Decemberists

Hi there.

Just a few quick notes. First, it's almost time for me to draft this year's holiday letter. To make sure you're caught up you might want to review last year's edition.

Last weekend I went to Chattanooga to see Paige and Marc. I had a blast. I had the chance to meet Sawyer for the first time and I spent a lot of time playing with Olivia. She is a shark at memory and I am working on Paige and Marc to let me take her to Vegas. We went to the Chattanooga Aquarium which has a great Jelly Fish exhibit. We also went to an ugly sweater Christmas party. That was a blast, though I was unprepared. Sunday we had some great brunch and I got on the road. It was great to see them and I am amazed how big the kids are.

A note on driving in Tennessee. NO ONE uses turn signals here for changing lanes or turning. Ever. It is very strange. I read it as a last holdout of Confederate separatism. "I don't have to tell anybody my business about if I am going to change lanes or turn. That is between me and the lane."

I'm scheduled to donate platelets again tomorrow. I'm working in NYC next week, which is great. I'm off to my sister's in Raleigh to wait for Santa with Kate and Lindy.

The Eagles beat the giants again. David and Goliath. I very much enjoyed the game but our defense could use a boost. We can clinch a playoff spot this weekend at home against the Niners.

Allen is a Sixer. Back where it all began. I'm getting tickets to a Sixer's game at the garden in March. I just hope he is well enough to play.

I recently finished reading City Behind a Fence about the work at Oak Ridge to create the nuclear material for the bombs dropped on Japan in WWII. I never really considered the herculean effort that went into creating those. I had pictured a few scientists squirreling away. There were 80,000 people that worked in Oak Ridge in construction, in the reactors and in all the other normal facets of a town (school teachers, security, retail) all for the single focus of creating this weapon. It's an amazing story of taking the land and creating a huge operative town-base in no time. I was so impressed with the speed and direction of the effort. I just don't believe that if we needed to send 80,000 people to work in the creation of solar farms in Arizona and Utah to save us from Global Warming and oil dependence, that we could ever get it done, let alone in 4 years.