December, 2024
Hoping this update finds you well. Thanks for checking in.
Every year I struggle a bit in finding a ‘theme’ for the card we send out. The easiest theme –especially this year- would be a political one. I have to admit, it was very tempting. But not doing it. Too easy. And as Elyce would remind me – I have no room to talk about politics, as I’m not a citizen. Post-election, she implored me to finally get this done. I don’t think I’m in the first group to be deported, but I’m sure she just wants to be safe. If there’s no holiday update next year, you can presume I’ve been hauled back to the UK.
Elyce is now a Senior at UNM - to graduate this coming spring. And she’s already employed in her discipline with a pending offer for Full Time once she graduates. UNM Heath. She turned 21 this year. Every Friday or so we’ll go out to dinner – she likes $12 foo-foo drinks. But as she only weighs the mass of 18 feathers, it’s a cheap date on family night.
But not-so-good … she got in car wreck this year. Her first. The big I-25 construction project in Albuquerque started this year (a friggin’ four year project) and after only two weeks in I got a call.
“Dad. I got in a wreck.”
She was remarkably calm. I coached her over the phone on what she should do. Did a good job. No one was hurt I (fortunately was in town, not traveling) hopped in my car to assess and help. She was okay. Her car was semi-okay (hood wouldn’t close). I had her call insurance. I drove her car home, she followed in mine.
She was in the middle of the freeway and had just rear-ended another car which had rear-ended another. Can’t wait to see the insurance rates here … Merry Christmas? My thought on this is: We all will get into a wreck at one point, right? Better it’s early and without injury. We learn. This is why she has a 2014 Toyota go-cartish car. Learn. We I fixed the hood. She’s good to go. But now drives more carefully. Boom. The lessons I learned with my ‘beaters’ when I was younger were invaluable to me now that I have cars that aren’t beaters. She, the same.
2024 Memories
Gavin graduated high school in the spring. And, it was his first year at college in the fall – UNM. He chose to stay in the dorms. Hated it. He had 2 roommates, very little space/privacy. But I will give it to him – he stuck it out, didn’t complain too much. Maybe it’s because I never lived in a dorm, but just based on what I saw with both Gavin and Elyce, dorms don’t seem as cool as I thought they were when I was their age. Small. I was always so jealous of those that got ‘the college experience’, but realize it was a bit of a façade.
As we were around the house in February (it was the day before The Superbowl), we noticed a damp floor in the nook area between our bedroom and the living room. I went over it with our wet-vac/steam vacuum that evening. Initially, we thought Lucy had had an accident, which was very odd seeing how she only has had one accident in the house in the seven years we’ve been here. The next morning, it was worse. I repeated. A few hours later, same. Shit. Called a plumber. $6,500 later, we had that portion of the house in a wheelbarrow, and huge hole in the ground – but the leak was isolated. It was a tubing portion from the bathroom (in the walls) that had been rubbing against the foundation over the years that eventually wore out. The vibration of the tube (leading to the main) every day wore out the plastic membrane.
Camped again with Troy and Terry. How awesome are these guys? Second year they’ve come up and we’ve had the chance to reconnect and just catch up. Fish. Have some beers. We went to Fenton Lake - which is just north of home in the Jemez Mountains. Caught one (very small) fish. But the beer was good.
Went to CO vs UT. Third year our “The Game” tradition. First was The Game (MI vs OSU), second was OR at TTech, and then this year. The latter two we were able to drive to – but here out I think we will return to flying. The drive to Boulder was longer than I’d like for just 3 days, 1 game. But I learned other valuable insight this year: Buy your game tickets the week before the game. Logic says buy to reserve as far out as possible; however, I learned this lesson this year. I had bought our tickets to the game eight months before.
Next year we are planning on Oregon at Penn State in late September. Sco Ducks!
Gavin and I snowboarded in Pajarito and Telluride this year – two ski areas on the total opposite of the spectrum. Pajarito is a local spot in Los Alamos – about 30 minutes from home. While Los Alamos is an affluent area, their ‘local ski mountain’ is very ‘rustic’, if you will. It was good, but small and cheap and quant. It was interesting, though, during lunch. While the lodge was dated and with slim offerings, you could see the clientele were very much local and loaded. Everyone seemed to know each other. I think we will hit this spot more in the years ahead, as it was very inexpensive for lift tickets and is so close. Telluride? Insane. $400 lift tickets (each). Don’t tell Tina, please.
This was the furthest out we’ve driven in our quest for boarding over the years. We are very fortunate to live where we do in this regard, as we have some of the best snow in the country in many spots nearby. Telluride is in southwest Colorado, about 4-5 hours from us. I typically like to get a hotel nearby and drive up the day before and leave the morning after boarding. With all the traveling I do, I always use my points. But Telluride is located in a pretty remote area. When I planned the trip, I did some googling for hotels nearest to Telluride. The radius of the search had a lot of hotels in Telluride – which were ridiculously priced. $500+ a night. On the outer perimeter, I saw that Silverton, CO was pretty reasonable … like, cheap. If you’ve never been to Silverton, it’s a very small old mining town in the middle of the mountains just north of Durango. A really beautiful area of CO. It’s at the north end of the Miracle Mile drive (Durango to Silverton), and there’s also a famous train ride between the two towns that’s very popular … in the summer. The ‘summer’ note is key here. When planning, I saw the drive from Silverton to Telluride was about 30 minutes. But this was during the summer – as there is a trail you can drive in your 4-wheel drive vehicle (which we had – the Rover) … but it was closed in the winter due to heavy snow. Didn’t realize all this until the night before, when Gavin and I were having dinner at the only open restaurant in Silverton. As we were having appetizers, I opened google maps – to see the drive showed two and half hours to Telluride.
“That can’t be right – it’s just over the range here” I thought.
I asked the waitress. She told us the route was closed during the winter. Ugh. Not good news. So … I told Gavin we had to wake up pretty early in the morning. The route we had to take is shown below in the red. On a 2D map like this, it’s ‘oh well’; however, it was grueling. Through snow and icy mountain passes. We’re talking 7-8k ft altitude on winding, icy roads. When we got there … WOW. It’s a stunningly beautiful area. Truly a resort. This is how the other half lives. The main streets are lined with high-end shops. It was crazy. With the sobering cost of our lift tickets, I was determined that Gavin left the day with the ability to enjoy the terrain. For a while now, I’ve bought him lessons – public and private. He’s done well, has all the equipment, etc. But now he was in my hands. About halfway into the morning I had an about-face with him while we ventured down the slopes. So much of the time, when learners are learning, they are taught so much about how to STOP. Not how to GO. I boarded backwards on a slope and focused him on GOing. It was a big moment, which worked. I was (and continue to be) giddy about seeing him just Go For It. We had a great lunch, continued on, and ended with what I saw from him as a gained confidence. A confidence I am very excited to see evolve this year as we hit more local slopes and return to Wolf Creek (our favorite spot of all over the years).
In May, I got a phone call from my VP ‘volunt-telling’ me to oversee the Kansas/Missouri area for about four months – on top of overseeing my current area back home. I was tasked with flying out every week to assist the market to ensure stability while a new Director was sourced. I’ve been on these assignments many times in my retail career. Never had been to Kansas (beyond the airport) before. I was a little surprised – there are hills! Very pretty, actually. I’ve always heard/read that KS was FLAT. Nope. At least the eastern portion (2/3rds of the state) was hilly with trees, lakes, and huge rivers. But, of course, I wasn’t there to site-see. I spent Monday night through Friday afternoon there visiting stores and ensuring stability. Glad it is done!
For Christmas last year, I bought Tina really good seats to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 4th row? 2 tickets. She took Elyce. They had some fun - Tina's always been a huge RHCP fan, so I thought it would be nice treat.
Anyway. That's all for now. Hope you all had a great year and hope to chat soon. Drop a line if you're bored.
