Happy New Year!

The title says it all. Away we go into another year. 2018 was a difficult year for us...I lost my stepmother (April 2nd), my Mom (June 2nd), and just lost my stepdad (Dec 23rd). It was a rather tough year on parents in our family. And my dad, while healthy, has the short term memory of a goldfish (dementia). Just saw him over the Christmas break, and WOW. How quickly the dementia has taken hold and really blocking pretty much ANY memory of recent events. And then he sees things on TV or hears things and then somehow creates a memory that involves him (he's had lunch w/ the President, got tons of money in the bank, stuff like that). It's very difficult for my brothers and I for sure. AND he's in an assisted living facility over 400 miles from me (probably ONLY about 22 mi for my big brother). So it's not like we can just zip on over if things get out of control.

But hey, enough on that. It IS the start of a New Year, and I'm hoping it's going to be a good one. I'm hoping my 401k comes back out of the gutter like many of you, and that Jeannie's Federal Worker furlough doesn't last too long. She's all upset about being furlough'd again...and I'm like "why can't I ever get furlough'd? It's a paid vacation for crying out loud!" (they do typically get paid for it eventually, so why worry about it? Too much work to do she says...and I say "it will still be sitting there when you go back, so why be upset about it?" I'd KILL for a furlough! (well, probably not REALLY...probably). And she is also pretty steamed at the pay cap you know who just signed for all Federal Workers for 2019...just another brick in the wall.

Oh well...it is what it is....I always say "if it's beyond your control, then it's wasted energy to worry about it".

So anyway, the New Year is upon us, and I have ONE LAST picture to post from this year (just took it on the night of the 30th...not sure how it happened, but Sophie AND Abbey were sitting on the couch and NOT running away! AMAZING!!

As of Jan 1st the Christmas lights will stay off and I will take everything down the following weekend most likely, and put them away in the attic for another year. This time of year (Post Holidays) always makes us sad....we both love the decorating and the lights and the entire atmosphere of the Holidays. There's just something about it (not to mention the extended vacation that I get every year, with the entire break between Xmas and New Years off! But I pay for that by NOT getting any of the minor holidays off, I only get Memorial day, the 4th, Labor day, T-day, and then the Holiday break). I think it's a good trade tho.

So I will now sign off on this final post of the year. Be safe, be happy, and enjoy every day as you never know what tomorrow will bring.

I figure there's no better wish for my friends and family to end the year with than the lyrics from Lee Ann Womack's song I hope you dance.

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder

You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger

May you never take one single breath for granted

God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance 

I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance

Never settle for the path of least resistance

Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin'

Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin'

Don't let some hell-bent heart leave you bitter

When you come close to sellin' out, reconsider

Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance (Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)

I hope you dance

I hope you dance (Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder)

I hope you dance (Where those years have gone?)

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

Dance

I hope you dance 

I hope you dance (Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)

I hope you dance (Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder?)

I hope you dance (Where those years have gone?)

Dance (Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder?)

Dance (Where those years have gone?)

Wishing a blessed and VERY Happy New Year to the Asylum! 

Get out there and DANCE!

Merry Christmas!

Per my Holiday tradition, here is our annual Christmas card. This is the 22nd year that I've made my own card. It all started in 1997 while I was sailing on USNS Surveillance ships (after I had retired from the Navy), and it WOULD have been 23 STRAIGHT years but I missed 2008. I was actually at sea on my FIRST ship ever when I made the first card (pretty rare for a retired Navy guy to have ZERO sea-days when he retires...but the job/career I chose when I was 17 and signed up for as a High School Senior looking to get OUT of Helena Montana ended up being island/shore based, and that was that). I created my card using Microsoft Publisher, and then printed out about 80 copies on my OH-SO-VERY-SLOW Canon BJC80 inkjet printer (did I mention that it was SLOW?), and then I used the same printer to make all the envelopes (this printing all took me about 3 days...but I was on a ship at sea, only working 8 hours a day, time was ONE thing I had plenty of). I was able to buy stamps in our ships store, and when he hit port about 2 weeks before Christmas (in Yokohoma Japan, my ships home-port) I got them all in the mail down at the USPS located in the US Naval Station Yokosuka Japan (about 30 minutes south of Yokohama by train). I kept up the tradition every year after that while on the ships. I left my final ship in late 2003 and came back home to Jeannie for good right here in Santa Maria CA where we still live today

And so....without further adieu, our Christmas Card 2018.

And so...another year has come and gone. Christmas is HERE! I hope this finds everyone in the Asylum healthy and happy (what else is there to wish for someone?) 

Merry Christmas my friends, and I hope you have a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(oh, and everybody is always asking me for pictures of my house lights...so here is a panorama I made of our house along with our neighbors Louie & Anna's house...we always put up our lights complementing each other, and love the GLOW that comes from our 2 houses). 

So here you go...our 2018 lights (my house is on the right, that's Super Frosty just about in the middle, and Louies on the left. If you think that Louies lights look VERY similar to mine, it's likely becasue I've given him most of the lights on his house over the years as they were extra's and just sitting in my attic...they are MUCH better being put out and lit IMO).