Xmas 2005
Sorry to you mobile users. I could only convert the second page to text for easier scrolling.
Holy Moly! It’s December! No, it’s MID-December. I always have this Year in Review thing done before Thanksgiving and should have been licking stamps and inserting mailing labels backwards in the printer weeks ago. It’s just not like me to miss an easy deadline and get so far behind on a critical project that people are depending on; and then expend ten times the required effort to push out half of the quality you have all come to expect. But then again, I have been working in IT for the last six years.
Let’s talk about work. Nancy has been busy. As you recall she was one of the last ones out the door of her company this time last year as they closed their doors. She got to experience the state unemployment process & administrators, positions I firmly believe were invented by the government to create jobs for people who by all rights are unemployable in the real world. Nancy worked for a fee company for a little while doing premium audit, and although she wasn’t technically shackled to an oar or chained to a road gang, she got a good taste of what slave labor is like. She even got a business license and did some independent audit work on her own. Just when we were getting finances positioned to enable her to do the stay-at-home parent thing and hang out with the soccer moms and watch Oprah in the afternoon, an unexpected position came open at a regional mutual insurance company. It is growing into a great opportunity for her to create a department in her discipline from the ground up and really show her knowledge in the profession. And it’s fun to count the cows on her commute to rural Enumclaw, along with the prestige of working for the biggest thing in town since the pickle factory closed.
I had my own E-Ticket ride as well. I’m coming up on 12 years with Safeco and last year was a wild one (or as wild as you can get working for an insurance company). Although I seem to fit the mold of and IT person (non-athletic, kind of geeky, well versed in worthless facts), I’m really just a guy who likes to go hiking and tell stories. So I have been pursuing other opportunities within the company that would take me back to the claims side of things and the areas where I am well versed and enjoy. A perfect claims management position opened up for me in over in Spokane. The job I wanted in the city I wanted to work. Everything was in motion, the move package was in the works, and we were looking at homes and schools. But just before the planets aligned and I got the sweet taste of that hot Eastern Washington air, some senior management reared its ugly head. They didn’t feel comfortable with an IT person handling those oh so complicated and expensive claims losses (obviously they didn’t see that two million dollar project I worked on last year, or the fact I’ve got designations equivalent to a masters in insurance). So the opportunity unexpectedly passed, and I returned to power washing moss off the roof every spring and trapping moles in the yard each fall. They say every time a door closes, another one opens. I’ve just got to remember to pull in my chin when it swings shut.
Actually, I’ve gotten to know doors pretty well; at least interior ones. Upgraded to all new raised six panels (including closets) thru the entire house. Other than that home projects have been pretty tame this year. Since there was a very real chance we wouldn’t be here, I was actually contemplating on what little niceties I’ve built into our humble abode that I wanted to rip out take with me (and what to hide in the walls for the next people). Lately it’s been little fine tuning and maintenance efforts, which equates to crown molding, chair rails, and figuring the odds on which tree in the greenbelt will fall on the house next (wouldn’t mind a direct hit to the kitchen). I picked up a lathe recently to fill in the gap amongst my wood shaping arsenal, which means besides burning time in the garage making things square AND round, I can now happily & crudely copy anything and call my mistakes ‘old world charm’. But I still have too many fingers and too few scars to be considered any kind of professional.
Mitchell got his fair share of scars this year. Three separate trips to the emergency room for stitches to his head. Still waiting for that knock from child protective services. He’s three now, repeats everything, and has the attitude of a disenfranchised government employee. He’s heavy into Thomas the Train, and although I think little engines running around a track with faces and talking is kind of creepy, at least he can appreciate the difference between steam and diesel-electric power. From his build and strength, if he fattens up a little I’m afraid we might break the generation’s long drought and have an actual athlete in the family (there go Saturday hikes). Too soon to tell if he is destined to be a genius or wilt just need a lot of therapy, but for the time being we are content with our own little wonderful proprietary mix of Forest Gump, Rain Man, and the Incredible Hulk (hope you never get the opportunity to see him get angry – or hear him ramble on all day about his underwear). The grade school is going to have us on speed dial.
Jaclyn is in the 3rd grade his year, and shaping into a good kid. She’s been involved heavily with her Girl Scout troop, and does well in school as long as we hit the homework hard at night. She loves to read and sets a timer to be sure she gets in every minute, so it looks like we have the good habits started early. It was her First Communion year for all of you Catholics out there, and she got first place in the science fair with her table top trebuchet model (a catapult, which we colorfully titled: History’s Favorite Siege Engine). Yeah yeah yeah, it was my idea, but she really made it her own. I had her do all of the cuts, assembly, staining, and the launching of projectiles. She really enjoyed being able to create something from just a picture and rough sketch (and a wide assortment of power tools). We now take it camping and use it to either throw rocks in the surf or pine cones in the fire (making history come alive, one fling at a time).
Camping and the great outdoors. Now there’s a beefy subject, even though it was a pretty iffy year for weather. We got in some good family outings. Well, if you call ‘good’ finding out that the drag chains on the trailer hitch really work if the two thousand pound load you are towing comes off. Metal on asphalt is a sound I won’t soon forget. Jae and I did our usual off-season (winter/spring) father/daughter weekend trips to the coastal state parks. The firewood I take normally eclipses the pile of gear, so needless to say the weather is never a concern for us. Nothing like playing a mean game of Sorry! in the rain/sleet/snow next to a pyre that could throw ships off course. I was able to get her out on her first backpack with some of my backpacking buddies and their kids, as we try to pass the torch to the next generation. Of course, my regular crowd logged a few manly miles as well. Snow camp was along the shoulder of Mt. Rainier, but we really had to climb to find the white stuff earlier this year. The spring hike as a real hidden gem. A solid 50 miler along the spine of the Kettle Crest in Eastern Washington. Very seldom packed from end to end, hard logistics and some route finding challenges (Joe), with miles of forested 7000′ undulating hills. We wrapped up the year with a fall trek deep into the Enchanted Valley along the Quinalt in Olympic National Park. Weather was on the verge of dismal, but unexpected fall colors and diverse trail helped balance the experience. And I learned the virtues of cooking in a freezer baggie. But Montana was the crown jewel by far. With the kids at the my parents, a group of child-free couples joined Nancy and I as I marked the 20th year since first working at Glacier Park (agreed by all who know me to be springboard for my hiking career). We hadn’t been back to the park for several years waiting for the kids to get a little older, and couldn’t have been there with a better group of people. I re-trod some familiar trail miles while spinning yarns from what seems like a lifetime ago, and was able to share them with both old friends and new acquaintances alike. My favorite areas were closed to bear activity the entire week of our visit, but I did get to knock out a nice twenty mile day over a stretch of trail that almost killed me in 1985. Funny, but it wasn’t bad at all. Actually enjoyable. I don’t think it’s because I’m in better shape than I was at 19, but more from the fact I’ve experience so much pain/suffering/backpacking adversity the last twenty years (Jon), I can honestly say “I’ve seen worse.” Must be time to turn those fifty mile trips into hundreds.
And I couldn’t talk about pain with mentioning the newest member of the household, Cassie. She’s the quintessential yellow Lab and pet icon of the Pacific Northwest, and is lovingly chewing us out of house and home while keeping Kintla (our chocolate Lab) company. It’s interesting watching a 3 month old dog play with a twelve year old dog. Like watching an old lady with a cane fending off a purse snatcher. Mitch likes to jump into the fray and it quickly turns into a snarling knot of flying hair, teeth, and slobber. And the dogs get pretty worked up too.
Ah, I think that about covers it. I was going to make a ‘directors cut’ letter, but then I’d have to come up with a rating system and my postage costs would spike with the added pages. I’m going to need to run some numbers….. it might be better to just outsource/offshore this entire effort next year. But then I’d probably lose all of my cow jokes in the translation.
Hope the Christmas season finds everyone safe and sound. Take care.
The Wings
Dave, Nancy, Jaclyn, Mitchell
Special appearances Kintla and Cassie
