From Merry Christmas...

Christmas Day, 2015

...to Happy New Year...

New Year's Day, 2016

What a difference a week makes...not only did we change years, it looks like we finally changed seasons as well...winter has arrived.

Snowing lightly this morning, which I have to admit is pretty, if still a little unwelcome.  I suppose if I didn't have to work for a living, I might be more excited about it...but alas, I forgot to be a millionaire so in a few days it will be hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go...and driving in the winter in Michigan is a pain in the hind end.

Driving Mr. T...on New Year's day, 2016...

Ok, I admit I won't be driving Mr. T in the winter - much - but either way, driving in the snow is not fun.

Our New Year's Eve celebration was the usual...Karen prepares lots of good things to eat, her kids come and go throughout the evening, we watch When Harry Met Sally...

...the best New Year's movie ever, then at midnight we pop the champagne, watch the ball drop, share a kiss and toast the new year before collapsing in bed.

Yeah, I know...pretty lame, but as I approach six decades topside of planet earth, it's about as racy as I care to get on that night.

This morning it's mimosas and moderation...

orange juice and champagne...

...later today will be pretty low key as well.  Work is ok...it was month / quarter / year end, but unlike some years in the past, this one went off without a hitch so far...very nice.  We'll also get started on the de-Christmasing of our home...take down the trees, wreaths, decorations, etc, and get the place back to normal.

Looking ahead to 2016, one of my goals is to work hard at writing and try to build a readership.  I started publishing on Amazon for kindle readers in late November, and have had modest success...hoping to get that snowball rolling downhill in the year ahead and have at least four books planned:

Long Count (book 2 in the Frank Johnson series), On Being A Man (In A Metro-Sexual World), When A Cardinal Appears (Volume II of selected short stories), and my first children's book, Bapa's Model T.

All of them will have a paperback version available as well as the e-reader version for Kindle.

Not ready to quit my day job, but hoping to make real progress on this new venture during 2016.  We'll see what the year brings.

In the favorite things department, a couple of recent Ronson lighter acquisitions:

1930's Ronson Cigarette Dispenser

Got this from Bob Adams of Ronson Repair   Bob is the best in the business, and this is a spectacular example of what I love about art deco objets d'art...the incredible combination of form and function, of the pretty and the practical.  It's not just utilitarian, it's a work of art.

the cigarette box

press the lever to get a cigarette

...then use the touch tip wand to light 'er up.

Thank you, Bob!

Here's a more midcentury modern lighter...a beautiful, cobalt blue Ronson varaflame:

Happy New Year, mcm fans...

Dad's day...

Dad, circa 1940

Proclamation 3730              FATHER'S DAY, 1966               June 15, 1966
President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The third Sunday in June has for many years been observed as Father's Day. It is most appropriate that the Congress, enactment Ante, p. 201. of Senate Joint Resolution 161, has now given official recognition to
this well-established tradition.

In the homes of our Nation, we look to the fathers to provide the strength and stability which characterize the successful family.

If the father's responsibilities are many, his rewards are also great—the love, appreciation, and respect of children and spouse. It is the desire to acknowledge publicly these feelings we have for the fathers of our Nation that has inspired the Congress to call for the formal observance of Father's Day.
.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, President of the United States of America, in consonance with Senate Joint Resolution 161 of the Eighty-ninth Congress, request the appropriate Government officials to arrange for the display of the flag on all Government buildings on Father's Day, Sunday, June 19, 1966.

I invite State and local governments to cooperate in the observance of that day; and I urge all our people to give public and private expression to the love and gratitude which they bear for their fathers.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

 DONE at the City of Washington this fifteenth day of June in theyear of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninetieth.

LYNDON B . JOHNSON

So there you have it...you can thank or blame LBJ for the official proclamation making dad's day part of our national culture.

Hallmark investors are forever grateful.

It might be worth noting he also proclaimed that week in June National Oil and Gas week, which lines up fairly well with what a pastor I once knew said from the pulpit about Father's Day...as holidays go, it ranks a little bit ahead of National Kumquat Day and just a tad behind Groundhog Day.

For my part I am conflicted about this day, much as I was about my relationships with my dad and with my sons.

Child rearing has given me some of my happiest memories and deepest sorrows.

After many years and much reflection I've concluded fatherhood was way above my pay grade, but I gave it my best shot.

As with most things in life you learn as you go, but sadly that sometimes means those on whom you are learning do not receive the best possible upbringing.

I suppose it becomes incumbent on them to weed out the worst, retain the best, and add to their knowledge what they learn as they give the dear old dad gig a whirl.

If we're wise we'll heed God's Word while busy about the awesome task given us:

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

 - Proverbs 22:6

Here's to father's everywhere.

We've done our part to propagate the race and leave our stain on the world.

Later, mcm fans...