A Year in the Life: 2008

Actually, the year 2008 didn’t start off so well. Terry’s grandmother, Margaret Mulcahy, suffered a stroke in January, and while the stroke itself was not life-threatening, her health continued to decline. Clearly she wouldn’t be living on her own again, so Terry moved her into her house. Caring for her was a major undertaking. Fortunately Terry has seven siblings and they helped out tremendously.

Margaret passed away at Terry’s home on April 2nd. I didn’t know her for very long. But I’ll always remember that night ride down from Truckee in a blizzard, merely weeks before she had her stroke. It was just the two of us. We talked and shared stories while rumbling along on chains, the defroster cranked full bore and wipers struggling to keep the snow off the windshield. She didn’t complain, not once. Even in her 90s, she was still quite the adventurer.


The last week of April found me in Mississippi. Yep. After a decade of dawdling and yearning I finally booked that flight to Jackson and immersed myself in the Delta: Vicksburg, Rolling Fork, Steele’s Bayou, Panther Burn, Leland, Greenville, all for the sake of continuing my research for a book that will some day go to print. I hiked along Deer Creek, past long-abandoned plantation houses, following the same path General William Sherman had followed 145 years before me (only I wasn’t wading in waist-high water!). I stood upon the deck of the Cairo, the Union gunboat that had been painstakingly recovered from the muddy bottom of the Yazoo River. I also met some terrific people along the way. Meg, Charles, Mr. Ben and Michele: thank you so much for your assistance and warm hospitality. For more photos, click here… http://www.flickr.com/photos/91696789@N00/sets/72157605204467593/


Allie graduated from high school in June. WOOHOO! It seems like just yesterday that she was walking into her kindergarten class on the first day of school. How the years roll by. Now she is pursuing a degree in Interior Design at Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Irvine. You could say I am one proud dad.


This is Heather, six months pregnant and still in command of the kitchen (and a stupendous cook, undeniably a big plus). She and C.J. lived with me in 2007 and half of 2008. But last spring they started house-hunting in earnest. In due course, they bought a home and moved into it in July.

As for me, I spent the weekends of spring and early summer fixing up my house to sell. Terry said “Make it turn-key,” and as fast as I could complete one home project, she was adding another to the list. (She’s a slave driver, I tell you.) But it was vastly worth the effort: my house went on the market the first of August, and I had a good bid on it six days later. By mid-August, it was in escrow. While all this was going on—as if it wasn’t enough to keep me busy—I was also packing my things and moving into Terry’s place in Yorba Linda. It felt odd at first, leaving Redlands after calling it home for twenty-four years. But there comes a time when you must turn the page and start a new chapter.


Once my house was on the market, Terry and I hopped on a plane to the Pacific Northwest. First stop: Orcas Island in Puget Sound, where the Barry clan was rendezvousing for my sister Pam’s wedding. Some of us stayed in rustic cabins, others camped. My brother Jeff towed his boat up from Portland; sister Maggi brought kayaks. We made campfires on a wooded beach and watched spectacular sunsets every evening. It was fun times in the enchanted San Juan Islands.

This is a “photo first” indeed: Bob posing with his four children: me and Jeff on the left, Pam and Maggi on the right. Pam and Dallas were married outdoors, overlooking beautiful East Bay. The weather was picture perfect. They couldn’t have asked for a finer day.

Next stop after Orcas Island was Seattle to visit Terry’s brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Hazel. From there, we all drove down to Rowena, a quaint little hamlet on the Columbia River. Terry’s sister and brother-in-law, Maureen and Harv, have a piece of property on the river, and we called it home for the next few days. Pictured above are Terry and Maureen, giving Maureen’s daughter, Ahna, a bath.

The routine in Rowena was coffee and breakfast on the outdoor deck, and later a bike ride or a run along the river. Maureen and Harv would go board-sailing (this is the windsurf Mecca of the nation). Terry would fuss over her baby nieces, both as cute as a button. Then we enjoyed the long evenings watching the river roll by, partaking in barbeques and a plethora of good wine.

Two days after returning from the Northwest, we re-packed our bags and drove up to Mammoth Lakes to get married. (Like I said, it was a busy summer.) It was an intimate ceremony in a clearing in the woods, overlooking the High Sierra. Allie was there, and so were Terry’s kids, Randi and Doug, plus Allie’s friend, Lexi, and Randi’s boyfriend Nick, who also served as our official wedding photographer. Alas, Heather couldn’t join us: She was two weeks from her due date and was staying close to home.

Terry booked a condo for our little entourage at the base of Mammoth Mountain. After the wedding, we got in a few days of downhill biking and rock climbing with the kids. My sister and bro-in-law, Therese and Randy, also stopped by one evening for dinner. By coincidence, they were enroute to their vacation in Tahoe and we just happened to cross paths. For more photos from the wedding trip, click here… http://www.flickr.com/photos/91696789@N00/sets/72157607184816806/


Heather turned 30 on August 25th. The next day she gave birth to Logan Blake Morris. (How’s that for a birthday present?) He’s a handsome little guy. Now Terry calls me Gramps—and I’m not sure I’m ready for that classification. Therefore I’ve decided to have Logan call me “Commander”. For more photos of him, click here… http://www.flickr.com/photos/91696789@N00/sets/72157609016442491/


Last summer, Terry announced that she was going to start training for a triathlon. She worked out faithfully six days a week: running; cycling; swimming. After a month of that regimen, I found it daunting to keep up when we rode or ran together. And after two months, I couldn’t even come close to her: She left me in her dust every time. By the time of the Bonelli Triathlon in October, she was in killer shape. She placed second in her gender/age class. This year, she will be gunning for the gold.


Autumn arrived, and the holiday season was upon us before we knew it. On the weekend before Thanksgiving, we threw a dinner party for my side of the family, our first entertaining gig since we’d been married. Pictured here are my cousin Dan (left) and brother T.J., neither of whom I had seen in months. Dan plays guitar for the Dynotones, an Orange County surf band that has been making waves (no pun intended). They spent the first part of December touring Japan.

Thanksgiving weekend was spent with Terry’s family in Truckee, where her sister and brother-in-law, Beth and Tom, have a home in the woods. Terry’s siblings, Mike, Pat and Kathy, also made it up—plus her mom, Mary Ann, and four nephews and a niece… Yep, we had more than a full house: In addition to Beth and Tom’s place, we also made use of a rental cabin down the road. In the photo above is Kathy with nephews Liam, Colby and Nic.

Donner Pass is only twenty minutes from Beth and Tom’s place, so we took advantage of the immaculate fall weather to do some climbing. At left is Doug on the south face of Grouse Rock. His cross-country stamina and mountain-biking fortitude serve him well in the vertical world.


The Christmas holidays were a flurry of dinner engagements. Christmas Eve was celebrated at our house; Christmas dinner in Los Angeles at Terry’s brother Mark’s place; after-Christmas dinner at C.J. and Heather’s new abode… It was one feast after another.

Heather and Allie on Christmas Day.






...and then there was little Logan, enthralled with his very first Christmas.







Randi turned 21 on Christmas Day. To celebrate, we took her and Nick to a swanky restaurant: hanging out in the bar; ordering cocktails—all those things you can do at 21 that you’ve taken for granted over the years. When I first started dating Terry, Randi was a senior in high school. Now she’s in her third year at Cal State Long Beach, working on a BFA.


Terry and I wrapped up the year with a weekend at Joshua Tree. The weather was sunny but brisk, with snow on the high ridges. But it felt good to be in the desert and climbing. You can clear your mind in the desert. And reflect. It had truly been an eventful year: the birth of a grandson; the loss of a loved one; getting married; leaving Redlands; my youngest daughter off to college; chapters were closed and new ones started.

The adventure continues...





To see all the photo sets from 2008, click here… http://www.flickr.com/photos/91696789@N00/sets/