2019 in Review

It’s Life, Live It!

If you knew the course your life was going to take, would it be worth living? Our 2019 was characterized by twists, turns, straightaways and lapses in reason that in retrospect all added to the flavor or the year. Some were a little challenging to accept at the time, but we continue to believe there’s a purpose for everything (we just may not have the perspective of time to realize it when it’s occurring).

Transitioned

We returned to real estate investing at the end of 2018, with no success placing a home under contract through January and mid-February. Then Rick received an email from his previous client at Procter & Gamble asking if he’d like to return to manage a project for Swiffer. So, back he went into the world of sweeping, mopping and dusting through August. Now, we’re back into real estate investing seeking homes to place under contract for sale to other investors (called wholesaling and yes it’s legal).

Rick’s work with Intercept Marketing tapered off after their winter retreat to Sevierville, TN. He’s still servicing existing clients and seeking to add others but has discovered what Anita mentioned from the start, businesses have a LOT of choices in the digital marketing space and many don’t understand it well enough to do anything.

Rick’s on-board to serve as a Performance Coach with Management Essentials (ME), serving Executives and other Leaders as they use ME’s culture tools to enhance their organization’s performance. Their leader has put together a team that includes a Super Bowl athlete, an industry leading Social Psychologist, one of the country’s top key note speakers and a host of other exceptional coaches and team members. His engagement formally kicks off in early December with a chance to begin coaching clients in 2020.

Directed

We collected the entire Barron family (minus Eric) in National Harbor, MD for the 2019 reunion. Activities included a mini reunion of Rick’s High School friends (great to see Larry & Lynn Peters), a visit with his favorite High School teachers (Bruce and Bobby Johnson), a trip to the Casino, Soul Circus and a Washington Nationals game with a ride on the water taxi to Olde Towne Alexandria and the Capital Wheel. We’re blessed everyone makes time to come together as a family, celebrating the bonds of blood, marriage and our shared experiences. We’re scheduled to come together at the Wyndham resort in Nashville, TN in 2020, hoping to coordinate our visit with our long time extended Mlekush family.

We had the added pleasure of spending the July 4th holiday (baking in the Georgia heat) visiting Anita’s parents (arriving on Anita’s cousin Don Moore’s plane) on the family farm in Sylvester, GA (returning in the 2006 Chrysler 300C SRT8 they gave us that Rick named “Bruce”). Rick took the opportunity to test his trigger finger doing some shooting (1st since his surgery) while we enjoyed visiting Sam, Louise and Hershey (their dog). Rick then headed to Cleveland to reconnect with his Fraternity little brother Tom Robertson, visit a website client (and Fraternity brother) and attend his annual Fraternity reunion. The bonds of brotherhood run deep for a small group of brothers and their sweethearts. Rick’s seeking to increase visibility for their 2020 event to allow others to join the celebration.

Rick traveled to Laguna Beach to visit Sally and Julie, then the three of them traveled east to visit Sedona, AZ. It was Rick’s first visit to see the red rocks and enjoy the spiritual nature of the area. Sally treated them to a number of activities, an off road adventure, a vortex tour and an evening star gazing (WOW) but none of it compared to the time they spent enjoying the adventures together.

Tripped

We had a few visitors to Cincinnati this year! Cheryl Rodenfels (one of Rick’s dearest friends from High School) visited on Baseball’s Opening Day (a BIG deal in the town hosting the country’s first professional team), Tom & Susan Robertson visited with their puppy Sully to attend a track meet at the University of Cincinnati and Rick’s grand daughter Anna returned for a visit with her boyfriend Jacoby. We rarely carve out time to enjoy what Cincinnati has to offer, please come visit so we have an excuse to experience the gems Cincinnati has to offer with you.

Wrecked

Rick got away to Panama City, FL with his Intercept business partner Ben Hanania for a long weekend of wreck diving. The weather and the conditions were absolutely perfect (some of the dives were in swim trunks, unlike their training trip to a central Ohio stone quarry). Ben saw his first shark in the wild and Rick enjoyed a Coke underwater! Ben’s camera worked well underwater so there’s lots of good video from the dives.

Growed

Rick’s grand daughter Anna graduated from high School this spring with an Associates Degree (nice work Anna)! Rick traveled to Jacksonville for the celebration, staying with his oldest grand daughter Mia and her boyfriend Eric but missed the celebration of Anna’s 19th birthday. Mia’s made a career transition from serving as a para professional for a special needs student to her part-time job working at a bridal shop (she’s now the Assistant Customer Service Manager). Anna’s working as a Manager for a local ice cream shop, taking a semester off from college before restarting in Jan.

Kevin‘s son Andrew is finishing his under graduate degree at James Madison University and spent the summer waiting tables at a restaurant owned by a family friend. He was unable to enter their Nursing program and is planning to return to Richmond after graduation to explore options for graduate School. Grace crushed her 1st year at Temple University, studying Life Sciences and playing intramural volleyball. She worked as the Hostess this summer with Andrew and has returned to Temple for her 2nd year (she’s only a few credits short of Junior status based on credits from High School). Will visited the Russian Federation this summer to practice his Russian (he’s studying German as well) and is finishing his Senior year of High School, exploring plans for college. Kevin is still working full-time as a consultant for the Virginia Department of Transportation and Tina continues her work as a contract specialist for Life Science and Engineering Services company.

Kendra‘s son A.J. is a Junior in high school, working part-time at the Noodle Company and owns his own Jeep.  Kendra’s still working as a Paralegal and Eric continues running an IT Consulting Company.

Sally continues to enjoy a busy beach lifestyle in Laguna Beach, CA with her partner Julie and it’s hard to believe we’ve been without Dick for 8 YEARS!! I think of him every day, hearing his signature laugh and making the most of every single day I have left.

Rescued

Anita continues to rescue cats through her non-profit Pet Alliance and Clermont Pets Alive. She’s been doing so since 2006 (without the benefit of the non-profit for a few years prior) and has rescued thousands of animals. She launched the No-Kill efforts in Cincinnati with her seeds sprouting into individuals and organizations that have continued to carry the torch she ignited. One, Clermont Animal CARE Humane Society, has been operating our County Animal Shelter for almost 2 years. They’re pushing the Board of County Commissioners to provide fair funding for their shelter obligations. If you’re so inclined, please sign the petition for Fair Shelter Funding and consider making a donation to their/our cause. Rick’s been volunteering a few hours on Wednesday mornings to assist with IT related tasks at the Animal Shelter, also providing website design/development support and Google Ad Leadership.

Furred

Our furry family still contains the following animals (each now with their own page on the website):

• Manny – the Staffordshire Terrier Anita rescued from the euthanasia list at the County Shelter in 2014. Rick initially objected to adding Manny as a “foster” but the two of them have become fast friends. Manny’s starting to slow and grey but continues to have a line to Rick’s heart.
• Beatrice – spends most of her time under the bed but has started seeking Anita out when she gives Wyndham his asthma treatment. She likes to sit with Anita on the couch, getting pets when Rick is not in the room.
• Bond – has blossomed the past few years, becoming the official toilet greeter (you’re likely to see him when sitting on the throne). He loves his ears rubbed and will even allow Rick to rub him (when there’s soft food involved).
• Diva – is comfortable (most of the time) with her position as 2nd kitty to Wyndham. She likes to sleep between us on the coach but does NOT allow any more than 2 pets before biting you.
• Rochelle – has blossomed the past few years as well, sleeping with Anita and becoming quite the love bug. Rick rarely sees more than her rear end as she races to get away when he enters a room.
• Wyndham – was rescued by Anita at the 2013 Barron Family Reunion in Lake Marion, SC. His asthma requires two inhalers twice a day and the extended steroid use has resulted in severe cataracts. In addition he’s lost the bulk of his hearing BUT continues to rule the roost (Manny even gives him wide berth).

Slowed

Visitors to Kevin‘s website will enjoy a modern browsing experience (planned for 2017) but no progress has been made converting Anita‘s or migrating content for Rick and Mia. With the early completion of the 2019 Summary, Rick can write the 2018 Year in Review (did you notice it was missing last year?) before the holidays and might have time to migrate Anita’s website to WordPress before the start of 2020. Your feedback regarding the site, the migration to WordPress from FrontPage or this Summary are always appreciated.

Concluded

Writing this Review is a double edged sword. On one side it allows us to relive the entire year, to re-experience events, relationships and places that are meaningful while sharing insights (mostly from Rick) on their impact. On the other side, it requires the better part of a day to author (assuming most of the content has already been posted). Most of the content had been posted and Rick had time over the Thanksgiving Holiday, but kept procrastinating by prioritizing (even creating) other tasks to complete. Why is that?

This started as a letter Rick included in the Christmas cards he mailed to the 200+ family, friends and colleagues on his “A” list. It gave him the chance to be witty, funny and to entertain you (without the benefit of photos or video) as he shared the details of his year. It was his way of grand standing, potentially making his life (and himself) seem greater than they were.

The transition to the internet occurred in 2002 with our marriage, to share the GREAT news (and to keep from having to combine holiday mailing lists). As the years passed, the distribution date got later and later, missing the 2018 review completely (he thought about doing it a LOT, but never did). Why is that?

Maybe Rick no longer feels the need to showcase his activities/accomplishments to others. Maybe he’s overwhelmed by the enormity of keeping up with the lives of an active family (he may never make time to add captions to the 1,000’s of photos from the 2018 trip to Germany & Austria with Will and Grace) or would rather spend the day posting historical content or converting it for viewing in a modern browser. He’s still reflecting on this and in true Rick fashion is likely making more of missing a year than it deserves.

Our goal in sharing our year with you is to allow us to relive it visually, to share some perspective on what we’ve learned and to simplify your navigation experience by placing links to the bulk of the year’s content on a single page. We hope you find yourself in our experiences (either physically or figuratively) and look forward to sharing our lives with you. Thank you for your love, your friendship and your support as we traverse this experience called life.

With All Our Love,

 and 

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