Dear Mr. Claus,

I was driving to the gym last night when the giant full moon was sitting just above the horizon. It was not yet bright white, but rather a pale earthy white, a color somewhere between dirty bathwater and light green tea. I watched it rise for almost ten minutes until it sat just above the Akron skyline. It was at this moment, looking at the picturesque skyline and the giant dirty moon, listening to a mountain fiddle that I had one of those moments of clarity that makes one wonder about the questions that cannot be awnsered. It was at this moment that I felt like I was 30 years old, for the first time in my life. It was at this moment that I thought about my 31st holiday season that is approaching and how I much I have evolved from the days when I used to make a christmas list. It was at this moment that I realized this is my 6th christmas spent with my trusty companion...



In the spirit of christmas' past I am composing a christmas list:
1. a right foot that I am able to run on
2. a left calf that stays pain free
3. cross-country skiis
4. snow shoes
5. clothes that keep one warm and dry while using previous 2 items
6. wool hat/gloves/sweater...particularly those handmade it Nepal
7. a carbon fork for amaterasu
8. an indoor trainer so that amaterasu will get some winter usage
9. a more efficient swim stroke
10. a trip to the Verde Valley
11. a 6-pack of Fat Tire (preferably consumed in the Verde Valley)
12. a gore-tex pair of trail runners
13. well, anything gore-tex would be excellent
14. wool socks
15. the finest coffee beans available to man
16. a guampa to go with my bombilla
17. a bag of full bodied yerba
18. a Phil Lesh show in ohio, preferably Cleveland
19. another Phish New Years show
20. and a room right across the street
21. an A in my math class (probably more unlikely than the phish show)
22. an A in my geography class (probably the most likely item on the list)
23. a commuter rail between Akron and Cleveland
24. free pass on said rail
25. and....the discipline (and swimming ability) to be ready to complete a 1/2 iron next summer.