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River Of Data.com |
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December 10, 2002 Greeting to all our friends and family It is that time of year again. Where did the year go? Every year seems to go by faster than the last. This year I turned sixty, and cannot believe it. I certainly don’t FEEL sixty…well, some mornings I do, but most of the time I don’t. The year started off sadly for me. Mother went into the hospital in mid-February for some undetermined ailment. She just wasn’t doing well. She seemed to respond to what they did at first, but then started becoming confused and delusional. Dan and I went down about a week later and helped Karen locate a nice nursing facility to move mother to. Up until that time, she had lived alone and had still been driving. But she was failing fast and we knew she could not go home. In her lucid moments, she told us she would not live in a nursing home. She was very angry when we did move her. She never got settled in and three days later she passed away, on February 25th. We all knew it was for the best because she would have been miserable there, despite it being such a good facility. It was difficult never the less. We spent nearly two weeks in Fresno to arrange a service and so on. Most of the grandkids and some of the great-grandkids came, as well as many of her long time church friends. Dan and I had to go out and buy whole new outfits, including shoes, since we had certainly not left Boise expecting to be going to a funeral. I made three more trips to Fresno, two of which I had already purchased tickets for. One was at Easter and then again for Memorial Day. Karen and I spent the Easter weekend going through mother’s house and determining the disposition of all her things. Karen and Tom moved into the house around April 1st. Many people have said they are glad we didn’t sell the house and that it will stay in the family. I think it was the right decision and Karen is very happy there. We made a quick trip to Chicagoland over the Fourth of July weekend to visit with Dan’s son, Andy, and his family. We had not seen the new granddaughter, Quinn, who was born in October of last year. She is, of course, adorable and we really enjoyed our all too short visit with them. While there, I came down with a grave case of techno-lust. Andy and Amy have a TiVo digital video recorder system, and I fell in love with it. It can do amazing things. A month after we got home, Dan bought one for us. We have been having all kinds of fun with it, and almost never watch live TV any more, since it is so easy to skip commercials and to watch what you want, when you want to watch it. I made one more trip to Fresno in July. Karen had not been feeling well for a while and we all figured it was the stress of mother’s death, but turned out to be more serious. In early July she went in for double bypass heart surgery, but it ended up being a triple bypass. Julie and Steve came down the morning of the surgery and so we were all there. I stayed four days. She did very well at first and went home right on schedule. She did have some complications with her lungs that were very distressing for her and made her recovery slower than she would have liked, but was able to go back to work in early October and is now feeling much better than she was before the surgery. We are all thankful she is doing so well. These were the only trips I was able to take this year since it used up all my vacation time. Dan, on the other hand, was a real gad-about. Memorial Day weekend when I went to Fresno, he flew down and spent a week with his mother in Prunedale, near Monterey. He had a nice visit with her and with his brother, Irv, who lives with her. In August, Dan was gone for 8 days. First he went to a postmark collectors’ convention in Salt Lake. (He told me not to worry about this group being too extravagant, as their awards banquet was held at Chuck-a-Rama !) Of course he stayed with his sister Sue and her family and was able to have a nice visit with all of them. Then he drove up to Missoula, Montana, for the Pacific Northwest Library Association annual conference where he and a colleague presented a paper on a new electronic journal system they’ve set up in the library. In early November he flew to Palm Springs to Internet Librarian Conference, where they presented another paper on the same system. He was basking by the pool down there while I was putting the finishing touches on a day-long seminar for 120 CPA’s here in Boise. Hmm, what is wrong with this picture? Dan went back to California just two weeks later to spend Thanksgiving week with his mom. His brother Irv went to Chicago for the holiday so it was just Dan and his mom on Thanksgiving Day. They had Marie Callendar cook their dinner. I, on the other hand, was here in Boise alone. I had several invitations, but decided to just spend a quiet day by myself. It was actually kind of nice. I slept late, had turkey TV dinner and pumpkin pie and watched parades and football and the food channel all day. I had to work half day on Friday. We are going to get a chance to get away and have a great vacation in January. We have never been to Maui in the winter, so we decided that this time we would not go in the fall but would wait until January. We carried over our two weeks from this year and are using one of next year’s. We are going to Kauai for a week and then to Maui for two weeks. I can hardly wait! Dan’s sister Sue and her husband Eric are joining us for a few days on Kauai. Eric won a sales contest at work: a free trip to Honolulu for two. They are going there, then flying over to join us, for their first trip to Hawaii. I am excited about seeing them for the first time in a year and a half. I know we will have a great time and they can share our two bedroom condo for no extra cost. We are celebrating both of us turning 60. I got there in September and Dan’s birthday is just 4 days after we get home. I am really looking forward to getting away and lying on the beach and doing some snorkeling and catching up on some reading. This has been a rough year for the stock market and business has been up and down. I love the business and continue to learn, but this has been a year of challenges. I feel more optimistic about ’03. I have over six years until retirement and would like to spend it doing something I enjoy. I would rather not work at all, given the chance. Dan still loves his job, although he too would gladly retire now if money fell from the sky. Since neither of us buys lottery tickets, that isn’t likely to happen, though. We are both happy and reasonably healthy and we are very grateful for all that we have been blessed with. We continue to play bridge a couple times a month. We also went to all the BSU home football games. We had an awesome season! We ended up 11-1, WAC champions and are currently ranked about 16th in the country. We will be playing Iowa State in the Humanitarian Bowl on December 31st. If you happen to see it on ESPN, watch us on the blue turf and wave to Dan. I, unfortunately, will be working. New Year’s Eve Day is a big one for brokerages. Lots of people doing last minute selling for tax purposes. We also have season tickets to the basketball games. We have a new coach this year and are in a rebuilding mode. We are only going to get to about half the games, as we will miss some when we are in Hawaii and any that are on Wednesdays. On Wednesdays we always have dinner at church and then Dan is leading a 32-week Bible study class from 6:30 to 9:00. It is a four-year cycle; we are in the third year and it has been great. We are learning a lot and are making some very good friends. This is the second year that Dan has led it, which is a big commitment. He has given up some other things in order to make time for it, but has found it to be worth it. He always emphasizes to the classmates that he’s not a “teacher” but a “leader”, as he doesn’t have all the answers and follows a very structured curriculum. Speaking of activities and hobbies, Dan took up a new hobby this spring and it has pleased me no end. He decided to start growing roses. Of course he never does anything halfway, so over the spring and summer he bought and planted 25 rosebushes and made two raised beds to put some of them in. He read up on it and he really does seem to enjoy it. I love all the different kinds and colors, as he’s planted almost as many varieties as he has bushes. I had bouquets of roses for the house and office all summer and into October. It was wonderful. He said, ‘I never promised you a rose garden, but I am giving you one anyway’. We continue to try to workout and eat properly as much as we can. Since August I have lost 50 pounds (once again!) and we both have been going to water aerobics three times a week. Dan has been working out with a personal trainer twice a month. It is a constant battle, but we continue to try to eat right and take care of ourselves. Our kids are all doing fine. Andy is now a manager at the company where he works. Cinda passed all her tests this year and is now a fully licensed architect. It has been a long road for her and we are very proud of her and Andy both for their accomplishments. Susanna still lives in Albuquerque. We wish we could see her more often, but talk to her on the phone now and then. Chris and Holli are living a somewhat primitive existence while fixing up a mobile home in the mountains about an hour outside of Boise. It is a beautiful area and they love living there, and are very happy with the new life they’re building. We have not seen Jayla and Tony since July when we took them to Wild Waters (a big water park with giant slides and rides) for the day. That was quite a time for us, especially the old folks. It really was a blast, but we were all totally exhausted by the end of the day. We are looking forward to seeing them on Christmas Day, when they’ll be over for dinner and presents and lots of hugs. Well, I’ve probably rambled on too long, as usual. We wish all of you and your families the most peaceful and joyous New Year. We love you all and think of you often. Love and hugs Gail and Dan |
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