I write this again from New Zealand; I got asked to come back in July and got here on September 30th. I started the year on a brief vacation, including a trip to Roanoke, then worked in Shrewsbury, PA until March. A few days after finishing that job, I found my way to JFK and flew to India for the second time, this time to Delhi (15hr direct flight) where I met Aby and Shoba Philip for a fantastic 10 day trip to the sights around Delhi (The Amber Fort (!!), The Red Fort, Taj Mahal, Armritsar), then flew with them to Chennai for a great finish. I doubt I will go back, but if you have a chance to go there with someone from India, don’t miss it. It is a fascinating ancient culture (I wrote a humorous travel article about my time there I will be happy to email you – it is long). I had a week to recover and then left with Greg and Kathy Wright on an eagerly anticipated trip to Iceland. Iceland gets 5 stars: super nice people (way nicer than New Zealand), spectacular landscapes and features, beautiful women, good roads, and lots of hot springs and spas. You could have a great time there on a three-day weekend (it is small enough to see the highlights in one long day). I started a job in Norristown right after that until the end of June. I HATED THAT PLACE: My worst job since the Air Force. I was happy to be done and quickly left for Calgary, Alberta to visit Belayneh and Yenu Hailu, friends from my first year in Swaziland. Calgary is my kind of place, but I got sick the first day (see “Health”) and ruined both their and my vacations: they could not have been nicer. I did see the Calgary Stampede, a top-notch Dinosaur museum in the middle of nowhere, and made a day trip with them to Banff (I must return there!). I got back in time for my family’s week at the cottage on Keuka Lake, but I was still not right. I was so disappointed; my agenda that week had included attempting to burn a record amount of calories. I returned to Shrewsbury for the last 5 weeks of the summer (two worksites asking me back in one year – rock solid proof I am better than nothing). In September I returned to Roanoke before gearing up for my trip back to Waimate.
Things I miss while in New Zealand (other than all of you, well, most of you):
1. NFL Red Zone – I am growing more disenchanted with football in all its forms, but this is the best thing on TV – and no commercials, ever.
2. Daily Show/Colbert Report/Parks and Rec (they do have last year’s shows). They’re not as fun online where I can’t fast forward the commercials.
3. My Jetta! I am driving a Jaguar, but it gets about 16mpg, and gas is $7/gal.
4. Local on the 8s
5. Smoothly paved roads/limited access highways
6. Women with nice hair – and there are beauty salons everywhere!
Things I do get (I have a DVR and pretty fast internet)
1. The Late Show (Letterman) – not very good anymore, but familiar.
2. 3 NFL games a week (currently they also show an ESPN NFL radio show, two guys talking into mics, no highlights, scoreboards or anything, for 6 hours on Monday morning. Incredible – must get McEnroe ratings).
3. 1-3 College football games (usually Big 10 mismatches).
4. Al Jazeera (it is very good). I am surprised how much the 24 hour news channels here focus on sports, or what they think are sports. I’m talking to you, cricket, darts, netball, and lawn bowling.
“____________” are for pussies*.
1. Golf pull carts/trolleys
2. Hairs on top of the head
3. Car seat warmers
4. “Mild” or “medium” spicy meals
5. Leaf and/or snow blowers
6. Handguns and assault rifles
7. Statins
8. Take home boxes at restaurants
9. Tea breaks
10. Personal trainers
11. Steak knives
* Ed. note: I am aware that “pussies” may not be the greatest word to have in a holiday letter, but it is funnier than its synonyms.
Health: Great start to the year and was running very well in the cold, but then I got influenza in late February (I had a fever for 8 days and missed an unheard of 3 days of work). I pushed myself hard while I was in Norristown, but I got a terrible case of food poisoning after eating a salad (Cyclospora?) at the Newark Airport en route to Calgary. It took about 5 horrible days for the wide variety of symptoms/plagues to lessen, but it also seemed to damage my muscles for a longer time. I eventually was able to resume my prodigious workout regimen and put up with occasional aches and pains. Before I left for New Zealand, I had a few days where I ran early, walked 18 holes carrying my bag, walked to the gym and worked out for an hour and then kayaked in the Susquehanna River for 45 minutes (also dragging the kayak to and fro).
I’ve spent the majority of my life living alone, and I have a few “habits.”
1. I like to have a fan blowing during the night for white noise, but as soon as I get up I can’t stand the sound and rush to turn it off.
2. I have a lot of different shoes and set up a changing area everywhere I go.
3. I like a big bowl to eat cereal, and I often have to improvise; currently I am using a metal dog dish.
4. I never cook a meal that requires anything other than a fork to eat it.
5. In order to save on buying tissues, I let incompletely used ones drape on the tissue box until I have used all the space.
6. As those of you who spend time with me know, I have a high tolerance for my own clutter. Though everything has its place, that place might be on the arm of the couch. It is all about efficiency (why put it away if you can keep it right where you need it?).
7. I rarely clean (except in the kitchen) or vacuum. I don’t like the person at the hotel coming in to clean the room, either.
Music: Nothing stole my heart. Good rockers were Idlewild “Post Electric Blues”; The Joy Formidable “Wolf’s Law”; Dinosaur Jr. “I Bet on Sky”; The Pixies “EP1”; best Alterna-Pop were The Naked and Famous “In Rolling Waves” and Grouplove “Spreading Rumours”; Folk Rock – Grant-Lee Phillips “Walking in the Green Corn”, Son Volt “Honky Tonk”, The Avett Brothers “Magpie and the Dandelion”, and Mark Knopfler “Privateering”; and best nostalgia: The Who “Quadrophenia (Super Deluxe Edition)”and “Tommy (super deluxe edition)”, REM “Green” (remastered - meh) with “Live in Greensboro” (the reason to get it)”, The Replacements “Songs for Slim”, The Wonderstuff “Oh, No, It’s…The Wonderstuff!”, and the priceless reunion of Grant Lee Buffalo “Live at the Royal Festival Hall”.
Reading/Books: I suffered the heartbreak of my Kindle (keyboard), my most valuable companion of the last 3 years, breaking on my flight to New Zealand (with 7 hours to go to Auckland). With that I lost the ability to play Scrabble against a computer, play a great word scramble game, and do hard NY Times crosswords electronically. I got a not-as-good replacement (new, basic) sent quickly and shifted all I hadn’t read to it. Books I read: Copies in Seconds, David Owen (always solid gold); Lamentations of the Father and The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days Ian Frazier (very funny); Lincoln at Gettysburg and Why Priests? Garry Wills; The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power….. John Thavis; Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth Reza Aslan; The King of Sports: Football’s Impact on America Gregg Easterbrook; The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy (new version); the best book I read by far - I cannot recommend it enough - was Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser. On a more frivolous note, I also just completed Dr. J: The Autobiography, a surprisingly well (ghost) written life story of one of my basketball heroes.
My faith continues to be challenged, particularly by three of the books (I had to laugh at a reviewer of Why Priests who pointed out that the ideal church Mr. Wills was talking about already existed. It was called the Episcopal Church). An intellectual grappling with his or her faith is a cliché by now, so I am far from unique. I am closer at this point to the beliefs of the older Tolstoy (he followed the moral teachings of Jesus devoutly but no other dogma after getting kicked out of the Orthodox Church) than Pope Francis (who may yet make a big difference and win me back). I go to Mass weekly and continue to pray the Rosary every day (haven’t missed a day in 7 years), but mostly because I don’t know any better way to show devotion to a God I still believe in. One of the stories of The Decameron has a Jew wanting to convert to Catholicism. A worried friend told him he should go to Rome and see how the clergy there acted before he converted. He returned and told his friend the clergy and church hierarchy were terrible, hypocritical people, but that made him want to convert even more because any church that could survive that was full of the Holy Spirit and was the church for him (I do not agree with that position).
Words we should all try to use less (and my recommended substitutes):
1. Amazing (astonishing, astounding, tingling) 2. Awesome (sequoiac) 3. Cool (Icelandic), 4. Dude ( )
Driver’s Seat Philosopher, 2013: I was driving in annoying traffic on the PA turnpike when it occurred to me how much I am held up by other people in my life. It’s not just bad drivers, but credentialing, licensing, visas, etc. I thought about how much I’d have accomplished otherwise: how many countries I would have worked in or traveled to, how many people I might have helped (not that I am that much help, but…). I don’t think I want to be treated as special (indeed, some of the obstacles serve the purpose of protecting patients from the incompetent, though so far I have not been in that group much). Instead I wish everyone had the obstacles holding him or her back minimized. So, I guess what came out of this is I am going to try not to be the obstacle in my way and be more patient in dealing with the things out of my control that slow me down (I am much less patient than when I was younger).
I will be 50 January 29th, 2014 (I think it’s hard to believe, but most people who guess my age already have me there). I say that to solicit cards and letters (but not presents) to keep me company in Waimate (It is lonely here. Please, if you don’t mind, send your holiday cards to me here as well – it is only about $.50 more and about 7 days to get here ;). In coming to New Zealand again I had to give up a planned trip to Patagonia to hike and run as my birthday treat, and I still hope to do something special (involving hiking and running) in New Zealand instead in January. George Orwell said when a man reaches 50 he has the face he deserves. Except for its relative mole-iness, I’d have to say I’ve done well. I have gotten things looking about as good as they can at least twice this year and hope to do so again in NZ. I am not sure what drives me to be in the best shape I can be in (within reason – and I am reasonable above all), but I keep going with it. May it serve some greater purpose.
My Waimate address:
Oak House Medical Centre
161 Queen St.
Waimate 7924, New Zealand
Thank yous : As always to my parents for putting up with me (more assets than debits), taking me to airports, providing free golf and food, and not getting too jealous at how much more the dog likes going for walks with me; my brother for getting and sharing a kayak with me; Greg and Michael for having my brother and me to one of the nicest weddings I’ve seen and allowing me to stage my India trip from their Manhattan loft; Greg and Kathy Wright for being willing to travel with me and have me to their home whenever I can come; Aby and Shoba – sorry I missed you in the US, but that trip was great! Thanks for setting it up. And for letting me visit: The Hailus, The Brunsell-Greitzers, Mike Guro, Joe Hoffmeier, the Heathcotes, and in advance to Selwyn and Sue Long for having me for Christmas.
All the best for the rest of the year, all the holidays, and 2014!
Terry O’