2021 Barnes Clan’s Year-End Missive

*The greatest number of Barneses to gather this year, Gavin, Sebastian, Natalia, Sandy, with Wayne in the back. Thomas, Ariel, Noah, and Cynthia are pictured farther below.*

Our family is fortunate and grateful to have survived, and then some, the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Still spread far and wide, occasional family gatherings brought some group photos and there are other meaningful single pics. Here are self-written synopses for 2021 from the BarnesKids, now ages 30-41. Many have told me they do not get tired of reading about my children, but feel tired, themselves, when hearing their schedules and activities. I feel the same.

Ariel: This was Ariel’s first full year living in Los Angeles after seven in New York City. She’s conquered many aspects of film and TV production, from working on an Emmy-winning YouTube show, to a CNN docuseries, and a music video of the Russian activist girl-group, rock-band, Pussy Riot. But, alas, production life takes a toll on your soul as well as your body. As addicting it is, being really busy isn’t always good.

In between gigs, she dove into her cookbooks and landed a few food-styling jobs. In the fall, she started working at a design studio, Forth + Back, a field in which she had never worked, but fit right in. Her Crocs (soft resin shoes) are no longer in sport mode, but damn, it feels good to have a social life in a new city.

While Dad is working to have a book and more essays published, Ariel has proudly taken on the role of his editor-in-chief. She first learned the trade from his bearing down through her youthful years in school, then made her own way in writing articles and editing magazines in New York.

Mornings, she jogs around the Silver Lake reservoir and, most evenings, hits the natural wine bars in her downtown neighborhood. She just moved into her first solo apartment and, wow, the feeling of living alone should be sold in little bottles all over the world. Have you ever cooked a whole meal without bumping into anyone in the kitchen? That’s magic, right there.

She misses New York all the time and plans on visiting lots. Having lived there shouldn’t be the coolest thing about you, but the folks in LA sure seem to love hearing all about it.

Natalia: What a year it's been for Natalia! She was accepted into her post-graduate program to become a Physical Therapist Assistant, set to graduate in 2023. It's a strenuous course-load for sure. Even though she’s only one semester into the program, their numbers have shrunk from 24 students down to nine, and she is still in the game. The past 15 weeks were a steep learning curve, all while continuing to work at the ACAC fitness club in Timonium, MD, as a personal trainer and group exercise coach. Her pet-sitting business took off this year. She has so many keys from all the houses she sits for, she could pass for a high school janitor. She has her own little fuzzies, Riley the corgi, and cats, Alf and Mowgli. Life is a hectic adventure, but exciting all the same. She competes in long races in her wheelchair, affectionately named “Lucille.” This year she managed two—her yearly favorite, the Baltimore Marathon in October, then Palm Beach’s in early December. The latter was finally a flat course, so she knocked a half an hour off her personal best time. This one was special because her family was there cheering as she cruised across the finish line. That meant Wayne/Dad waking up at 4:15 A.M. to drop his athlete off to do her bonkers thing at six. But if you all know Wayne, this is exactly on brand for a child of his. In 2022, Natalia will start her first round of clinicals in the 24-month PTA program. And there will be more racing, as she works on improving her time to qualify for The Boston Marathon! (One day very far away….)

Gavin: It was another quiet year for the Orlando contingent of the Barnes household. Continuing his work as an Engineer at Lockheed Martin, he received his seventh patent related to the exoskeleton/onyx project. On a trip to Denver to see old friends, he fell in love with the Rocky Mountains and learned the importance of bringing the proper gear when hiking frozen snow packs. (Spoiler alert: Wearing boots without crampons results in a perilous morning.) After a several-decade hiatus, Gavin resumed his piano lessons. It took a few months to relearn the basics, but he’s already delving into more complex pieces—jazz, blues, even a few Christmas tunes in time for the Holidays. His adopted daughter, Alexis, completed her Associate degree in Fire Science and is pursuing opportunities as a Fire Fighter. Moving into 2022, Gavin looks forward to a new job and a new place to live—preferably, with a mountain view.

Thomas: He may be working the hardest of us all, with regular 60+ hour work weeks, while practicing as an appellate attorney. March 2022 will mark his third year in the Veteran Administration Court of Appeals Litigation Group. Last month his black lab, Weber was bitten pretty badly by a neighborhood dog, requiring over 20 stitches. Thankfully, the situation was resolved amicably, with no lasting harm to Weber. Meanwhile, Ciri, his tabby cat, has made his home her own, where she suns herself across the kitchen floor or on the windowsill. He also started seeing a wonderful woman earlier in the year, and the two have been officially dating since October. If all goes as he hopes, you'll get to meet her in the 2022 Christmas letter!

Sebastian and Sandy: Power couple, Seb and Sandy, have done it again. Early in the year, they bought their first home in Victoria Park, (Fort Lauderdale, FL), where they nested in preparation for their first child. Noah Luka Barnes was born May 13th, 2021 at 8:03 P.M., weighing 7 lbs, 4 ozs, now seven-months old. Sleep deprivation aside, Sandy and Seb have experienced a love they never knew possible. Along the way, they have had the support of both their families. The best baby advice was to take everybody’s advice with a grain of salt. The worst was, “Don’t swaddle your baby.” All things considered, they haven’t lost too much sleep their first year as parents. Noah is crawling, standing (with some help, of course), and loves laughter. He is incredibly alert, watches everything and anything around him, and is as calm and patient as a baby can be.

Baby wonders aside, they both have been busy professionally, Sandy earning a promotion as a corporate executive, while Seb has been recruited to another organization and will start a new job in the new year.

Cynthia’s family continues to grow with Marissa and Haim having had twins, Mila and Liam, just after Christmas last year, crawling everywhere approaching one year old, while three-year-old Jacob is a loving big brother. Ali and Jeff have Dylan, five, and Lucas, nearly two, and I hear another sibling is one the way. Cynthia travels to Virginia as often as possible to be the wonderful grandma she is.

*Cynthia and Wayne atop Mt. Lemmon near Tucson, AZ.*

Wayne and Cynthia: Persuading ourselves to get out from under the throes of the pandemic, in early November, Cynthia and I went to one of the most wide-open places in the U.S. Arizona was the target for our nine-day, 1,400-mile, whirlwind tour of several national parks and other natural scenes duplicated nowhere else on earth. Arriving in Phoenix, first was south to the Saguaro National Park, with thousands of the giant cacti. Near Tucson was Mt. Lemmon, which I had never heard of, but is like the Texas Big Bend National Park, also, with its own ecosystem, surrounded by miles of desert. An evening with two old friends, retired FBI agent Carolyn Weber and Martial Arts phenom, Heather Raftery, demonstrated there are people you might not see for years, but in minutes, all is renewed.

Always on the lookout for butterflies, Cynthia found a plot of weeds by a Dairy Queen in Globe, AZ, where dozens of fingernail-sized Western Pygmy Blues flitted and landed for sweet nectar. A quick sunset stop at the Petrified Forest National Park let us begin our next day with a tour of Antelope Canyon. Leland, a Navajo, slid us through ribbons of sleek pink and orange rocks, altered incrementally with each new flood. Monument Valley was everything it was cracked up to be with mindboggling behemoth boulders. The Colorado River’s Lake Powell now looks more like a moonscape, water, yes, but down 151 feet from its best depth. There were masses of people posing atop the Colorado’s sheer walls at Horseshoe Bend, which were as entertaining as this unique formation. After Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, it was on to the Grand Canyon, which never wears out its welcome mat. Wild mustangs played down the road, and we discovered Hermit’s Rest, a trailhead we’d never seen before, so we ventured down a bit. Sunset gave us added beauty from ancient skeleton branches reaching for the sky. The last stop was Taliesin West, the longtime home of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, built in Scottsdale in 1938, when there was nothing else for miles around. For water, he reconnoitered and said, “Drill here!” 450-feet-down later, the water sprang forth. Here are some special photos from the trip:

*Family fun on the cliffs above Horseshoe Bend.*

*Lake Powell, down 151’ from its best level.*

*Wild mustangs grazing near the Grand Canyon*

*Cynthia taking her life into her hands on the Hermit’s Rest trail, south rim of the Grand Canyon.*

*Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio, Taliesin West, in Scottsdale, AZ.*

When LA Fitness closed for the pandemic, it meant we had to figure workouts on our own. I am up to 100 push-ups and 150 sit-ups (all in three sets) every other day, and a 6.5-mile bike ride at 11 mph, in 35 minutes. If I don’t regularly keep up with handstands at 74 ½, I won’t be able to do them when I’m 90! And OneBlood took my 166th pint of O-positive in early December. Then there is my hair! Not cut since June 2020, it is around nine-inches long, very different for me, but I have learned a lot about women and their hair. Locks of Love will take even an old gray-haired guy’s tresses, no less than 10-inches long, but must be dyed, maybe a light brown, before they accept them. Donations go into wigs for young girls who have lost their hair to chemotherapy. So, around June, I should have twelve inches of tresses, braided into two pigtails, then chopped off, hopefully, to the delight of someone in recovery, my gift on my 75th birthday.

I still conduct investigations, continuing to catch bad guys. Much of my work deals with signature analysis and determining forgeries. Several big cases have shown forgers sign on the dotted lines for millions of dollars, on wills, deeds, and self-created business documents, trying to enrich themselves while wreaking havoc on others. Well, not on my watch! I hope to videotape a probate hearing next year, (perhaps for 20/20 or Dateline), with the most devastating set of forgeries, all by the same person, essentially stealing an entire multi-million-dollar estate. Can’t wait to see the look on her face, and better still, if she is led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

Art is still very much in my life, with an ad hoc museum in my home. This year’s auction wins brought Fjord Landscape by Swedish impressionist Johann Holmstedt from 1890, (29” x 41”), and a magnificent Lladro, The Essence of Family, by Marco Antonio Noguerón.

I continue my efforts to be published. In the past several months, The Epoch Times printed fourteen of my articles, (most available on my website, www.WayneBarnesWriting.com under Essays and Published Work), eight, about pieces of art, three feel-good pieces, and a eulogy for Romanian Cold War defector, General Ion Mihai Pacepa. All of this is with a view of having a published-record to get a book into print.

Writing, you can do in a secluded chamber, but getting published is something else, a different mindset. In January, I signed up with Kathy Ver Eecke’s inspiring Pitch-to-Published (P2P) course, where 150 would-be authors meet on zoom calls. Literary agents both instruct and tear apart our query letters, pitches to literary agents, and much more. Friends in this mutual, and often arduous effort, are from all across the U.S., but also Canada, the UK, and several wonderful Aussies, all pitching and supporting each other.

The Signature Whisperer is complete and looking for a literary agent. A Spy in the FBI, in narrative nonfiction, is the story of my undercover role to unmask the mole at FBI Headquarters, who turned out to be Robert Hanssen, arrested in 2001. The FBI Prepublication Review Unit redacted almost the entire manuscript, even though it contains nothing “classified,” with no more about the human condition than you might learn from Dale Carnegie’s 1936 book, How to Make Friends and Influence People. Perhaps I will see them in court…

Important to me, is to remember friends lost during the pandemic:

Joan Mitchell Blumenthal, with husband Allan, was in Ayn Rand’s inner circle of intellectuals. Joan wrote for her about art and was an extraordinary talent as a fine artist and poet. Here is the graphite-on-paper drawing she did for me in 1971, titled Phoebus.

Barbara Rowan, beloved wife of good friend and fellow retired FBI agent Harry Gossett, broke every glass ceiling for young black women and rose as an attorney through the Department of Justice. She had an extraordinary combination of humor, intellect and get-the-job done.

Here is the link to Barbara’s obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/obituaries/barbara-ann-rowan-dead-covid.html

From our very large and growing family, we wish you all a wonderful 2022!

Wayne A. Barnes and Family

www.WayneBarnesWriting.com; www.Barnes-Investigations.com

2021 Barnes Clan’s Year-End Missive

Christmas 2022 – The Growing Barnes Clan

Demarcations

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