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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
    - 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!

  8. #8
    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.

  9. #9
    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

  10. #10
    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.

  11. #11
    Broke 3,000 posts on the DBR

  12. #12
    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

  13. #13
    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...

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by bundabergdevil View Post
    I would stop everything I was doing and shut myself in to read a novel that had this as a first line ...
    Got you sorta covered -- by a Duke alum no less: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan%27s_Passing

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Atlanta 'burbs
    Had 4 granddaughters! (My two daughters also participated some in this endeavor.)

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO

    Just the Duke Stuff

    Took my 9 YO granddaughter to the 2015 Final Four -- priceless. And her Mom. And the 2010 FF was also pretty special.

    Put together 50th Reunion book exhibits on reunion weekends for authors in the Duke Classes of 1964, 1968, and 1969. Published bios and bibliographies for the authors. Some very interesting and accomplished people.
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly
    Quote Originally Posted by Reilly View Post
    Got you sorta covered -- by a Duke alum no less: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan%27s_Passing
    Oh, hey, that sounds pretty good. Thanks!

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    I walked approximately 18,000 miles, but not all in one direction

  19. #19
    Well....I'm still alive. Does that count?

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by duke79 View Post
    Well...I'm still alive. Does that count?
    Beats hell out of the alternative.

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