Happy Birthday, Johnny. I feel like I hardly knew ye.

ca 1999.

Out With the Old, In with the New

For years, as my three children have eschewed all contact with me, thanks to their Mother actively involving them in the divorce litigation as minors in a narcissistic expression of her personality, I have spent all holidays I've been in town for at the same restaurant here in Northern Virginian at noon, hoping one or more of them would join me for lunch.  It's always a quiet lunch, with no company but with good food.

Again on New Year's Day, to no avail.  For the last time.

Lessee, the last time I laid eyes on any one of my children was in 2003.  The last time I heard one of their voices was in 2007.

Jimmy, Johnny, Danny, fare thee well.  I live in your childhood home, I'm in the book, and my work number hasn't changed for two decades.

Christmas tree run

Every year I take a group from work out on a run to see the Christmas lights.  In years past we have gone out at 6 pm when it is more colorful because the lights are shining.

There are other things to see on this run too.  This year we saw a moose, but I kept my companions safe by keeping it at bay.

This year time became short so we went out at noon, two days in a row because some people couldn't make it the first day.  Even though the lights weren't shining, each Christmas tree around the Mall has a story.

The tree with the best story is at the DC Peace Officer Memorial.  Its ornaments are pictures of fallen area officers.

The National tree seemed small this year, in comparison with other years.  Inside the little fence, electric trains were running around and a little girl standing wistfully at the fence asked her Mom, "Can I go in there and play with the trains?" which cracked me up.

We went by a harp player who was singing beautiful Chritsmas carols.  How cool is that?

I like the tree at the Capitol the best.  The tree inside the Botanical Gardens is nice too, plus they had a chorus in there.

Every year we end at the tree at Union Station.  It used to be inside but a few years back they moved it outside.

Call Me

So I have three sons.  I'm not the only dad in America, nor even among my friends, whose ex-wife has served a death penalty upon any paternal influence by him through her insidious pernicious overbearing influence on minor children during the divorce.

Whatever.  What a society, what a gender.

Bad ol' me has a prepaid Virginia tuition plan that I own that has my oldest child as its beneficiary.  It pays 100% of the lad's (he's well into adulthood now) tuition and fees at any in-state public university.

The IRS is going to vacate this plan in 2014, ten years after he graduated from high school, due to its tax-preferential treatment for all these years.  I sent Jim's mother a letter a year ago asking for Jim's address so I could communicate with him about this but she blew me off as usual, and she's a teacher of little first-graders!

Anyway, Jimbo, I sent you a Christmas card at your mom's address, and it hasn't come back (yet), telling you all this in addition to wishing you a happy holiday.  I know you live or lived there, or were there for an extended period this summer.

Check it out.   Call me, I'm in the book and my work number hasn't changed in over two decades.

And all's right with the world...

A Seasons Greetings card to my friends and relatives for 2013.

peace

Actin' funny
But I don't know why
'Scuse me
While I kiss the sky

Jimi Hendrix

New River 2013

Merry Christmas, boys.

A special Christmas greeting to my three sons:

I miss you & love you & hope you are all well & happy.
However, I have no idea if you're alive, well or have provided me with grandchildren. What's that all about, young men?

When Daddy Went Away,
he said, "Try to be a man,
And, Someday you'll understand."
John Fogerty
New River Gorge WV 2013

Eleventh Hour Eleventh Day Eleventh Month

95 years ago the guns fell silent at 11 am on this day in Europe and The War To End All Wars was over.  My grandfather served in that war.

A mere generation later the world was back at it with increased ferocity.  My father and all of my uncles served in that war.

There have been many wars since then, and we are engaged in a war or wars even now.  My brother served in Beirut.

This post is in honor of those brave men, and everyone else who served as well, and in memory of all those who fell in defending our way of life.  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

I went to an 11 o'clock memorial service at the community commons at which an American-born woman named Mary, an teenage detainee at the Japanese-American internment camp of Topaz in UT during WW2, was the featured speaker and spoke of the terrible experiences she and her community suffered wherein they all lost their entire lifetime possessions and were discharged from the camps after the war with $10 in their pockets.  A sobering reminder of the excesses that war engenders.

Afterwards I went to have lunch during the noontime hour at the restaurant I always dine at on any holiday I am in town for, the Lost Dog Cafe in Westover, which is near our house when I resided in Arlington with my (now ex-) wife and our three children.  As you can see, I had a good meal, enough for two or three or four persons even.