What Happened in 2009

Time to look back at the past year and try to pick out some of the highlights. You can compare what happened to what I said Would Happen in 2009. 2009 didn't start very well but it ended with some very exciting events and portends a great 2010.

• We got puppies.  (see below)
  
• I had medical problems early in the year. In fact I was in the Outer Banks Hospital for 5 days in Feb. with an infection in my leg. All of Feb, March and April were spent on my back with my leg elevated with only small amounts of time up and moving around.  The issues finally started in straighten out as summer came but it appears I will have some manageable but chronic issues with my legs.
• I started the year planning to take part in the Avon walk for Breast Cancer.  My goal was to complete a marathon and a half marathon over 2 days.  My leg problems cut this effort off at the knees (so to speak).  I did however complete a half marathon while training and have now resumed walking (intermittently).  My sincere thanks to everyone who supported my Avon efforts.  Even though I didn't get to walk your contributions helped a good cause.
• 2009 marked my (hopefully brief) return to Nags Head politics.  No, I didn't run for office but I did play a role in Bob Oakes successful campaign for the office of Mayor.  We started in July and worked through election day.  We created the web site, Facebook page and other campaign items.   It was fun to see a plan come together and, of course, it is always better when you win.  That said I have no intention of playing an active role in the Town's decisions.  I have a great deal of faith in Bob and the other board members to do a good job.
• We got puppies.   In December Carole and I became the proud parents of Lizzie and Macy, 2 gorgeous miniature schnauzer puppies.  They have taken a large part of my time this month and will for years to come.  I refer to them as the poopies because it sometimes seems that poop is all the know.  Still they are affectionate and very lovable.
• It was a down and up year for the Outer Banks site of the Duke Nonprofit Management training program.  Spring classes were lightly attended but the fall semester went very well.  All 3 classes were more than half full.  Here's hoping I have learned something about how to get the word out about classes.  Facebook has been good for this.
• Facebook played a role in this year as well.  I spent time nearly every day touching base with friends and neighbors around the country and a few overseas.  I haven't been blogging much and FB takes some of the blame.  Without a doubt FB has filled time previously used for positing.  I enjoy Facebook and even dabbled in Twitter some.   Facebook is a great way to reach people and share information.  Perhaps the best example of this is the FB group that was started in an effort to show public support for keeping the original name for the new pier being built in Nags Head.  Over a weekend we had 500 members and in a week over 1,000.  We had enough members that even the Governor noticed and recognized the importance of the cause at the groundbreaking.
• I continued to feed my geek side with a major milestone in May.  For my birthday I built (assembled) a new PC from parts I selected.  It booted on the second try and I am working on it as I write.  I learned a lot about computers through the process and plan to keep doing work in this vein.  For my fellow geeks my machine sports and AMD quad core processor, 8 Gb. of RAM, a gig of video ram and a terrabyte and a half of disk space.  It boots in 3 different OSs Vista, Win 7 (beta) and Ubuntu linux.  The 2 MS products will be consolidated to a single Win 7 partition soon.  
• One Sunday afternoon my 5 year old buddy Dylan called down to see if he could come over.  When told I was busy he observed "I guess he has a meeting".   Yes I do meetings.   Meetings for the Outer Banks Commnunity Development Corporation,  Outer Banks Create the Future Initiative, Eure Outer Banks Arts Center, the Jennette's Pier advisory Committee, the Dare County Democratic Party and a few more.   Hopefully I am adding something to each.  It was good  to see construction start on the new pier after 6 years of work.  The OBCDC should see big progress in 2010 but this year was a learning year mostly.  OBCFI made big organizational progress and is primed for major successes next year, while the Eure Center did not succeed and now appears dead in the water.    These meetings share a common purpose of trying to make the Outer Banks a better place to live both in the short and long term.  These meetings bring me in contact with a group of very talented and committed people, a list to long to detail here.  Let me just say thank you to everyone associated with these efforts.  Thank you for your dedication and commitment, it is an inspiration to me.
• Did I mention we got puppies.  I did,OK.
• 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of my graduation from the Westtown School, a coed Quaker boarding school outside Philadelphia.  Our reunion was a lot of fun and keeping up with classmates on Facebook has made it even better.
  
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly 2009 marked the 20th anniversary of my marriage to Carole.  She has been a great partner and I don't know what I would do with out her.  All my love and thanks to her for putting up with me this year and in years past.

Thanks for being a part of my 2009.   I hope your year was at least as good as mine and your 2010 is even better.
Ciao