Lean on Travel

This past year was very lean on travel outside of the DC area.  If you include going to southern Virginia as travel, which seems like going to another state since it and Northern Virginia are so dramatically different (sorry Virginia, you never should have taken the area ceded originally to the District of Columbia back through retrocession in the nineteenth century, because Arlington County along with Fairfax County usually provide statewide Democrats with the margin they need to win), I ventured forth a little bit more since I went to Hampton Roads twice.  (The room at Fort Monroe where Jeff Davis was imprisoned after the Civil War.)

The first time was for pleasure, as I visited my cousin at Buckroe Beach in late August as I recovered from surgery earlier in the month.  The warm, briny water of the Chesapeake Bay where it meets the Atlantic Ocean was good for my surgical cuts and, I believe, hastened my healing.  (My cousin Liz.)

The second time was when I went down in November to be an inside poll monitor in Newport News on election day.  To say that I was surprised when I got back to my motel and turned on the TV late that night after an exhausting 15-hour workday would be an understatement, but the next day I visited the Mariners' Museum where I observed restoration efforts underway on the gun turret of the famous Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, which sunk in a storm off Cape Hatteras and was raised a century later.  (A full size wooden replica of the USS Monitor which you clamber aboard is alongside the museum in the park.)

I went to Buffalo twice for work, once in March and once in May, and then I promptly retired.  No, the two trips didn't have anything to do with my retirement, except as they figured in how I prioritized my work (active litigation) and how a manager (since departed from the agency) who had 1/3 as much experience as I did thought I should be spending my time (dead-end investigations).  (Beef on Weck in Buffalo.)

I went to North Carolina to visit my college roommate in October.  That was a fun trip where I did a little sight-seeing, sailing, electioneering and fish-eating.  (Jimmy's front yard.)

And last month I went to Colorado to inspect some property.  That's it!  (The splendor of the Rocky Mountains.)

Enjoy

I carry a camera wherever I go, especially on runs, and take lots of pictures.  And no, it's not an I-Phone, rather it's a rugged sports camera (that has lasted over 3 years despite two nasty spills and several drops) and here are the year's dozen or so more memorable snapshots.

Early morning on the Inner Banks in North Carolina.

I call this theme The Empty Chair and it's repeated during the noon hour at a particular lunch spot near where my three children grew up, on most holidays and birthdays.  This occasion was my middle child's 28th birthday.

Sunset in the Shenandoah on Veteran's Day.

I'm keen on wildlife.

Sunrise at Buckroe Beach in Hampton, Virginia.

The Key Bridge over the Potomac on a January morning.

A Civil War fort in North Carolina.

A boat basin in Vandemere, North Carolina.

A cold and windy winter run.

The C&O Canal Towpath, July 9th.

Buffalo Airport, May 14th.

Newport News, November 9th.

I won (my age group).

Fall in the Rocky Mountains.

Friends and neighbors.

In no particular order, and leaving out some noteworthy folks as well, here are a few of the people I have benefitted from knowing or encountering this past year.  My cousin Liz and her husband Bill from Colorado, with whom I stayed in Buckroe Beach in Hampton for a few days.

My friend and former colleague Lisa, here with with her first-born, who gave me a wonderful birthday present this year when she showed up unexpectedly at a restaurant I was having lunch at on that day.

My friend and former colleague Helen, who got me into politics again.  Thanks a lot!  ;-).

My friends, former colleagues and current running buddies Devin and Leah, here thoughtfully reflecting outside the Trump Hotel.

My friend and former colleague Greg, a fellow crackerjack litigator, here celebrating my last day of work with some single malt scotch.

My friend and former colleague Seena, whose experience helped me out immeasurably at work.

My friend and past running buddy John, here with his wife Riza.  John picked me up after my surgery this summer and made sure I got home safely and was safe in my house before he left.

My man Trevor.

My friend, mentor and former colleague Steve.  He was lead attorney on my first trial, a two-week affair in Reno, and gave me sage advice on my second trial, a two-day affair in Tampa.  We obtained full relief in both trials.

All of my friends and former colleagues at work, excepting current management and their toadies.  Here my friends assembled outside my former office building for my going-away lunch, which they organized and insisted that I attend.  I see, amongst others who attended, Karen, Tom, two Mikes, Voni, my trusted counselor Leah, Michelle who was invaluable as my second chair at my trial in Tampa, Coutney, Nick a fellow runner and litigator extraordinaire and Greg a fellow runner and litigator extraordinaire.

My dependable neighbors including Mike, shown here working his snowblower on our sidewalks following the blizzard last winter, Barb, Antonio, Bertha, Kevin, Tony, Steve and Sherry.

My friend and former college roommate Jimmy, seen here electioneering in North Carolina where he lives when he isn't in Hawaii.  I was able to help deliver Virginia but he couldn't help deliver North Carolina.

My family members including those I saw or spoke to this past year.  My sister Kate, seen here posing before the building named after the guy who destroyed America's middle class, visited me this year.

Goodbye.

I go to church twelve times a year, whether I need to or not.  Some of my friends think this orderly regime is funny, others think it is indicative of how I think.

This year I went to church thirteen times, as in today, because there was so much to speak to the Lord about currently.  I also contribute to the collection plate (of course) and add a dollar coin (as a token) for whomever I am  thinking about, troubled about or hopeful about currently.

Today was a record, perhaps by multiples, for the token donations, ten one-dollar coins, for my thoughts on persons or concepts.  After communion, I prayed on my knees in church for each person(s) or concept that each coin represented.

In no particular order, my prayers were for (i) a friend who was terminally ill, (ii) all relatives abroad for their eventual safe passage home, (iii) my estranged children, (iv) the one wife thereby that I know about (welcome to the family!), (v) the USA (do you wonder why?), (vi) illness stricken people in my family, (vii) a family member who currently needs prayers, (viii) my own heart for hardening against a person who should be close to me were I more understanding, patient and compassionate, (ix) a hopeful next year (this embarrassingly might be the same as praying for myself), and (x) a blessing upon the marriage and moving on of a friend of mine.  When I got home from church, I learned that the gravely ill friend of mine had passed and was obviously with the Lord.

Farewells

This past year was a time of change as I have said, having retired.  It also marked a time of farewell.  (The times, they are a-changing.)

The farewell was saying goodbye to most of my friends and acquaintances at my going away party at work, and watching them slip out of my life one by one despite my best efforts to keep up with them because they have busy lives with work and family, and I have neither anymore.  The friends I miss most are my former running buddies, all of whom have fallen off my radar screen.  (Former times.)

One got married and moved away, another had a condition exacerbated by running and was medically advised to specifically not run anymore, and yet another ran with me whenever I set up the run and spent considerable time and effort getting there each time but little else was done to continue the routine so it fell away to virtually nothing.  (Moving on.)

I miss that most of all.  Kirk Vonnegut summed it up best in Slaughterhouse-Five--So it goes.  (The view from Roosevelt Island just beyond the District.)

It's getting time...

… to sum up the year gone by.  It's been a momentous year.  (Courtesy of David Brewster.)

Momentous for me personally because I retired.  Momentous politically, nationally and internationally because Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.  (Arrgh!)

I had a bad feeling about that one, and still do.  Check out my post of October 6th while I was working for Hillary Clinton, who had a 99% chance of winning, and I couldn't stop having a nagging deja vu feeling.  (A picture of diversity that America, a nation of immigrants, rejected on November 8th.)

On the home front, I learned last summer that my youngest son got married a year earlier.  Welcome to the family, Laura.  (Laura is the one on the left.)

Whoo Boy!

It's been a whole month since the election without a press conference by the prez elect.  That is unprecedented.

He appointed Rick Perry to head up DOE, the very agency the former Texas governor was going to eliminate in 2008, if only he could have remembered its name during a presidential debate that year.  And now the transition team wants a list of the names of all those DOE employees who ever had anything to do, either by association or professional encounter, with any climate change science, group or initiative.

The repugnants are science deniers, you know, and now they're ready to kick ass among all those federal employees who are earning an honest living.  I have a list here in my pocket (which I'll never show you) of all the suspected communists in the state department, said tail gunner Joe during the red-baiting 50's, and now we're back to the days of those those deplorable witch hunts.

It's enough to get you discouraged.  I personally think that The Donald might start a major war, with Jhina, in his ignorance of, avarice regarding, or lack of interest in anything that doesn't directly advance his personal brand.