A Long Way Down The Road

Hard to believe how much time has passed since the last time I've been out here to write something. I could have sworn its only been a few weeks. Actually I knew it was a bit longer than that but honestly not much longer. It has been five months. A lot of life happens in five months. I'm back from Ireland, taken several trips for business to New York, Washington DC and Indianapolis, had Christmas with my family and celebrated another New Year. I've come to really love Christmas and appreciate it for all its meanings and its vast potential to bring the best out in people. In January I was able to get together with a couple of my brothers and off we went to Oklahoma to relax and do a little fishing. Well sometime in between fishing and day dreaming we bought a cabin. It is beautiful. I would like to just pack everything in and move there now to spend the rest of my life, but alas...that is simply not possible right now. Never-the-less...what a great adventure. Take a look at this cabin. How beautiful is this? My brother Greg and I have talked on and off for years about having a cabin that we could get away to and just enjoy ourselves. Not pressure, no rules. Well now it's ours. My wife is very excited too...in a good way. I was very happy and also very surprised that she was so supportive. It is probably never a good idea to go out and make such a big purchase without really talking it over with your loved ones...but what the heck, it all worked out and now we all have a place to call get-a-away.

Oklahoma is an interesting story, at least for me it is. While growing up in New York the few thoughts I had of Oklahoma were incredibly unflattering. My visual was taken from a Steinbeck novel and everything I ever heard about Oklahoma in later years seemed to support this drab perception of the 46th State of the Union that I had propagated. I had pictured dry arrid flatland checkered with dirty little towns and populated predominately by toothless rednecks and drunken Indians. Well indeed there is some of that, but it is certainly the exception and not the rule. I am blown away at what a very cool place Oklahoma appears to be. This State has an abundance of interesting attractions and if I wasn't so ignorant, a little research would have shown me that some of America's most notable people are from the Sooner State. To name a few:

Johnny Bench; Garth Brooks; Gordon Cooper; Ralph Ellison; James Garner; Vince Gill; Woodrow Wilson; Woody Guthrie; Paul Harvey;Van Heflin; Ron Howard; Ben Johnson Jennifer Jones; Jeane Kirkpatrick; Mickey Mantle; Reba McEntire; Bill Moyers; Daniel Patrick Moynihan; Patti Page; Brad Pitt; Tony Randall; Oral Roberts; Dale Robertson; Will Rogers; Dan Rowan; Jim Thorpe; Jeanne Tripplehorn; and Ted Shackleford.

I am very pleased to now own a little piece of this State and I look forward to becoming more familar with the places and people of Oklahoma. Dennis, the man who we bought the cabin from introduced us to his wife who was a very interesting and lively person. She, along with several of her friends, is starting up a new business named "Girls Gone Wine". If you like wine, appreciate enterprising entrepreneurs and are interested in learning more about their ventue you can go out to their website at: http://www.thegirlsgonewine.com/ .

We had a great time while we were out there in Oklahoma. Grown men outdoors, running through the woods, fishing all day long then heading in at night pleasantly exhausted. Still enough energy to throw together a dinner of bar-b-qued franks, burgers and beans. The evenings would come to a close by all freely drinking good strong Irish Whisky and telling Irish Ghost stories by the light of a wood burning stove. Does life get any better I ask you? The photo at the left should capture that atmosphere. It does for me at any rate. Greg took this picture with an Olympus Digital Camera. He is just getting into the camera and, I think, discovering what a good piece of equipment it is. I love these moments. We are building a relationshiop in our adult lives that we necessarily put on hold to raise our families. Our kids are all pretty well grown up and it is our time again. We are now and will always be there for our kids when they need us. We did a good job raising them. They are pretty independent, self sufficient for the most part, and just plain good, decent people. I'm as proud of my nephews and nieces as I am of my own kids. This is all good, but I for one, love just being "the brothers" again.

It is my hope that future months will bring opportunities to spend more and more time with my brothers, spend more time at the cabin until eventually I can spend all my time at the cabin with them nearby.