End of Year/Decade Rant

Here we are at the end of another year and the end of the first decade of the New Millennium. So, it is time for me to post a few thoughts about what has happened to me and the rest of the world during these many days. Much already has been written about this past decade, my favorite being a column by Paul Krugman of the New York Times titled "The Big Zero". The funniest take on the past year was written by Dave Barry of the Miami Herald titled "Dave Barry's Year in Review". Do your funny bone a favor and read that piece after you finish with my rant.

My father Larkin used denote the concept of nothingness by saying "zero, naught, double-oh, nothing". In his honor I will call this last decade the "Zeronaughtdoubleohnothing Decade". It was a decade of mixed blessings for me. During the past 10 years: I closed my studio, sold the building that housed it, semi-retired, gained and lost a wonderful girlfriend, had three eye surgeries (2 cataracts, 1 detached retina), my dog died, my house flooded (tropical storm Allison in 2001) but survived two hurricanes (Rita 2005, Ike 2008) and last New Year's Eve I stepped in a hole on the way home from a midnight champagne toast, suffering no long-term ill effects other than the bruise to my hubris. Thank goodness nobody witnessed it.

The past decade has had its good times as well. In 2005 I took the aforementioned girlfriend (Sara Jo) to Paris, France for a week. We had a wonderful time and as somebody once said in a movie "we will always have Paris". I traveled to New Orleans for a good friend's wedding and went back again for several years thereafter to celebrate the anniversary. There were several other forays down to the Big Easy including Christmas of 2006 and my 40th Homecoming at Tulane University in 2007. Back at home I discovered a wonderful nearby restaurant Divino and have had three exhibits of my work hanging on their walls including the current one. My work has been exhibited at FotoFest at each of the biennial exhibits and is scheduled to appear again in 2010.

This past year has been pretty good to me. However, I would like to have those two hours back that I wasted on the "balloon boy" hoax. Being a student of physics (and an ardent fan of MythBusters) I knew there was no boy in that balloon, but kept watching and believing anyway. Fortunately I had no money invested with Bernie Madoff or R. Allen Stanford so I escaped any major financial calamity there. My IRA savings dipped and then bounced back a bit but my investment in my personal mug at the Black Labrador Pub has done better over the years, nearly doubling in value. I feel fortunate that I don't live in California, Florida or Arizona because my housing bubble is still fully inflated (at least the Harris County Appraisal District thinks so). The so-called Health Care Reform Bill has me only slightly worried. I turn 65 in March 2010 and will be eligible for Medicare. I just hope the government does a better job with that program in the future than the TSA has done keeping whackos with explosive wardrobes off airplanes.

My old 1983 Mercedes held together over the last year but was too old for "cash for clunkers". But why would I want to trade in a reliable German automobile for one built by a government subsidiary? I was getting a little worried about Global Warming until it snowed in Houston on December 4th, the earliest it has ever snowed here in recorded history. I thought about getting an iPhone but after watching everyone else that has one I realized that nobody actually "talks" on the thing and decided to stick with my old Treo that really works very well as a "phone".

Back in the Spring I was honored with an award and I did not need to send $10,000 to a bank in Nigeria to receive it. I was chosen as a "Star of Design" in photography by the Decorative Center of Houston. I got a very nice crystal trophy and a chance to stand up in front of a bunch of people and thank them for awarding me something while I am still alive. In August I took a trip to Canyon Lake in the Texas Hill Country with some good friends. We tubed down the Guadalupe River, what little of it there was due to the extreme drought conditions there. The next time I want to get sunburned and drunk in stagnant water I think I will just dump a load of dirt and excrement in my pool and pop open a six-pack.

It was down to New Orleans again this year at Halloween for a surprise birthday party for my good friend Ricco Loper, whose birthday is actually in December. His wife Linda thought it might be more fun to gather for the spooky weekend since it would give us an excuse to dress more funny than we normally do. That's me costumed as filmmaker Michael Moore. We had a great time and really surprised Ricco. Check out my YouTube site for some videos of the weekend.

I threw my usual batch of pool parties this summer. The most fun one was probably the 4th of July where one of my friends spent almost the entire party trying get his "water feature" to work. See a video of it here. To cap off the year I hosted a Wine and Cheese party in mid December where just like the blueprint for a mouse trap I put out a bunch of cheese and caught a lot of free wine brought by the party goers.

And finally, I am thankful for another year with my great group of friends with whom I have had so much fun. I hope we can keep it up next year. In the meantime you can keep up with me on Facebook or just watch your "in box" for my electronic missives.

Happy New Year Y'all!