Sunday, January 1, 2012

Where did 2011 Go?

Reading all the "Year in Review" posts has been quite inspirational. I looked back at all two posts I wrote in 2011and figure it is just one more symptom of the ailments that I dealt with all year. Yes, I did start the year with a nasty round of sciatica and Damn, did that hurt, but that was just the beginning. I managed to shut myself off from a lot of people this year under the guise of being "busy". No need to go down that whole road, that part of the year is why I'm excited to move on into 2012. So, since I didn't post much in 2011 this is more of a condensed version of all the posts I should've done and a chance for me to reflect on the year & what changes I need to make for 2012.

There were plenty of interesting times in 2011. Mostly good, some not so much.

We started the year by taking in a very cool Bowl Game @ AT&T Park to watch Nevada whoop on Boston College. Was a great time with family & friends & thanks to my friends who work @ the park, we were able to go down on the field after the game, congratulate the players & just hang in the dugout for awhile. That was a really cool time!

I managed a ride up Mt. Hamilton on Feb. 5th to take in the views & a great sunset.

And peeked into the Redneck Garden just enough to see how bad the neglect was showing.

We braved some snow...
So we could see my awesome son & granddaughters & their awesome mom who took the pic!

I had a work trip to Orlando, but the best pics were actually from the flight there.

The highlight of March was the SFGS & spending time with cool folks like Jenny here.

In April I finally got around to cleaning up the Redneck Garden a bit & found out that a faily small pepper plant can actually have quite a bit of root mass.

April also brought the 1st ever food truck fest in San Jose, so my brother & I & a few thousand others just had to check out San Jose Eats.

May brought signs of life & renewal to the Redneck Garden.

May 28th found me & some friends in Hollister for their 2nd annual air show.

And then the unthinkable happened. We lost Lorrie, my youngest sister at the age of 56, just days before her daughter's high school graduation. Being the youngest of the clan, Lorrie was often my adopted mother. This was extremely tough for my whole family. We're going to miss her immensely.

We did manage to have a pretty good shin-dig for niece Kat's graduation. 

In June you saw the Redneck Garden again.

And Ivette Soler @ Annie's Annuals.

July 2nd made for a toasty ride to Hollister to the Corbin factory for their motorcycle show to see my buddy Fred's custom retro board-tracker, the PsyClone parked next to the actual Burt Munroe Indian.
 I had a great ride to the Nevada County Airfest.

July closed with the Travis Air Expo.

By August, the Redneck garden was cruising along making corn, tomatoes, peppers & more...

August 21st I took a ride to Santa Rosa for the Wings Over Wine Country Airshow. One of the high points was an F-15 recently donated to the Pacific Coast Air Museum by the USAF. This particular F-15 was the 1st aircraft over NYC on 9/11. They are building a special exhibit just for this historic airplane. Lots of familiar faces & aircraft on the ramp at this show.

Got to spend a weekend with friends & family at Lake Tahoe helping to celebrate brother Pat & Birdy's wedding. Gotta love Tahoe.


Followed by Watsonville on Labor Day weekend...

Mid-September means the annual pilgrimage to Reno for the National Championship Air Races. Lots of amazing & historic aircraft & people attend this event every year & 2011 was no exception. We were honored to see some extremely rare & historic aircraft & the weather for race week was excellent.

And again, the unthinkable & unimaginable happened. Most of you saw the news unfold on your TV screen while many of us watched it happen. Jimmy Leward, veteran race & movie pilot lost control of his aircraft, the historic, highly modified P-51 racer, Galloping Ghost, impacting into the box seats, killing 10 spectators & himself and injuring scores more. The verdict is still out & we may never know what really happened, but the weight of this tragedy will be felt by everyone affected and the whole air racing family for many years to come.

The air show season continued on, with the next stop in Salinas.
And yes, that's wifey with the Viper West Demo Team!

Then came the Gathering of Mustangs at the Nut tree airport in Vacaville.

And an abbreviated Fleet Week show thanks to a fog bank that just couldn't stay away long enough for the Blue Angels to get their show in.

We finished out the year by hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 32 friends & family. What a blast we had! Wifey & I got to get away to Monterey for a work related Christmas party & then got to spend a nice morning kicking around the wharf.
Wishing you all the best for 2012.

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