This month marks the tenth anniversary of our move to Athens.  Yes, we moved from Fairfield to lovely N Shannon in December of 1995.  Amazing, yes?  Being the hopeless romantics we are, we’re commemorating the decade by making another mortgage payment.  Those of you who own older homes won’t be surprised to hear that the to-do list is about as long now as it was then.  So what did we do in our tenth year?

Speaking of the house, we had the exterior painted and the roof re-shingled.  It was a severe pain in the back-side, speaking literally as well as figuratively.  We got new front steps; Greg, being the destructive teenager that he is, took out the old concrete steps with sledge, chisel, and spud bar.  Earlier in the year, we had the old ash tree removed from the back yard.  It was listing about 15° toward the house and was beginning to interfere with the growth of the new maple.  Greg, being the destructive teenager that he is, took out the stump with an axe.  I finally finished the rehab of the downstairs bathroom, doing all the destruction myself without assistance.

We did squeeze in some travel.  We did the week at Sandbridge Beach with Cindy’s family that has become the most enjoyable, IMHO, of our annual family traditions.  We went to Washington for a long weekend of baseball, tourism, and friendship with the Stony Brookers Jim, Linda, and Joe.  RFK is not God’s gift to ballparks, but we loved the Metro and museums.  Cindy loved the Museum of the American Indian while the boys and I enjoyed the Air & Space Museum.  No accounting for taste, I suppose.  The consensus was that the WWII Memorial wasn’t nearly as memorable as some of the other memorials, well short of the stirring monument the WWII vets deserve.  At Thanksgiving, we went to Tennessee.

Labor Day weekend, we attended the Trigon Centennial Celebration in Ann Arbor.  It was, in many ways, the highlight of the year, mostly because of the chance to spend time with old friends, some of whom I haven’t seen for 30 years.  At the Friday reception, I realized that there were probably ten guys there I’d have been very happy to spend an entire evening reminiscing one-on-one with.  It was a strange mixture of returning to my youth and an acute awareness of being older.  After a while, I concluded that the most unchanged aspect of our group, at least apparently, is our voices – I could close my eyes and be transported back to 1970.  How strange to hear the college-age voices coming from the middle-aged men that we are.  It reminds me of lyrics from Sunrise, Sunset:  “I don’t remember growing older, when did they?”  If only my sons could have the experience I had there.

Rob is now living on East State St. with several of his buddies.  After three years in Computer Science, he changed his major to German.  Amazing, ja?   He’s contemplating another education abroad experience in Germany, having really enjoyed Leipzig last year.  Greg lived a year in the dorm and then moved back with us.  Ohio University students must live in the dorm or with their families for two years.  Greg is – keep your fingers crossed – still happy with being a Visual Communication major in the interactive multimedia track.  Heaven only knows where he’ll live next year.  I find that I miss my little boys, but enjoy the company of my now grown sons.

Last summer, I was appointed Associate Director for Undergraduate Studies of the McClure School.  Fancy sounding, isn’t it?  It’s a little more money and a bunch more work, but it’s mostly work I enjoy and that needs to be done.

As usual, ‘The Year in Pictures' web page is at www.CivilizationAsWeKnowIt.com.  There’s a link to the Trigon Alumni page there, too.

We hope that 2006 will bring you good health and happiness!  Try to come see us during our second decade in beautiful southeastern Ohio. 

Phil