It’s the Last Day of the Year

As we get ready to say goodbye to 2016…

…and the month of December, it is my hope that you had a successful 2016. Many are saying it is a surreal year. I went and looked it up…

Surreal: Having the quality of bizarre

Yep. That about sums it up. On a lot of fronts I end out the year glancing backwards and counting the positives and negatives like a column of numbers, but I refuse to let that sum be an accounting of my experiences of 2016. Nor will I allow it to define the next year!

Time will tell exactly how strange we will remember this year! Deaths and defeats are easy to document, but the births and winnings will take time to see how they impact us into the future. Say goodbye to the old year, but welcome the new year with a sense of hope and opportunity.

Your attitude will be the telling tale of your success and failure!

Now. Last time of glancing backwards. (And I promise never to look at an entire month again in this fashion!) On thing to note about these dates – I found them interesting enough to share for a number of reasons, but there is so much more that has happened on these single days than can ever be properly recorded or studied.

On this date, December 31, History experienced:

• 406 – 80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning invasion of Gallia
• 1687 – The first Huguenots set sail from France for the Cape of Good Hope, where they would later create the South African wine industry with the vines they took with them on the voyage.
• 1695 – The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up.
• 1744 – English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion (wobble)
• 1879 – Thomas Edison gave his first public demonstration of incandescent lighting to an audience in Menlo Park, NJ.
• 1891 – New York’s new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals.
• 1897 – Brooklyn, NY, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City.
• 1904 – The first New Year’s Eve celebration is held in what will become known as Times Square (it was Longacre Square)
• 1929 – Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played “Auld Lang Syne” as a New Year’s Eve song for the first time.
• 1946 – U.S. President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.
• 1947 – Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were married.
• 1953 – Hank Williams Senior dies.
• 1955 – General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to earn more than one billion dollars in a single year.
• 1960 – The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.
• 1961 – The Beach Boys played a show under this name for the first time at a Ritchie Valens memorial concert in Long Beach, CA.
• 1973 – John Denver is born.
• 1974 – Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.
• 1985 – Ricky Nelson and six others died in an airplane crash near DeKalb, TX. A fire had broken out on the plane.

My last Facebook postings of any year I posted over the past 8 years…

• 2015 – One thing I’ve learned: I am definitely clueless at times, but patience gives me the time to consider direction.
• 2015 – Sometimes we just need to shut down our mind and rest in the comfort of the moment. How about enjoying a quiet evening at home?
• 2015 – “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made“
• 2015 – In this New Year I DO NOT need a “new” conference to attend. I simply need to make use of what I have in my toolbox. Now. Today.
• 2015 – From the sidelines you seldom see the open path for the ball carrier. But the whole team is there to support the one. Are you there?
• 2013 – “What’s Next?“
• 2010 – Murrel Ewing passed away earlier today.
• 2010 – If you choose to think there’s a difference what happens at midnight, then think about this: Midnight begins a new book, it’s pages are blank, our words and deed will write every chapter. Let’s make this next year a story worth reading.
• 2010 – New Years resolutions are a funny thing. You feel odd if you make none and you feel even worse when they do not come into fruition. “Do not put off until tomorrow” adage applies really well about now!
• 2010 – A friend posts – optimists stay up to make sure new year arrives, a pessimist to make sure old year leaves… I simply go to bed normally and wait for the answer when I awake!

Now for a final 12/31 scripture of this 31st day of the 12th month.

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:31 KJV)

But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Luke 12:31 KJV)

13-11-09-01

Thirteenth Anniversary

Okay, so it was a no brainer… The numbers are simply the countdown view of the numbers used in the anniversary of the Terrorist Attack we commonly call 911. This is the 13th Remembrance of 09/11/01.

I chose this picture from the myriad of photo’s available because I want to remember the Twin Towers as they were, not what they became…

Often thought to be an unlucky number, the thirteenth of anything I handle very well, thank you very much. Since my birthday is the thirteenth of a certain month. I have faced many birthday celebrations, even on the nefarious Friday the 13th! In fact, according to my calculations, I have had 9 birthdays on a Friday the 13th since my birth. I was born on a Thursday – so that means my very first birthday celebration was on Friday, the 13th!

Today is the 13th remembrance of the terrorist attack on American Soil that killed thousands of people in just a few moments of time.

I never had a business reason to be in the Twin Towers, but I have had some enjoyable memories of time spent in NY back in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

The bank I worked for, Texas Commerce Bank, had entered into some agreement with Chemical Bank (and then the mergers and acquisitions started and now it’s JP Morgan Chase) and we were beginning to migrate our data processing over to their systems. So, a number of us went several times to start the planning process.

That first trip allowed me to stay in the Vista Hotel that nestled between and at the foot of the Twin Towers. That hotel was later demolished after a terrorist bomb in the parking garage made the foundation weak. 

For my several trips there, the evenings often availed opportunities to become the visitors and tourists we truly were – Central Park, Wall Street, Broadway, Time Square, Empire, Tavern on the Green , Lady Liberty, Battery Park – a host of traditional events rounded out some really hardworking trips.

On one trip we took an afternoon off to go see a Broadway Show, Cats. What a phenomenal event!

As I am a loner and introvert by nature, it was especially the early morning hours that I enjoyed solo strolls through the city. One morning, I ended up at the restaurant on the 109th floor of one of the Towers (I truly did not know their names or numbers). Setting at the window I enjoyed the rising sun over the city. Beautiful morning. Then, a few steps up to the top of the building and I hiked around the observation walkway on top of the building. You were about 25 feet from the edge of the building, but what a spectacular site and feeling – 110 stories above the street on a beautiful morning!

Another morning found me underground, beneath the Twin Towers, sitting at a little coffee shop – overlooking the multiple storied escalators as people poured out of the underground rail system. Like poking an ant hill with a stick, people would swirl up out of the ground on their way to another busy work day.

Those days are gone. I did not remember whether I too my trusty 35mm camera with my to NY. I can find no pictures to mark my journeys. Yet, the power of those days nearly 30 years ago are fresh in my mind and this morning I pay respect to those who lost their lives on 9/11/01.

No terror can take away my memories of those visits and no attack will make me feel any less proud of my country.

Thirteen years later and my memories of that morning are real. A phone call from a friend. The horror of what was done. Lives lost. We were in Anchorage that day. Planes were being grounded everywhere. Fighter jets were circling the cities, ready to protect our lives.  This was before the days of Twitter and Facebook. Most communication was by phones and email.  As we watched the destruction, we could only hope and pray for that everything would turn out alright.

Today we remember… We will never forget.