Hi – this is Bob.
Laurel and I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary in August. We didn’t even get to see each other on our anniversary day because Laurel spent that entire week cooking for Girls Camp in Massachusetts. But we made up for it with a special long weekend trip for just the two of us. It seems like yesterday that we were married for time and eternity in this very special place…
Salt Lake Temple
I celebrated my 21 anniversary with United in October. I have a new job since last year. I now work in the Information Technology (IT) department of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of Uniprise where I had been working the past few years. My prior responsibilities have always been in the operations part of the company, often closely aligned with technology projects. Now I work in the technology department, closely aligned with the business. As you might imagine, there’s much speculation regarding the impact of the Health Reform Legislation on companies such as United. Fortunately, of all the Health Insurance companies, ours is probably in as good as any if not the best position to be very responsive to whatever changes come our way in the industry.
I have not let any grass grow under my feet in my spare time. A few years ago I got the bug to learn something new and build websites. I started a company called MyGreatHomeAndYard.com as a pilot to test some of my ideas for internet business. I kept learning as much as I could, mostly by trial and error. Sometimes more error than trial, and usually very little success compared to the trials and the errors. 
Toward the end of 2008 I had a break through in one of the techniques I was trying to learn, and I determined a method to mass produce reasonable quality website pages. During 4th Quarter of 2008, I managed to create more than 3,000,000 website pages – each with unique content. During 2009, I’ve been using some of my bandwidth to monetize some of those websites. The result is that I now have income each month from Google and Amazon when people visit the websites and either click on the Google Ads or purchase Amazon products from the websites.
Some of my other websites are more strategic in nature. For example, Laurel and I purchased a Kangen Water Ionizer in 2008 and we love it, so I created some websites to share Kangen Water with other health minded individuals who are searching the internet for a solution for alkaline water, balancing their body pH, water ionizers, etc. I managed to put enough of my newly acquired skills and knowledge to use to get onto Google Page 1 for some of my key terms which has enabled me to develop a constant supply of customers for our Kangen Water business.
Here’s some of the websites I use for this:
Here’s what the ionizers look like…
What is more gratifying than the income this business is generating for us is how much the product helps people with their health. And of course that is why I studied Nutritional Sciences years ago – to help people find solutions to improve their health and well being. So, I’m really enjoying this new project.
I’m also working with a nutritional product that I use and love and it is guaranteed to lower your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol and lower your triglycerides or your money back. It works great and helps many people get off their meds…
Many of you know that I have had a Honda Gold Wing for the past 10 years or so. With the economy as it is combined with our family’s growing needs, I decided that I should downsize. Here’s the result…
To fully appreciate the magnitude of downsizing, you need to see my other bikes.
I started out on this 1960 Cushman motor scooter. Yup, that’s me! It did about 40 mph, that is down a large hill and with a decent tail wind.
This is my next bike, a 500 cc DOHC Yamaha…
And, more recently my Honda Gold Wing…
So, as you can see, the new bike is really scaling back from any of my previous machines – even the 1960 Cushman motor scooter which I started out on!
By the way, over the years I’ve heard from more than a few of you regarding the “training wheels” on my Gold Wing. If you have any such remarks to share with me about my new bike it is OK – I really don’t mind because I’ve learned to cope with those comments years ago .
One of my favorite experiences this past year was making an unannounced visit to Mom and Dad. I drove from CT to MN, and had some help along the way from Laurel and Dan to keep the trip a surprise. I arrived at 10:30 p.m. Saturday night after having talked with Mom and Dad earlier that evening via the cell phone and they really had no clue that I was anywhere other than CT until I got to their house. Dad’s expression when he opened the door and saw me will be one of the events most firmly impressed on my mind for the rest of my life! This is something that every person should do sometime in their life – to surprise their loved ones who live far away by showing up on their doorstep. Of course the more important thing is that I was able to spend some really great time with two of my most favorite people on the planet.
I had hardly returned from my visit to MN when Laurel went to pay her mother a surprise visit to help her family celebrate her mother’s 85th Birthday. So within two weeks, we managed to surprise all three parents.
I have to tell you about something that happened this year that I will always cherish.
Laura Jean – our quiet, soft spoken Laura Jean – worked on a project in her Physics class. They constructed a hovercraft. This was her school’s very first hovercraft. Laura and the other students raced their hovercraft on the Connecticut River, in view of my office building. Laura and her friend Chelsea each raced the Manchester High School hovercraft against boys from the other school they were competing against. In spite of the fact that the other school had been making hovercrafts for years, Laura and Chelsea both won their races! Here’s some pictures…
http://picasaweb.google.com/bobhilke/MHSHovercraft (see all the photos)
Who would have guessed our shy, quiet Laura would have made such a splash in the Hovercraft competition??? Perhaps all that experience on Rainy Lake made the difference!
Laura recently performed in the Manchester High School Marching Band’s last performance for her Senior year – Laura played the Marimba and the Xylophone. I will leave it to Laura to tell about her plans for next year since she knows more about those than anyone else.
Life around here has been interesting on some other fronts too.
Turns out Nicholas has Asperger’s Disorder. Not sure why they call it a disorder. Perhaps more of a condition. Maybe an enhancement. Certainly at our family, we are all tuned into the positive aspects of this condition. It is the same condition that Bill Gates has. Al Gore. Albert Einstein. Mozart. Thomas Edison. George Washington. And a lot of other famous inventors, leaders and intellectuals too. Nicholas has been reminding me lately… “What would life possibly be like without Aspergers?” No lightbulb, no Microsoft, and no a whole bunch of other important things. I’ll tell you – Nicholas has a gift. Not only the gift of gab, but he is able to assimilate knowledge like no one else in the family can. He LOVES to study. He LOVES to learn. He LOVES to tell everyone who will listen everything he knows. I’m pretty certain he will be a professor of something one day. Meanwhile, we are all learning lots about carnivorous plants, composting, organic lawn care, plant tissue culture, fish, organic garden care and Asperger’s as these are all topics that Nicholas has taken an interest in learning about in recent months. Believe me when I tell you that when he takes an interest in something, he is very thorough in his analysis, and in his communication for sharing his new found knowledge.
Michael has impressed us all this year too. He spent the summer in Minnesota with his Grandpa and Grandma Hilke and he worked – he had about 4 or 5 different jobs on Rainy Lake and and Rainer. So he managed to actually save some money this summer, even after spending some of his earnings on a very fancy piece of electrical equipment that fits into a shirt pocket. Turns out Michael is a hard worker (when he wants to be). It also turns out that Michael is highly motivated to earn and save money. He enjoys working outdoors and doing things that require some muscle. He painted, stained, mowed, nailed, dug and probably a few other things to fulfill his employment obligations. And, he earned himself some very nicely worded letters of recommendation from his employers that will surely come in handy now that he is 16 and will be searching the job market for a job that will challenge him more this next summer. Michael also is becoming an expert water skier and will likely try to get back to Minnesota next summer to spend more time on Rainy Lake and with his grandparents (he has to get an A in Social Studies for that to happen though). Somehow Michael managed to pass up both Laurel and me this year in height and he stands an impressive 6 feet 2 inches – at least as of the last time he was measured.
I was kind of hoping Taylor would choose to play the Viola so we could have a quartet in the family. But, Taylor decided to play the Saxophone. Actually, I’m pretty happy about the saxophone – as long as that is what Taylor wants to learn. It is hard to believe that our youngest is now in 4th grade! And he is smart as a whip. Taylor seems to be a magnet for friends and is always playing with one or more of his friends in the neighborhood. And, he is a proficient skateboarder.
