Tuesday, December 15, 2009

2009

By the time you get to be my age it's like you're having breakfast every fifteen minutes.— Kitty Carlisle Hart


Three of us, Tilden Park, December.


Hello again. I hope life was good to you in 2009. Weren't we cleaning up from New Year's Day, just a few weeks ago? 


The major events in our family this year: Max began Kindergarten and Japanese Saturday school, we took a vacation, I got laid off and got a new job right away. We can't ask for better luck than this. So why am I so exhausted? 


We are well. Max is much bigger, more difficult, and more interesting to be with. Recently he said to me, "I’m too busy to be even talking to you! Please don’t bother me!" Shades of our future. In truth, Max is a busy boy. He goes to school six days a week, five to English Kindergarten and once to study Japanese on Saturday. He already has homework almost every night, to which he submits gracefully, for a little boy.


Family life has been compared to running a business. For me, it is especially like operating a small store.  We have a full schedule of work to do each day, just to keep the store open. Thanks to Misa and Max, the store is still open for business. Misa worked very hard and long. Max helped as much as we could expect. 


I made four short movies this year. You can see them at the links to the left, or visit my list on YouTube


A few scenes from 2009 follow. Enjoy, and please send me your news.



This is a paper model of the Cathedral of Florence I built for Max last Christmas. It doesn't look especially difficult, but I worked about 40 hours on this thing! That's my exciting life, getting up early to fold little bits of paper, with tweezers and glue.



I continued work on the four-part painting of San Francisco. In a normal week, I paint every day. There were many abnormal weeks this year, but the pictures marched forward. This is the second panel's state in November.



Max's pre-school heartthrob, the beautiful Mei Yokoyama moved back to Japan in February. We miss her and her family.






In February we visited my family in Dallas. Misa, Lila and Max Turnage



Misa made lunch for Max every day. She took time to make it pretty and delicious.



Misa compliments the decor, Carlsbad, California.




Desert hills, north of San Diego.






Dolphin exhibit at Sea World.



Max exhibit at the neighborhood pool.



Block party! Max in line for the jumping house, with his friend Nico.



Cathedral of knowledge: Dove Street Library, Carlsbad.



Moon through fog at our house, San Francisco.



Rainbow over our block in San Francisco.




"People usually fail when they are on the verge of success.
So give as much care to the end as to the beginning;
Then there will be no failure."
—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 64



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