Another year over and a new one just begun.....

Welcome to 2005! As usual I started the year with a bang by going to the fireworks display here in Jensen Beach. Met up with my friend Jason and his family. His little girl, Grace, was the one I made my first Santa call to last week and she was so adorable telling me all about her phone call; not suspecting in the least that I was the man in red. Twisting children's minds can be such fun!

I am now the Chief of Operations of Starfleet International. My duties began at the stroke of midnight. This should make for an interesting year. I am really looking forward to it. I only wish my mother were around for this as she held much the same position for the Ladies Auxiliary of the Fraternal Order of Police. Would have been interesting to compare notes with her on this. I'm sure she'd still be shaking her head at my involvement in fandom.

I had dinner with an old friend Thursday night. Anne, an old member of the McAuliffe, has parents who live in the area and I had helped them out during the hurricanes so she took me out as a thank you. Not completely necessary, but I'll never turn down free food! The McAuliffe has always been more than a club; we're family. When the storms came I gave more no thought to helping her parents than I would anyone with whom I share a genetic link. That's the beauty of fandom. While parallels are always drawn between science fiction fandom and other ravenous interests (ie sports fans or stamp collectors) I doubt you'd see the same dedication to fellow members like you see in science fiction fandom. It was good to sit with her and have a good evening with a good friend.

Christmas will finally happen at my house as soon as my son gets here today. All his presents are wrapped and waiting. I am anxiously waiting to see what he has gotten me. It's not a greed thing; I'm just curious, now that his brain has really started to congeal and he's putting thought into his gift buying what he will choose for me rather than his mother picking something out or simply wrapping up the current year's school picture in a snazzy new frame. Either way, I've got him for the whole week, and that's gift enough.