***Season's Greetings*****************Christmas 2008***
Well, 2008 has been a year with a few major events, with the beginning of a major economic recession, the financial market meltdown, retirement accounts decimated (mine included), and the historic election of the first African-American president. In mid-year, when I heard talk on the radio of the impending recession, I had to laugh a bit as I realized that I've been battling recession-like conditions since I was disabled from my engineering job 18 years ago. At the risk of being guilty of what the Germans call schadenfreude, it now doesn't feel quite as lonely at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.
Thankfully, Johnathan (27), Holly (23), and I are doing well with Johnathan in what he believes to be his 10th and final year in the Navy and doing well at Columbia College at Marysville, WA and expects to finish his Business degree in late 2009 or early 2010. Johnathan's wife, Carissa, is still working as an ultrasound technician at a clinic in Seattle and they now have another Golden Retriever named Maui to give Sydney a playmate. Holly, still living in and enjoying New York City, is still waitressing at a restaurant and is now a member of the dance company, The Movement Collective, and can be seen in some videos and on the bio page of their web site: http://www.themovementcollective.com
Outside of trying to encourage peace in the Middle East in my spare time, 2008 has been a pretty quiet year for me, even by my humble standards. In January, my mother and I travelled up to Webster City, Iowa and enjoyed spending a few days at the home of my sister, Rochelle, and her husband, Ed, and we also saw Jessica (Rochelle's daughter) who was home on Christmas break from college in Colorado. My mother's neighborhood friend/helper girl for several years now (who fast became a close member of our family), Emily, graduated from Madison High School as salutatorian and received, by far, the largest share of awards, including a $1,000 scholarship established by my family in my father's name which really surprised Emily when my brother, Chris, gave a superb and moving presentation of the award at graduation. Emily is now a college freshman studying to earn an associate's degree to be a certified X-ray technician at Indian Hills Junior College in Ottumwa, Iowa.
We were very saddened by the passing of my father's brother, Franklin, in March who will be greatly missed by his family and friends. Our success rate at Cardinals ball games this year was rather abysmal with the three of us attending five games and seeing only one winner, which was seen by Johnathan when he and Carissa traveled down the coast to see them split a pair with the Giants in San Francisco. When Holly came home in July for her five year high school class reunion (where she said that a few guys fell in love with her), she, Brett, and I were treated to seeing the Cardinals getting shellacked by the Mets, 11-1. The highlight of the game was not on the field but, rather, it was in our section of the stands. After the Mets jumped out to an 11-0 lead, the Cardinals scored their lone tally in the bottom of the 6th. A few minutes later, a man sitting behind us came back to his seat and told his friend, "Oh, I see that they decided to score while I was gone." His friend then yelled back at him, "Well, could you go away 10 more times?!" In August, Johnathan, Holly, Brett and I saw the Cards play the Phillies and after the Cards grabbed the lead, their bullpen did what they excelled at in 2008 and blew it, giving the Phillies a two run advantage. We did see an exciting 9th inning with Troy Glaus leading off with a home run against the league's best reliever, Brad Lidge, who then loaded the bases with one out and the Cards only one run down. But Lidge slammed the door shut by striking out the last two Cardinals batters. The one silver lining is that we did see the eventual 2008 World Series champs in the Phillies. (Johnathan went to the previous game with friends and saw another losing effort by the Cardinals.) Cardinals' perennial great Albert Pujols was voted the NL's MVP for 2008. The Missouri Tigers are headed to another bowl game and, like last year, we won't talk about the 'Same Old Rams'.
My aunts Bea, Ferne, and Jane made their annual trek to Missouri in June, timed for Jane's 55th class reunion and all four Woods sisters attended their high school (Clarence) alumni dinner. I also enjoyed seeing my cousins, Beverly and Charles, and Charles' sons, Michael and Christopher. One noteworthy event for me this year was to spot two hummingbirds flitting among the wild flowers in my back yard in August and keep them there for a month by hanging a feeder from a nearby clothesline. I was able to take a few really good photos of the 'hummers' from 7 feet away with one of them being published in the Hannibal paper.
I am still going to the Y three times a week and getting on that darn treadmill and doing pretty well, healthwise. When I was discussing my physical maladies with my sister-in-law, Kay, I told her, "As I get older, I am getting a better appreciation of how our bodies are just for us to 'rent' temporarily." (I think that Kay replied, "I hear ya!" but please don't quote me on that.) I still thank God every day for giving me another lease on life since my heart attack in August, 2006.
I will close with an exchange between Holly and me that I've shared with some, including a few of you. Since Holly was very young, I have enjoyed teasing her unmercifully, at times, with Johnathan as my accomplice occasionally, but Holly is quite often up to the challenge. After she got back to NYC after her Christmas visit last year, I called her and I would tell her, "I like Johnathan. I love him, of course. But I can't talk to Johnathan the way that I can talk to you because if I did, he'd beat the tar out of me (note: not really). And it's just not very much fun...to have the tar beat out of ya." Holly mischievously replied, "It would be fun to watch," which led me to laughing very hard!
We hope that you and your family have a Happy and Prosperous 2009!*********************** Greg, Johnathan, & Holly
My Cliffnotes Blog Page (since 2005): http://www.blogger.com/profile/7227366
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