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End of another interesting year. I came across a Japanese saying that says: “Believe in the ultimate importance of the journey, not just specific goals!” I guess that is the lesson that the year brought me - enjoy each day as it comes and don't keep trying to “get there” before enjoying it, as “there” seems to be getting further and further away, rather than closer!

Boys
Still my reason for being - they continue to grow (literally and figuratively) and it is a joy watching their accomplishments and learning curves. Both continue to well academically, Dee moved into a house near my rental, and they both finished the academic year well. William then moved off to High School (a good few miles away) and the car-pooling / school bus experience became a reality. Both continue to excel at soccer, and we added swimming to the lineup this summer. Both Dee and I being swimmers, it was time to find out what they gained from the gene pool! As expected, both did great, and by the end of the season were chasing those who had been swimming competitively for years. Hard choices to make, but William settled on soccer (still plans to play professionally) and cross country (more of that further on), while Jason settled on soccer and football and now plans to be a vet. Jason is dragon crazy, so has a room filled with dragon posters, models, you name it. Went to the fair and won a life-sized stuffed one! He continues to excel at soccer, is playing on a select team, where he played goalkeeper initially, but is now in the forward position. On the indoor team, his team had an undefeated season and playing on William's team (3 age groups up) he was the top goal scorer. Likes to have the ball “up close and personal” with the goalkeeper! Admittedly, William (the master dribbler) did set up quite a few of those goals! William's outdoor team did not “make” so he spent a season playing on a coed recreational team - which was not very successful, but he continued to excel indoor. William found moving to High School a big jump academically and the volume of work in 9th grade is amazing. He has made the varsity soccer squad, so will see if he makes the team. The accomplishment that has most people's jaw dropping, however, is his cross-country. Sleeping over at one of his closest friends, Britt, about a year ago he was invited to run a 5k the next morning. He enjoyed it and started doing cross-country as a sport. His time was about 22' 30” when he started High School. The coach recognized his talent and put him on the varsity team (first team, for those overseas) and told him of he could run under 18'30” he could stay. So he ran an 18'45” and has been on the team ever since! By the end of the season, Britt was running first with William a close second, which had the seniors fighting to keep their spot on the team! Their effort got the school to the district championship and then to the regional championships where they came in 16th and 21st (as I recall) but the rest of the team was too far down to get in to the state finals - the school came 9th out of 22. Final time? 17'04” - these kids were flying!

House and sports car
I continued to look for a house to buy - disliking the small rental and the fact that I was fixing someone else's property, and finally (whilst looking at the house next door) found one that the boys and I liked which was selling at a reduced price due to a bank foreclosure. We negotiated for a bit and finally settled on a price and raised a loan (with the events of the last few years my credit record “ain't what it used to be!”) and moved in June. Actually, the closing was delayed, so I ended up spending a few days with the Proctors in their new home and the furniture in a U-Haul moving truck!
Closely following this exciting development was the purchase of a sports car - another thing that I had been looking for - and finally found one, a Mitsubishi Spyder 5 speed convertible - 2.0 liter, turbo charged. Real fun to drive. If all goes as planned, William will be able to take it over when he is 16 (and has proven he can be trusted with it!) The boys love the new home - and are happier in Dee's new house as well. She and David are now engaged and he gave up his gardening business for something closer to Trophy Club and has since moved in, which seems to be working out fine. The cats enjoy the new house, which has an enormous back yard and backs up to a cemetery so Smudge especially enjoys his enlarged hunting area. Many gifts of geckos are brought in to show off and the occasional (live) mouse which I then chase around and throw out!

Work
I am not even sure how to describe the year and the work experience. The year started out well enough, although I was concerned that the company continued to lack progress when it came to becoming profitable. I continued with the leadership development courses and working with the salespeople on the sites but the numbers still were not moving in the right direction. They hired a sales and marketing director to focus on increasing the sales and I worked with him on a sales management training program. July 5 was a day I shall not forget. Had a good July 4th at Paul and Sandy Parker's new cottage in Granbury, and headed in to the office the next day. In the morning my new boss complimented me on the work that I had done at the Dallas site the previous week and in the afternoon called me in and told me that as the company was still not making money, the cutbacks were commencing. They gave me a reasonable package and joined the ranks of the unemployed! The timing was poor - or good, I cannot decide which, as I just had the new house and new car! Why this would be good is the lack of a similar paying opposition would not allow me to buy them had I not done so at that time!
After a few months unemployed, spending my time searching the Internet in vain with a few interviews and the rest of the time fixing a house (repairing the roof in the summer heat!) A friend from the Morgan Stanley days approached me to sell oil and gas interests. He painted a rosy picture but it seems that since I have joined them sales have fallen off. Looking at the Christmas buying pattern (the rush has not happened!) it seems that the consumer confidence is not there - so trying to sell a $30,000 investment is a tough job! Anyway, we have some prospects in the pipeline, hopefully it will pan out.

Studies
The doctoral program has been a real challenge. The modules are over eight weeks with a week break in-between. I have made it through all the courses - some better than others, and am relieved to have one of the two study years behind me. It is a program focused on applying what you have learned to your work and have been a growing curve both about myself and about the environment around me. There is another year of coursework to go, and then the dissertation. I was planning to do that on the old company, so with that prospect gone, it is back to the drawing board! Made some great friends though the program, Melanie in Houston becoming a close friend and being a big support.

Sports
Still have the indoor men's soccer team with the late night games on Mondays - have to skip some now and then with the study program, but make about 80% of them. I did not referee much in the beginning of the year while I got in the habit of the studies and the material became easier to fathom, but went back toward the end of the year. The many hours spent at the desk and reduced activity meant some weight gain (I recall saying I would never look like my father - but have discovered there is such a thing as heredity, as no matter how little I eat, the weight stays!) Finally, I decided to throw in the towel and take up running, as I was “sick and tired of being sick and tired” and - after being shocked to find how little fitness the refereeing and soccer contributed - am slowly moving up the fitness ladder. As the old joints creak and groan, I have also found that there are supplements out there which help! My other accomplishments were to venture back into eventing, where I was a jump judge at the Trinity River Horse Trials in Fort Worth and enjoyed being part of the “horsy” crowd again. The Davey's entered the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America - race around cones in large parking lots) with their Miata. This prompted me to follow up with longtime friend fellow Miata owner, Lloyd Skinner, who kept threatening to enter his car - so with my prompting we finally did and had much fun (360 degrees being his specialty). When I got the Spyder I entered it as well but found - being front wheel drive - it was not as competitive, although the turbo kicking in at odd moments did make for an exciting ride!

Friends / Ukraine trip
It has been nice having the Proctors back in town, spend some time with them, but spent most of the time with Martin and Sharron (see the Halloween picture) who are regulars at the monthly getogethers that I have at my place. I was in the Big Brother Big Sister program where I was mentoring a local teenager, but then he moved away and his mother subsequently remarried, and with my doctoral studies, I felt I was not able to commit to another through their program. However, I continue to see Dixon, a very likeable young fellow needing a male role model who I came across through the Lions Soccer Club, who fits in well with the boys (Jason loves the idea of a younger brother or sister). Kirtley continues to be actively involved as a friend and in anything related to soccer and has continued to grow the club with numerous indoor teams and bringing on Tony Falcon, a very experienced coach. Made it down to see Jill earlier in the year and meet Mel's family, they had a huge storm wash their wave runner away and Jill continues to impress her resilience as a survivor of mesothelioma (the cancer that killed dad). It was good to spend some time with Lloyd Skinner and his family as well.
The Ukraine trip I wrote up in some depth, it is on the Stephens family web site for any interested in reading it, the short synopsis is that after corresponding for a number of months with a young lady in Ukraine, I decided to go over and meet her. The trip was also partly due to needing a break away from the monotony of looking for work and out of curiosity to visit the feared “eastern block” where as a child we were threatened with the “communists” coming to “get us.” I found a very pleasant country, made some new friends, the relationship unfortunately is going nowhere, but it did achieve the result that I joined a local singles group and now get out of the house more often to meet people, rather than living like a recluse. My next overseas trip will be in April 05 to Linda and Paul's graduation, mom's 70th birthday and hopefully a school reunion that I am trying to put together.

Vacation
I was determined to have a “real” (versus a few days grabbed here and there) vacation with the boys and traded the houseboat timeshare in for some time up in the Ozark Mountains where we had a fabulous time. Kirtley kindly arranged reduced airline tickets and we rented a car and either lounged around the pool, did some site seeing or some hiking. I enjoyed the hike to the top of a local hill the most, but found that I was not as fit as I thought I was, being totally exhausted by the time we got to the top!

Well, that's the news for another year, as I write this we have about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground, very unusual, but very welcome, as it kills off the bugs, so we have less bugs in the extremely warm summers! The boys are with Dee visiting her family in Cornwall (UK) so I will have a quiet Christmas and venture down to Houston with Dixon for a few days. All the best for 2005!