Dear Friends,

I remember when I was a teenager how long each year unrolled. Now in my early 60s the years flash by with dizzying speed, and again we are near the end of another year. Whatever happened to 2011?

At the end of 2010 I spend the Christmas holidays with my two brothers in England, and the first few days of January with a friend in Oxford before flying back to Arizona. Having dual US/UK nationality, I used my British passport to enter the UK at Heathrow Airport, then my US passport for my return flight. This was in fact the first time I left the USA since getting US citizenship in 2009. The weather in England was particularly cold with a lot of snow. The snow eventually melted, but was replaced by thick fog. Fortunately by the time I got to Heathrow for my return flight the weather was fine and there were no delays.

Shortly after I returned to Tucson we had a major event with the mass shootings on January 8 that made the international headlines, when Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was very seriously injured. Shortly afterwards President Obama visited Tucson for a memorial service at the University of Arizona for those killed. This was on the first day of the spring semester, but all classes were cancelled. It was impossible to get into the building where the President would give his address without waiting in line for many hours, so I watched a live feed in the football stadium.

In February I spent about a week in Bogota, Colombia, to visit a good friend. In early May I went out of the country again for a few hours on foot with a group of people to visit the Mexican border town of Naco, Southeast of Tucson, to attend a typical Mexican fiesta. We drove to the US side of the border and walked across. Later in May I went with a group of people to have a picnic and BBQ in Madera Canyon South of Tucson.

In August a friend who runs a charter school here in Tucson suggested that it would be a good idea to organize a star party, no not the type of party with stars from Hollywood, but with real stars in the sky. I had never done anything like that before and had to find an evening that did not clash with school events, or a weekend, or a holiday, and at the same time there would be interesting things to see in the sky. The evening of November 29 was chosen as Jupiter would be well up in the East by the time it gets dark, and the crescent moon would be visible in the Southwest. Both objects make very interesting viewing through a telescope, together with stars, clusters and nebulae. Any evening with the moon close to full had to be avoided, as the bright moonlight would spoil the view of faint objects.

The star party was arranged in coordination with Tucson Amateur Astronomical Association. Several of their members came along with telescopes, and a couple of members of the school staff also brought telescopes, so there was a total of about 6 or 7 telescopes. I was a bit worried about the weather as there was quite a lot of high cloud during the day, but by the time it got dark the clouds had mostly cleared away and the star party was a resounding success, with about 250 attending, school children and their parents, staff, and people helping to organize the event. For the three weeks before the star party I was asked to teach some classes in astronomy, and put together some PowerPoint presentations.

Also in November I enjoyed a very nice Thanksgiving meal at a local church, and on Christmas day I have been invited to a private house to what will certainly be a very enjoyable dinner.

This year has not been without its health challenges. I have problems controlling my blood sugar due to diabetes, and take medication for it. The sight in my right eye had got quite bad, and had cataract surgery in September, which was really successful. The sight is now restored to what it was when I was a teenager, although the eye does not change focus, so I have to wear glasses for reading, which I had to do anyway. My left eye may eventually also need surgery, but hopefully this will be several years in the future.

I have also had some dental problems, and after a thorough examination during the summer, my dentist said a tooth had gone bad and should be removed. Everything seemed OK and I had no problems, so left it, but then last week I got bad toothache, then again during the weekend. I had the tooth removed yesterday, and will have a bridge put in some time in January. This was\ particularly well timed, as I had unused credits with my insurance company which will lapse on December 31, thus saving quite at bit of out of pocket expenses.

Finding employment in 2011 has been particularly frustrating, and I have been without work for most of the year. Although my contract at Raytheon had ended in December 2010, I returned for a week in January to complete some work on computer code I had been developing in late 2010. I was given incomplete and in fact incorrect specifications for the code, which only came to light a few days before I left for England. There was no way this could be rectified before I left, but on my return in January I worked for a week and got the code running correctly with all the bugs removed (as far as I know). Since then I have had several interviews, and await the outcome of the most recent one last week. In the mean time I have done a little bit of teaching, including astronomy mentioned above.

I wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012, notwithstanding the Mayan calendar!

Christopher M. Sharp (December 23, 2011)