M&B Hoashi 12/2012 | brian @hoashi.us 917 304 7260 ... maki @hoashi.us Apocalyse Now? Or, the World in Extra Innings! Even though the Mayan calendar apparently pointed to the end of days tonight (12/21/2012), many back-peddlers decided it was about "a new era" instead. Sounds like "the dawning of the age of Aquarius," if you remember such things. In any case, it's been a rough year in terms of Mother Nature's hot flashes — an anthropomorphizing of global warming. And a good year for seeing friends — many old friends! — and for some life milestones, too. Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary in May! We celebrated in Oneonta, where the family congregates every year. Keisuke helps to run a Music Festival over the summer and Mari's elder daughter attends for a month. He ordered a huge ice cream cake with a flavor called "bittersweet symphony," and fortunately, our parents' 50 years turned out better than it did for the Verve ;). Mom and Dad enjoy seeing their first grandchild and the other young people perform their music in orchestras, bands, groups, choirs, ensembles ... it's a brilliant time, and curiously the only time during the year the whole family is together. Our BFF had his second child, and we were allowed to come out and see it, along with the now toddler-aged first child. The kid has charm and decided he likes Brian; he wisely did not get too close to Maki, but he didn't fear her, either. We got to feed one-eyed squirrels together. Brian's schooling is about half complete toward his RN certification. It's been getting tougher as the program progresses, but he's sticking with it, as he should! He's on hospital rotations half the week, and grueling schoolwork the other half. This is why one should go to school in one's youth — it doesn't get easier. Just better. :) Keisuke and Kristen's annual summer trek to NYC means a game at 2Shea (yeah, we're those people who still call it "Shea"). Does the hometeam win? Are you kidding? They just traded the current Cy Young winner! But they still serve Carvel ice cream with plasticky sprinkles in little Mets helmets, and that makes it worthwhile. And if you're going for the sausage sandwich, get it from the Kosher stand. Yes, we still go to the Big Apple BBQ. It still rocks. The ticketing process is getting tougher and tougher, but it's still a good deal, considering we don't have to travel to Yazoo City, Mississippi for a taste of delicious, chewy, pulled pork bark! Everyone's health has been pretty good, knock on wood and all. Some parts of the family tree have ongoing — and sometimes new — struggles, but manage admirably and well. Mom and Dad go to Japan twice a year, and they're enjoying planting gardens, building garages, tearing down old structures, cutting flowers ... we marvel at how lucky they are to have their version of "Florida" be the house Mom grew up in. They've made a little apartment for themselves there, and they share the house with my aunt, Keiko, and her family. It's actually a useful way to gauge time, so they get to see their doctors before they go every half year — a great way to have structure to one's healthcare. To our surprise, Facebook has been a useful way to get in touch, and to keep in touch, with friends of yore. Since Maki works from a home office, this is also a nice way to share photos and keep in touch with colleagues. Who knew? We joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) group this year, and have enjoyed vegetables, fruit, herbs, grains, and cheeses direct from the farmers and small manufacturers. A green market has also opened in Forest Hills, which means we are eating better and enjoy the challenge of cooking based on what's in the CSA box this week. We've extended into a winter share; people who come to lunch or dinner get to share our bounty and our efforts. Again, we post our photos of food on Facebook. Actually, it seems that most of our pictures revolve around food ... we just forget to take pictures of other stuff. But yeah, there is a lot of food. We continue with our resolution to vacation only to places known for their food! We continue to enjoy visiting friends in southern Virginia, more so now because he's discovered an oyster grower nearby who sells luscious, fat, sweet things for such an attractive price, that the three of us will imbibe in 100-300 over a weekend. He shipped some up for Thanksgiving, and they were delicious and special ... there were so many that we invented new recipes! Brian's also gotten really really good at shucking them. Some friends have acquired new homes and they let us visit and stay. We are awed! Not envious, since we'd suck at home ownership. We totally respect and admire the effort and energy to keep such properties so pretty and clean! Especially the windows, from which we can take those panoramic shots. Our holiday card scribble is about Super-storm Sandy, which fell upon the tri-state area this past October. The city was prepared for Irene last year, and followed the same procedures this year: close down subways 24 hours before the storm surge, evacuate people from "Zone A," encourage the acquisition of filtered water, etc. We were lucky in that we only suffered intermittent blackouts, and an 8 hour Internet blackout (I was so freaked out that I took a nap to avoid figuring out what to do without Internet!). Many in the area were without power for weeks and some lost nearly everything as houses were wrecked and belongings flooded away. I also snarled at people outside our area who said crap like, "It's no big deal, we have storms all the time." Brian's school shut down for the week, since the subway was flooded and no one could get there. Even so, the city recovered quite well and impressively. Some things and some neighborhoods were devastated, but overall, it was a good storm. And we were prepared with food (precooked, canned, frozen, dried, etc.), water, toilet paper, etc. We didn't have to shop for it, thanks to our tendency to buy bulk stuff and our CSA shares. We housed friends who didn't have power or hot water, or needed to go to work but couldn't come from their suburban locations. We also found old friends from Maki's elementary school days! We shared dinner and many laughs; one of them even made the hat illustrated in the card; actually she made us many hats. :) It was a good storm, for us! We continue to enjoy the opera, argue the virtues of productions and singers ... and we notice it's a much less "weird" thing to like, anymore. The Met, or "local," features some reworked, easier to digest introductory shows, too. We always discover new things, and it's useful to help us keep open minds! We go to about 30 a year, and some, we even duplicate. Actually, a small group of us alert each other when we have extra tickets to any number of events: opera, concerts, sports, poetry stuff ... Sharing makes it even better, and better value. We were so busy a year ago (moving, job changes, surgery, more moving ...) that we discovered we didn't send out cards at all ... we didn't even put up the 2011 letter! It's not complete, but we put it up anyway ... our apologies, but you get two years of stuff to read about, if you wish! Happy post-Apocalypse to you, and may New Year's be more than merry and bright. Whether this is the end of days, or the start of new ones, it's an honor to be alive, and to know you!