Naval Gazing

I realize that outside of my first posting, I haven't done a "medium resolution" posting about my life. It's all been details that don't really give a big picture, or humorous bits, that provide a little insight into my mind, but no details on the life. So, time to amend that a little. Some of this will be detailed in later posts. Some may never really be mentioned again. But for certain stories to make sense there needs to be context.

With Thanksgiving fast upon those of us in the States (Canadians, being sneaky bastards, celebrate it in October), I've been doing some "navel gazing" at this last year. You know how some years blend together and nothing much seems to change, but then there are those watershed years. The game changers where you know RIGHT THEN that your going to be telling stories about that year until you die?

I've had two this decade: The sabbatical year of Oct 2002 - Oct 2003, and 2008.

The highlights so far:

JANUARY - After not going to the doctor for 15 years, I got the news that I'm not a kid anymore. High blood pressure. High cholesterol. High blood sugar. No real surprises, and they all are responding to meds, but hurt none the less.

JANUARY - Based on the earlier news, I bought my 46" Samsung LCD TV, Blu-Ray player, and Harmony One remote. Love the remote. Was it worth $250? HELL YEAH! Had a little Super Bowl party to show it all off. 3 people - a guy a worked with, a gal I worked with, and her husband.

APRIL - After 20 years of renting, I started condo hunting.

MAY - I left my job of 4.5 years and went to a competitor. Still reporting to the same manager who I did at the old place. And at the place before that, too. Yeah, 3 different companies over like, 15 years? Same manager. It's so who you know. And remember the co-worker's husband from the Super Bowl party? She (the manager) reports to him.

JUNE - Gonna buy me a condo... After renting for 7,300 days to be exact, I closed on my condo. Love it. Awesome place. Awesome real estate agent. This is the thing I talk about most in real life.

AUGUST - Met Gwen, drinking Gwen-tini's at a backyard party. Got sucked into the Gwen-everse.

OCTOBER - I got so sick that I actually had to stay home from work a day. That never happens. But I did put in about 10 hours from home that day, so everything was right in the world.

NOVEMBER - Scope-Tech is launched and Scope comes out of semi-retirement.

And for all those things, I am thankful. Maybe not the food poisoning from the bad shrimp, but the rest of it. Even the med stuff. It got the ball rolling.
Now let's see what '09 has in store.

FYI - That's the USS Texas. I figured it was either a shot of that or my bellybutton, and nobody wants to see that.