Click here to view images from my recent trip.
Nine days in February mixed relaxation at the winter retreat of my mother and stepfather in Apache Junction, Arizona with high paced recreation at the home of my long time friend Tim Malloy near Aspen, Colorado. Highlights included:
-- Flying a small two-seater airplane with my cousin Dave Oman in Tucson.
-- An afternoon's hike with my mother on beautiful Superstition Mountain.
-- Downhill skiing with Tim Malloy at Sunrise and Buttermilk Mountain
resorts near Aspen.
-- Snowshoeing with Tim in the mountains near Aspen.
-- Seeing a performance by folk singer Arlo Guthrie and briefly meeting
him.
My mother and Ben are mostly doing well, although my mother had a three week bout with Bell's Palsy, a disease that temporarily caused the muscles on one side of her face to sag and an eye on the other side to remain open and suffer dryness. The experience was more frightening than disabling, and thankfully, after three weeks cleared up completely. She looks good to me. Ben, meanwhile, recently had his back go out on him (as occasionally happens). It lays him out for a few days, but soon, he's back to normal.
Cousin Dave Oman and his family are living blissfully in their Tuscon home. Dave wonders why he didn't move out there a long time ago. Dave, a pilot with hundreds of hours of experience now, let me take partial control of our flight and even perform the take-off. The scenery over the mountains near Tucson was quite spectacular.
Tim Malloy kept me well occupied for four days -- skiiing, snowshoeing, partying, and singing. He's self-employed now, and he and his partner stand to pull in big bucks this year. He enjoys a level of local notoriety in the planning field and is often called upon to speak at local community hearings. Virtually everywhere we went, we seemed to run into someone who knew him, whether at a restaurant, at a concert, or on the slopes. Meanwhile, his guitar and singing skills are more finely honed, and he keeps frequent contact with current heartthrob, Andrea, who lives in Berlin, Germany.
Other events from this quarter (12/01/97 - 03/01/98):
Winter has been mild and snowless here in DC. My holiday season was filled with house and office parties (about a dozen in all). Unless one is a total hermit around here, the law of averages says that you'll eventually end up on somebody's party list. Several parties obliged me to pull out my guitar and entertain.
As everyone knows, Washington politics have been rather interesting lately. While many folks, particularly those outside the beltway, want to tune it out, news junkies such as myself thrive on our daily fix. I frequently enjoy taking a short walk from my apartment to the Newseum, a museum about journalism. There, I can quickly review the front pages of dozens of newspapers from around the world. Much of what one reads in the paper these days is fiction, though more interesting fiction than my own often mundane life.
I've seen all of the Acadamy Award nominees for this year -- Titanic, Good Will Hunting, As Good As It Gets, L.A. Confidential, and The Full Monty -- plus several others, The Edge, Seven Years in Tibet, Kundun, The Apostle, Amistad, The Sweet Hereafter and Sphere. Titanic is likely to win, of course, although as with many of this year's crop of nominees, it was "too Hollywood" for me. Good Will Hunting, The Full Monty and The Sweet Hereafter are more my style. Sphere is the second worst motion picture I've ever seen! Only "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is worse.
Anticipations for the coming quarter:
-- The cheery blossoms are soon to bloom here in Washington, and I'm
ready to get back on my bike as the weather warms.
-- I look forward to a visit by my nephews, Joshua and Joel, early
this Spring.
-- I'll be heading to Minnesota in May.
Please, drop a line to bring me up to date on your news. You can contact me by clicking on this E-mail address: mail@deanoman.com
Review previous newsletters:
Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 2, 12/01/97 (Including NEW photos!!!)
Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 1, 09/01/97
Best wishes to all,
Deano