Four Days Until Christmas 2012

Hard to believe it is only four days until Christmas 2012.

I know this sounds like my grandfather but it really does seem as though "time just flies by". 

I drove 1785 miles from Texas back to Maryland about 6 days ago.

I wanted to bring a bunch of my personal stuff back to Maryland to store until I figure out where my residence in Texas will be in 2013.

Where ever it is it will not be in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV).

It defies common sense but despite the fact we are talking about bringing in excess of 1,000 sustainable jobs over the next few years to the area  in which we finally choose to locate our first USA based aquaculture operation, no politician, no land owners, no Chamber of Commerce member, no civic leader, etc., could help us secure the approximate 100 acres anywhere in the RGV, we needed for our operation. 

No matter that we were willing and able to pay cash and a fair market price for any suitable site, we just could not generate the enthusiasm in one of the most distressed areas in the United States to help us secure a location.

For us as a company it will probably work out much better. 

We are already looking at two or three every promising sites north of the RGV.

It will certainly be easier to recruit future employees three hours north of Brownsville and hence three hours closer to everything in the State of Texas.

In any event, early in 2013 we will close on a site and soon after we should begin construction. Our objective is to begin to harvest commercial level amounts of jumbo white shrimp in late 2013. 

It is nice to be back in the DC area for Christmas.

Washington, DC is one of the most beautiful Christmas time cities in America.

It is very easy to get into the Christmas spirit here.

The houses in my area (Potomac, Maryland) are decked out with lights and other decorations some of which are so impressive that people stop their cars to take pictures at night of the displays. 

On a sad note, my last labrador, Elle, a yellow lab 13 years old, died the night I got in from Texas. 

She wagged her tail when I got in and let me hug her and rub her fluffy old head. Three hours later she was gone. She had been battling a blood cancer and finally her poor body gave out. She went very gently.

I was glad she waited to say "good bye" to me. 

She was the last of four labs we had adopted, the first over 16 years ago. So for the first time in 16 years we do not have a labrador retriever in the house. It doesn't seem right.

Someday I will write an entire blog about how wonderful all dogs are and the special love and affection I hold for labs. 

Today, the loss is still too fresh and the tears would come the minute I tried to write even a single line.

I went and saw "The Hobbit". Loved it of course as I knew I would. Say what you will, Peter Jackson is a genius when it comes to taking the words of JRR Tolkein and bringing them to life on the big screen.

I will definitely see it again, probably in 3-D this time.

I am also very eager to see "Lincoln", with Daniel Day-Lewis.

Thinking of the movie, "Lincoln" in combination with Christmas being only four days away reminds me of a quote from Lincoln, himself that I have always found comforting. 

"Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day. No, no, man was made for immortality". 

Christmas is (for me) always a wonderful "reminder" of that sentiment.