2010

Dear Friends:

All in all, 2010 has been a wonderful year with real estate and philately (as always) taking center stage.  So much has happened that there is no way to discuss it all in this letter but what follows are some of the highlights (well – lowlights as well I suppose!)

The West Virginia house is still on the market and, with the state of the economy; we are not holding our breath on it selling any time soon.  The only reason we want to sell is to downsize but there is no urgency as we love the place and if and when it does finally sell we will probably get a smaller place near Val and Cliff in Shepherdstown (probably in Cress Creek.)  We are thinking of eventually selling the small efficiency in DC and looking for something a bit larger down there, but the big news is that we have bought a house in Palm Springs, California.

I’ve loved living in WV (and will always have a place in DC) but over the years have come to realize that it is at its peak in the spring and fall.  Winter, on the other hand, is a completely different matter and, last fall, we decided to start looking at places with the goal of checking out different cities and perhaps buying something in 3 or 4 years.  (Those of you who are aware of my impulse control problem are probably already sniggering at this point.)

As gay men of a certain age, there are really only two options – Palm Springs, CA or Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  As Florida is too buggy, muggy and spread out, we settled on Palm Springs and rented a house for a couple of months there at the beginning of the year (I have been to PS many times over the years and always loved it.)   After a few weeks, we thought that it would be fun to at least look at some houses and before we knew it, had a contract to buy a cute little house with a pool and spa.  (I won’t go into the drama of obtaining a mortgage these days other than to state that if a bank doesn’t understand the difference between doing accounts on an accrual basis and taxes on a cash basis, no wonder the economy is stagnating – bastards!)

Anyway, realizing that we had way too much stuff in the WV house, we packed up an enormous U-haul with furniture, art, booze etc, stuck the little Smart car on a trailer on the back and David and a friend of ours, Frank, set off to drive cross-country to set up the new house.  All went well until they got to Denver, at which point the trailer crapped out and they had to cross the Rockies driving both car and U-haul (neither of which went over 20 miles an hour uphill).  Luckily they stopped in Vegas for some rest and relaxation (or something like that) and finally arrived in California, where they set up the house.   

I flew out and we decided to have a little housewarming party to meet the neighbors (most of whom are retired professionals and very pleasant.)    We had already met one of our neighbors, Paul, who is completely terrific and not only knows everyone in the neighborhood but also runs the local association, which means that he keeps an eye on the house for us.  Paul promptly invited all the local folks that he thought we needed to meet and David and I started to set things up for our gracious introduction to the community.  Unfortunately, the day before the party, I decided to move some furniture and being manly and butch, lifted this huge wooden chest of drawers and felt this nasty wrenching in my lower back.

By the next morning, I was having horrifying muscle spasms running diagonally across my back, which meant that I was not quite as gracious and charming as I had intended to be.  In fact, the neighbors must have thought that this was some sort of freak show as every few minutes, as I was being introduced to someone new or was making idle conversation, I would let out a shriek of pain, have a massive muscle spasm and collapse to the floor convulsing.   Really, there is no way to come across as soignée and urbane while flopping on the ground like a fish out of water.  Sigh!  Finally, with the help of the local emergency room and some heavy duty muscle relaxants, things got better.   (I later found out that my neck is a bit messed up from a car accident nearly 30 years ago, so this will probably be an ongoing issue as we want to put off surgery as long as possible.  Next time this happens, however, we will charge admission as I am sure it looks hilarious.)

Anyway, once CA was set up, we flew back to WV and continued with our lives.  (We are renting out the house on VRBO.com when we are not using it and having a lot of success.)

In May I headed over to London for the huge stamp show that takes place there every 10 years.  It was a terrific two weeks and not only did I see many old and new friends, but there were a number of dinners and receptions and the opportunity to do some research, acquire new stamps and see some magnificent material.  The highlight of the trip, however, was a glorious black tie dinner at one of the old Guild Halls for the Royal Philatelic Society.  This was an utterly magical evening and after it was over, I cavalierly untied my bow tie, opened my collar, settled back into the taxi and thought “I don’t want this wonderful evening to end yet!”  As the Savoy was still undergoing renovations I asked the driver to take me to the Ritz where, I thought, I would cap off the night with a glass of champagne in the bar.  I had forgotten, however, the peculiar idiosyncrasies of the London Ritz.

The Ritz London requires that all men wear, at the least, a jacket and tie.  Bearing in mind that I was in black tie and (in my opinion), looking pretty fabulous, this I thought, would not be a problem.  As I walked through the lobby, however, a somewhat officious gentleman clad in Ritz livery, halted my progress with a little cough and the suggestion that “Sir may not have noticed that he needs to adjust his tie!”  I trotted off to the restroom and retied my bow tie (a royal pain at the best of times but never mind) and proceeded to head to the bar.  The same gentleman stopped me again.  “Might I inquire where Sir is going?” he asked.  “I am going to the bar for a glass of champagne”, I replied.  “Is Sir a guest of the hotel?” he then inquired.  “No”, I answered.  “Oh!” he replied patronizingly, his nose wrinkling slightly as he looked me up and down as though I was something particularly unpleasant he had found on the sole of his shoe; “Only guests of the hotel are allowed in the bar after 9pm!”

At this point I snapped.  “You know..” I said in my best haughty voice; “you can cut the f***ing attitude.   You’re just a glorified Holiday Inn!”    Suddenly and almost by magic, two huge men in dark suits and earpieces appeared out of no-where and, picking me up by each arm, escorted me with immense speed out the front door.   I then proceeded to the Dorchester where I was treated in a far more civil manner.

After getting back to the States I did a few more business trips around the country, had more neck drama and then headed back over to the UK in June for a business trip, which I managed to combine with some research at the British Library (which was extraordinary as I had met the curator of the Philatelic Collections earlier and he took a whole day where we just rummaged through all of the vaults and found some wonderful material that has never before been seen or written about!)

In July we went back out to Palm Springs for a couple of weeks and, on our return to DC, put on an exhibition of stamps from the personal collections of a number of Congressmen and Senators in the Rayburn House Office Building foyer on Capitol Hill in Washington.  This was a great success and a huge amount of fun  (so much so that we are going to make it a bi-annual event.)

In August it was off to a big stamp show in Richmond, Virginia and then, at the beginning of September, off to Iowa for the wedding of two of my favorite women, Lori and Jo.  (Who would have thought that same-sex marriage would only be possible in various New England states and Iowa!)  This was a blast although it was eye-opening to realize that there really are that many corn fields in Iowa!

At the end of September I headed over to Germany with some folks from my office for a business trip which ended up in Amsterdam (which I think was a little startling for a couple of the staff) at which point I headed to Lisbon, Portugal for yet another stamp show.

David, meanwhile, headed back out to California, where he spent a relaxing few weeks while his mom, Martha, came to stay.  The two of us spent most of November in Palm Springs and are now back in WV until Christmas.

While we were in CA in November, however, we headed up to Las Vegas for the surprise 40th birthday of a friend of ours, Jennifer.  Her husband Tim, who we have known almost since birth, arranged for 40 of her friends to show up from all over the world for a all-expenses paid weekend of indescribable decadence at the Bellagio.  There were some of the biggest limos I have ever seen and we ended up racing, shooting machine guns, having amazing meals, table service and insane nights at all the nightclubs. (It has been years since I have done the clubbing thing so the bottle service, private security protecting our huge banquette areas, private waiters, and general stuff that you only see in movies or the tabloids was remarkable and great fun!  We did go to bed and not move for three days after our return however.)   The most fun part of the weekend, however, was Tim’s decision to renew his and Jennifer’s wedding vows at one of the Elvis chapels.  Quite apart from the fact that we were all drunk and quite apart from the surreal aspect of Elvis singing and performing a wedding ceremony, the finale was when Tim pulled his sleeve up and ripped a bandage off to expose the tattooed name of Jennifer which he had impulsively acquired moments before.  The weekend was amazing.

The family are all well.  “She Who Must Be Obeyed, The One To Whom All Homage Is Due” (my mother, Val) turns 70 at the beginning of 2011 so to kick off the celebration, the family are renting a boat and sailing through the British Virgin Islands for Christmas.   Val and Cliff continue to travel, play golf and generally enjoy life.  Cliff works with me and never ceases to amaze all of us with his knowledge of the defense industry.

Julia and the boys are also great.   Every time we go over to her house she has painted/redone/fixed/created something new. 

Collin moved into his first apartment and is in his junior year of college at WVU so I went up and visited him in Morgantown in the Fall.   His apartment is very cute (starving artist garret type thing at the very top of a no-elevators building – perfect for a budding writer/philosophy major) but his fridge was completely empty and so the first thing I did was go to the grocery story and then have a “Cooking 101” lesson.  (Just about everything in cooking starts with olive oil, garlic and onions – you can then decide on proteins and where to go from there (Italian, Mediterranean, Asian etc.)  Also - butter, heavy cream and wine can fix everything!).  David and he spend hours discussing Kierkegaard, deconstruction theory <sigh> and other arcana.  My job is to teach “Living Fabulously!”

Duncan is in the middle of deciding colleges.  He has visited universities all over the place but I think he has settled on NYU as his college of choice.   He started this process over a year ago and when he found out how competitive most of these colleges are he rolled up his sleeves and dove into fulfilling the requirements.  He is now student council president, plays sports, gets great grades and keeps appearing in the paper with local politicians and at ceremonies.  He is highly motivated and a great kid.

We just held our Holiday Party and fundraiser for the IanThom Foundation this past weekend, which was a wonderful success and raised close to $20,000 which will be distributed in grants at the beginning of 2011.

David and I are both well and, as always, wish you and yours a happy Holiday Season and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

All our love!