Year: 1999

The year, century, and millenium are almost over (at least in the popular imagination)-I suppose I should write something profound about epochal changes and how the world has changed so much and what we still need to do but instead I’m going to say nothing. Because the difference between December 31st, 1999 and January 1st, 2000 doesn’t exist. Change happens much more slowly than in a day, especially with culture.

So, what’s happened since October? Not a lot, Mathias is growing quickly-he vocalizes a lot now, is fully crawling and starting to walk. Erika is fine, she gets tired taking care of Mathias, though. One of her friends has cancer, and that takes a lot out of her too. I’m fine-busy working and that’s about it.

Events? Not much, Halloween was uneventful. Went to Carlsbad for the company holiday party. Bought a new Rev 1.5. Started planning to make a NASA Parawing 5. Getting ready for Christmas & New Year’s-tree & lights are up, cards are sent, presents are bought. We’re going to Merlin’s for New Year’s eve & Pasadena for the parade.

Well, it’s almost mid-October. I’m getting so I write this about once a month, which isn’t bad, but isn’t really good either. Whatever…

So, what’s been up, you ask-as if anyone reads this…that’s prolly why I haven’t been writing this-it’s just a waste of time. Anyways, here goes-working, taking care of baby. Moved the office end of September. I’m pretty settled in now and back to work-it’s a nice place, if sterile. Came in 3rd at San Diego in both precision and ballet, which is good considering I’ve never flown precision and the ballet routine was an Experienced one. Got my car fixed-Ford dealership tried to rip me off-the problem was a torn hose & they wanted $750 in injector repairs… Never going back THERE. Retrieved my parents from the airport-they had a good trip. The boy is crawling now. He can pull himself up to standing now, too-it won’t be long until he’s walking. Went to the Festival of Sacred Music when we got back-we got there late, so I missed Sekar Jaya and the Tibetans-I’m bummed. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about gamelan this year-it’s SO far to drive.

And now the big news-went to AKA Nationals last week to compete, and…I’M NATIONAL CHAMPION!!!!!!!! It’s only in the experienced class, so I’m just the best of the “pretty good”-it’s not like I’m the Masters champion…But the trip was good-the boy was great on the plane. It rained Friday and Saturday, but Thursday was great-sunny and good winds. I flew great-Ron Despojado, Tom Stoner, Steve LaPorte and Allan Stroh all said so. Allan has a video, too, so I’ll get a copy of the performance. I’d like to get in touch with Tori Amos & let her know that I used her music… California fliers did well-3 firsts, 4 seconds, and 7 thirds. Ron Despojado came in 3rd in Masters-a surprise, Ron beat Steve LaPorte for freestyle, also sort of a surprise. It was a good trip.

Not much else to say-time to start work on a new routine. And get back to work…

Well, it’s mid-September. I’m getting really, really bad at writing this, mostly because of work and the baby. I don’t have a lot of time at work to write journals, and when I’m at home I’m taking care of the baby, cleaning, running errands,or flying my kite. Time is flying like the wind-the baby is almost 8 months, is pretty much crawling, and is really noisy. We’re starting to get the house ready for crawling & walking baby, and redecorating (we’re going to do some Feng Shui stuff, too…)

In the news-we’re going to AKA grand nationals in October-I came in 3rd in the division, which means an invitation to compete. I’ve been trying to practice every week, but I need to practice every day, now. The routine is coming along very well-most times I can nail most of it. More work is needed to nail all of it all the time-I’m not sure if I have the time to do that, though…

Uhhhh, lessee, we’re moving the office 1st of October to Irvine Spectrum. I’m really busy working on the project-it looks really nice. People will be happy. We had a visitor this last week-I was in meetings all the time.

What we’ve done since June-lotsa shopping, TV watching and baby care. We visited my parents a few times, and they visited here, too. Some kite flying-we went to Berkeley end of July-I DQ’ed because the wind died. We had fun and went to Napa, so the weekend wasn’t a total loss. I got rid of most of the stuff I had for sale-no one was buying, so we gave it away. We went to the Long Beach Renaissance fair-I bought a didgeridu for travel. We went to the Orange county fair and I got a didge there, too. I can play it pretty well. We had several people over for Labor Day, everyone had a great time and I did the usual masterful job of grilling. We went to a stupid homeshow and I snuck in-we did see a nice camper van. My car died-needed clutch stuff-it also needs fuel injection stuff anda radiator and oil pan-the joy of an aging machine…We went to a La Leche League breakfast and walk-I helped make pancakes and we saw the midwife we fired. We went camping in mid-August by Ojai-it was nice but Erika hated it. We gave Erika’s best friend’s daughtera bike for her birthday-she’s 4. I got a ultralight kite for my birthday.

We changed the computer set around-Erika has her own email and we switched to MSN for access (it was $40 for 3 months, unlimited access). Her email is iamthewindwidow@hotmail.com …Next week is the 1st competition for 2000 in San Diego, wish me luck-I have to compete masters… That’s just about it-my parents are in Turkey and we’ve got their car & we’re going up there to check in on things.

Well, it’s the end of June, and I haven’t written this since March…Whatever-I’ve been rather busy, what with a new baby and work.

Lesseeeeeee-cack, I’ll try to work backwards-wife & baby are sick right now-colds. Busy flying my kite & getting ready for next week’s competition and Berkeley at the end of the month. Took the baby to a new peds Dr.-Dr. Sears. The boy is 16#4, 26″ & healthy. Went swimming at my parents’ last week. Erika got new pots & pans. Week before that was Father’s Day-I got to go to the beach alone & got a pair of sunglasses. Then there was the Cajun festival (we had backstage passes). Memorial day was at the Ren fair. I started a new job on 5/24-programming in Delphi for Quest Software in Newport Beach. I like it. Before THAT, I really can’t remember exactly. Did the gamelan concert, visited my parents, worked a lot, flew my kite, won the competition at Huntington. Took care of the baby, went to little fair, saw Glass do Monsters of Grace again. Went to a few parties, had some dinners out w/the baby (Mother’s Day at Christie’s-the baby was great), saw Sidecar play really late at the studio with Dolores Haze. The boy is growing rapidly-he’s really strong & moving ahead nicely-his teeth are on their way, he babbles a lot, he can almost sit unassisted & stands with support. He can push up just a little. Not much else, I’m working away at Quest, looking forward to Berkeley. If I continue to do well, I might go to Nationals!

March-more time flies by…I’m tired all the time, as is Erika. It’s a lot of work taking care of a newborn-and I don’t have the half of it. Busy working-going to NY at the end of the month. Getting stuff done around the house-flying more-there’s a comp at the end of March too, and a wedding. Not a lot else-gamelan tonight.

Almost halfway through February-it’s been a really, really busy few weeks-both Erika and I have been very tired-I come home & we collapse. I wake up a few times a night when she’s feeding him and take him occasionally to quiet him down. We’ve been out to lunch twice with the baby & he’s been nice & quiet. We visited my dad Sunday-the Harrell’s were down & we had brunch. We also went to a bridal shower for a friend of Erika’s. Saturday we walked to an Italian restaurant & the visited the studio (to show off the baby, of course). They had a cute young dog that they found. We went to the doctor’s on Thursday, the boy’s fine-he weighs 7#2 & is 20″…I’m finally done with the big install-time to relax. Not much else-time to get back to work.

Here it is the end of January. It’s been rather eventful, and it isn’t over yet. Lessee if I can remember what went on. The BIG news is that we had the baby-what an amazing and intense experience THAT was. He’s named Mathias Winfield, and he’s healthy and hungry (6#7, 19″, 1/23/99 2:30, L.A-for those who like that stuff). He’s really cute-I’ll post pics when I get my scanner up. We had a bit of a scare, too-Erika was starting to push & the boy’s heart rate dropped alarmingly-we rushed to the hospital-and for the next 5 hours it only dropped when Erika was having contractions. It turned out to be that he had a very short umbilical cord which stretched when she pushed and slowed his blood flow. Anyways, everything turned out OK, and we have a baby! I am SO tired and have been for the past week. It’s also been hectic at work-two separate installations are going on at the same time-I’ve been working way late-not good on Erika, but lucrative (well, sorta lucrative.) What else-saw Koyaanisqatsi at Royce with the Glass Ensemble playing-it was really good. Visited the studio-messing with my computer-Ken wants his old one back-it’ll cost him some $$$, though. Saw Baraka, too-really good-definitely see it if you can. Cleaned out the attic-dirty and tiring, but more stuff for the sale, and a lot of trash.

It’s a New Year! Well, I guess it is, but not in caps. We’ll see. I’m already sick of hearing Prince’s “1999”-I liked it in ’83, but no longer-Prince has much stronger work elsewhere…whatever, I’m still sick of it. So, the nooz is: Erika is effaced & 1 cm dilated-Jeanie (the midwife) doesn’t know when, but it’ll be soon. The holidays went OK-both sets of ‘rents visited on different days, got some good presents, went to some good parties, spent New Year’s like last year (except for the Vegas trip), and the usual laze. I did make up the on sale list, which will appear here soon-I also moved all the stuff into my moribund office. Not much else-waiting for the baby-and all associated with that.