An eDiary of Some of the Key Things in Don's Life

I regularly updated my eDiary websites until the creation of FaceBook's 2011 "eHistory" feature, whereupon I stopped… Sadly, my account then crashed out while I was updating my profile in 2019 & I had to drill some of the "lost years" to get them back!

So, my eDiary is organized into six decade pages, each decade being sorted year-by-year with months from Jan to Dec; click on a section to visit that decade?
    Main page | 2010’s | 2000’s (this page) | 80's-90's | 70's | 50's-60's…

You might also consider visiting my profile page that shares a little more info about me vs. this eDiary, or see a list of the Global Places I’ve visited? For an "historical" view, you can start at the very end of my eDiary & scroll up to read backwards in time? Also, embedded textual content reflects the time of the events vs. current time—view the pages full-screen?

Have fun, regardless ;)

A Look Back at Our 2000 Fun!
[ A bit fuzzy 'cuz I lost the original data! We do know a few things for sure, so it's OK ]

While we didn't do much in the early months of 2000, I did have a week-long GE trip to Palm Springs in early April for some W-W-P-P-ing… Sandy came out & visited for a nice long weekend—we saw the most amazing things while we were there!

The most stunning thing was the way the fields around Palm Springs were so alive & vibrant in the middle of the desert… Death Valley is down the road just a few miles! The Coachella Aquifer (the real reason behind this wonder) was a wonder in & of itself, holding millions & millions of gallons of water safe from the heat underground.

I had visited the San Andreas fault in the desert near the Salton Sea with one of the many Desert Jeep Tours… when we tried to go back there in our rental car we just never made it—a little too stressful being "way out there" with no cell phones!

Another wonder was the views across the valley from 3,000 feet up… we took the wonderful cable car ride up to the Mountain view (as well as others like these) in the Joshua Tree National Monument for a day.

Last, but by no means least, are the Fields of Windmills that capture Nature's energy with the moving air!

When I arrived back home from my GE trip, we decided to purchase a mobile home (a caravan) for some easier weekends away. Our new Bantam trailer (an equivalent view) was a really nice home-away-from-home & came from the Trail-Lite (who sadly are now out-of-business; used an equivalent) folks down in Warsaw, Indiana.

Out & about we then went, the Sauk City campground & the High Falls up north (in the fall) and others—such fun!

Sandy & I had our 3-week vacation in late July/early Aug… visited Germany, France, Scotland, & England—a pretty neat trip! We returned to England in mid-September for the wedding of my brother Alan & AK; their formal marriage was in South Korea in November…

Well, the rest of summer & the fall certainly came & went! We did spend a weekend in Madison at the Badger football game with a niece (who was a student there) but further specifics remain quite fluffy—they're really just "lost in space" with our ISP changeover… perhaps on another day I'll figure it all out!!!

In December of 2000 the CT business sent me to the Beijing office in China for 2 weeks to train (or to refresh) the engineers there for GE’s Quality Compliance; this was in my role as the CT Lead Quality Engineer—acting at that time, formally titled a few months later. A friend (John Bechtold) and others were also there at that time where I remember eating out one night with them in a nearby restaurant, sitting around a hot-pot (similar to the actual place) delight!

I was also blessed to have had a remarkably memorable weekend mid-trip, visiting (with a well-spoken young Chinese man as my guide) the Great Wall of China (which was really a bit chilly!!), the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Summer Palace. We also visited the Tienanmen Square where there had been a governmental murder in June of 1989; when I asked my guide about it, he was either ignorant of the event or was ordered to deny that it had happened—a sad thing either way…

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A More Detailed Look at 2001…

In January, Sandy flew out to visit with our girls in Auburn for a week or so.

We then had a week at the El Dorado Royale on the beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico during the chilly-willy month of February with Alan & Ae-Kyung as well as with Regina & Rigo who were staying at the Turquoise resort in the Calle Kukulcán Villas, Cancún, Mexico

DJ, Alan+AK at dinner	and an outside lunch	Rigo & Regina wearing those Mexican hats	Alan & AK with hats	and DJ & Alan with hats
Family at dinner	Alan & AK at the water	and at dinner	DJ with a hat

We had a day out during our trip, visiting the Mayan ruins at Chichen-Itza…

    A partial snap of the Pyramid (Don & Sandy are at the base!)… caught another to see us better!

Sandy got a new "GE hat" in March in the PET business & I did so too at CT, the “Quality King"!

Spring was pretty much consumed for Sandy with her new job & leading her product launch…

Life was also considerably complicated by a windy weekend in April that dropped a big tree onto our garage. While not smashing things to smithereens, we did need quite a lot of work to repair the roof damage, etc. We also decided to expand the work a little & do some house updates by having the roof redone along with the gutters, soffit & fascia. Looks prettier than before although it drained pretty much all the little pennies out of the piggybank!

I put a new battery in the camper (caravan) after leaving it out in the weather all winter… oops—one of life's free lessons!!

We also got our "summer fun" car in April, a really neat toy! Turbo-charged, 2-door ragtop 900 SE made by Saab




In May we went to the Mother's Day Ball at the Capitol Rotunda in Madison; this was a part of My GE cancer board activities

We then spent Memorial Day in San Francisco with Sandy's daughters, a great weekend+

Summer was pretty nice with 3 weekend+ trailer trips: LaCrosse (where we met up with my son Stu & had dinner at the Freight House), Door County (where we watched a neat play at the Peninsula Players after sitting & watching the Sun go down over Green Bay) and finally out to Devil's Lake with Rigo & Regina where we rode bikes, got a little diddly on beer, wine & perhaps Tequila (!) & watched a Spring Green Theater Shakespeare play

We visited Sandy's folks along with her daughters on the 4th (one had her knee surgery again after this)

We went out with friends after working in my friend Lou's garage at their house replacing the Saab brakes… I think the term that we used to refer to this was "Howling" as we drove around in the Saab after dinner & a couple (dozen) drinks with the top down!

I also visited the UK for a week+ at Jim & Bev's 25th wedding anniversary

We had an October fall trip all planned out (up to getting the tickets & booking hotels) up to Yellowstone but canceled the whole thing with the Sept 11th disaster

I went out for a weekend with the CampFryers & hunted a little. One short hunting trip up to Gerry's (RIP); see the '99 diary below, too

We spent a weekend with my son Stu, who was a student leader out at LaCrosse to watch the football in the rain & attend the RA's buffet dinner followed by a skit

We had a nice party at Sandy's boss' house in late November; she did a ton of running around in the fall: Atlanta/Auburn & Orlando, RSNA… She was hoping to get to Italy with her sister-in-law to visit family who's staying there on a school semester but we couldn't get the details worked out…

Christmas was pretty cool. We had an all-day gathering at White Oak with Sandy's extended family, including Stu & Alex, as well as a personal family day on Christmas Eve with Sandy's daughters, Stu & Alex. Pretty neat, overall. Guess that that's about it for this year…

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And a 2002 Tour…

2002 was a particularly challenging year for Sandy & I, both in life & at work; some of the high (& low) points are captured in a little month-by-month matrix…
Hope you enjoy the high points!

Jan	My son Alex passed away just a few weeks before his 20th birthday, leaving a huge hole in everyone's life…
Feb	For our annual winter week (Sandy's birthday) we went to Palm Springs & to San Diego this year
Mar	There was a business trip for Sandy to Orlando, and I helped dozens of people move from Ryerson Road to the     new building at Waukesha. I then spent some time out at Ship Rock in New Mexico for my farewell to Alex
Apr	We visited my son Stu at his college in LaCrosse for a weekend
May	My Fishing trip to the Mississippi River with the CampFryer's, Sandy had another business trip to Orlando, Sandy's     daughter's HS graduation & our friends Regina & Rigo were married
Jun	Sandy's business trip to LA; Sandy's daughters were in town for 2 weeks during the summer
Jul	I had an extended business trip out to Japan (via San Francisco) & then to China (my birthday was in China);     Sandy had a business trip to New York & our niece was married at a wonderful ceremony
Aug	My business trip to Florence SC; also a long weekend in Bournemouth & my son Stu's 22nd birthday
Sep	Labor Day Camper Weekend (the only time we took it out this year!!) & a Fall Colors trip to Michigan
Oct	Business trips to Florida & Baltimore & San Diego; I had a fishing trip with the CampFryer's & a nice bow hunting     weekend with several friends
Nov	RSNA week
Dec	Sandy had an outpatient visit to try & fix the irritating ankle with a short surgery; Sandy's daughters birthdays & we     have a nice Christmas visit with her family at the farm

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Some Views of 2003…

I visited with my Dad at his 80^th birthday on the 23^rd of January, meeting my brother Mick (to my left) for the 1^st time
     I heard (via a letter from Dad, late 90s) of his existence, when Mick was searching for him

Amongst the many others that are not yet loaded for this year, do visit our March Jamaica trip?

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A Tiny Touch of 2004…

View our tentative 2004 plans from back then (created in Apr-04) for a minute & as it was the year of the Palace in Nirvana…

Also see some history of my many houses?

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2005 Was a Fun Year…

Sandy was off to Washington DC in late March which was on her visit list—I tagged along to visit with my son Stu, who had been with the AmeriCorps team for a little while

I was otherwise a bit lonely in the fall but was really, really happy to ride along with Sandy to an October trade show in Denver for a long weekend away in the mountains; a visit to Glenwood Springs driving thru Glenwood Canyon & lounging for a while at the steamy Hot Springs pool

My Christmas present (from Santa) was a nifty new flat-panel monitor, upon which this page looks extra-spiffy! There an online Photo Album viewer to allow you to have a visit to the constantly growing CoolPix collection, with several thousand pictures! An older album is my personal collection; click the link there to visit? We also put a UK Letter together in the spring & I put it on line for those who didn't get a paper copy… another annual-gram could be in works some day!

My Mum was diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis (an auto-immune liver problem that's like cirrhosis) late in the year; some treatments were prescribed and things appeared to get better

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The Year of 2006, Which Sure Seems Like "Forever Ago"…

We managed to get some of the many "loose ends" tied up around the house this year…
   Inside, we managed to collect a number of interesting items to fill some of our nooks & crannies & finally got our unfinished walls covered with some wonderful wallpaper
   Outside, our new driveway & patio have been in place since the spring, with gardens & a mile or two of new grass (!) following in the fall

We spent 2 weeks in the UK in June, 2006 visiting Alan & family as we arrived, walking in the nearby woods on Saturday
    Sandy and Hannah; we stayed for a couple days
   Onwards to Bournemouth to visit my parents for a few days and then off to Ireland for a week, touring the Jameson Distillery on Friday, riding the bus around Dublin on Saturday
    Walking along the cliffs and later on the Dingle Peninsula; we headed home at the weekend

After the return from our trip, Sandy & I hosted a social gathering at our house in July for a 20-year ADVANTX Celebration (the GE project I worked on in the 80's)
    with a couple dozen GE folks…

Sandy continued to be buried at the office (but loving it almost as much as GE loves her!!) with customer visits & trade shows…

A week before Thanksgiving, CT sent me to Haifa for a week+ to prep their audit… was lucky enough to visit Jerusalem for a day and an evening dinner at the beach! They did pass their audit ;)

I'm also generally enjoying my job at work as well as helping out (now & again) at Froedtert Hospital with volunteer work on the neuro ward (yes, the place where they fixed my head several years back) & enjoying my computer "stuff" as ever!!

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Views of 2007…

An exciting year overall…

    My 20^th GE anniversary in January brought cake to a group meeting organized by Gary Strong & attended by many
    We celebrated our 10-year anniversary in March with a week in Florida
    I headed to the UK for a short trip in April
    I completed my long-standing journey to become a naturalized US Citizen in April (the week after I returned from the UK)
    We had a super-fun weekend in late May with Sandy's daughter's graduation
    We spent a July weekend in Spring Green & watched the Players doing Shakespeare

I drove out to Santa Clara, California in the last few days of August to my GE Healthcare job at the PKI micro-chip fab (now closed) where I stayed for the winter. After being out there for only a couple of weeks, I was urgently flown back to my CT-PET quality job to support the FDA audit, making the folks at PKI less than happy!

An absolutely super 3-day trip out to PKI until my Salt Lake City stop on Saturday Sept 1^st for dinner with Joe Cannon—the truck was raided that night while I slept, making life pretty irritating for several weeks with many things stolen… a free lesson: never, ever, ever leave any visually interesting things in the car!

I did have several free weekends while out there (one with Sandy who flew out), visiting the San Francisco area as well as heading to points north, south and east

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A Few Things About 2008…

Jan/Feb were spent in Santa Clara, CA, wrapping up my 6-month role at the PKI micro-chip fab… they asked CT if I could stay there longer (which was again declined) as they were pretty happy with my work that had automated a detailed status report of their entire Litho system, displayed in their FAB! The departure was followed by a 3-day drive home via Phoenix, AZ where I stopped for a pleasant visit with a close friend, Lew Payne. I did get hauled back out there in April for a week to help them restart the system, as they apparently didn't take very good notes!

April also brought my annual GE EMS, which was less than delightful—they were clearly after me for reasons not known… I was demoted by a level

I got to visit the colonoscopy folks for the 1^st time in April, which was an "interesting" experience but OK overall (!)
    My Dad also passed away in July after several difficult years at the age of 85; he is buried at the St. Johns Cemetery in Winton, Bournemouth

In October of '08, my son Stu married Jill Divan at a West Virginia resort a collection from the wedding is also viewable here

A GE “work plan” unexpectedly arrived (on Wednesday, October 22^nd) ~6 months after receiving my dismal annual GE EMS review (above)—I spent the rest of that week fighting off a desire to punch various people and/or just quitting & storming childishly out of the building…

After that I worked my ass off for the rest of the year (10+hour days / little to no weekend-time, etc) to get the work done for a "pass" rating at year-end. Yes, it sucked but I did pass the damned thing… I did take some time off after that for Christmas, etc

A related movie The Big Short (an 8-minute extract on YouTube) was released in 2015, which was all about the 2008 financial crash that had caused me (in parts) to be smacked around in my job

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2009 Was A Very Interesting (yet quite Complicated) Year

2009 was an event-filled year, starting out for me on Friday, January 16^th where I was forced to end my GEHC working career with the massive layoffs caused by the global financial crash (above)—over 1,000 people were laid off (some were likely just fired) from the Milwaukee area, bringing so many difficulties to so many families… we were blessed by the fact that Sandy was not impacted at all, avoiding a family budget disaster!

While being quite emotional about all of this "rejection," I was lucky enough to qualify for some financial freebies, including a week's pay for each of the 22 years I worked there (which was paid out in weekly tweaks with unemployment checks from the state), several thousand US$ for college tuition over the next 2 years (if I took relevant classes) & a 10% check for signing the "I'll be good" (and will not shriek about GEHC) RIF paperwork!

I found myself in early February hooking up with some Fairchild folks from the early 80's—pretty neat weekend visit to the DC area!

I started taking classes at Carroll U in the Spring to utilize the free GE funds, as well as to work towards that missing paperwork to get a job (!)… I also restarted my (closed in late 2016) consulting business that actually brought me to GE in the mid-80's. Not too much going on at Carroll anymore, but seemed like a good basis for the future

We learned in early August that my Mum's liver had never really recovered from her December 2004 diagnosis (auto-immune hepatitis) & that this had ended up with a diagnosis of liver cancer, making her end-of-life just a few months away. I had visited Mum et al in the UK in April for about a week, & came back for a weekend with my son Stu in October. When I returned again to spend Christmas there, Mum was in the hospital after a fall in the kitchen (which was never fully explained) & she was not able to be communicative. A virus assault also slowed my visits to almost nothing, so it wasn't much of a trip.

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The End of the 2000's…

Well, that's about it for the 2000’s part of my eDiary; see the different decades here? You could also go to my Bio summary page, the profile page that I created a few years ago, my family tree profile or visit me on FaceBook where you can scroll down to view my events year-by-year.

As I expect that parts of my eDiary will improve and/or change as I tag more year-by-year info or clarify some of the threads… watch this space!
Please also visit my privacy page to be aware of some legal stuff?

As a final thought, view some snaps of me & my family in my older album? Enjoy!! ;)