Reflection

2009 in Review

December 31, 2009

So how did 2009 stack up from Lar’s point of view – and from Mar’s point of view.

Lar’s was just status quo. I can not say there is any great change from this year over last year.

Mar had a lifestyle change. She wasn’t in school. She wasn’t hampered by bad knees. She had no children at home. It all opened up new vistas for her.

Here are highlights

Provident living

As a family we are doing okay. We still have food storage that will last us, if not in gourmet style, but at least give us food. I am still well employed in an economy where a lot of people are not. Our savings took a couple of hits with the purchase of a new car and the remodeling of a bathroom, but we are still comfortable with what we have. We are truly blessed in this area.

Work

Mar isn’t working. She did get her LPN license, but doesn’t have to work, so she hasn’t. My job is stable. Not much changes this year.

I have traveled a lot this year. It works our to 25.9% of the year’s nights were spent away from home. To be fair, that includes vacation nights. I have traveled to Minneapolis, MN – San Jose, CA – Lisle, IL – San Diego, CA – Marlborough, MA – Ottawa, ON, Canada – Bingen/Hood River, WA/OR – Tucson, AZ – Chicago, IL – Warren, PN – Irvine, CA – Phoenix, AZ. All of those were for work. Six of those sites were new for me. Margaret went on three of those trips with me.

Health

I am beginning to feel the strain brought on by living longer (a nice way of saying “getting old”.) My eyes are not what they once were. My back continues to give me problems. And this year I have had my first taste of arthritis in my shoulder. It sometimes makes it hard to just put on a shirt. But health wise, I’m not too bad. I did run in 2 5K races this year – and came in first in my age group in one of them (no hills – an easy course). Mar has enjoyed being more ambulatory. She can get up and go. She also has put herself on a good exercise program and is in better shape than she has been for many a year.

On the down side, I have gained back 8 pounds. It is just a lack of dedication to the new lifestyle over the past 5 months – yes five months. So even though 8 pounds doesn’t seem like much, it is really only an 8 month trend. I have also seen a lack of motivation to exercise over that time. I guess I had better kick myself in the pants and get going again.

Mental

I have read. This year I read 25 books. Some of them were meaningful. Some of them simply filled the dead time n airports. Eight of those books were on the 501 must read book list. I think my favorite of the year was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Spiritual

Mar and I have both had the same callings in church all year – Mar as Young Women’s Secretary and me as Ward Clerk. We are both getting better at what we do. I gave one talk in Sacrament Meeting on getting to church on time. Mar gave one talk on her experiences on the Trek. We did serve as grandma and grandpa for our family on the Trek for the YM/YW. We participated in a couple of service projects. We try hard to do our duty – and a little bit more.

Life Style

The biggest changes here were for Margaret. She has been able to travel. Quite frankly it is because she has the time and we have the means – and she had some really good luck. She went to Utah for a while with her mom. She went to Southern California to visit Andrea and help while her two oldest children were in the school play “Grease”. Then she went to San Diego on a trip with me. Then she went on a trip to Maui with her sister, Brenda. We did the Trek in Wyoming and we spent a week at Melanie’s helping to remodel her kitchen. She took a trip with me to the Portland, Oregon area – then stayed on for a baby birth. She bought a new car the drove down to see her sister Anne in Northern, CA and then drove over to Utah and back home. Finally, she went with me on a business trip to Irvine, CA.

Mostly, our lifestyle change is because of our health change. We are eating better. We are exercising. And with Mar’s knees better, she is just more mobile.

And so we end out the year a little bit better than we started. Well, Mar is a bit better. I am pretty much the same. I do have a little concern. Right now I am leaving this year with no momentum in my life. I just am. I need to try and grow more. Rats – that sounds like a resolution coming on.

Quote

From October General Conference

Thomas S. Monson

“We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.”

Reading List

December 31, 2009

Life With Father by Clarence Day

Mar gave me this book and I am glad she did. It is little sketches about life in a Victorian turn of the century home in New York – a more well to do turn of the century home. Most of the sketches are rather humorous. Father is most proper and really doesn’t like his calm and comfort disturbed. Mother is more adventurous and not so ordered. They do express themselves in their own particular way. It must be recognized that even tough the son writes the sketches, they are not about him. He is very true to the task of writing about father – with the occasional sidetrack into the feelings and life of mother.

It is a thoroughly enjoyable book, but not a lot happens. But it is probably one that doesn’t get read much anymore. Too bad. Well, maybe not. In our “enlightened society” we would have a tendency to judge father rather harshly.

No – not on the 501 list.

Movie Review

December 26, 2009

Star Trek

Hmmmmm? Okay I admit I have wanted to see this for a long time. Some random comments.

It is visually stunning. I really liked the look of the movie.

Acting was okay.

Story line was captivating - but . . I felt like it was somewhat weak in the explanation of how all the time confusion happens. It didn't need to be technical, just more precise on why and how long. It was hard to follow that part of it.

Oh, but yes, I did like this movie.

Now - a question of philosophy. I have heard comments to the effect of - this movie changes the time line for all of the other Star Trek sagas. So here is the question - did it really - or did this movie change the time line to start the other Star Trek sagas as they really are - and they would have been something different if this movie hadn't have been. So the Captain Kirk that we know from the 70s, is really the Captain Kirk at the end of this movie (only now he has a much cooler Enterprise). If this movie wasn't, then Captain Kirk may not have ever been in Star Fleet due to the history we saw - or at least he wouldn't have been psychologically driven by his father's death to get command in "3 years".

Oh, we will never know. Or will we. Can you support the premise that this is a "new" time line. Or can you support the premise that this starts the "original" time line. (By the way - I have proof of one of those premises.)

Let me give this movie a 3.5+. Yes, I am a hard audience.

Reading List

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

December 13, 2009
Oh, yes I have read this before – and not a few times. It is one of my all time favorite stories. This year I read it because when Mar was in Gold Beach in October, she went to a used book store and bought me two antique book and gave them to me for my birthday. This was one of them. Really, all I needed was an excuse to read it again, and having an new copy was such a good excuse.

Yes, I would recommend this to anyone. It is mostly easy to read, but sometimes you have to slow down with Dickens so you can grasp the descriptions. I love his use of language.
Is it on the list of 501 must read books? No, but it is still a must read.

Travels with Lar

Tempe

November 29 – December 5, 2009

This was a business trip – with nothing really exciting happening. It is hard traveling in the winter because when you are done with the class – well it is dark.

I spent a week teaching a class with 8 people, so it was a worthwhile trip. I did exercise a couple of evenings. Our company moved to a new building a short time ago, so I had a few issues on the first day of class finding the building and getting everything set up. But mostly it was a well presented and well received class.

One evening I went over to Mesa and saw Ed and Sandy and had dinner with them. That is a welcome break from the regular monotony of a class.

The last day of class I did get out about 40 minutes early, so I drove over to Papago Park, which is a desert oasis park in the rocks north of Tempe. It really is a nice place. I got to walk around for a little bit and watch the sun set over the Valley of the Sun.

Travels with Mar and Lar

Irvine, CA

November 14-23, 2009

For Lar, this was a business trip. I taught a class at our Irvine office – three people. It was sort of a hard class to teach. They all came from the same company, so they did a lot of “internal discussion” of their specific problems. This is not a problem for me, it just impacted the time. The experience level was vastly different – so I had one guy who was trying to learn the software, one guy who thought he knew a lot and one guy who did know a lot. And then, I got sick. Wednesday through Friday I had a real bad cold. The only thing you can do is push through it.

Mar came with me on this trip because Irvine is only 30 miles from Andrea’s house and the grand kids. Mar would send me off every morning and then brave the So. Cal highways and spend the time helping Andrea or visiting Andrea.

We spent most of the evenings together just looking around, but being it was fall, by the time I got off work it was fairly dark. Tuesday, we did run over to the beach, but didn’t get much time. Wednesday, Michael, Jasen and Spencer came and went swimming at the pol with me (we had fund despite it being a little bit chilly). Mar and Andrea and Emma went “girl’s night shopping” because Emma has a cast on her arm and can’t swim. Thursday, Mar and I did some shopping. Friday we went to a Chili cook-off and pie contest and Andrea’s ward. Jasen won for the best chili. Spencer was the odds on favorite in the pie-eating contest, but he wasn’t even close.

We stayed the weekend and spent Saturday at Andrea’s. It was interesting that Erica and Rich flew in on Saturday with Alice for Thanksgiving week at Disneyland (with Rich’s family), so we got to see them also. Alice thinks that her cousins are the greatest – and she loves the beach, so even though it was clod – and the water was more so – we went to the beach so she could play in the water.

Emma protecting her cast.

Alice playing .

Rich, Alice, Erica and Andrea

Spencer - just being himself. He felt it was just too cold to go in the water - he is a California boy so 60 degrees is challenging.


Sunday, Mar and I went to sacrament meeting, and then drove to the Newport Beach temple.


Then we went to Crystal Cove State Park.


Then we flew home. Other than “sick Lar”, it was a good week. I enjoy traveling with Mar.

Movie Reviews

Race to Witch Mountain

A While Ago


Mar and I rented the DVD – it had been out for a long time, but we needed something to do. Now, if are expecting perfect story line, perfect acting, perfect effects then this is not a movie for you. But it really is exactly what it says it is going to be. It was enjoyable in that sense. Therefore, even though the movie wasn’t great in an of itself, we would have to recommend it just for escape movieism.

We both give it about a 2.75


Wall-e

December 19, 2009

Okay, I am a real movie slacker. Yep, it has been out for two years and I had never seen it. Date - Dec, 19, 2009 – Michael and I sat down and watched it – while we were babysitting. Pixar did it very well again. They took what would be a simple little non-plot – “robots in love” – add a dash of – “we are ruining our world” – and it sounds like a terrible recipe. But they turned it into something truly enchanting. What more would you expect from Pixar. Mar didn’t see this one – she went shopping.

Lar – give it a 3.5



Knowing

A While Back

Mar and I rented the DVD – it has been out for a long time, but it was one we wanted to see. We had sort of mixed reviews on this one. I sort of liked it. Mar sort of liked it less. The ending was less than satisfactory and left you with a hopeless feeling. Some of the major lines of the plot were developed too little. The acting was okay, but not great.

I’ll give it a 2.75
Mar gives it a 2.5

New Moon

November 28, 2009

Mar and I were Christmas shopping a couple of weeks back and we decided, well, lets go see a movie. I ask what she wanted to see – and she instantly said “New Moon”. Yikes!!! I was trapped. Now, I will give you our impressions.

Mar – It was perfect for a crazed 14 year old girl – and not bad for others of the feminine persuasion.

Lar – I have to agree – with a couple of comments. First, if you can make it through the first half-hour, it really isn’t a bad movie. Second, the acting is pretty bad – especially a both of the main characters, but really Edward is only a minor character in this one. Third – what is she thinking – she chooses poorly, way poorly. Enough said – you have to watch it to find out what that means but I’m sure you will agree. I mean, if you have to choose between two monsters – well take the beefy one and not the scrawny one. Oh, now I have said too much. It was better than Twilight.

Mar – 3
Lar – (in fear of losing manhood points) – 2.75

Travels with Mar


October 2009

Here are some of the LONG promised pictures from Mar's trip with her sister Anne to Gold Beach - and other spots in Northern California.


Gold Coast, Oregon

This is a little "resort" town on the coast of Southern Oregon. Anne, Mar's sister, really likes it there - and I can see why.















This is the lodge/cabin they stayed in while they were there.







They also took a drive out through a redwood forest. Again a beautiful place, but the rainy weather and the gloom of the forest made the picture quality poor.





If you go to Yreka, you have to get pictures of Mt. Shasta.



On her drive home, she drove through a forest fire area - big difference from the other scenery.