Two Thousand Fourteen

I love the clean slate of a new year and the "taking stock" exercise of New Year's Eve. 2013 has offered the usual mixed bag of experiences, with perhaps a few more milestones.

Transitions
My friend and sister of my heart, Mary Jo Jasicki, lost her fight with metastatic kidney cancer on March 2. I had been dreading that day throughout February as Mary Jo's health declined, but felt relieved in the early days after her death, knowing that her suffering had ended. However, grief is very sneaky and I've often found myself feeling sad, especially on what would have been  Mary Jo's 61st birthday on December 26.  Her daughter Hillary gave me an ornament from the family Christmas tree, and the little bird is a poignant reminder of all the fun Mary Jo and I had during the seventeen years of our happy friendship. Oh, how I miss her!

I've now completed  almost nine months of retirement. I'm beginning to "settle into it", able to appreciate the absence of task lists and the daily frustrations of life as a working person. I'm occasionally the same "driven" self, but I also savor the gift of time -- to notice the simple things of life and to embrace new experiences. I've learned to run a lawnmower and do some easy gardening. For the first time ever, I planted summer flowers and fall bulbs, and I catch myself thinking about unfamiliar matters like garden design.

Bob turned 75 in June and we celebrated our thirtieth wedding anniversary later that month. I've lived in beautiful Minnesota almost half my life! Happy years.

Loved my annual junket to southern Ontario in August, where I enjoyed in-person updates with my sister, Marilyn, as well as Stratford and McGill friends. In September, I flew to Ottawa to attend a reunion of friends from my hometown of Temiscaming, Quebec. I felt rejuvenated, amazed that the years melted away in the joy of reminiscing and catching up after nearly half a century. It was one of the year's highlights.

Seeing the USA in our Chevrolet
For the first time last March, we extended our usual week in Florida to fourteen days, and liked the extra week enough to plan on a month in 2014. This will be my first road trip to Florida, drawing on lessons learned during driving vacations of the last decade, most recently in September. Our visit to the Grand Canyon was nothing short of awesome, and I especially enjoyed our return to Colorado, where the mountains deliver not only spectacular views, but also serenity in the fragrant pine forests.

Pretty good health
Bob's knee replacement was very successful and I'm now approaching the four-year anniversary of my first knee replacement in 2011. I'm so happy now to have pain free sleep and knee joint stability that I've never had before. My multiple sclerosis (MS) also seems to be in remission, a hypothesis validated by the results of an MRI in mid-December. Both Bob and I feel pretty good, not just "for our age", but good in general.

Friends and Family
I'm grateful for the family and good friends who make life fun and interesting. I include my long distance friends as I give thanks for the gifts you share with such joy and generosity. I wish you all good things and many rich blessings in the New Year.

Birder Credentials

I spent many years avoiding any association with the odd people who chase through swamps and forests after birds. Everything about birders made me laugh: the sensible shirts tucked into long pants, the sturdy shoes, safari hats, bug spray sticking out out of rucksacks and backpacks. They always seemed to travel with heavy binoculars, complicated cameras and a library of field guides. The total package reminded me of the many eccentrics I know and like, but I was damned sure I wasn't going to be one of them.

And then I picked up photography as a hobby, a few bird pictures found their way into my albums. The first subjects were shore birds in Florida, some of which were snowbirds from Minnesota. One thing led to another, and I signed up for a bird watching walking tour in Ixtapa, Mexico, where I had fallen in love with the sound of the chachalaca bird in the woods surrounding Las Brisas resort, a beautiful remote hotel on the Gulf of Mexico. Then my sister gave me an elaborate bird feeder and the rest is ... history.

The other day I went out after a snowstorm to haul bird food from the garage to the feeder. I was wearing a hat and scarf that concealed much of me, the part that didn't look crazy. I carried a white bucket full of seed and suet in one hand, and a long gardening trowel-like implement in the other. I used the trowels to ease one of the feeders off its hook for refilling.

A fashionably dressed dog walker with a handsome black lab passed by on the far side of the street. As the dog stopped for the usual reason, his companion watched me work at the feeder. I could picture myself, standing in my old jeans and work boots, hair an uncombed mess full of snow. working out of a bucket like a fishwife doing hard time. The pair moved on. I hoped -- vaguely -- that the man didn't know me.

Yesterday I headed out on a walk with my camera, hoping to take a few shots of holiday decorations in our Saint Paul neighborhood. I strayed off the sidewalk spotted a handsome red tailed hawk in a tall tree in the grounds of the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity. I moved closer through the deep snow to see if I could get a better shot, and was soon the only figure in the middle of the woodsy property, watching the hawk fly off.

I traipsed through the snowy woods to Mississippi River Boulevard, but had to walk on the side of the road because I was afraid of falling head first in the snow if I attempted to climb the snowbank over to the path. I moved along as energetically as I could, well aware that I very much fit the birder profile: practical clothes, darkened transition lenses, camera case around my neck, camera in one hand.

I got to the path through the parking lot off Summit, and was soon gazing upward at what seemed to be a winter robin in a nearby tree. A young woman in a short red skirt and black jacket went by and looked quickly at me before she sped off on her walk. I felt just a little embarrassed.

Merry Christmas to All

Generations are numbered: children (2); grandchildren (3); great grandchildren: (4).

1.       Scott Hennessey  (2) and his granddaughter, Lanaya (4) who will be a kindergartner next fall.

2.       Mary Norman (2) visited in September from Fresno. We had lunch at McGovern’s on the patio.

3.       Jim Muñoz at Grand Old Day in June. We went to the parade with Jim and Sonia’s family, a little nervous because it was Bob’s first major outing after successful knee replacement surgery at the end of April. We had a great time!

4.       Sonia Muñoz (2) at McGovern’s, during Mary Norman’s visit.

5.       Bob and I spent a few weeks in Florida last March. My camera was on the end of a picnic table and I ran around to get myself in the time delayed shot. We’ll be back in St. Pete Beach for the entire month of March 2014.

6.       Bob and his three sons (2), John, Scott, and Chris. This photo was taken at the Nauti Hawg in Diamond Bluff last October. The beach was lined with vintage HydroStream boats.

7.       Trudy and John Hennessey (2) at my favorite restaurant, Luci Ancora for a celebration of my 63^rd birthday on August 10.

8.       Mary Norman (2) with her son Tyler (3), in Los Angeles for Tyler’s 17^th birthday weekend.

9.       Minou, our little Russian Blue cat, the real boss of the house.

10.   Chris Hennessey (2) on a late season St. Croix boat run. John Hennessey (2) is in the background.

11.   Ben Serwe and Dana Muñoz (3) will be married in Madison in July 2014. This picture was taken at Grand Old Day in June.

12.   Janet Schlichting (2) with her dad on Janet’s birthday in July. We had a great visit and very enjoyable lunch.

13.   Chris Hennessey (2) with his aunt, Marilyn Marshall, during Marilyn’s December visit to Minnesota.

14.   Scott Hennessey’s partner, Meggan Kerkenbush, with Kait Hennessey (3) and her twins, Kameron and Kamillah (4).

15.   We celebrated three big milestones in 2013, my April retirement from the State of Minnesota after 23 years, Bob’s 75^th birthday and our 30^th wedding anniversary. This early summer shot was taken outside Axel’s in Mendota Heights: Scott Hennessey (2), Meggan Kerkenbush, Trudy Hennessey, Mitchell Hennessey (3), John Hennessey (2), Adam Hennessey (3), Bob Hennessey.

16.   Adam Hennessey (3) drove Chris’ HydroStream on a chilly October afternoon on the St. Croix.

17.   During my sister Marilyn’s visit, we jumpstarted the holidays with a little family gathering. Will Kaphing (4) is pictured here with his mom and dad, Angie Muñoz-Kaphing (3) and Mike Kaphing.

18.   Kaitlyn Hennessey’s son Marcus (4) with John Hennessey (2) and Mitchell Hennessey (3).

19.   Tiffany Schlichting (4) with her grandparents, Mark and Janet Schlichting (2), on Mille Lacs.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bob and Catherine

2013 Hennessey Christmas Tree

The Hennessey Christmas Tree

Since we bought an artificial tree about a decade ago, the tree looks similar every year, with its perfect shape and evenly spaced lights. The ornaments are pretty much the same too, though I add a few each Christmas, and lose a couple to breakage. The ritual itself -- this year a four-hour marathon during the Vikings-Bears football game -- becomes a little more emotional with the passage of time.



Bernard and Bianca from Rescuers Down Under

The ornament collection is eclectic. I've occasionally been tempted to do a "theme" tree (a color, or type of ornament) but I would miss my favorites too much: the handmade ones created by one of Bob's children before we were married, Chris' little boy creations, Santas, cats (especially the pretty Siamese from Katie Marshall several decades ago), colored glass balls bought at a pharmacy in 1983, an Avon wreath given to me by Bob's late sister Donna, the Griswold Family Christmas cardboard circle, sparkly Christmas barrettes that I discarded after I saw Catherine wearing one on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, end-of-season items bought for 10% of their original inflated price.

I always look forward to Rescuers Down Under characters Bernard and Bianca, a long ago Burger King premium, and Rudolph and Clarice, Montgomery Ward's freebies with the purchase of Rudolph the Reindeer books oh so many ears ago. By the time I get this far, I'm usually feeling nostalgic and teary, especially if I've knocked back a glass or two of wine. This year, because of the football game, I was enjoying a Coors Light rather than wine, but the sense of sentimental proximity to the people associated with the ornaments.



Mary Jo's bird tops the tree this year

Rudolph and Clarice

I leave the treetop ornament for the very end. I don't have a "real" topper, so it changes every year -- a flower, a star, or an angel worthy of promotion to the top. This Christmas, the treetop is a little bird that once graced the tree of my good friend, Mary Jo Jasicki, who died last March. Mary Jo's daughter Hillary gave me the ornament about a month ago, knowing that her mother and I shared a love for birds.

Little Minou recognizes the tree and likes to rest under the branches. The year is unfolding as it should.