Plan B Forum

Year in Review, 2011. APT

11 months and change have run off the clock and we're coasting into that 'hard stop' for the current calendar at Dec 31. So what are the memorable events and experiences of 2011; new dogs, crossed bogs, rolled logs, bugs seen and bugs eaten, car wrecks, appliance adventures both major and minor, friends made, lost, and re-met, discoveries and challenges, palmaires, grey hairs, grey hares, gray mares, road trips, sky trips, ocean voyages and river cruises, high mountains and deep valleys, searing heat and cutting frost ... great books, bad looks, random crooks,

So whaddaboutit?

Take your time and write it up nice. Or just stream-of-consciousness it into one long unpunctuated exhalation of memory.


yrs,
rubato
_____________________

Life in Localand was: live, love and labor; and enjoy/post the laffs.
There wasn't time to languish over losers, who envied my resilient lifestyle;
Me Vida Loca wasn't for the lame and lazy, league of lambastes, who languished and launched Latin-based derivatives to no avail.

It takes lion-heartedness, like this Leolita-mija loads to last, to Lord over the overload, and endure the best linear approximation of real-valued LandLadyness.

¡Órale!

2011 - One of my best years professionally, one of my worst years family-health wise.

A year of pain and suffering, with joy and pleasure thrown in for good measure.

I feel that I have lived the life of a Dickens novel.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. So whose expectations were ever that great?

In the end, I made it through and I am all the more happier, healthier and at peace with myself than I have been.

I leave this year one uterus lighter, but with a slightly bent husband.

Whoo-hoo 2011! You were a tough year to get through, but I made it.

Watch out 2012. I have great plans for you, lets see if we can make them happen.

Made the best of the stupidest financial decision of my life, my brother killed himself and someone else driving drunk. Liz wound up in the hospital after a head-on crash in a snowstorm. Those were probably the highlights.

2011, unremarkable but considering the past few years that could be considered a good thing.

A strange year.

Pros:

Hatch doing well at school.
Hatch getting romantically involved in a good relationship.
Meeting with Sean SMF and Pud again.
Our trip to Adelaide.
Getting my book (self) published, getting Symphony No. 2 "The Dartmoor Suite" completed.
The new computer/ipad/laptop.
Eating at some very high class restaurants.
Having the Japanese exchange students stay with us.
Wale's performance in the Rugby World Cup.
Watching first class cricket in Canberra.
Continuing professional development at work.
Seeing Hawkwind, Hugh Cornwall, Billy Connelly, Dylan Moran, Ardal O'Hanlon, Melbourne Comedy Roadshow, Alan Davies, all live.
Getting an Aussie passport.

Last, but certainly not least, the planning of and soon to be indulged, 5 week long trip back to Blighty.

Cons;
Hen's operation.
My bike crash.

All told, far more pros than cons.

True more pros, but the cons sucked three and a half months from our year.

Nice vacations to Maine and New Orleans,

Significant body deterioration but nothing life-threatening,

Much self-indulgence,

Nice new motorcycle,

Learning to live with a new job that emasculates me,

Had to give up distance running, but did a lot of biking, golf, and tennis,

Still married; still content with it.

Struggled health-wise with the after-effects of two major surgeries in the space of three months in the latter half of 2010.

Gave being a step-mother my best shot. Got my heart broken in the process. Crossed it off the list of things to try in this lifetime - I'll either have my own, or none at all.

Learned to be a prosecutor with the heart of a defense attorney. Feeling very good about the work I'm doing here and about my place in this community.

Finished repainting and modestly renovating my incredibly cheap, and cute, rental house. Next month I'll have new furniture and it will be time to get back to other hobbies and activities on nights and weekends.

Went from red to black (except the ever-present student loans), and putting money away in the travel and retirements funds in significant amounts for the first time. (Of course, at lunch today my car starting acting weird and the check engine light came on, so . . . )

Made significant progress in the realm of learning to let go, learning to love and be loved, and learning to live well.

Had a nice visit with my family in NY.

Next year:

ME first, especially with regard to my health.
Travel abroad. Maybe twice.

bigskygal wrote:"... (Of course, at lunch today my car starting acting weird and the check engine light came on, so . . . )

... " .

With an "n" of three I can confidently say "its always the gas cap".

yrs,
rubato

More later on. I have to go make dinner now.

24 days until 2011 is history.

Won't miss 2011...mediocre is an apt description.

I've had better years and worse ones.

rubato wrote:

bigskygal wrote:"... (Of course, at lunch today my car starting acting weird and the check engine light came on, so . . . )

... " .

With an "n" of three I can confidently say "its always the gas cap".

yrs,
rubato

More later on. I have to go make dinner now.

Are you baked?

Overall its been a pretty good year.

Everyone is healthy, although my parents are definitely getting older and I fret about how long they can be independent in their own home.

Nephew #1 started college this fall after an extended search process; we only learned which he had chosen from a friend's son who knows him and looked it up on his facebook page.

Speaking of which I still haven't tweeted, texted or facebooked although I did register with LinkedIn, which gave an unexpected benefit ...

I had tried for several years to find a way to donate directly to Gimbe Hospital in Ethiopia. My Grandfather had helped to start it back in the 1920s-30s and I wanted very much to continue the family support. But they just don't respond to emails! And I didn't want to give to a big parent organization and have it all diluted out in 50 directions. I'm stubborn that way. So OUT of the BLUE I got a LinkedIn message about someone who was connected to Gimbe, and had no professional or personal association with me what so ever. So I emailed him and he sent along another contact and he sent me the bank acct. numbers and routing numbers &c to give directly to Gimbe. So I did. Well I have to tell you purely as an aside that the nice young woman at the bank who helped me with the wire was the kind of beauty which glows all the way through brick walls ... WOW ... I think god sent her just to reward me for doing a good thing. At least that's how I see it. Look I'm a heterosexual and not insensate to nice-looking women but this was something wholly outside the normal realm of experience. I drove back to work from the bank going WOW I mean WOW can I transfer all my accounts to that branch? WOW.

So that was a good thing all-round and when my next patent bonus comes through (I'm due two more in short order) I'm sending all to Gimbe and ... WOW ... going back to that bank branch to do it. This is the kind of woman that makes a red-blooded man believe in special creation.

Ok, so enough of that.

I've been having fun with plants in the yard again and that's always a good thing. I bought (don't tell her) 10 broughshane narcissus bulbs and planted them for my sweetie for valentines day. The timing might not work out exactly but they're very nice.



We took a grand trip back across the Atlantic from London.Dover.Antwerp.Bergen,Thorshaven.Seydisfyordur.Reykyavik.Quaqortoq,StPierre Et Miquelon.NuevaYork. One of those things that you pinch yourself and can't believe your good fortune. We went back to the Tate Britain to look at the Turner's a second time (our hotel was close by). And I'd do it again next time too.

To finish up in some haste ...

Work has been very good for the past 2-3 years with a lot of things bearing fruit at once. 3 patents filed, one of them is good and the other two I have doubts about, 2 provisionals filed. One is very good and the other needs some lab work to prove the value. Most recent work has been on materials for solar cells with some support going to the display materials side (touch panels for smart phones &c).

There have been a lot of challenges and some successes this year. I get to work more and more independently which is what I value most. Its difficult and I fail often. I either get the pleasure of making fun of myself (WHAT were you THINKING!) or the pleasure of success; a win-win.

yrs,
rubato