CHRISTMAS 2019

This year, I’m going to try to organize this letter chronologically, so bear with me, O.K.? Old dogs and all that...

Thank goodness January and February were a lazy time, when we could enjoy what there is of a winter here in Southern New Mexico, and before the dreaded spring dust storms strike. In March, my father’s brother had a close call with the various things indigenous in old men, so we drove over to San Antonio to see him and wish him well as he recovered. After a couple days, Cathy drove me back to Las Cruces, and then she headed back to San Antonio (is this the beginning of a trend?) for the “Texas Blue Bonnet Shop Hop” trip she’d set up with her pal Lisa Troxell. In addition to the inside of a lot of stores, Cat was amazed to see the fabled Blue Bonnets & Indian Paintbrushes in every field and lining every!

Speaking of flowers, March is when California Poppies bloom on the Organ Mountains near the house. I don’t know how the poppies managed to migrate here from their home state, but they are beautiful. My Mom was still able then to get in and out of our SUV, and so my sister, Kerry, and I took Mom up to see the flowers. Although Mom’s dementia is getting worse, she still loves the experience of the moment, and we try to get her out and about as much as she (and we) can stand.

Things calmed down again once the dust started to blow, but sure enough things started going downhill with the house - both the water heater and the washing machine crashed about the same time. After spending a few hours watching YouTube to determine what was required to remove and replace a modern appliance, we decided to have a pro do it. I’ve decided that’s my plan from now on, especially since they haul off the old machinery for free! Anyway, professionals all the time, that’s my motto, and it really paid off when I let an oral surgeon pull a cracked molar in May. It was the first tooth I’ve “lost” so it looks like my chompers have done pretty well over the decades. If only I could grow a new batch to replace my current set!

Some old-man medical problems have started to pop up for me too. For a long time now, I’ve had recurring bouts of osteoarthritis in my hips, but in June it settled in to stay. What to do??? Buy Cathy a new car, of course! One I could get in and out of easily. We settled on a Ford Edge. It is a really interesting car in that it has automatic braking, can park itself, and drive itself down the road as well. It is a very odd feeling to have a car on autopilot! All that said, Cathy still won’t let me try to park it automatically...

About that same time we were shoveling money to the Ford dealer, Cathy and I decided we should grow a vegetable garden. This is not as easy as it sounds when you think about the sun, heat and composition of the soil (just sand) here. So we got a bunch of big pots and bagged soil and gave it a try. Unfortunately, the experiment didn’t go as well as we hoped, and we aren’t sure it we will try again. Our last garden - in 1978 in CA - was in 10 feet of top soil and everything grew like weeds, but here, I think it will be a hard row to hoe to bring in a crop that is cheaper than the grocery store anyway.

I am sorry to report that in late July, my uncle passed away. Since I was sick at the time, Cathy drove back over to San Antonio to attend the funeral. Jerry was my only uncle and he was just like my Dad, and I really miss him.

When Cathy got back from SA a couple weeks after that, we set out on the big trip of our year. Fifty years ago, I arrived as a freshman at the University of Montana, and was assigned a room in the basement of the Corbin Hall dormitory at the University of Montana, along with a bunch of really great guys with whom I would spend the year studying and doing stupid things. Somehow, a dozen or so of those guys managed to live this long, even my old roommate Stan Zubrowski from Saskatchewan, and they decided we needed a reunion to celebrate the event. So, Cathy and I jumped in her new car and headed for Montana to join them. We made a 5,600 mile, 3-week loop through parts of NM, UT, ID, MT, WY, SD, MN, NE, IA, KS, OK, and TX, visiting several old friends along the way. We had a great time seeing wildlife like Pronghorn Antelopes, Bighorn Sheep, Buffalo, deer, etc., etc., etc. in beautiful scenery (fortunately, the weather cooperated and we had some sun every day of the trip). Since we also like historical wonders too, we stopped at several of the less-visited parks and monuments, and added Golden Spike National Historical Park, Little Bighorn Battlefield, the National Bison Range, The Badlands National Park, Pipestone National Monument, the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey, the WWII National Womens' Air Service Pilot Museum, as well as some of the spectacular “biggies” like Mt. Rushmore and Devil’s Tower (America’s first National Monument) to our list of obscure destinations! It always make me proud to be an American when I see these well-preserved and important natural and historical sights. We’ve done a pretty good job as a nation protecting our heritage, and I encourage you to get out and see these sites for yourself...

One thing we did toward the end of the trip was pick up Eric, our oldest son, in Oklahoma and bring him on home with us for a visit. It is enjoyable to have him home, and he got to see my Mom as well, which he always enjoys. After having Eric with us for a couple weeks we re-learned the lesson that buying airline tickets within two weeks of departure is an expensive proposition, so Cathy volunteered to drive him over to ... wait for it ... San Antonio, so he could see his youngest brother and his family. After a nice little visit, Cathy ran him back up to Konawa, with a side trip to Dallas to see where Kennedy was shot. Not satisfied with the summer’s traveling calendar coming to an end quite yet, she decided to go see her niece Tina in TN, since she hadn’t seen her for over 30 years! She also visited with her brother Gary and Karen in NC, and had a great time there too.

By the time she got home, it was time for the Aspens to turn golden in the Sacramento Mountains, and we drove up to Cloudcroft to see the colors. Then we had a series of visitors including two of my old pals from high school, Stan Nowak and Jeff Dias. It sure was great to see them again. I played chauffeur to go see various sights, and since everything worth seeing is a hundred miles or so from the next site, I wrecked my hips again, but made up for it since I had a captive audience, and I got to talk myself hoarse!

As for other stuff of note, our youngest son, Greg, has put in his retirement papers from the USAF. Where did that 20 years go??? Our middle son, Chris, has lost 120+ pounds and I’m hoping he’ll teach me the secret! Our first grandson (and now an Eagle Scout), Geoff, has discovered ambition and is now the Student Body President at Stuttgart High School in Germany. He graduates this year and says he wants to be a (shudder!!) lawyer. Kirstin, our granddaughter, just turned 14 and has decided to become a surgeon. In between meets and matches of her favorite sports - long distance Track & Field, Cross Country, and beach volley ball games, of course! #2 grandson, Connor, has his own 3D Printer and is busy writing stories about transitioning to the 22nd century! He’ll probably get to see it too, as I hope and pray we all will!

Uh Duh Bee, Uh Duh Bee, Uh Duh Bee ... That’s All Folks!