A Year in Review - 2012

A long time ago some one told me not to look for changes in life on a day-day basis but instead on a longer time frame like a month or a year.  And so it is with my life.  As the final hours of 2012 slowly fade away I am stepping back from today and looking at where I was a year ago.  The changes that have occurred since December 31, 2011 are drastic and amazing.  For the first time since the late summer of 2005 I feel as though I have attained a calm, serene and content life.  There are no drastic pressures pushing me in one way or another.  My personal life is calm and drama free.  I am physically, mentally and emotionally stronger than at any other time since before Patty's illness and death.  In general I feel happy, content, secure, strong and looking forward to the future and new meaningful experiences.

So how was my life a year ago?  Let's look at what was happening to Zack and me.  First off, I could hardly move.  My back was a mess and the pain levels I experienced every day were out of this world.  On top of all that I was mentally and emotionally a wreck.  My life for the previous two years had been horrendous but I was too stupid to see it.  I had started a relationship with a person who was more interested in the trappings of a relationship as opposed to being a partner.  It was a mess and it had only end about 2 months before and I hadn't yet gotten my emotional and mental state righted.

Lastly Zack was suffering greatly from his episodes with anxiety and OCD.  As 2011 came to an end he was beginning a downward spiral into what I call the "black hole" of anxiety. 

We were struggling to make it through the everyday things we needed to do.  It was rough and I felt like I was at a breaking point.

The situation is so much different at the end of 2012.  Most important of all, Zack has been anxiety and OCD free for almost an entire year!  As the anxiety started to take a hold of him in early January, I sought out any kind of ideas from his psychologists and his psychiatrist.  This time as opposed to the many times in the past, a new medication was suggested and put in place.  Within a week of the introduction of the new medication, Zack had climbed out of the "anxiety black hole" and was back to his normal self.  And what was even more tremendous, was that his normal self was without any anxiety.  This time there were no small lingering effects of the anxiety - he was finally free of all that had plagued him since Patty's death.  By the end of January of 2012 my son finally had his life back after suffering for years from traumatic levels of anxiety and OCD.

On top of that tremendously positive change, I am now mostly free of the pain that wracked my back for so long.  It took 3 surgeries and countless (still ongoing) hours of physical therapy, but I live without pain medications and with only minor episodes of pain.  Coupled with the decreased pain, I have gained back 1/2 inch in height that I lost because of my herniated discs and as my activity levels have increased I have reduced my weight to a level I had not seen in 5 years.  Physically I am looking forward to the new year for lots of hiking, biking, snow shoeing and even running.  Once again tales of many hikes and bike rides taken will fill the pages of this blog!

My personal life is also much calmer and full of peace.  In late April I met Lisa and we have hung out since then.  Everything between us has been exceedingly low-key, serene and laid-back.  We have a good time being together but we can also do our own things - so it is all good.

There are too many other things that happened this year than I can even mention.  Some of the more notable ones for us have been trips to Costa Rica and Iceland.  A new kitchen and a family room really changed our home in a positive way.  Zack and I also worked hard at putting a new set of order in place in our home.  Now instead of it being a disorganized mess the clutter is mostly gone and everything is in it's place.  Well - I still have several major projects to complete before I can totally declare victory in my quest to organize the house.   But so much work has already been done it seem like a new home.

Attached are a few of the pictures that high-light the activities of our year.

(In Puerto Limon during March trip to Costa Rica)

 (Zack on the beach in Costa Rica)

(Beautiful seascape on the Eastern Coast of Costa Rica)

 (Zack and Cole in Rocky Mountain National Park in April)

 (Long Peak in RMNP)

(Zack the King of the Garden Gnomes!)

(High up in the Eastern Fjords of Iceland in July)

 

(A beautiful waterfall not far from Iceland's Eastern Coast)

(On our way to Papey Island off Iceland's Eastern Atlantic Coast.)

(Mount Bierstadt and the Sawtooth in late August)

(Aspens on the slopes above Georgetown.)

 (On the Golden Gate Bridge in September)

 (Point Bonita in the Marin Headlands to the North of San Francisco)

(Hanging with Lisa in San Francisco.  Yes - that's me in the sparkly costume.... not!  Just a street performer.)

As this year comes to a close I really hope that for all of you the year has been good to you and that 2013 will bring you many good things!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.

San Francisco

This past weekend I managed to get out of town for a bit and spend some time in one of my favorite cities - San Francisco.  I had a bunch of flight credit on Southwest Airlines that was going to expire at the beginning of October and needed to be used.  In a casual conversation with Lisa we concluded that San Francisco would be a great town to visit.

San Francisco has been a town in which I have spent a lot of time.  Between September of 1999 and December of 2002, I spent almost 18 months working in the Bay Area.  Needless to say, that time had allowed me to become pretty familiar with San Francisco.  Regardless of how much time I have spent there, I always enjoy a visit to the City by the Bay.

We left on our trip on late Friday afternoon when we were both done working for the day.  As was normal the trip on Southwest Airlines was on time and went without a hitch.  We had two seats together in the middle of the airplane with Lisa at the window and me in the center.  She had never flown into San Francisco before but she had heard the approach and landing at SFO was pretty dramatic because of the proximity of runways to the bay.

I slept most of the way there but finally woke-up as we came over the last set of mountains and into the Bay Area.  Approaching SFO from the south, the airplane spent the last 5 minutes of flight over the waters of the bay.  Lisa seemed pretty surprised at how close we came to the water before we actually landed.  It's always an amazing thing to the land at SFO!

Even though San Francisco has a ton of public transportation, we rented a car as we expected to go further afield from the city than would be practical in a cab or public transportation.  Leaving the airport we were soon engulfed in rush hour traffic.  We headed north on US 101 towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

We crossed the Golden Gate and stopped at the northern vista point.  Walking out on to the bridge I experienced that sense of awe I always do when I am there.  It is just amazing to think of the complex engineering and construction methods that were used to build this bridge.  And all of it was done over 75 years ago!

Lingering on the bridge for a long time we shot tons of pictures and let our selves absorb the magnificence of the sights.  We watched a large container ship sail in from the Pacific Ocean and under the bridge.  Despite the massive size of the ship, it was dwarfed by the bridge!

Leaving the immediate area of the bridge we used the last hours of sunlight to explore the beauty of the Marin Headlands.  Parking the car at one of the many turnouts we hiked down to the path that leads to Point Bonita lighthouse.  The path to the lighthouse leads through a dramatic tunnel carved through a massive rock face.  We were stopped at that point as the door through the rock was shut and is only open during the day on weekends.

Despite the near proximity of the Marin Headlands to San Francisco, we came across a small group of dear grazing along the steep hillside.  I was utterly shocked to see such large wild animals wandering about so close to the city.

As the light began to fade we made our way back to the car and then along the winding, twisting road that would lead us back to Route 101.  Crossing back over the Golden Gate Bridge we negotiated the San Francisco city center to find our hotel - The Palace Hotel.  This hotel was originally built in 1875 but was destroyed in the great earthquake of 1906.  After the earthquake it was rebuilt and has stood at 2 Montgomery ever since.  The hotel is beautiful inside and out and made for very nice place to stay for the weekend.

After we checked into the hotel we had dinner at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in the city - the R and G Lounge.  I don't know if this place has won any awards or not, but to me it makes some of the best Chinese food I have ever had.  (This restaurant is listed in the book 1001 Things to Do Before You Die.  The reference is in the section on "Exploring the Neighborhoods of San Francisco.)  They also make an especially strong Mai Tai - which explains my difficulty in walking back to the hotel!

On Saturday we spent the day enjoying downtown San Francisco and Fisherman's Wharf.  It was a fabulously beautiful day but by the early evening a dense fog began to roll into the bay from the Pacific Ocean.  Waiting in line to catch the Powell & Hyde Line cable car back towards our hotel, we were extremely cold as a stiff, cold wind blew in the fog.

For dinner on Saturday we went to the oldest restaurant in all of California.  The Tadich Grill can trace it's lineage the whole way back to 1849.  They describe themselves and their history in this way on their website.  "Suppose you had some out-of-town visitors, and they asked you to take them to a "traditional, authentic San Francisco restaurant." You could do no better than to take them to Tadich Grill, which is not only San Francisco’s, but also California’s, oldest restaurant. But you need to warn them: Tadich Grill takes no reservations and is usually packed at lunchtime and dinnertime, Monday through Saturday."

The food was good and the setting was definitely unique.  One of the more interesting aspects of the restaurant was the bartender who served us.  He looked like he had been pulled out of the 1930's or 1940's.  His look and his mannerism were quintessential of those times.  It was pretty amazing and we had an interesting conversation with him about how many people tell him the same thing.

On Sunday morning we got moving as quickly as we could.  Our destination for the day was Chinatown.  We arrived in Chinatown to find the place mobbed as it was their annual "Autumn Moon" Festival.  The largest thorough fare through Chinatown was closed off to car traffic.  There were lots of vendor stalls set up in the street hawking everything from Chinese groceries to back massages.  Chinese dragon dancers weaved their way through the crowded streets and musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments sat on the street corners playing for tips.  It was a unique experience as the crowds were large and there was so many exotic things to see!

After spending a good bit of time in Chinatown, we drove around the city to see some sights we hadn't yet seen.  We managed to drive down Lombard Street - the famous "most curvy street in the world".  But soon it was time to head to the airport.

Dropping off the rental car we got on the sky train to the terminal.  While passing the international terminal we got the chance to see something I had never seen before.  There was a Lufthansa Airbus A380 airliner at one of the gates.  It was so freaking large!  The A380 is currently the largest airliner in the world and only entered service about 4 years ago.  It has a double deck cabin for the whole length of the airplane.  (The previous world's largest airliner - the 747 only has a double deck cabin for 1/3 of the airplanes length.)  I've always wanted to see one of these airplanes in person and I was thrilled to see it!

Our flight left SFO about 35 minute late, but the pilot did a good job making up some of the time.  By 7:00PM Sunday we were back on the ground in Denver and our short little sojourn to San Francisco was over!

Attached are a few of the photos from the trip.

(Lisa in front of the Golden Gate Bridge)

 

 (Me on the Golden Gate Bridge)

 (One of the towers of the GG Bridge)

 (The GG Bridge from the Marin Headlands)

(Path to Point Bonita Lighthouse)

 (Riding the Cable Car)

 (Fisherman's wharf)

(Lobster and crab on display at Fisherman's Wharf)

(Lisa with Alcatraz in the distance)

(The sea lions at Pier 39)

 (Dragon dancers on parade at the Autumn Moon Festival in Chinatown.)

(Man playing a traditional Chinese instrument at the Autumn Moon Festival)

(Another group of dragon dancers making their way through the crowd.)

(A Chinese Band)

On the day-to-day life front things continue along their same normal path.  Zack has been doing a lot of after school activities and took part in his first Math League competition on Monday.  He's doing a good job with his school work and it shows in terms of his grades.  He has never had all A's and B's before in his middle school career - normally his grades would involve at least one C or D.

For me, work is the main driver of life right now.  I continue to work crazy hours as I am frequently up before 4AM for conference calls with my team in India. We had to have some major work done on our 1998 Ford Explorer and I had to do some serious consideration of whether I was going to retain it or not.  In the end run I decided to put the money into it.  It was one of those repairs that kept getting larger and larger.  It started out as a $500 repair but ended up several times larger.  It was one of those problems where once they solved the first issue another even bigger issue became apparent.  Oh well!   Zack and I call the Explorer "The Beast" and hopefully with the repairs it went through this week  it will continue to live up to it's name and work faithfully for several more years to come.

My general contractor continues to put the final touches on the kitchen.  Last week they tried to replace 2 of the cabinet doors that had been damaged in shipping.  Unfortunately one of the replacement doors was also damaged!  So there is yet another couple of weeks until the new door comes in. Grrrr...  Oh well, it at least is usable and looks pretty good.  But I just want it 100% complete.

And that's about it for now.  Have a great week!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.