2010 Holiday Letter (not quite done)

I am diligently working on this year's Christmas letter. I promised that this year would be on time and I aim to have it posted by Christmas. In the mean time I am going to post a festive video of my grandson Jack "the tank" wrapping presents for his parents. Ginny and I are biased but I think he is one of the funniest, cutest 2 year olds I know.

Happy Festivus from

the John

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, a bit late.

God Jul og Godt Nytt År, litt sent.

When I posted the 2008 holiday letter to http://notes-fromthe-john.blogspot.com on December 3, 2009, I promised that the 2009 letter would be coming soon and it would not be as late as 2008. True to my word, it is not as late as 2008. I’m getting better but still litt sent, as they say in Norway. No promises but if I follow this trend, I am very optimistic about 2010’s missive.

Ginny and I did our fair share of travel in 2009, mostly in the U.S. and mostly to see our grandson Jack

k, aka Tank. We did a week at the Jersey Shore when he was just one year old last June. He looked like he was going into second grade rather than his second year on the blue marble. Ginny enjoyed herself and we almost took over as babysitters for one day but Kelly took a long look at Jack’s granddad (me) and decided she would keep him with her. Ginny did have the chance to babysit for Jack when Matt and Kelly took a night off from parenthood and went up to Connecticut in February 09, for a night of rest and relaxation. I want to make the point that I would be an excellent babysitter as you can see from the picture below (that is me, helping out as Santa at an office gathering in Dec. 09). We also got to visit with Matt, Kelly and Jack on a trip to Seattle in the summer. We had several days of pure sunshine and warmth and plenty of “Jack” time.

Work at Deloitte has been a challenge this year mostly because of my health/neck problems. I was out on disability leave for the last four months of 09. I had a neck operation to fuse 4 vertebrae. This was long overdue and it stemmed from the fact that I broke my neck when I was 14 (there is a humorous story there that I will post to the http://humorthis.blogspot.blog site in the near future. So almost one year after having my right knee partially replaced, I had my neck put back in order with screws, plates and bone implants. Very high tech and so far very successful but I won't know for certain for another 3-6 months. While I was on medical leave, Ginny and I took a trip to Southern California but not just any trip. We rented a small RV and took the dogs along for a road trip. I didn't feel comfortable flying but riding in the RV was a piece of cake. It was small enough to be drivable and large enough to sleep all four of us comfortably. We got down to Santa Barbara the first night and got a space in an RV park on a hill looking over the Pacific Ocean. Then we had breakfast at a place where they used to film the TV series Sea Hunt (for those of you old enough to remember that). Beau and Jeff Bridges got their start working on that series with their father Lloyd Bridges. But on to Orange County where we visited with my sister Linda and her husband Bill. Gus and Gine got to visit with one of their relatives Kingston (Linda's dog). On the way home we stopped in to see a taping of the TV show Late Night with Craig Furgeson. The show was very funny. But not as funny as our late night episode trying to find our camping spot at Pinnacles National Monument. We arrived at the camp about 2am and got to sleep around 3am. But by 4am an alarm was going off in the RV indicating CO2 problems. So I figured out the electricity was plugged in properly or the electric service wasn't turned on. Either way I fired up the generator and we turned the heat back on but it was almost worthless because I forgot the skylight vent was open (to air out CO2). We got about 1 1/2 hours sleep that night. Funny now, but not then.

Ginny had her hands full last year with the Pacifica Resource Center duties. She was the president of the advisory board and the Executive Director was retiring so with the help of the ED and other board members Ginny spent quite a bit of time working on recruiting, and assisting in any way she could to get the new Executive Director on board. She also spent time with her cooking club, hikes in the coastal mountains, gardening and of course… the dogs.

Kelly and Matt got to go back to the mother land (England) for Christmas. They took Jack back to see his grandmother in London and some of his other relatives (Uncle Tim, etc.). They got out just in the nick of time, leaving London one day before a massive blizzard hit. Those that haven’t been reading these letters for 35 years might not know that Kelly was born in England when we were stationed in Mildenhall, England in the Air Force. Matt was born and raised in England and probably considers himself more of a pure Brit than Kelly (ha). But Kelly is a dual national.

Gus and Gine had a good year and I think in another 5-10 years they might just be well behaved and obey all commands. Gus had six weeks in house quarantine after made a stink about a skunk hiding in a culvert. I found out about it when Ginny woke me up about 1 o'clock in the morning telling me Gus got in a fight with a skunk. I already knew that a skunk was involved because Ginny was nearby when Gus got sprayed and when she came in the bedroom I woke up from the smell which was on her coat. So she ended up taking him to an all night veterinary clinic. They wouldn't let him inside because he smelled so bad. But Ginny convinced them to come outside the clinic and treat his bleeding nose. Evidently the skunk not only sprays but it bites as well. In fairness Gus bit him first, picking the skunk up in his mouth and getting bit in the process. When I saw Gus the next morning, he just looked like "what the heck did I do to deserve this?" Oh the smell…lasted for another several weeks even though we did several of the recommended washes to get the smell out of his fur. Other than that, we love having them around even if the skunk doesn't.

A bit of history, I think we started doing these annual newsletters back in the late 80’s or early 90’s. I would draft a letter full of rants and raves and Ginny would edit it down to a more pleasant holiday greeting. Over the years I have had less and less to rant and complain about so it becomes a challenge for me to come up with something to write about. It probably got easier for Ginny to edit but at the same time she got frustrated waiting for me to do the first draft. Last year and the year before have given me a lot to complain about but I keep thinking that we have it so good, it would sound bad if I went back to my bitter writing. What to do you ask yourself? Well I’m starting to write on two blogs (mentioned earlier) There I can be as bitter and sour as I want. I love that. One more thing to be grateful for...the world wide web.

A hat Trick… from Jack Janes Olney

Have a great 2010, (what’s left of it) Love, John & Ginny

Get your motor running

Ginny and I took a ride on the motorcycle for the first time in over a year. Thanks to neck surgery we might be doing this more often now. Here is a helmet cam view of our ride on the sunny California coast.

~the john

A day at the race track

I got a new helmet cam and Got to test it at an office event where a few of us went to the go kart track. My two race mates both ended up lapping me at least once but they had a weight advantage. I think I weighed more than both of them put together. I should have been given a kart with two engines. But it was fun and the camera worked great. I used it the next weekend to video a motorcycle ride that ginny and I took on a sunny Sunday in April. I'll post that video next.

~the john

Sunshine Superman

I must be getting my vitamin D and calcium in sufficient doses these days. I just got back from the Doctor's office where I had my 6 month evaluation of my neck surgery. The doctor said it has been a miraculous result and that I must be some type of superman. I'm pretty sure one of those statements is a bit of an exaggeration. I think it was good surgery not a miracle. I feel pretty good...no, I feel very good bordering on great. I did over do the weight training last week and pulled a muscle or two in my back but the doctor didn't seem to think that was a major setback, he just advised that I go slower with moderate weight. Now I need to shed 10 pounds so I can get into a wet suit and go out ocean kayaking. Anyone contemplating neck surgery I'm happy to refer Dr. Clement Jones in San Francisco. He is one of the best.

Holiday letter 2008 (a year late)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

In trying to think of a catchy introduction to this annual tome, I finally thought, hey why not just get to the news, after all it is at least a month late. With that in mind, there was a ton of news this past year.

Literally and figuratively we had a HUGE addition to our family this year. Baby Jack Janes Olney (aka the tank), weighing ten pounds, was born to Kelly and Matt on June 9^th. He continues to be a big boy at 7 months and keeps growing in leaps and bounds. He is a funny kid, you can make him laugh by waving a newspaper in front of him and you can make him cry by handing him to me (aka the hammer), for two minutes. I swear I’m not torturing the kid. He likes his Grandmother Ginny, or Gigi, almost as much as she likes him.

There were two more new members to the family in June. Gus and Gine (hard G and rhymes with Tina), are golden retrievers who were given away because they each had some small behavior problems. They have turned out to be fabulous friends. They are very active dogs but I try to give them some time almost every day on our treadmill. I sit on the exercise bike next to them as they do their time. The golden rule is…a tired dog is a well behaved dog. Ginny and I spend a fair amount of time training them and miraculously, it seems to be working.

For those that are keeping track, I still work for Deloitte. In a few months it will be 6 years! I still think it is the best place I have ever worked and I hope that I get to retire from this place (not soon though mind you). I managed to do very little business travel last year but still I saw Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, England and Norway and a couple places I’m sure I forgot. I’m working on my comedy writing. I know some of you will be saying, enough with the comedy, maybe you should focus on writing in a timely manner (did you notice this holiday letter is a month late?) But, I want to entertain not just inform. I have been getting my feet wet by submitting work to magazines, doing cartoon captions, and anything that will help sharpen my writing skills.

Even though Ginny retired from United in 2007 she is working as hard as ever. She is on the Board of the Pacifica Resource Center, which helps families in Pacifica that are in crisis. This year she is President of the Board so she will be spending more time than usual working on behalf of the Center. She continues to carry a rigorous exercise schedule which now includes running in trail races, cardio, weightlifting and work with her friend and trainer Jeanne B. One day she did manage to take a six hour “short cut” in the mountains while she was on a three hour training run with Gus, but no worries, they were both fine and had a good night sleep that night. Ginny is also a member of a neighborhood cooking club, she takes several classes in some kind of dance, art, yoga and I’m not sure what else. She took several trips to NYC in 2008 as Kelly went through her pregnancy, child birth, and medical problems with her gall bladder. Thanks to Skype video conferencing I didn’t feel like I was a total bachelor.

My Mom is slowly on her way into the fog of Alzheimer or dementia. Some of the family saw this coming for over a year now but it is very difficult to do anything to help. I succeeded in getting Mom to sign a power of attorney but that doesn’t carry much weight unless you are in the state (Alaska) where she is living and I live about 2000 miles away. I petitioned the state for guardianship but was unsuccessful due to mostly a strong set of laws protecting the individual and an overburdened state system that can’t do anything more than a quick surface evaluation.

Ginny’s Dad is doing well. He visited with us with his brother Roy in early December and they built a train platform for under our Christmas. It was perfect and will last for years to come. We loved having them here. Her Mom is doing well at Blue Bell Place. We visit her as often as we can and she almost always knows us.

We had the 3^rd annual Super Bowl Party where we had friends, family, and co-workers over to watch the big game. It is always fun but neither Ginny or I really get to watch the game.

I went on a great big adventure with my brother in law Bill Thomas this year. We went out and rented some dirt bikes (motorcycles), took them out on a trailer to Occotillo Wells Desert State Recreational Vehicle Area and for two fun filled days we learned (the hard way for me) how to ride off road in the desert and up the hills. Actually, I learned how to ride up the hills and tumble back down with the motorcycle bouncing off my chest armor (good thing I got that). Overall the weekend cost me a torn hamstring muscle, a very large hematoma (bruise), a couple bruised ribs, and a bruised shin bone. I’ve never had more fun in my life! Bill and I had to see Bette Midler perform in Las Vegas with Ginny and my sister Linda. That was the price we had to pay to go on the motorcycle trip. So I had to go through some pain in order to really injure myself out in the desert… actually, the show was pretty good.)

We had a gathering of family and friends over for the 3^rd annual 4^th of July celebration. Pacifica makes a huge deal about safe and sane fireworks and that there will be zero tolerance of illegal fireworks. And yet every year it is like a war zone. It seems as though some of those fireworks go off right in front of our house every year. Strange huh?

We took a trip to England and Norway in August and decided that just going ourselves (Ginny and me) would be too boring. So we invited my nephew Erik and Ginny’s nephew Emerson. I mean if you are going to travel to two foreign countries and move around to a different place every two days you should take two teenage boys just to add to the excitement. It turns out our instincts were correct and the two boys not only enjoyed themselves but I think they got some education out of it as well. We stayed almost entirely with friends (and you know they have to be good friends to put up with 4 of us) in England that we met in the 70s when Ginny and I were living there during my Air Force time. We stayed most of the time with relatives in Norway. Surely a way to find out how close you are to your relatives. They were unbelievable, (my relatives that is), they picked us up at train stations, took us to bus stations, loaned us their cars, let us sleep at their houses and made like they enjoyed our company. We started by taking a train (first we took the wrong train going in the wrong direction, ha) to see family in the south of Norway (Kristiansand) then we headed up the west coast where we visited the family homestead in Torvik. We had an absolutely hilarious dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Aalesund then we headed to the capital city Oslo where we stayed with one of my cousins and her family. Then we took a day trip southeast of Oslo to see more family and took a short (4 hour) jaunt to see my cousin’s quarry near Sweden (and brought home a couple stones from the homeland). Finally it was time to head back to London for a layover of 36 hours before heading home. Emerson left a couple days early and found his own way from Oslo, to London, and then home to Kalamazoo Michigan. Erik stayed with us and flew from London to San Francisco where my sister Linda met him and drug him the rest of the way home to Orange County CA.

Oh and as part of my ongoing “paying for the sins of my youth” program, I had to go in for knee replacement surgery in mid October 2008. I had an exceptional recovery according to the physical therapists and doctors but I was expecting to get over it pretty quickly so I’m proud but it didn’t seem all that exceptional. The one thing that I found to be most exciting was that I didn’t use anesthesia just a local nerve block so I couldn’t feel anything in my leg but I was awake and able to monitor what they were doing. It turns out they only had to do a partial knee replacement which is the equivalent of having your tires retreaded rather than replaced. It’s a complicated explanation but basically they go in and carve off some of the ends of the bones and anchor some metal surfaces on top of the bone. And for those that are interested, no it doesn’t seem to cause problems with the metal detectors at the airport.

We spent Christmas in Brooklyn with Kelly, Matt and Jack. Staying at Matt and Kelly’s co-op was fun and I got a chance to get up and walk around Brooklyn every morning checking out the greasy spoon restaurants for breakfast. I must reiterate the old saying….never eat at a place called Mom’s. Then we went to Philly to see the rest of the family. It was a wonderful holiday.

Well that is a summary of 2008. Feel free to comment, critique this.

John (aka hammer) and Ginny (aka Gigi to her grandson Jack aka Tank).

I keep me in stiches

First picture is from yesterday October 8th 2009. Last day of bandages on the wound.
The next picture is the scar itself. Almost entirely healed. So today much to the relief of everyone, I can take a full shower, ha. Ok Ok I've been taking showers, just nothing above the breast bone. Above that mark I had to just do a washcloth.

Now I can go out in the sund and get a tan on that neck...after I shave.

I'll keep you posted
-the John