Howard Wellington

Today, I went to a funeral for a friend. I knew Howard from work, and at first, we bumped heads quite a bit. Later we worked together when I was on light duty, and I got to drive around with him quite a bit and hear his stories. Howard was a person with a zest and love for life. He was an avid bicyclist, skier, and hunter. At work he was a perfectionist, always striving for a better product. Unfortunately, he contracted ALS last June, and it very quickly attacked his body, making him a quadriplegic within five months. He never saw the new year. The most impactful part of the funeral was when they showed a video with an interview with his pastor. He was in his wheelchair, and the pastor was asking him questions about his faith. He said he knew he didn't have long left, but was not fearful, for he had faith in a better place. That video really touched me - just to know that the human spirit can be so strong when faced with such tragedy. I hope you found you paradise, Howard. Good-by for now, friend...

Happy New year! 2010 - who would have thought it! We didn't do much this new years - just stayed at home and watched Twilight Zone episodes on SyFi network. Work-wise, this has been the worse year in my drywall career. I spend about of 1/3rd of the year at home on unemployment. Got a lot of projects done this year around the house. Still a lot to do of course, but its a never ending project when you own a house! Probably the best thing that happened this year was the addition of our new dog, Bella. She has grown quickly and has gone from being a puppy to over 45 pounds in just over 7 months! She has helped us cope with the loss of our beagle Mollie, which was the worse thing to happen this year.

I haven't been rockhounding in quite a while, but did a lot of organizing of the massive collection, and in doing so, decided that I need to focus more on quality of my collection, not quantity.