I would like to introduce Isaiah Westley Turner, my 1st grandson. He was 7lbs 3oz and very handsome!
Tag: LOL
2014: My year in Review
Moved into house in small village near Toulouse France
Started running and lifting again
Set up office at home
Had to deal with broken furniture from move – Insurance company was fairly easy to deal with
Fixed some stuff, got other new stuff
Flight to Florida for work
At least 10 hours a day spend at J-O-B
Work Laptop stolen in Paris hotel Room – Super pissed!!
Met friend both new and Old in and around Toulouse.
Trip to China for a week
More work, more coffee
Cut down a deceased cherry tree and made 3 big bowls
Gave two away
Played Pétanque with the old guys in my village
Built 5 benches for the house over a 5–week period
Work crazy hours
Flight back to Seattle for 2 weeks work/vacation
Visit to Carcassonne and Limoux
Found amazing French junk shop in the middle of nowhere
Joined a French beekeeping group
Bought a wood Lathe
Worked more crazy hours
Rode my bikes a little – not enough.
Made stuff for house: instrument hangers, book shelves, lids, kitchen island, etc…
Running and lifting again somehow stopped and work increased…
Got a new Banjo
Horribly addicted to coffee
Blogged a good bit
Started setting up small hand tool work shop in garage
Son in France for 2 months
Got a canoe for Father’s Day
Bastille Day in Carcassonne
Began building 450# traditional work bench
Quit Facebook
Spent way too much at local wood supply house
Made 4-5 small pieces of furniture for the house
Father in law in France for a month
Fixed some furniture for a co-worker and another piece for a neighbor
Adopted new puppy – Truffle
Flights to Germany, Marseilles and Paris
Super stressed – J-O-B
Getting fat(er)
41st Birthday trip to Porto, Portugal
Got an awesome watch as a gift from sweet wife
Trip to Morocco for J-O-B – bought 2 fantastic carpets while there
Thanksgiving in Turkey – sort of funny sounding. Was working
Grew a beard – wife disgruntled
Flight to Arkansas
Became a Grandfather!!
A beautiful baby girl!
Feel super-old
Tried to bribe a Friend’s parents into selling me his old jeep
Enacted a diabolical plan to make the jeep mine
Spent 14th Birthday with Son
Got most of Christmas shopping done in US
Came home to France with new mandolin and vintage violin
Cut down another cherry, and apricot and a plum and started making bowl blanks
Back to work and back to more 10-12 hour days and calls until 10pm
Christmas snuck up on me again.
Read 20 books in 2014 – almost shameful. Will read more next year
Spent holiday in Pau, France at a friend’s parent’s place and ate and drank until I was ready to pop
Finished top for new work bench – only took six months
Had two friends from London come over for New Years
Spent first weekend of 2015 snowboarding with two friends in Andorra
Becoming a Grandfather…
I am a 41 year old Grandfather. I am still letting that fact/reality sink in…
My daughter, LOL, had a baby girl just after Thanksgiving and my wife and I flew from Toulouse to Arkansas to be with her for the birth. We had scheduled the trip for a week before and a week after her due date. Our timing was impeccable as she had the baby the day after we arrived. Being there for the birth, at the hospital was amazing and scary! LOL did great and mother and baby are doing super. The baby is putting on weight, is a good eater and sleeper, isn’t fussy, and makes the sweetest faces. WE are all very much in love with her. Her mother is reveling in motherhood and seems happier than I have seen her, maybe ever.
Officially Super-Old
My sweet daughter, LOL, is going to have a baby girl soon. I am super-pleased for her and her partner and am excited to meet my first grandchild. I am SURE that she will be beautiful. We are flying in for the birth and to see her and the baby for a while afterward. Am am getting all giddy and excited. This declaration, however, means that I am now officially old and reminds me that my time on this earth is not forever and that there is a debt that I, like all men, must pay. I am going so start shopping for leisure suits, high waist-ed pants and a sweet walker – red and chrome.
Back when my daughter wore ribbons in her hair.
My daughter, LOL, recently turned 18. Eighteen should a magic birthday and I am sure it is for her. For me though it is a milestone in her life (and my own) that is fraught with a goulash of emotions. She will graduate from high school this year – very proud of her, is looking into colleges, before long will find a career, a mate, buy a house, procreate… In addition to the elation of seeing my child flower into an adult, all of the changes make me feel very old all of a sudden. She should still be in pretty little dresses, running around in the grass with matching ribbons in her pig tails. Her days should be filled with snacks, naps and cartoons and I should be skinny and have all my hair. Where has all the time gone?
