Year in Review (February 2004)Well, Groundhog's Day has come and gone, and I didn't see my shadow, so I guess it's time I came out of my hole and returned some email. Ahem, I see that some of this unanswered mail dates back to... mmm... last spring.Oops. It was an uneventful year, in some ways. Once again, on the positive side, no one in our immediate family was actually convicted of a felony, found to be in violation of their parole, or spirited off to Guantanamo without explanation. So that's good. On the somewhat negative side, we have once again been bypassed, or perhaps snubbed, by the Oscar nominating committee, ostensibly because we weren't in any movies (hmph!). Similarly, none of our activities will become Olympic events, again this year. And I have yet to hear from the Nobel prize committee. Again. Sometimes it seems like I'm never going to win that silly prize. Somewhat more prosaically, but still in the not-so-good news category, Kate and I are pretty sure that our favorite TV show was cancelled. We can't actually remember what it was, right at the moment, but we're pretty sure it was better than the crap that's on now... Undaunted by all this sturm and gloom, Kate and I invested in a lottery ticket. We talked it through and decided that, even though it would involve a lot of hassle with the IRS and create some social awkwardness, we could use the money. Inexplicably, we haven't received any notification of our award. We've checked and checked, and we appear to have filled it out correctly, so it's a bit of a puzzle. Perhaps it was defective. Anyway, the warrantee has expired (a WEEK warrantee? How do they get away with that?), so there isn't much we can do. It still looks okay, though, so we're holding onto it. Just in case. Kate and I are in good health, apart from my getting the cancer and all (what a distraction THAT was!), so no complaints on that front. In fact, everyone was more than terrific , and I got so much love and support, before and after the surgery, that I considered doing it again. The doctor says that isn't necessary, though. (And Kate pointed out that it would really be imposing on our friends to go through it all again!) So I think we'll just close the chapter on that. In other words, apart from the usual stubbed toes, summer colds, and Parkinson's, we're hale and hearty. Or perhaps laurel and hardy. Anyway. Kate caught a couple dozen more babies, and her statistics are several hundred percent better than the national average, or the county average, for that matter, so apparently there's something to this whole evidence-based care thing, despite the grousing of the traditional voodoo-doctors, who prefer to deliver women the old-fashioned way--drugged, hungry and dehydrated, surrounded by strangers, strapped to machines, and kept on their backs. Well, I guess these old traditions die hard, even when they're only silly superstitions... Kate will just have to keep applying good science, well-documented research, common sense, and hope for the best. Meanwhile, I rewrote my book on QuickTime, or whatever it was, so now it's in like its third edition or something. Sometimes it seems like I'm never going to get it right... I guess I'm not the only one, because apparently the publisher keeps printing it again and again as well. That's like the third time, this year! Well, maybe this time they'll get it figured out... Our eldest son Shane has changed his major to physics and applied for a transfer to Berkeley, so apparently he's lost interest in working as a lumberjack, after all. Similarly, our younger son Nathan has launched a photography business, using some kind of new-fangled digital cameras, computers, and so on, to augment his natural talent and hard work, so I guess there will be no one left to carry on the family lumberjack tradition (even to the extent of getting it started). Oh, well. We're running out of trees, anyway... Our nephew James and his eternally blushing bride (maybe they're just freckles?) have had a baby girl, Rachel. Gin is happy and proud, as she should be, and mother and baby are well. (Yes, they had a home birth with a licensed midwife, thank you.) We're still on the seashore at Sunny Cove, but the owners are planning to renovate, raise the rent a hundred percent or so, and create another long-term vacancy, some time this summer. So if you're planning on sleeping to the sound of the surf for a night or two in our upstairs guest room, it would be prudent to come by before June. Well, that's enough for this year. Here's hoping our troops all come home, safe and sound, and the world is full of democracy, peace, justice, sunshine, and bunny rabbits. Oh, and rainbows. Lot's of rainbows. And maybe a nice danish.
Ta-ta (titty-titty? Well, whatever they say nowadays),
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