Xmas 2018
For mobile users, here is the text version.
THE __________ ENABLES US TO EXPERIENCE THE REAL ESSENCE OF ELEGANCE AND SOPHISTICATION. IT IS IDEAL FOR THE PERSON WHO ENJOYS Savoring LIFE ONE DAY AT A TIME
My quote for this year is a fill in the blank. See if you can figure out the missing word before you reach the end of the letter (about a day or two for most of you).
Kids continue to grow. Jac is now an adult in the eyes of the law as she turned 21 last summer during our trip back East. Of course, most people add five to seven years to that given she has refused to act her age since grade school. Her last year of college will be a little out of sync (Jan to Dec of 2019) because she got an opportunity to do TWO internships last summer and fall. The first one was Boeing (in the Renton Wing division, naturally), and when the Puget Sound rains started falling, she moved over to Blue Origin (more commonly referred to as Jeff Bezos’s space company). She is clearing getting a lot of aerospace experience for her mechanical engineering degree, as well as enjoying her remaining time in Bozeman. I would like to brag about her grades, but when she freaks out when a check engine light comes on I wonder if academia might be a little overrated for the real world.
I think Mitch has topped out at about six feet (a little more if you count the man bun that I constantly must fight the urge to cut off in his sleep), which is pretty good for sixteen. Not sure where the long hair thing came from. Maybe to fit in with the cross-country team. Maybe for his acting roles in CVHS theater productions of Beauty and the Beast and Romeo and Juliet (classical Shakespeare, which I think should count as a foreign language credit). Maybe the girls. He could be dating and is just using that sullen and angry teenager persona to throw us off. In the end he will still do something no Wing on my side had done in many years: leave high school with a letter and have no fear of public speaking. So, I’m content with being called the most stupid and lazy person in the world as long as he doesn’t start thinking about neck tattoos and is out of my basement before he turns thirty. Oh, AND finishes those Lifesize Smokey the Bear prevent wildfire signs for his Eagle project that currently in the middle of the garage. Those damn eyes follow me everywhere, and I don’t like the way Smokey smiles with that big shiny shovel when I have my back to him.
Nancy has been, well, Nancy. She still volunteers across the board: BSA treasurer, theater usher, HOA secretary, selling hotdogs and chicken parts at Gonzaga basketball games. And a ton of other stuff I’d know if I read all my email. Outside her annual trips to Cabo and Palms Springs (which are precisely timed with the season), she gets to visit a wonderful Liberty Mutual office in a cornfield near Fairfield, Ohio, several times a year for work. Unfortunately, that doesn’t count a the real ‘travel’ she wants to be doing. I’m also hearing retirement word more often these days. I’m not sure how that would really change her daily routine. Other than give her more time to volunteer. But I do think those National Parks trips are starting to fade away with the kids to be replaced by more international destinations.
The big family trip this year was the Ocean State: Rhode Island. We have done a few visits back there over the year for family reunions and to keep connected with relatives on Nancy’s side. This trip was a little different as the focus was a celebration of life for Nancy’s parents who have passed, most recently her father last year. John and Elenore chose to be cremated, and with his Naval career and her love of the beach, a scattering of the ashes at sea seem the most suitable. So after the military ceremony and flag folding, the small group of immediate family boarded a rocking ship on a blustery cloudy afternoon. A few miles offshore we came into view of one of their favorite lighthouses. As John and Elenore were reunited, the sun peeked out and the wind abated. There were many smiles, many tears, and a wonderful sense of peace that is very hard to describe. Although the longitude and latitude were given out, I’d like to think of the ocean in its entirety as a fitting tribute to their memory and long life of love.
Big news for Dave. After 24 years with Liberty Mutual I finally got caught up in a reorganization and was given my walking papers earlier this year. After going thru the grievance process (and the blinding anger of losing my email address for almost a quarter century), I did what anyone would do. Took the severance package and squeezed twenty years of house projects in a single summer. Also made space for a couple of hikes, a 50 mile plus backpack with Mitch (and the BSA) in the High Paysaten (before the fires burned it all down this summer), and even managed a return to the Mecca of beer: the Great American Beer festival in Denver, CO. With a clear head, now it’s time to take the opportunity to either keep my current profession or reinvent myself into something new and cooler (bee keeper, ironsmith, bagpiper, etc.). Looking forward to what the new year will bring. Of course, while I’m in this professional metamorphous, I need to do something really responsible and mature. See next paragraph.
The fill in the blank is: Figaro. Like in the opera. The Figaro was a car made by Nissan for one year in the early 1990’s, and that quote is from a plaque they the put on the sides of the special edition models. The car was only made and sold in Japan (not sure why the plaques were in English), is about the size of a Mini, steering wheel on the wrong side. The best description I’ve heard is they are simply ‘As cute as a basket full of puppies.” You might ask yourself why is this making the Xmas letter? Probably because there is one parked in the garage. All you need to do it find an exporter in Japan, follow Japanese used car auctions for many months, successfully bid on a good one, have it shipped over to a US port, get it thru customs, flatbed it from the port to your house, spend a couple hours registering at the DMV since no one know what it is, and voilà! Piece of cake. There might be a little more to it, but ever since I let go the ’66 Mustang I knew I would be into some kind of fun car for retirement. Never anticipated anything quite like this, but Nancy did sign off on it……
Merry Christmas to you and yours from the Wing Family.
Dave, Nancy, Jaclyn, Mitchell
