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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007

    What have you done this decade?

    Shamelessly stolen from twitter.

    A great topic nonetheless, and an opportunity for DBR denizens to strut their stuff.

    I’ll copy/paste my 280 characters from twitter answer; don’t limit yourself. I know there are a ton of remarkable people on DBR so the responses should be a lot of fun to read and celebrate.

    Celebrated 25 years with my amazing wife. Raised a family. Helped start a church. Led a global IT organization for a Fortune 50 company. Led a foundational SaaS team that increased revenue 3x in 4 years. Won four rec league soccer championships. Coach a great youth soccer team.


    C’mon DBR, let’s have some fun.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    Went to 5 Duke Bowl games, plus many other fun Duke football and basketball games.

    Visited at least 10 countries, hit about 20 states.

    Sent a kid off to college, and got another one ready to launch.

    Formed a band, played in public, got paid to do it.

    Had gallbladder, cataract, and hernia surgery.

    Became a gourmand and amateur master chef of the kitchen, grill and smoker. With humility.

    Smiled more days than frowned. Life is good.

  3. #3
    Okay, I'll play...darndest decade of my life by far...bizarre in some ways.

    Owned a hotel on Pacific Ocean in Nicaragua for two years.
    Wife started non profit ministry in Uganda
    Started 6 companies (closed 2 down)
    Ghost wrote for major bigtime political figure for 3 years (1.5 of those in this decade)
    Wrote for two major political sites
    Coms Director for Super PAC
    Wrote niche best selling political book, and one that wasn't such a hot seller...
    Bought.... then sold 48 foot sportfish
    Almost went broke, then rallied....
    Got 3 kids through college...

    ...hoping for more normalcy the next ten...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Greenville, SC
    I:

    Began getting my third veggie for free at the diner. (Yes, peach cobbler is a veggie.)

    Became officially one of the 'elder' generation in my family.

    Began removing/replacing body parts.
    New stapes in left ear (the other ossicles are fine.)
    Lost a prostate.
    Added two new knees.

    Began training my successor at work.

    Accidentally became a millionaire for a while. (Back in my parents' day that meant something.)

    Began a list of old timey trains I want to ride.

    Looking into a trip to Antarctica with colleagues from work after we stop working.

    Bought a cane so I can shake it while yelling at those danged youngsters on my lawn.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    I haven't done squat, but what's the rush, I have another month and a half, don't I?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    On the Road to Nowhere
    Quote Originally Posted by budwom View Post
    I haven't done squat, but what's the rush, I have another month and a half, don't I?
    Seconded!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly
    Quote Originally Posted by HereBeforeCoachK View Post
    Okay, I'll play...darndest decade of my life by far...bizarre in some ways.

    Owned a hotel on Pacific Ocean in Nicaragua for two years.
    Wife started non profit ministry in Uganda
    Started 6 companies (closed 2 down)
    Ghost wrote for major bigtime political figure for 3 years (1.5 of those in this decade)
    Wrote for two major political sites
    Coms Director for Super PAC
    Wrote niche best selling political book, and one that wasn't such a hot seller...
    Bought... then sold 48 foot sportfish
    Almost went broke, then rallied...
    Got 3 kids through college...

    ...hoping for more normalcy the next ten...
    I think I might have asked you about your time in Nicaragua before because I believe you owned in San Juan del Sur. Did you happen to know Roy and Karen? They were a couple of ex-pats who owned and operated a set of bungalows called Empalme a Las Playas maybe 10-15 minute dirt road drive north of San Juan.

  8. #8
    - Managed to stay married to a lovely, intelligent, beautiful, and patient woman
    - Purchased a house that has appraised so much I feel almost obligated to sell to fulfill other financial needs
    - Become part owner in a business that has quadrupled annual sales in the last ten years
    - Sat on the executive committee of a nonprofit that was nearly flattened and managed to shepherd them back to health (largely through luck)
    - Fostered several homeless animals and adopted several others
    - Attended my first Duke game and Cameron Indoor with my father - thanks largely to a friendly DBR poster (you know who you are)
    - Kept my 1997 Mazda pickup truck running all decade (fingers crossed for the next 48 days)
    Let's go Duke!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    This is the kind of thing that chokes me up at this time of the year. One of the most powerful aspects of celebrating the year-end holidays, to me, is the reflective aspect of looking back over the past year and taking stock of the journey. When John Lennon asks, "So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun," it sends me to pieces every time (hell, I'm tearing up just typing that).
    Anyway, to engage in this reflection this for a full ten years, especially a decade that's been as eventful as this one has been for me, is gonna elicit a lot of thought and feelings, so thanks to fuse for starting this one.

    In this decade, I:
    • celebrated a Duke national title on the same day that Jason Heyward hit a home run in his first Major League at-bat for the Braves
    • celebrated my brother's marriage
    • finally advocated for myself and left graduate school to pursue a proper career
    • met my wife and rather immediately knew I wanted to spend my life with her
    • began an incredibly rewarding professional life which has afforded me numerous opportunities to impact my students and colleagues
    • crossed off 19 new states
    • visited 12 new countries
    • got married
    • welcomed my niece and nephew into the world
    • said goodbye to my father in law and three grandparents
    • celebrated another Duke championship and reflected on the power and importance of friendships that continue to sustained and encouraged by the chances we have to watch our team play
    • landed my dream job, which I intend to keep until retirement (a long time from now)
    • got in on Atlanta United at the very beginning and celebrated the winning of three cups as a Founding Member of the club
    • grew a great deal as a husband, teacher, and person through an intentional process of self-improvement

    Gosh, there's more, but suffice it to say that decade has been incredibly good to me.
    Now if y'all will excuse me, it's getting awfully dusty in here.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by bundabergdevil View Post
    I think I might have asked you about your time in Nicaragua before because I believe you owned in San Juan del Sur. Did you happen to know Roy and Karen? They were a couple of ex-pats who owned and operated a set of bungalows called Empalme a Las Playas maybe 10-15 minute dirt road drive north of San Juan.
    Yes, we were in San Juan del Sur, Hotel El Pacifico. Now owned by family out of Chicago.

    We normally went "beaches south" instead of "beaches north" when we left SJDS....but we did go beaches north a few times, and I am familiar with their place, part of Playa Marsella area, a pretty hard core surf beach area Good chance I met them in San Juan del Sur area....can't recall.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Skinker-DeBaliviere, Saint Louis
    --got tenure at a research university by the skin of my teeth while a high-functioning alcoholic

    --alcohol cessation: cold turkey, 15-16 units of alcohol nightly, to zero. 23 Dec 2014.

    --also beat pharmacologically addictive SSRIs in high dosage. Alcohol withdrawal: a couple days. Paxil withdrawal: six [expletive] months.

    --fixed catastrophic hypertension (that persisted long after alcohol cessation, and after significant weight loss) by rejecting entirely the toxic American mainstream diet, but let's just call this one "beat cheese" since cheese is so important to everyone.

    Beat booze, beat pills, beat cheese. 2016 BP: resting 140/90, spikes to 160/110. Now, routinely 115/70.

    --so, lost eighty lbs too

    --managed to help Shalay keep a now-10yo alive

    --wrote the perfect obit for my mother

    That's it. Precious little else. That list ate a lot of bandwidth. Made friends with some bartenders and opera singers.

    A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
    ---Roger Ebert


    Some questions cannot be answered
    Who’s gonna bury who
    We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
    ---Over the Rhine

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Summerville ,S.C.
    Buried my father
    Put a daughter through pharmacist school
    Watched and practiced tirelessly while
    My son teams won two championships
    In baseball.just to watch him put the bat and glove away to play football.
    Fought like a warrior to save my marrige due to my withdrawal from family and friends after my parents passed and hid my self working.its a daily battle still sometimes.
    Took my son to his first Duke games.

    Took a different job same company lost 35 k a year but gained so much family time it was worth it.reall had no idea how much i missed.
    Marrying off my daughter sat.
    Expecting a grand child from other daughter in dec (married a UNC grad fan smdh).hes a good kid though lol
    Cant wait to see whats next.

    Lifes crazy .

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Skinker-DeBaliviere, Saint Louis
    Quote Originally Posted by wilson View Post
    This is the kind of thing that chokes me up at this time of the year. One of the most powerful aspects of celebrating the year-end holidays, to me, is the reflective aspect of looking back over the past year and taking stock of the journey. When John Lennon asks, "So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun," it sends me to pieces every time (hell, I'm tearing up just typing that).
    Anyway, to engage in this reflection this for a full ten years, especially a decade that's been as eventful as this one has been for me, is gonna elicit a lot of thought and feelings, so thanks to fuse for starting this one.

    In this decade, I:
    • celebrated a Duke national title on the same day that Jason Heyward hit a home run in his first Major League at-bat for the Braves
    • celebrated my brother's marriage
    • finally advocated for myself and left graduate school to pursue a proper career
    • met my wife and rather immediately knew I wanted to spend my life with her
    • began an incredibly rewarding professional life which has afforded me numerous opportunities to impact my students and colleagues
    • crossed off 19 new states
    • visited 12 new countries
    • got married
    • welcomed my niece and nephew into the world
    • said goodbye to my father in law and three grandparents
    • celebrated another Duke championship and reflected on the power and importance of friendships that continue to sustained and encouraged by the chances we have to watch our team play
    • landed my dream job, which I intend to keep until retirement (a long time from now)
    • got in on Atlanta United at the very beginning and celebrated the winning of three cups as a Founding Member of the club
    • grew a great deal as a husband, teacher, and person through an intentional process of self-improvement

    Gosh, there's more, but suffice it to say that decade has been incredibly good to me.
    Now if y'all will excuse me, it's getting awfully dusty in here.
    You left off told the now- Cobb Braves to auto-copulate. As a fellow progressive urbanist, and ex-Braves fan due to their relocation to White Flight Field, I consider this an evergreen feather in your cap.
    Last edited by throatybeard; 11-13-2019 at 11:13 AM.

    A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
    ---Roger Ebert


    Some questions cannot be answered
    Who’s gonna bury who
    We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
    ---Over the Rhine

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Quote Originally Posted by throatybeard View Post
    You left off told the now- Cobb Braves to auto-copulate. As a fellow progressive urbanist, and ex-Braves fan due to their relocation to White Flight Field, I consider this an evergreen feather in your cap.
    Yeah, I neglected that and completely forgot about dropping nearly 25% of my body weight in 2018 (and thus far keeping it off). It's genuinely mind-boggling to look back over the last 10 years of my life and try to make sense of everything that's happened.
    Love this thread.

  15. #15
    Broke 3,000 posts on the DBR

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Rougemont Nebulae
    Stopped going to Duke Football Games
    Dropped to 1 session per week with my analyst
    Resumed going to Duke Football Games in 2013
    Added 2 more weekly sessions and started to drink excessively.
    Became a caregiver to my wife, afflicted with a debilitating respiratory illness in January 2010.
    They gave her 3-5 years at the time. Still going strong a decade later. She's survived breast cancer, 2 heart attacks, a triple by-pass, a modified radical mastectomy, chemo, radiation and effin' frozen shoulder which I'd never even heard of. Her Dad survived the Bataan Death March and 4 years in a Manchurian prison camp. Saved a buddy from the tip of a Japanese bayonet by twirling his handlebar mustache while dancing a soft-shoe routine or so the story goes. Liberated by the Ruskies. She comes from tough stock. Her heart function has actually increased 10% over the last decade.
    Resumed a life-long love affair with the guitar, thinking my skills had plateaued. Taught the instrument years ago. Thought about music a different way after reading a book about music and the brain, skills have improved dramatically and now play private functions for money.
    Became a mom and pop landlord
    Biked the C&O Canal
    Would like to thru-hike the AT but caregiver responsibilities won't allow it
    Saw a daughter get an MFA in Theater and take up puppetry, Christ almighty.
    Eulogized my Dad, a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. Graduate of Cornell. Farmer before going into publishing.
    Vacation on the Vineyard every chance I get, but can't get there as much as I'd like.
    Play tennis
    Used to own a newspaper and a touring theater company in decades prior to this one, still try to get on the boards every once in a while

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly
    Quote Originally Posted by CameronBlue View Post
    Stopped going to Duke Football Games
    Dropped to 1 session per week with my analyst
    Resumed going to Duke Football Games in 2013
    Added 2 more weekly sessions and started to drink excessively.
    Became a caregiver to my wife, afflicted with a debilitating respiratory illness in January 2010.
    They gave her 3-5 years at the time. Still going strong a decade later. She's survived breast cancer, 2 heart attacks, a triple by-pass, a modified radical mastectomy, chemo, radiation and effin' frozen shoulder which I'd never even heard of. Her Dad survived the Bataan Death March and 4 years in a Manchurian prison camp. Saved a buddy from the tip of a Japanese bayonet by twirling his handlebar mustache while dancing a soft-shoe routine or so the story goes. Liberated by the Ruskies. She comes from tough stock. Her heart function has actually increased 10% over the last decade.
    Resumed a life-long love affair with the guitar, thinking my skills had plateaued. Taught the instrument years ago. Thought about music a different way after reading a book about music and the brain, skills have improved dramatically and now play private functions for money.
    Became a mom and pop landlord
    Biked the C&O Canal
    Would like to thru-hike the AT but caregiver responsibilities won't allow it
    Saw a daughter get an MFA in Theater and take up puppetry, Christ almighty.
    Eulogized my Dad, a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. Graduate of Cornell. Farmer before going into publishing.
    Vacation on the Vineyard every chance I get, but can't get there as much as I'd like.
    Play tennis
    Used to own a newspaper and a touring theater company in decades prior to this one, still try to get on the boards every once in a while
    I would stop everything I was doing and shut myself in to read a novel that had this as a first line. Laughed so loud the co-workers noticed...

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Chesapeake, VA.
    -Buried my mother

    -Saw both of my children leave the house and go out on their own

    -Saw my eldest son graduate college

    -Saw my eldest son get married (last July)

    -Got promoted to Associate Professor and later to full Professor of Pediatrics

    -Published two editions of my Pediatric Infectious Diseases textbook

    -Edited and published a book for MacMillan on Peds ID for the Indian subcontinent

    -Had one of my choral compositions published by Jackman Music ("He Who Crafted the Earth," a Christmas carol for two-part chorus and piano. It's good and fairly simple; buy it, sing it, recommend it to your church choir director for this Christmas or for next Christmas [I only get 8 cents/copy so I won't get rich on it; I honestly think you will like it])

    -Had 5 of my choral compositions performed by the Virginia Children's Choir

    -Learned how to play jazz piano reading from lead sheets and learning how to improvise

    -Learned how to play the organ (started in October of 2015) and am becoming proficient

    -Kept my golf handicap from going south (staying at about an 11; not great, but not horrible)

    -Became more compassionate, understanding, and patient

    -Learned how to shave with a straight razor, then a shavette (a straight razor with a replaceable blade, which is what I'm using now; less hassle because no honing and no stropping)



    Lots more, but that's enough for now. Great thread.
    "We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Winston’Salem
    Here are a few things, in no particular order:

    -- Saw three children graduate from high school, and one from college. Two of the three are now gainfully employed, with the third a junior in college.

    -- Successfully recovered from the (figurative) heart attack that Gordon Heyward's last-second heave inflicted on me.

    -- Served as a pallbearer for my stepfather and my grandmother (my last living grandparent).

    -- Effectively got totally out of debt, while completing all alimony and child support obligations. I do have a mortgage, and a pair of car payments, but at super-low or zero interest, and also with money on hand (invested) sufficient to pay them off at the drop of a hat.

    -- Turned 50 while checking-off my 50th state.

    -- Welcomed the 2015 national champions home to Cameron the day after they defeated Wisconsin.

    -- Finally reduced my golf handicap to single digits, only to see my youngest race past me on his way to Scratch+ at age 15. (Silver lining: I got to daddy-caddie for a lot of that, which is an adventure and thrill unto itself.)

    -- Saw Dave Matthews Band perform 31 times, and Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds twice, in some terrific locations.

    -- Kept my PSA at virtually zero following a prostatectomy near the end of the last decade, and avoided any other health scares.

    -- Intensified my hyper-introversion, for better or worse.

    -- Billed what sometimes felt like 30,000 hours, but what, in reality, was way less than that.

    -- Somehow managed to keep Mrs. Tripping from running screaming back to SW Virginia from whence she came.

    -- Became an active DBR board participant (after lurking off and on, under different names, for several years during the preceding decade).

    -- And last, but certainly not least: Drank and reviewed an awful lot of beer. Ymmm, beer!
    "Amazing what a minute can do."

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly
    Quote Originally Posted by HereBeforeCoachK View Post
    Yes, we were in San Juan del Sur, Hotel El Pacifico. Now owned by family out of Chicago.

    We normally went "beaches south" instead of "beaches north" when we left SJDS...but we did go beaches north a few times, and I am familiar with their place, part of Playa Marsella area, a pretty hard core surf beach area Good chance I met them in San Juan del Sur area...can't recall.
    Yes, walking distance to Playa Marsella, just down the way from Playa Marderas. We stayed at their place for a bit is the reason I ask --- that and they were an interesting couple. He was an ex-mortician. They were from Eastern WA and had RVed down and bought the place. Estranged from the rest of their family, IIRC. I think I might've mentioned before but it was right in the THICK of Semana Santa so San Juan del Sur seemed on the verge of spilling from almost chaos to chaos at any moment.

    Good times that trip. If you have a book in you about owning the Pacifico, I'd be on the pre-order list!

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