Dale Says

For more than 20 years I’ve been writing summaries of what’s going on in my life and in the world around me on my birthday. Here’s an excerpt from 1992 …

April 24, 1992

On my birthday I’m 41 years old.

All things considered, this past year has been the best of my life. I have everything I could possibly really want, and more importantly I am deeply in love with Patty. I consider myself a very fortunate person to have found her.

We both love our little house! It fits us so well and feels so comfortable. The past year we’ve done a lot of painting and finishing touches, but there are still four or five major improvements pending, which we plan to tackle a couple each year.

This past year we bought a very special painting from our dear friend, Steve Watson. It’s called Patty’s Flowers, because Patty inspired it. It’s probably the best thing he’s done and Patty loves it!

My family had a reunion last May in Estes Park, Colorado, which was a wonderful opportunity for all of us to get together. We hope to repeat it each year, beginning this July 4 at Anne and Buzz’s house in Oregon.

We have seen a lot of Allan lately, as he stays with us one night a week when he’s working at NASA.

I’ve travelled a lot the past year, including work-related trips to London, Toronto, and Miami and personal trips to Hong Kong and Thailand. We met Patty’s family in Hong Kong to celebrate Paul and Ines’ 50th wedding anniversary, and then Patty and I went on to Bangkok and Phuket Thailand. We loved both Hong Kong and Thailand and were especially impressed with the gentle nature of the Thai people.

In the news, the U.S. economy is just beginning to recover from a recession that has seen two years of negative GDP growth, high unemployment, and lower consumer sales. In my lifetime I’ve never seen unemployed people and business closings like this. There are so many homeless people now — many begging and living on handouts and soup kitchens. They are on virtually every street in San Francisco, and most other large U.S. cities. I’m volunteering in a homeless shelter now, serving food to the homeless, and it’s very sad to see the same people come in for their one hot meal every time I’m there.

President Bush and Congress are doing very little about the economy and umemployment, believing that the economy will recover by itself. Many Americans are becoming frustrated with inactions by the President and Congress.

This is an election year and I think there could be a presidential change (this is Bush’s first term) if the Democrats can find someone worthwhile to run against Bush. At this point, it looks like Bill Clinton (Governor of Arkansas) is the most likely to get the nomination, but I doubt he can beat Bush. There have already been several scandals in Clinton’s past (marital infidelity, draft dodging, improper use of funds) and the media is dragging those through the mud on a daily basis.

California had a public execution last week, the first in 25 years. The man’s name was Robert Alton Harris, and he killed two teenage boys in 1978. The media is wild about the issues associated with capital punishment, and it’s been in the papers steadily since early April. I’m so sorry that with all the good things we have been able to accomplish we haven’t been able to end capital punishment and wars.

There is still no prevention or cure for AIDS. Nearly 100,000 people died from it last year, and millions now have the virus. It has gone beyond being a disease associated with drug users and homosexuals, and now others are contracting it from blood transfusions. Over the past few weeks Magic Johnson and Arthur Ashe have admitted having it and famous musicians and authors have died from it. It may be our most urgent challenge.