OBSERVATIONS: Lessons Learned (re-learned or remembered) 2011

Fron Grand Hyatt Amman

First call to prayer at 4:18- not a bad way to start the day.

You have enough stuff: more friends is better (and remember to tell them how important they are while you can). Ol’ friends are sometimes the best… they know how far you’ve come/grown…

“It’s a Wonderful Life” or “A Christmas Carol” might be the best holiday movies ever made, but “Die Hard” isn’t bad…

When your physician tells you that you have a pre-arthritic condition it means you already have arthritis.

When you are on a dive vacation flight lay-over on the mainland be sure to have bug juice (and apply same).

People that generalize are ignorant (Oops…).

Get a professional to winterize your irrigation system (and obtain their guarantee in writing).

When eating mensef at a wedding use your right hand (put your left somewhere) 

The older you get the less likely it is that your thumbnail will work as well as a straight-slot screwdriver.

Just because it is categorized as non-fiction doesn’t mean that it is…

Some politicians won’t trust gov’t employees as they suspect all are “lazy & shiftless.” (see 5^th one above) BTW- Incumbents are the problem (as are those that vote for them).

Meme (L)

Even though your kid (or climbing partner) moves half-way across the country doesn’t mean they are off-the-books; it is also a good time to establish a FedEx account.

Removing your gold & diamonds from your safe deposit box and keeping it in the trunk of your unlocked car isn’t a good idea.

Stay away from Atlanta: they have zombies there.

“Climate Change” doesn’t mean it is going to be warmer where you live.

Way 2 much plastic floating around the Caribbean, and the Red Sea is cold in early May.

When they tell you at the theater box office that the movie is scratched, but they’ll provide a full refund during the first half-hour, you can be assured the film is fine for the first 31-minutes.

Sex & politics have been bed-partners since… way before Cleopatra…

When your local computer store starts selling fishing supplies too, it is time to move on.

Annual Reflections

Happy Hanukkah, Fabulous Festivus, Super Solstice, Cheerful Christmas, Kool Kwanza,

Mele Kalikimaka (and Happy New Year: Year of the Dragon: Jan. 23rd)...

‘Tis the season to be jolly-n-gay and to think about what has been, or still can be. We hope that you are spending time with those you love in places that enhance your joy. I customarily send out cards with letters/blurbs, but this year thought I'd use this new (for me) medium. Many of us have had a year of change: some losing family and/or cherished ones, some in & out of care facilities, and others adding to their families & relationships. They say that losses/bad things come in 3's; if so, I can name 3 for this year: Maureen Helene (Shapiro) Thompson from Burbank HS, Mike Taylor roomie in college (Denver daze), & Rick Foster (paternal cousin; Golden, CO). Some of us have "the blues" this time of year, but being thankful for the good things we have (like winter solstice) never goes out-of-season. A positive change in Santa Fe came when Randy Crutcher & Karin Lubin relocated here earlier this year. Randy was a house-mate & travel compadre extraordinaire back in the Humboldt State portion of this trip, and now we're hitting partners trying to get tennis balls back over the net when our schedules coincide. They seem to be enjoying the area as much as we are as Randy writes: "feels like we won the lottery to be in such beauty and comfort. It’s perfect for us!"               http://quantumleapcoaching.org/



 We continued our northern New Mexico activities of work (Meme @ Office of the State Engineer/Water Rights; me (tennis refing & heritage resource volunteering) and play (climbing, tennis, yoga). In addition we took a dive trip to Isla Marisol, Belize in February and Meme joined me the last 10-days of my 2-months of work at Petra Archaeological Park, in Jordan during “Arab Spring.” We got in a couple of dives at the Red Sea, and floated in the Dead one too. I went back for October; many new special friends this year.

On the home front we continued with “home improvements” this year: new doors, windows & stucco (we’re no longer that darker brownish home, became the light brown [beige] one). The Hot Springs spa turned 17 and took a 1-week rest this month while we got a new pump: so good to be back in “hot water” again. Lucy (the Bull Terrier) turned 3, and she continues to entertain… though she is hesitant to get started on her walks, she picks up after we hit the green-belt and is absolutely true to her breed at pulling when the ground is covered with snow (we’re expecting the 5^th snow of the month tomorrow).

Justin moved to Chicago in August (hoping to further theatre endeavors; not sure what he pursuing, but from his periodic need for funds we're pretty sure he is NOT dealing drugs or guns). He came home for the holidays in time to watch Lucy while Meme & I went over to visit my mom for her 87^th B-day last week. It has been a challenging year for mom, but she is back living at home with great assistance from sister-in-residence Laura, and sister-near-by Chris. Pilgrimage to a ballgame during "The Season" took us to San Diego/Pacific Beach (and me to Phoenix a couple of times to check-in with family).

Los Tres Amigos @ work, Wadi Mousa

2012 looks like it’ll be another year of change (of course that is a constant we can always count on). In addition to more college & USTA tennis umping, I’ve got SiteWatch steward orientations to again present, + a special heritage resource investigations training scheduled (Feb.), and a potential return to Petra (spring). I hope the year brings you health, strength, prosperity, peace & happiness.

“Happy Trails” to all, “Inshallah” (God willing).

Thinking about some of the family & friends (current & former) that we’ve lost this year I find myself singing this ol’ song by The Association: “Cherish” (“…and I do…”)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6-mOvl7WlE

“The answer my friends is blowin’ in the wind…”

‘tis a cold December thus far in Santa Fe. Warm thoughts to those that have served in the military continued with “Wreaths Across America” on Monday- held in each state capital. On this Pearl Harbor 70^th anniversary & remembrance morning I hope to pause at 11:10AM (MST), the minute in Honolulu time that an armor-piercing shell hit & quickly sunk the USS Arizona.  I noticed my weather sensor read 10F (or -12.2C) at 6AM, up from yesterday’s 4F/-15.5C; birds have taken refuge in the woodpile, and Lucy prefers staying curled up in her daybed in the den (nearer the fire). Many of us do that: find a warmer locale out of the winds and hunker down. It is easier. Of course, I’m wondering about the political winds at present. Many of us have been clamoring for “change” for sometime. I have friends advocating everything from term limits to revolution and the return of the guillotine (and those are the conservative ones). How about you?

I recently read Wm. Leuchtenburg’s bio: Herbert Hoover. Far from being a Hoover apologist, best known for his works on Hoover’s successor President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he does explode a lot of myths about HH (some even made common by newspaper reporters of renown and a Pulitzer Prize. Can you imagine a professional news organization today trying to get away with reporting “eye witnessed” events that actually never took place? Hmmm…)

I’d always heard of a professional nexus between Hoover and my maternal grandfather (Henry Newlin- photo below); they were both engineers by training (and personality). Henry’s 1^st wife was a Mellon; after she died my grandmother (Ann- photo) and Henry had a family of four. While Hoover was a cabinet secretary (Commerce) in the 1920’s (before being elected President), a fellow cabinet member was Andrew Mellon (Treasury), and he kept Mellon as Secretary of the Treasury when elected President. So, it sounds like “family history” isn’t far off-base on this one. I mention this because Hoover has usually been represented and characterized as a heartless ogre, but as I read I found a much more complex individual that wasn’t “in bed with the bankers” and sometimes showed a humanistic streak.

Henry & Ann Newlin

Albright & Hoover
in Yellowstone NP

Having had a career in the National Park Service I found references to President Hoover’s conservation efforts most interesting: “augmented the national forest reserve by two million acres…rescue of sequoia groves on the Pacific Coast… edict restricting the gunning down of migratory birds… Nine days after taking office, Hoover announced that no more oil exploration would be permitted on public lands, within the next year more than twelve thousand leases were canceled. But his most important step on behalf of conservation was approving as director of the National Park Service the superbly qualified Horace Albright… Under Hoover and Albright, the government added three million acres to U.A. parks and monuments- a phenomenal 40 percent increase…opened preserves in the Grand Tetons and Carlsbad Caverns, and took steps toward creating the first national parks in the East, including the Great Smokies and the Florida Everglades.” I was lucky enough to get to know and assist Horace Albright years later, during my tenure as a District Ranger at Santa Monica Mountains.

Anyway, in the public eye and the media of the day President Hoover was seen as heartless, but one wonders what might have been… “if only?” If only, he hadn’t named the financial downturn a “depression” (trying to avoid the previously used term of “panic”); If only, it had been a shorter decline as most expected (including his political adversaries); If only, Europe’s economic situation went down-the-drain a couple years later and a worldwide “Great Depression” followed. History is filled with “if only.” However, as Meme’s family saying goes: “If wishes were fishes, we’d all be sardines.” We were, and are, faced with great challenges.

Maybe it is time to fly from the wood pile and see how we can help and serve (THANKS to those that have). After all it is the season… and giving & hope are good things…

USS Arizona Memorial

FYI, this was on front page of the Opinions section of the Santa Fe New Mexican on 04 Dec:

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/myview/Their-view--Phil-Young--and-William-Wiley-Don-t-let-Congress-gi

On page two was this editorial:

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Opinion/Our-view-Giving-away--the-wilderness