The Year in Pictures - 2001 Part 1 1/22/02
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Time does flyI started this entry by making a list of some of the significant events in my personal and family life. As I looked back on the year I thought that the sum of all those moments was indeed monumental, yet overshadowed by a profound sadness that is our world gone mad.
I have a daughter graduating from High School soon, and another from College. What is the world they enter into? Where can they be safe?
Can anyone be safe and secure?
Looking back I find some small comfort in the moments spent together, for they are the moments of significant comfort on a globe that seems to be spinning out of control.
Hockey:� The other day my wife and I got together with two other parents from last year's team. It's now time for High School teams, and our three boys are not split onto three different teams. After we watch two of them play each other on Saturday night we went out for a late night snack. I mentioned to the parents that I thought that the events of the season represented one of the more significant experiences of my life. The other sets of parents agreed, that spirit and sportsmanship combined to make a real group of winners out of what might have seemed a truly rag tag group of boys.
The winning was in playing well.
The Cruise: A Last minute deal (deals being loved greatly by the writer) on the web prompted a long car trip to Miami where two of the three kids and I boarded a Carnival ship for a 7 day, 7 night sail through the western Caribbean. Come to find out later, that the eldest at college felt left out, because she was not invited. I guess it's all a part of being there - when the plan comes together.
The Diary: On a Saturday in October of 1999, I purchased a bound magazine from the late eighteen hundreds (6 months worth) at a used book sale. I skimmed through the images and writing for several days when I came across a portion of a diary that was published there. The author was un-named as she feared that in the telling of her story, she might face retribution.
After two years of off and on research, I found the author's name, and then found that original diary existed in a University collection. I was granted permission to photograph original diary so that all of it's words would someday see the light of day. During the first week of May, I headed south, digital camera in hand, and began my research in earnest.
She writes: It was once a puzzle to me, that busy people ever kept journals. I understand it now, the relief of the muzzled, the escape valve for those who can not, or dare not speak out. So I shall set up a journal, being only a rather lonely young girl, and finding myself in a very small and hated minority.
The Trial: No cameras or recording devices in the courtroom sir. Deserving it's own entry, suffice it to say that I was the expert witness, and after the second trial, we won an even bigger verdict, over $1,000,000. The trial was in Federal Court and involved malpractice of a financial nature. Some might remember that I was supposed to dye my hair blond in support of the hockey team back in the spring. The first trial date was set for April, and we all decided a surfer dude would make a poor looking financial-type expert.
The Flowers: This year was the year of the double begonia, with an occasional tiger lily thrown in.
Rafting the New River The opportunity presented itself because GM offered to take my vehicle off my hands, in spite of all the extra miles I had accumulated. A road trip, but where to?For rafting, that's what. And raft we did - it deserves it's own entry, but there is only so much time. We have the video.
