2009 What Can I Say?

There are three things I remember about 2009.

 
• President Obama’s Swearing in Ceremony.
• The H1N1 Flu.
• Michael Jackson’s Tragic Death.

 
Mine is a home-school family. After the primary election in 2008, we made a paper chain that had a marker chain for election day. The chain continued through the new year and concluded on inauguration day. On Tuesday, January 20th, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States. We studied and reviewed the Oath of Office and when the words didn’t match those we studied, a sort of geekiness settled on my son and me. To make it even more dramatic, Ted Kennedy collapsed during the luncheon. Hope and Change was in the air so real we could almost reach out to check for hard edges and weight.

  
The H1N1 Flu, a serial killer no one could see or contain, reached around the world. I wish I had thought to buy some stock in the manufacturers of hand sanitizer. I keep a pump bottle in my car to use before I go into stores and the gym and my home. I use it after I leave those same places. My personal mantra; “Open a car door – Use the Sanitizer – Close a Car Door – Use the Sanitizer.”

 
On a weekday in the summer of 2009, I let myself into the gym. I tied Havan, my CCI Service Dog, off near the cardio deck and began my turn at the treadmill. Being a compulsive reader, I hit the start button and began reading the closed captions on the television. It was then that I knew the King of Pop was not going to age into obscurity. Later, the networks made sure the video of Michael Jackson, on a stretcher with tubing in his nose stuck, in my memory. I resent our modern media.

 
Other things happened during the year, but if pressed to answer quickly, these are the first three that come to mind. Was it a good year? It was not a bad year. If I could go back, would I change anything? I suppose it is out of my pay grade to change the things I listed, so I have to say no.

 
On a local scale, there was a terrible explosion and fire in Downtown Bozeman. The City made national news with what we refer to as “Password-Gate.” And the Teamsters Union Members, after six months without a contract, blinked in the harsh reality of a recession and continued to appear at work as usual.

  
What an exciting year. Thank you for making it better by reading these posts and being my audience. I hope I did not disappoint you. Please, let me honor you in 2010 by my word offerings, amusing stories, nitwittery, serious subjects and occasional photographs.