An annual report of sightings, glimpses, occasions of joy and pleasure, post cards of the fast-paced and global lives of our family.
The Best of Times
Mary and David and Drew are settled, for now, in San Diego. Mary finished her first year of law school, concentrating intensely on intellectual property law, and is now half way through her second. We visited San Diego after a June trip to Catalina…you know, “26 miles across the sea…” Then in August we all went to cousin Taylor’s wedding in Georgia, and on to the beach at Sea Island. Drew just grew and grew and ran everywhere, chattering about his world of zoo trips and swimming lessons. He turned two at the end of August, just as Dave returned from several weeks working at Kyocera’s facility in China.
Like a Rolling Stone
Last Christmas Jon was in the Czech Republic, and then spent the month of January on the southern coast of Portugal. For much of the spring and summer he lived at home, working long hours for Borders bookstore and for a startup eldercare company. It was a pleasure to catch a glimpse, to occasionally cook a meal for him, to hit the golf ball with him, or to watch his softball team. Currently he is living in San Francisco and working at a Borders bookstore in Union Square, and snowboarding whenever possible.
Retired Again
Virginia worked herself out of a job. She so enjoyed the people at Stanford that she just did more and more…until the parttime job seemed full-time, and even when she was on vacation she thought and worried and fretted about it. So she retired again, and as Joe says, “she’ll keep doing it until she gets it right”. In the meantime, she had been elected to the board of the Rice University Alumni Association (she didn’t know she was running but was pleased to accept), which entails three trips a year to Houston. So far the work has been to give advice, which she loves to do. And with more free time, she spent two weeks helping with Drew while his Dad was in China, went on a Panama Canal cruise with her Mom (the highlight was the Costa Rican rain forest.), enjoyed her nephew’s wedding parties in Dallas and Georgia, and traveled to Baltimore for a girls’ week with old friends. And she made time for volunteer work with the American Cancer Society.
Not Retiring at All
Joe seemed to spend most of his time in Japan and Canada this year, with customers in Tokyo, Montreal, and Calgary. He managed to see Drew almost once a month, and told him bedtime stories over the speakerphone on occasion. Joe and Virginia spent Thanksgiving in Texas for the first time in 31 years, in Dallas and at a ranch very close to the town where his father was born 100 years ago. Brazil is his next destination, probably in January. He still builds telescopes in the garage, and would love to find a very dark sky in a quiet place for retirement. But not yet.
So the family is scattered, but closer this year than last Christmas. We are taking pleasure in the here and now, thankful for health and loved ones, and truthfully pay less attention to the externalities that used to be so frustrating. We will all be in San Diego for Christmas Day, competing to play with Drew and his toys. We wish you a very happy holiday season, peace, and good cheer.
