Transitions
2010 will go down in our memories as a year of transitions, transitioning from the known to the unknown, from the comfortable to the not so comfortable and from sharing time with those we love to cherishing the memories of times gone by.
Anita’s Grand Mother Jewel Thompson passed away in October at the age of 90. We visited her in the nursing home while in Georgia for Christmas last year and Anita had some additional time with her during an extended visit in January. Jewel’s passing leaves an enormous hole in Anita’s Daddy’s side of the family. As the matriarch of the family, Jewel influenced the lives and choices of many for decades. We leave in a few days for Georgia to celebrate Christmas with Jewel’s husband Leon and the rest of Anita’s family. Jewel will be with us all in spirit and hold a very special place in our heart and our memory.
The Golden Years
Ever wonder what retirement feels like at the age of 47? Let me be the first to tell you, it’s A LOT of work! Procter & Gamble paid me to retire in June after 24 years of service. In other words, they traded me in for a newer, cheaper model! My job moved to Warsaw, Poland and guess what – I didn’t move with it! This is something I’ve dreamed of for 16 years (transitioning to self-employment) and it’s finally a reality.
If you think I spend my days sleeping in, planning my next SCUBA trip and managing my retirement assets (which I’m too young to spend without penalty) you’d be completely WRONG! I’m working with a partner to create a new membership site on the internet for home business owners – the Society of Home Business Owners. If you’ve ever run a business from home you know how lonely it can be as the “chief cook AND bottle washer”. Well, the Society of Home Business Owners will put an end to that by providing home business owners an online board of business advisors. Home business owners can now ask an expert in a diversity of fields and disciplines for support on home business related topics – everything from accounting to tax and legal to insurance. We’re close to launching the site and look forward to serving home business owners in 2011.
Punching a Clock
While I was preparing to transition from my J-O-B to the world of entrepreneurship, Anita was passing me in the other lane. She was asked by a close friend in the animal rescue community to manage the “cat department” of a new store he was opening just around the corner from our house. He also promised that he would allow her to promote the programs she runs through her non-profit Pet Alliance while staffing the new store. It turns out the plans for the store around the corner fell through, that she’d have to help with the doggy day-care at the main store, work the register hauling heavy bags of dog food to cars for customers and work many more hours than she ever expected. She helped out for almost 6 months before making the decision to end this little glimpse into the brick and mortar retail pet store business.
Post Cards & Fridge Magnets
You probably noticed that you didn’t receive many post cards from us this year. I enjoy sending post cards when I travel because it’s always a great thrill to receive them from others; to picture myself in the image on the card and to read of your exploits. We did travel this year, just not the extent to which we’ve done so in the past (it was harder to get away with Anita working).
Recall we were scheduled to return to Lake Tahoe in February, but unfortunately we were blanketed with a foot of snow in Ohio the night before our departure from Columbus. The sole reason for returning to Tahoe was to play in the snow, but with a foot of fresh snow in the yard we made the choice to spend the week at home. I purchased my fridge magnet souvenir on our previous visit, a small snow globe that actually has a place on the refrigerator (the majority of my collection is in my office on metal file cabinets).
Great Escapes
I finally made it to the Great Lakes in June to complete my dive trip rescheduled from last year. I traveled with Rich Silberg, Brian Green and Glenn Helmes and we enjoyed the majority of a weekend of wreck diving. A storm blew through quickly on Sunday afternoon and sent us packing early. I made it up to Gilboa stone quarry for a few practice dives before the trip to Lake Huron, not the adventure that wreck diving offers but it did allow me to set a new depth record of 126 feet!
We enjoyed a day trip to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. It was a brief visit (we spent more time driving than sightseeing) but we did ride horses while visiting. There really is so much to see within driving distance, we want to make a point to experience as much of it as we can.
I went to Boerne, TX for the funeral of Cheryl Rodenfels father Dave Ribar. You know the story, absolutely fabulous to see everyone and to pick up friendships I’ve had since the age of 15, but under crummy circumstances. We did make it to San Antonio for an afternoon of sightseeing at the Alamo and the River Walk but we’d have preferred to do it under better circumstances. Cheryl’s mother Cindy passed away months later in September – rough year for the Ribar family.
We returned to DC for Anita’s annual no-kill advocacy conference where we stayed at the new Wyndham Resort and the National Harbor. I played while she worked – taking photos on the mall, swimming with my sister Kendra and her son AJ and spending an afternoon with my absolute best friend John Hessenauer. Anita and I added afew extra days to tour the Capital, have dinner with a friend from high school Sean Prosser and visit the Guidry’s in Herndon to race remote control cars and enjoy an Italian dinner together.
In September I traveled west for my cousin Shawna Kirkwood’s wedding to Dennis Kramer. This was the first time the entire Barron family was together since the mid-90’s and the first time I’ve seen many of my extended Schwegler family since the early 90’s! The wedding was held at a small horse farm in the CA desert called the Serano Ranch – absolutely lovely but hot (115F in the shade!).
Home Bodies
Anita came to Cincinnati chasing the snow and found a bunch this winter.
We shared a chipper with the neighbor and spent the majority of a day hauling, shredding and lopping greenery in the yard and green space. The neighbor took a tree down that was shading a significant portion of the back yard so now can explore the possibility of grass where only moss and weeds once grew! One of the enormous piles of brush and branches that we chipped is already as big if not bigger. Anita continues to razz me for making the green space look like a park. She thinks dead wood should remain where it lies, while I think dead wood should be removed as an eyesore to make room for new growth. What do you think?
We’re stilling working our way through 80 plus years of collective stuff, finding more stuff every month that we can live without. Good thing because we needed to make room for a new addition – a 55” wide screen television! WOW what a viewing experience, it’s better than going to the movies (Avatar on Blue-Ray in surround sound). We dropped our cable TV (it was a time vampire) and only watch movies and other shows we have on DVD.
The Family
Mia and Anna visited this summer. Mia’s now 14 and Anna is 10 – WOW how they have grown. I visited them in Florida when Mia competed in the Miss Teen JacksonvilleContest in February. When I’m able to get them on the phone they humor me for a few minutes by answering my questions and then say they have to “let me go”. The latest news is Mia’s got a boy friend. I doubt she remembers at three she told me she’d never date!
It seems to be increasingly difficult to stay connected with everyone as time passes. Kevin and Tina are still in Richmond working through the complexities of raising three active children – Andrew, Grace and Will. Kendra and Eric remain in Herndon as A.J. continues in his French emersion program in the 2nd grade. Mom continues to remain active in her church in Laguna Beach and is heading to Central America in January for a medical mission trip and to visit a child they sponsor in Guatemala. Dad and Nancy had their best year ever selling real estate in the Palm Springs area. Dad may be rethinking if he wants to continue working that hard at 70.
Anita is enjoying the success of her Spay Ohio program (i.e. the phone is ringing off the hook for low-cost spay/neuter assistance) while removing herself from the individual animal rescue to focus on additional programs to support the animal rescue community.
We added an additional kitty this year – Diva. She joins Beaver, Wolly, Sphinx, Simba and Misty. Sphinx has become my kitty and spends her days with me in the office. Diva has settled down considerably since arriving (in other words, she’ll let me pet and pick her up at times) while Misty only hisses at me every other time I try to touch her. Simba continues to be Anita’s shadow, following her everywhere and the brothers Beaver and Wolly are still as sweet and lovable as ever. I never was much of a kitty person until I spent time with cats. Anita assures me that six is our absolute limit. I sure hope so because I’m beginning to get them confused when naming them!
Home Stretch
Spending additional time at home has been a true blessing. I worked a lot from home with Procter & Gamble but there always seemed to be a meeting during lunch time or a personal call or email to attend to at that time. Fortunately, we made having lunch together a priority and spent some nice afternoons outside on the deck together during the spring and fall. I still work a lot (do you know a new business owner that doesn’t) but we’ve made spending time together a priority and our relationship is growing at a time when it could be under much stress.
After 8 years of marriage we’re thrilled to be together and we can still say that our biggest opportunity is to find new ways to spend more time together. We bought a PlayStation 3 to play Blue-Ray’s and download Net Flix movies on the new TV, but have yet to explore games to play together (please forward your ideas). We started doing some walking together in the evenings before it got too hot and never got back to it when the weather cooled down. I like to cook and she doesn’t mind cleaning up; I vacuum and Anita does the laundry (still working on the dusting); Anita cleans the litter boxes and I clean the bathrooms.
Our thoughts and prayers are with each of you. We’re blessed to have wonderful family and friends – that means YOU! Thank you for helping us to make 2010 a great one and we look forward to seeing each of you in 2011. We’d love to see you in Cincinnati but understand that it’s not really on the path to many places, but if you’re even close please drop us a note to see if we can connect for a hug.
With All Our Love,
and 