It’s been an interesting year, and a fascinating decade. The past decade brought a lot of things. I distinctly recall standing in line at Home Depot the week before New Years in 1999 and the fellow in front of us turning and saying “That’s smart, you’ll still be able to cook when everything comes to a halt at midnight YSK” We were buying a charcoal BBQ…but only because we had received some money for Christmas and it was on sale. Oddly enough…as the decade disappears, that same BBQ is sitting downstairs as we just bought a new one this past fall…
The 2000′s saw terrorism rise to anew level, and travel become severely restricted as a result. It saw the environment tear into us in a deadly manner with devastating earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, heat waves, and floods. War became common, Dictators were brought down, terrorists are still on the loose. Reality TV took over (ugh), the Crackberry was born, and Facebook “friending” became a common term. CD players became obsolete as MP3′s took over…but oddly, vinyl made a comeback. The iPod was launched and revolutionized the world of portable music and brought the Mac label to the front of the younger generation. The GPS replaced the map and the digital camera (mostly) replaced film. We reached the surface of Mars and Pluto was demoted from planet to “dwarf planet”. We couldn’t get rid of our Prime Minister with his Fisher Price hairdo, but the US got a black President, and got rid of a buffoon. The economy burst with the Dot com bubble, then it boomed, and then it burst again. China rose and the US fell, Canada remained relatively stable. In the world of music, it was the decade of the comeback. Seriously… Twisted Sister is on the road touring? But we lost some legends. Books, magazines and newspapers face the threat of extinction due to electronic media. Climate change and global warming became more concrete concepts in the mainstream and renewability, sustainability and conservation became buzzwords. Globalization brought fear of rampant spread of disease.
Yes, it’s been quite the ride this decade.
Usually I hate this time of year. Most people probably view the end of a year as a time to look forward. I have a morbid tendency of looking backwards and wondering if I have managed to achieve anything that I set out to do. All in all, I think this year was a pretty good one. It certainly was full…and unusual.
We started out 2009 by jumping into the fire and throwing a wedding together in a few short weeks with the help of a lot of great people and in the process had the opportunity to reflect on some of the wonderful friends in our lives and examine the definition of friendship.
Kirk got a promotion that gave him even more job satisfaction and brought him a new self confidence that looks good on him.
I became 100% Mac.
We hopped a plane to parts unknown in Greece and didn’t get into nearly as much trouble as the last time we did it four years prior. And while the scenery was not as “Greek” and the excitement level was nowhere near as high in the Ionian as it was in the Aegean, we met many interesting people and made some new friends.
We then did a side step to England for a few days and met yet more interesting and fun loving people who share a passion for the world through a camera lens, people we had interacted with only on the photo sharing website Flickr. To travel halfway across to meet strangers, well, not something I’d ever contemplated before.
Returning to home saw a busy summer catching up on work and play. Not as much boating as we’d hoped, but we did manage to get a lot of work done on it and complete some outstanding upgrades. By the time we finish getting it where we want it…it will be time to sell and move up to that sailboat we are dreaming of.
2009 saw us make some real gains on the stock market that allowed us to stay in the black after the wedding and the vacation and allowed me to buy a scooter and start looking for a new truck, one that should be parked in our spot by the end of this week.
We travelled to the Kootenays for a snowy Thanksgiving, and I saw my former research supervisor become the fourth President and Vice Chancellor of the University in my old home town of Prince George. I reconnected with a friend and mentor and we repaired a friendship had been sorely missed for almost five years.
After three years I had an opportunity to apply for a job I’d been working towards, and I was unsuccessful. But this time, it didn’t feel like it was the end of the world. Maybe it was a good thing, maybe it has tied me over until I could get my mind back into what I would like to do. Time will tell, but I almost feel relieved. I just have to tie up a few loose ends on the contract and then I feel it’s time to move on. To what…I’m not yet entirely certain.
We managed to afford renovations to our kitchen, almost done and not go into hock to do it…although the bank accounts are severely depleted now.
Kirk received a nice bonus for Christmas, and with it we ordered him a MacBook…we have finally divested the household of Windows…except for once a year to do taxes…at least until someone makes a decent Canadian Tax package for the Mac platform.
I think what I have learned in 2009 most of all is that the future is uncertain, and it’s more important to focus on the things that are important…the people in your life and the richness that they provide.
I think I am looking forward to the New Decade, if only because this time, I have no preconceived notions about where I “should be” at the end of it. I do know that 2010 will involve more photography though 
