Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2014.  A New Year and a new opportunity to start a project I don't show enough discipline to complete.

Dammit!  One of my resolutions for this year was to be less hard on myself.  Man, I'm such a failure.  Dammit!

I'm looking forward to what 2014 might bring as 2013 ended like the denouement a few hours after a large meal.  The weather turned bitterly cold to start December with a couple days of snowfall.  The weather put a damper on any plans, such as getting a Christmas tree or getting ahead of gift shopping, because, really, who wants to go shopping in that crap?  So, although the holidays occur the same time every year, they sneaked up on us yet again.  

Fortunately, I had some vacation days saved, so I was anticipating Friday, December 20 to be my last day of work for 2013.  Alas, it was not meant to be as my last snow shoveling efforts exposed me to the flu virus.  During my peak gift-getting season (the week before Christmas), I spent two days in bed.  I could have stayed home an extra day, but I didn't want to come to work on the 30th AND the 31st, so I dragged myself into the office to finish the week.

We also had a family trip planned for the weekend prior to Christmas to visit with my wife's grandparents as my father-in-law and his wife would also be in town.  The problem was the trip wasn't as simple as over the river and through the woods; it required a 5 hour jaunt through America's Dairyland, Wisconsin.  The night before we left, the slapdash efforts I made months ago to squeeze a little more useful life from our bed frame finally gave way, so we spent the night in our living room on a thin air mattress (I actually slept on the couch).  By the time the whirlwind holidays were done, we were glad just to relax; although I did have, like so many parents on Christmas day, "some assembly required" activities, namely rebuilding the bed frame.  We should be good for a longer time, as I used longer screws, mounted a curtain rod bracket to the head board and cross beam, and wrapped the whole deal with box tape.

That should be enough of the holiday blues.  There were moments of joy among all the angst.  We had a nice round of bowling with my in-laws when we were in Marinette.  The Wifey and I may have started a new tradition of going to Costco together before Christmas and picking out things each of us would like.  G-Bug and I had a "wrap-up Christmas" excursion to the Mall of America (perhaps another new tradition) to fill in any gaps in the list of things she wanted.  Also, I got an unexpected bonus from work, which helped me fulfill my end of the new family traditions.  All things considered, I'm glad to be in 2014 now.

One of the things that really bothered me as we got to the end of the year was my inability to keep updated on this blog.  I had great intentions and a lot of good ideas and experiences to blog about, but procrastination got the better of me.  I was pretty good with taking daily pictures, but I didn't want the 365 in 365 posts to be the only things for my followers.  To wrap up 2013, here are a select group of pictures taken during the year.

Happy Father's Day Memory

In a previous post I discussed a little about New Year’s Eve and traditions.  One other tradition involving the holidays is the Christmas newsletter.  Don’t worry; I’m not going to post one here.  Unless you want me to.  No?  You’re sure?  Just check . . . No?  Okay.

This year we went with the New Year’s newsletter.  We made up an excuse for not sending the letter before Christmas; something about another letter being a lot of “white noise,” but the truth is we (mostly me) were lazy.  In the newsletter, I mentioned my Dad and brother, Mike, coming to Minnesota for Father’s Day.

 

They flew into Minneapolis on the Thursday before Father’s Day.  I arrived early at Terminal 2, hoping to wait outside in the car as the former Lindberg Terminal is pretty lax when it comes to idling cars.  You will be waved off after a while, but if you time it right, you can wait for a good 15-20 minutes.  Unfortunately, the terminal was being renovated and the loading/unloading zone was blocked off, so I had to park.  Fortunately, the flight was late, so I got my money’s worth in parking.

After several laps around the Ticketing and Baggage Claim areas, making sure I didn’t miss them, I saw Dad and Mike exiting the Gate area.  It’s been about three years since I’ve seen my Dad, and I worried I wouldn’t recognize him.  My Dad lives in Connecticut and my brother in Boston, so schedules and finances have prevented us from having frequent get-togethers.  We do stay in touch with phone calls and emails every few weeks, but those become insufficient over long periods.

 

I needn’t have worried though, as my brother is about my height, which is taller than average, and I had a clear view of him; and my Dad looks like me, but with less hair and about the same amount of weight stuffed into a five inch shorter frame.  We exchanged familial handshakes and pleasantries (the flight was good), and Dad told of some drama when checking in at Logan.  In the flurry of activity to take the train to Boston to meet my brother, he had forgotten to bring his identification and didn’t realize until he was at the counter.

“You should have taken advantage of your age and started to shake and tell them you were confused,” I joked.

“He did!  His hands were trembling and he looked bewildered,” my brother revealed.

I felt bad then and decided not to pursue it further.  Dad had to go through extra security until TSA confirmed he wasn’t a threat.  Later, we learned his ID was left in his checkbook on a table at home and he had it FedEx to him for Saturday delivery.  We walked to the car and drove home.