Christmas 2006

2006 – The Year of Regrets Avoided

 

Before we start on our journey reviewing 2006, let me take a moment to offer thanks to a few of my dedicated readers. If you do not remember, last year I made the bold statement:

 

I have reached the stage in life where I recognize the utility of a nose-hair trimmer. Fortunately I am not old enough to have actually bought one.

 

Well, apparently I am a bit older than I thought. In early January a few friends graciously gave me a mini grooming kit. My wife thanks you. We all should be so lucky to have such concerned friends.

 

Now, to review the status of the family.

 

Margaret, our oldest child, is ten years old and is in fourth grade at Dove Elementary. As in years past, she does very well at reading. In the Grapevine school district, fourth grade is academically much more difficult but she has adjusted fairly well. Margaret is active in her Junior Girl Scout troop and is also an anchor at KDOV, the school television channel. She has good presence on the television screen and does a great job as an anchor. I may be biased, but she is the best one in her television crew. As in years past, she is in the Christmas choir at our church.

               

Cal, our middle child, is seven and is in first grade at Dove as well. He excels in school and, even though he is not excited about every subject, he does well at most everything. As in years past, Cal continues to be a prolific scientist and inventor. This year he has created a “money making” machine, countless rockets, and a machine capable of controlling the weather. He has also expressed interest in cloning. I am not sure as a parent we should encourage this. As I have said before, Cal thinks and dreams big.

 

Charlie, the youngest, is 3 ½ years old. He is still in the preschool program at Saint Francis Catholic Church. He enjoys it very much, especially music, because Laura is the music teacher. He continues to develop his personality and we are seeing the development of his assertive side. I guess that is only inevitable. Overall, though, he is a friendly little boy who likes to play with his brother and sister. He is very intelligent and quite expressive for someone his age.

 

Laura is still teaching music one day a week at the Saint Francis Preschool program where Charlie goes to school. She has scaled back on the volunteering a bit this year, but is still involved with MYC (Mothers with Young Children). She really enjoys her friends in MYC and appreciates all of them greatly. She has little free time, looking after the three kids and does a wonderful job at that sometime thankless endeavor.

 

As for myself, I am doing well. I have recently changed jobs and now work for a robot manufacturer called Adept Technology. I used to work for them several years back and am excited about working for them again. I have continued to do triathlons. This year, I improved my overall time in a typical race by about five minutes. That may sound impressive, but if I were to categorize my capabilities, it is equivalent to making the transition from the category of  “pathetic” to “generally under performing”.

 

I must admit that this year was a slow year. Perhaps that is evident in the fact that the highlight of my year was seeing Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey perform at the Mesquite Championship Rodeo.  For those of you not aware of the Whiplash phenomenon, he is a little capuchin monkey dressed as a cowboy and he rides a sheep dog named Ben. At the Rodeo, he and Ben heard sheep around the arena for about 10 minutes.

 

The desire to see Whiplash began several years ago when I read an article in the paper. The sheer though of a cowboy monkey just captivated me. I know what you are thinking… Oh what a simple mind this man must have. That may be true, but nonetheless, I have had this desire to see Whiplash for years and, in August, we finally saw him. In many ways seeing Whiplash was kind of like going to the prom in high school. There was such a buildup of anticipation, but it culminates in a pretty mundane event. Yes, it was interesting seeing this monkey riding around on a dog, but it did not provide a very deep level of satisfaction. In retrospect, I am not sure why I expected a deep level of satisfaction watching a monkey riding a dog. But in this experience, I was reminded of a very important quote from Sidney J Harris:

 

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.

 

If I had never seen Whiplash, I would have looked back with regret at not having taken the time to seek out that experience. As you go forth into the New Year, take the time to experience things you have always wanted to experience, rather than letting them pass you by. After all you never know how many more opportunities you may have.

 

Have a peaceful holiday season,

 

Cyle, Laura, Margaret, Cal and Charlie Nelson                                                                           

 

Ps. For those of you who may remember, our toaster we bought two years ago died. This time, I did not research nor obsess about its replacement. I simply went to the store, had a ten-minute discussion with a 15 year old clerk who seemingly knew nothing about toasters, and arbitrarily bought one. For those interested, it was chrome Oster convection/toaster oven. I highly recommend them over the Cuisinart that died.