Third Time's a Charm!

I slept in this morning, setting my alarm for 7:55 AM because a contractor was coming to our house to finish putting in a floor in the upstairs bathroom. Just a few seconds after the alarm went off I heard this rumbling noise along with a vibration which made me assume the rumbling noise was coming from somewhere in the house.

"What was THAT?" my wife asked me.

"I don't know," I said. I thought maybe something was wrong with the furnace, and that it had made that noise as it came on, but I listened and the furnace wasn't running. The sound also vaguely reminded me of what happens when the water is shut off and turned back on after air has gotten into the pipes. There was definitely some rattling of pipes in the sound. But I listened, and it didn't sound like anyone was up to have turned on the water. So I sort of forgot about it. Until just a few minutes later when my wife told me that the cause of the vibration was on the news...

I've "experienced" three earthquakes now, and I completely missed the first two. The first time was when I was in college and at home in Frankfort. I was busy watching the Charlton Heston film Planet of the Apes. I was completely engrossed in the story when everyone else in the house came running into the living room shouting, "Did you FEEL that? Did you FEEL that? That HAD to be an earthquake!"

"I didn't feel anything," I said. "I was watching a movie."

"WHAT?" was the reply I received. "How could you NOT have heard and felt that?"

I told them what I'll tell you now: Planet of the Apes is a really good movie. I was focused!

My second earthquake experience was just a few years ago. The family was living at Vent Haven, and it was early in the morning. I was downstairs in the basement working out on the elliptical and watching TV with cordless headphones on so I wouldn't wake up the rest of the family. My older daughter came running downstairs, and it was pretty much a repeat of the first conversation.

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" she shouted. "Did you feel that earthquake?"

I whipped off the headphones. "Did I WHAT?"

"Did you feel the earthquake? I was in bed and felt it, and so did Mom. It's all over the news."

"No," I said, "I was moving around on the elliptical and didn't feel anything. Plus, I was watching TV."

So apparently I can't watch TV and feel earthquakes at the same time.

But today, I can excitedly report that I DID feel it. Actually, I guess I heard it more than felt it. But I experienced it!

Third time's a charm...

"The smell of hospitals in winter..."

It's been a difficult month for me, with a lot of family tragedy and plenty of other stresses, and just not a very pleasant cycle of the moon. It's been so difficult, in fact, that I found myself a couple of days ago, when someone said that there were only a couple of days left in the year, saying "Yeah, and the end of this year can't come soon enough. It's been a terrible year."

But that's a tremendous disservice to the year 2010. I shouldn't judge the year based solely on the feelings of the last month. It's been a good year personally, all things considered. Here are some of the highlights.

January 

My younger daughter turned 11 years old. More than that, she and her friends got to put to use one of her birthday presents, a cupcake decorating book called Hello Cupcake. Instead of having a pre-made birthday cake, she and her party guests built their own snowmen cupcakes. It was a LOT of fun, and I'm not a crafty person.

February

• We got a lot of snow in Cincinnati, which caused me a lot of headaches at work in regards to the school calendar (Thank GOD I'm not in charge of that anymore), but truth be told I LOVE the snow.
• I got a Roku player for my birthday, which allowed me to stream Netflix movies directly to our HDTV. I honestly think it might be--after the personal computer--my favorite piece of technology EVER!
• My sister and her generous husband came and put doors on our built in bookshelves, converting them into cabinets, which made our basement family room look MUCH neater. Thanks, Jackie and Ann. 

March

• My younger daughter's Odyssey of the Mind team won the regional competition for her problem and grade level, and her team was given the Ranatra Fusca Award, which is given to the most overall creative solution at ALL grade levels, elementary through college level. 
• My older daughter won two writing awards at the Northern Kentucky Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. 
• My older daughter also performed in the Northern Kentucky Select Band concert. Entrance into the select band requires an audition, and many musicians do not make the cut. 
• The Kentucky Society for Technology in Education, of which I was at the time vice-president, moved its annual technology conference from the summer to early March, and we put on a successful conference. Attendance swelled from slightly more than 500 at the summer conferences to more than 1,500 participants in March (By the way, as president this year, I hope to continue the tradition of a successful spring conference!). 
• And to bookend the month, my younger daughter's Odyssey of the Mind team won the STATE competition as well (for the second year in a row, no less!), sending them to the World Finals in May. 

April

• For Spring Break, the family went to visit Lisa's dad and his wife in The Villages, Florida, and had--as usual--a very nice time. We even got to see the Space Shuttle take off! We look forward to going back this year and visiting her cancer-free father there once again. 
• The old Fort Mitchell Kroger was torn down so that a NEW Kroger could open. By the way, I thought I was a little batty writing the blog post I made above, until I realized that another Fort Mitchell citizen made a YouTube video about the store closing, so apparently I wasn't alone in my sentimentality. 

May

• My younger daughter, who for years has said she wants to be on the track team in middle school and high school, ran in her first 5K run. 
• My older daughter cleaned house on Honor's Day. Though I didn't make a post about it, my younger daughter did pretty well, too!
• Lisa and my younger daughter traveled to Michigan for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals.

June--Not a lot to say about this month. We mostly went to the pool and took it easy before marching season began. We really had no idea what marching band season was going to be like, but we'd been warned by veteran parents to take advantage of this month, and we did as they said. 

July

• The garden that we planted in May began paying dividends. HUGE dividends.
• Meredith began marching band season, attending rookie camp and her first ever band camp.
• Lisa and I helped again at the Vent Haven ConVENTion. This was our ELEVENTH ventriloquist convention. If you'd asked me twelve years ago how many ventriloquist conventions I would attend by the year 2010, I don't think my answer would be anywhere NEAR eleven. 

August, September, and October: I can sum these three months up in two words: marching band. Seriously. It feels like that's all we did. But there WERE a few other things. Most notably, in August and September we had the retaining wall in front of the house replaced, and in October I painted the entire foundation. And the three months ended with my older daughter and her band mates winning the state championship! Which is a good thing. 

November: November began promisingly enough. It was going to be a month of rest after the chaos that was marching band season. And it WAS nice for most of the month. But the month ended with the death of my father and the news of other family issues. Which brings me to...

December. As I said at the start of this blog entry, December has been tough. The month began with my father's layout on December 1 and his burial the next day. Wrap into it medical issues with close family members on both sides of the family, as well as other stresses, and it has definitely been my least favorite month this year. Probably this decade. Well, September of 2001 was pretty bad, too, but no one I knew personally died then, so I'm not sure it would necessarily be worse. Let's put December, 2010 and September, 2001 as worst months one and two of the decade.

This song pretty much sums up how I feel about the month. The song also, though, hold out hope that next year will be better than the last month. I sure hope it is.

(I can't see the video.)

P.S. Wow. Just re-read this and realized that it sounds JUST LIKE one of those annoying end of the year letters that people used to send us. You know, back before blogs like this existed. Holy crap. I've become the very thing I hated. At least I didn't mail this to you and EXPECT you to read it!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I really don't have a post for today, just wanted to say that. As long as I'm here, though, embedded below is the entire film It's a Wonderful Life. It's a film that was made long before the age of perpetual copyright, so it's in the public domain now. It's been part of the Christmas tradition in my house to watch the film at least once every year. It's also been a tradition to cry at the end of it.

Merry Christmas.



(I can't see the movie.)