Where Do 5 Years Go?

Everything since John Lennon’s death seems recent to me. He died 25 years ago today so five years is just a twinkle of an eye. I peeked at my “Daily Prioritized Task List” for December 2000. My life hasn’t changed much but there are differences. I only had one mortgage then. We hadn’t bought the house on Mill Creek. I had just begun sponsoring Leslie. Hard to believe I have been her sponsor for five years. I had 17 years then and thought I knew everything. Woody was still alive but he had just begun to suffer from incontinence. Correction: we had just begun to suffer from his incontinence. I don’t think it bothered the old dog a bit. Five years ago this week I took him to Dr. Wardell for the first time. He gave him some pills that helped a little. Luke was born in December 2000. He weighed just three pounds fourteen ounces. I visited Bob and Julie at Fairfax Hospital the day he was born. Bob was so excited I thought he was going to implode. I went with Julie to the neo-natal clinic to see Luke. He was so tiny. She was dying for a cigarette. Last Monday Luke went with John, Bob and Jeff to the BB&T Basketball Tournament at the MCI Center. Luke loves all sports but NASCAR is his favorite. I made the last payment on my green Camaro convertible in December 2000. Two years later I emerged safely from my mid-life crisis and traded it for a Jeep Liberty with heated leather seats and a moon roof. I still had the Sheet Metal Workers account five years ago and judging from the amount of time I spent meeting with their attorneys and risk managers I earned every dime I made on that account. John’s mother was alive. I mailed her a birthday card on December 26, 2000. On December 8, 2000, there is a note to “Call for Dishwasher Repair”. On the 7th my Spiritual Formation Group met at my house and I had made Zen Hash – a delicious combination of spinach, onions, zucchini, pine nut and rice. Whoever helped me load the dishwasher after dinner didn’t scrape the plates because the dishwasher repairman found the drain completely clogged with rice. I saw the Caps play the Bruins and the Lightning. I had hockey tickets then. They were one of the things I gave up when I got serious about my writing.