12/31/16

It is the last day of 2016.  Many are very thankful 2016 is just about gone.  With the surprising election results, the wide array of celebrity deaths, the ongoing terrorist attacks, the multitude of senseless killings by and of police, in some senses it has been quite a depressing year.  A fitting year to fauxtest outside of Trump Tower.  A fitting year to listen to “Pink Houses” by John Mellancamp, which I just did, a song which touches on the demise of the American Dream.

Or was it really a depressing year?  Negative news sells, and sells well.  Social media and the mainstream media thrive on it.  Positive news doesn’t get a fair shake.  In a year dominated by negative stories, it is easy to get a sense of despair.  But reality differs from what is being talked about in the media.  So In other senses, it has been just another year, no better no worse.  We still live in the land of opportunity.  All any of us have to do is look at the flow of immigrants to realize that.  The dream may be a little cracked, but it is still a long way from being a nightmare.  And opportunity still exists, it just takes work to grasp it.

As I sit here writing this and reflecting on the year, I cannot help but smile.  I am a lucky guy.  In my bubble, it was a damn good year.  I have a great family.  A great life.  Pam, the kids, Jake (our Golden Retriever) and I are healthy and happy. Need I say more?  Probably not, but I will anyway.

All of us are employed, and all are happy about it.  Pam and I went to see lots of great shows this year, and we took a couple of very nice, albeit short, trips.  Our friends are doing well, and their kids are doing well, too.  So I just have to keep smiling.

Sure we had a few speed bumps this year, but in general they related to material things, which are replaceable.  The low point for me was when my 1977 Porsche 911 Targa burst into flames in the garage.  As I have written about before, the car was a total loss.  The garage was damaged, needing to be rebuilt, a process that is still not complete, nine months after the fire.  But, hey, it was only singed and was still standing and the house was untouched.  Thanks to insurance I was able to get the garage rebuilt and to replace the burned Porsche with a 1969 Porsche 912 Targa, a car that, thankfully, I still have and which continues to make me smile.

Though not a low point but definitely a sobering point, I did come to the realization this year that my running days are behind me.  After 40 years, my body has had enough, and I have been exploring other exercise options.  I miss the feeling I get while running, but as I age, exercise is not as important to me as it once was, though it is most likely much more necessary, as I am burning way fewer calories.  Pam reminded me of this the other day, when she suggested I eat the candy I had sitting around before the end of the year, because I was going on a diet on January 1.  Ouch.  It rankled for a moment, then I smiled because she was right.

I still love my Porsches, my Porsche friends, and my Porsche experiences.  Some guys play golf.  I like to go on drives.  I like to read about Porsches.  I like to hang out with other Porsche guys.  Sure its shallow.  Sure its unimportant in the grand scheme of things.  Sure its self indulgent.  But as I age, I need to find ways to enjoy my free time.  I no longer play tennis.  I don’t really like to ski anymore, though I do go on one boys trip a year, mainly to hang out with the guys.  I never liked golf, of course that may be because I sucked at it or because my allergies went nuts every time I stepped foot on a golf course.  For me it’s Porsches.  They make me smile.

On Christmas day, I sat in the passenger seat of my Cayman while Kimberly drove us up the coast and through the twisties of Malibu and back.  It was another great installment of our Christmas drive tradition.  I made her stop at various points to take pictures.  And, of course, I took pictures while she was driving.  Our outing really made me smile.

Recently, my Porsche obsession resulted in the purchase of a Lego Technic model of the Porsche 911 GT3RS, a purchase I already wrote about.  I have spent a fair amount of my free time the past week working on it.  I am about 10% done, meaning I have completed about 86 of 854 steps.  Along the way I have gone from a Lego Technic neophyte into a mostly functional builder.  My inner nerd has blossomed, though some would say it has never not been blossoming.  Either way, I have read Lego blogs.  I have watched and re-watched lots of YouTubes about the subject.  I have made some mistakes, but I have fixed them before I got too far along.  I have been enjoying the build process.  And guess what, I have been smiling as I build it.

So it’s time to Lego of 2016 and embrace 2017.  I plan to smile as I do so.