello 2011

Our "White Christmas" has been replaced by a ugly muddy brown end of the old/beginning of the new year.  Temperatures climbed into the mid and upper 40s yesterday, and are scheduled to be near 50 today, cooler with more rain on the way for tomorrow, New Years Day.  Our snow, with the exception of a few grimy piles under trees and in ditches, and creek beds is gone for now....I'm sure it will return sooner, rather than later...after all it is only 10 days into the official winter season.  It sure seems longer...and with almost 3 months to go before Spring, I am preparing for the long haul.

2010______

On a personal note....I cannot complain about the year past.  The weight I lost during the latter part of 2009 has stayed off...even for the Christmas Holiday season.  Sure I gain a pound here and there, but at weigh in this morning, I was sitting at 189 pounds, 2 pounds less than last New Years Eve, and 25 pounds down from August of 2009.  Blood pressure is still in good shape, at approximately 125/68, compared to around 150/80 16 or so months ago.  Another check up middle of next month will note any changes, good or bad, over the past 6 months.

Youngest son Hal and his girlfriend Lisa, both done with college, Hal with his Masters in High School History Eduction, and Lisa with her Law Degree from the University of Dayton, announced they will be getting married this coming year.  Sam continues to do well at Ohio State, majoring in Actuarial Science, and if all goes right, will graduate in 2012 at the ripe of age of 30.  Anissa spent her first full year in her house on the other side of town, with...accompanied by her roommate and assisted living providers from MRSI....she considers it her "house" and seems in a hurry to get home when she is here on the weekends.  Patricia works her way to retirement, with about 7 or 8 years to go.  The question is of course...Will there be any retirement left after Obama and Company get done destroying the economy?

I got to attend 2 Vietnam Reunions last year.  The one I organized in Dayton back in March, at the Hope Hotel and Wright-Patterson AFB...and the 28th annual Kokomo Vietnam Veterans Reunion over in Indiana in September...both were great times.   This season I plan on spending a longer stretch at Kokomo, and our VSPA Main Reunion will be held in Dayton during October.  If all goes well, I will attend both.

2011____

If all goes according to Hoyle, I will head towards northern Indiana tomorrow, a drive that will take me to Rick and Toni's new place, north and west of Fort Wayne....time for our annual New Years get together. We missed it last year, as they were in the process of moving into the new digs, located on their 17 acres in rural Indiana.  Food, Football Bowl Games, Beer, and a few Cigars, are on the agenda....come Monday, Patricia returns to teaching, and I return to my "retirement", and basketball officiating.

Hal and Lisa will get married in early February in West Virginia, at a ski area lodge.  Then two weekends later will have the reception back in the Dayton area...by that time, baseball will be on my mind.  The local and state meetings will be in play, basketball season will wind down, and I will get ready for my favorite officiating work, on the ball diamond.

The vehicles are getting up in miles and years, so we will purchase Patricia a newer car sometime this spring.  Not to be confused with "New" car.  Not many worse investments than buying a car off the showroom floor....we will look for something that is gas efficient, comfortable, and has maybe 30,000 miles on it.  Something in the 2007-2009 year range.  The Intrepid will go, the van will stay, along with the Jeep....I also probably need to make a decision on the 1977 Buick Landau.  Only 62.000 original miles on it...but at my age(62 in the spring), do I get it ready for the road, or give it up?   Decisions, decisions...

I sit here looking at Reagan the Airedale, and wonder just how far she will get into 2011?  Amazing that she has bounced back and next week turns a full 12 1/2 years old....only a month shy of our longest living, in a long line of Airedale Terriers, Max, who lived to a ripe old age of 12 years 7 months, back in the 1970s through the 80s.  Reagan is likely to be our last dog, but you never know....we have shared the houses, apartments, and farms with Airedales since 1974...it will seem strange indeed not to have one around and underfoot...but Reagan refused to go out on a scheduled time...and that is alright by us...I'll miss her when she's gone.

Our plan is to take a longer vacation this year...out west?  Perhaps.  Time and of course money will make that decision final, one way or the other.  With the Obama Depression at the door steps, one never knows what the finances or the world will be like come August. 

On a more personal goal, I plan on staying in shape, keeping the weight off, and return to a more moderate work out and free weight lifting regiment.  One thing I gave up long ago was making New Years Resolutions...they never work.  Instead I set goals I would like to obtain, and see how they work out.  2010 it was to keep the weight off and drop down to 180.  The first worked out, the second?  Not so much...I did get down as low as 183...but have fluctuated between 185 and 190 for the most part...not bad, but not quite where I want to be.  But with the 25 pounds off,  Blood Pressure, and Diabetes 2 in check for now, I consider 2010 a success.

One thing I do want to accomplish in the new year is...read more books and study history(real history) more, and spend less time on the computer/Internet.   I was book reader at one time, but have lost that touch over the past couple years... would like to get that habit back.  Instead of spending 3 or 4 hours a day at blogging and other computer "work", I would like to cut back to an hour or 2 at the most, and spend the extra time working out and reading.  The blog postings will drop from 4 or 5 per week to 2 or 3, and will be less intense to my time.  At least that is the plan/goal...time and temperament will tell that tale.

In the meantime, my best to all of you in achieving your goals in 2011...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

back later>>>>

Photos-2010 in review....The snows of 2010 are gone for now, the pristine white has been replaced by a grimy, muddy, end of the year brown.  Big Sam Lewis, me, and Tom McCandless, Vietnam Sky Cops all, at the Kokomo Vietnam Reunion in September...Rick's new place as it look when mostly completed last summer, tomorrow will be my first look at it completed in winter.   Patch from our "Boar's Nest" crew at Kokomo,  and finally me last summer, down 25 pounds from the previous summer of 2009.