Christmas 2014
Happy holidays to all of you!
It’s been a year full of adventures, some good and some not, but we’re still putting one foot in front of the other, doing some traveling, and enjoying life.
Hot Showers? Totally Underrated!
Last Christmas we discovered a hot-water line break under the house’s slab,
and had an interesting challenge for a few weeks living without hot water.
The gym, Cathy’s station, and neighbors’ bathrooms became our go-to places
for such amenities as showers. We repiped the house in mid-January,
replacing the under-slab pipes with new ones in the walls. After patching
and painting 72 holes in ceilings, walls, and stucco, we were as good as
new.
Winter in New Orleans and Florida
Larry and I left Cathy and Tori to fend for themselves while we took a break
into the new year to Louisiana and Florida, experiencing unusually cold
weather. Inside attractions like
museums were the order of the day, and we
got in a good visit with Uncle Charlie in
Boynton Beach. You might not
believe that a Shell Museum could be remarkable, but it was just one of the
many attractions on Florida’s charming
Sanibel Island.
Starting Our Summer in London Town
We began our summer vacation by accompanying Cathy and Tori to London for a
few days. There we focused on children’s activities—riding the
London Eye
and double-deckers, cruising the Thames, traveling on the Underground and
Overground trains, seeing
Hampton Court and
Buckingham Palace, and exploring
Princess Diana’s Playground at
Kensington Gardens.
Tori was a great traveler and loved it all. She and Cathy then joined Brian
and Marion’s family in
Pullach, Germany, where
Omi and Opi somehow survived
the chaos of four little kids—and sometimes more—for several weeks.
Larry Breaks Wrist—Transylvanian Curse?
Larry and I flew to
Bucharest to begin an
EXPLORE! tour through
Romania, an
experience which proved more adventurous than we had bargained for. Larry’s
sister Sue joined us from Chicago, and we had a couple of weeks to catch up
while seeing churches, monasteries, and
Vlad’s Castle.
Larry’s face-plant fall on a hiking trail in the mountains near
Borșa in the
middle of our holiday put a damper on things, and though his split lip was
stitched up nicely at a local hospital, the left radial distal fracture has
turned out to present a longer term problem.
We opted to leave the arm splinted until we returned to California, where
the follow-up care is still going on, with hand exercises and physical
therapy, but the prognosis is not entirely optimistic. Our experience with
Romanian medical care revealed Soviet-era infrastructure, but competent
medical providers, though the language barrier provided some interesting
moments.
The final leg of the trip took us to Wiesbaden, outside Frankfurt, to see
Larry’s 3-year old grandson Alexander, and, of course, his adoring parents,
Marion and Volker. We visited, did some walking, and saw a
castle with
lovely grounds—essential activities to keep a restless little guy busy.
No More Pencils, No More Books…
My own adventure has been interesting and challenging:
I retired completely
during the summer. Did I have withdrawal symptoms? You bet! But I do not
miss grading papers at all, and love being able to get up early to go out
walking instead of commuting to class.
I was told that the paperwork to prepare to retire was overwhelming, and that’s it’s easier to get the job than to leave it, and it was certainly true. However, everything has been filed and signed, sealed, and delivered and now they pay me not to work! Strange, but true.
Our Garden—Growing and Giving
The gardening has expanded to fill the time available, and summer produced a
bounty of beans, cartons of cucumbers, a ton of tomatoes, and a surfeit of
squash. This winter we’re preparing to harvest an avalanche of avocadoes,
gallons of guavas, and, most prized, a peck of peas. The big disappointment:
we did not have an abundance of apricots. Oh, well.
Cathy, Jenny, David Keep Busy
Cathy continues working on various training projects for the LAPD, and has
created a video on Ability Awareness, an educational program used at Tori’s
school. Tori enjoys the second grade, reads chapter books now, and has an
unparalleled enthusiasm for life and all things “Frozen,” especially Olaf.
Jenny continues her work for Meyers Nave in L.A. and has little opportunity
to get out here for recreation, though she did squeeze in a couple visits
this summer, sometimes following a deposition north of here.
David continues to impress his bosses at Experian, enabling him to upgrade to a BMW M4, a car that the valet at Gladstone’s in Malibu parked prominently when David treated us to lunch there in September. He and girlfriend Jen Bailey have spent some time and effort in remodeling the inside of his Santa Monica pad.
Car Totaled but No Injuries
In late August our trip to Berkeley was interrupted when we were rear-ended
on the freeway near Livermore, resulting in the total loss of the beloved
old Lexus. Brian responded to our call for help, piled us and our luggage
into his car, and took us to the hospital for x-rays and meds. We managed to
stay in Berkeley for a few days to help out after all. A rental car got us
home, and to avoid research, Larry replaced the car with a
new Lexus with
more technology than an Apollo capsule. It’s a nice car, but more difficult
to love than the old car.
A Family Thanksgiving
Brian, Marion, Lucie (8 on Jan 1), and twins Nicky and Jamie (5)—aka The
Berkeley Brood—came for Thanksgiving, along with Dave and girlfriend Jen,
Sue, my sister Teresa, John and my dad, great-grandpa Jerry, now 93. On our
best night, we slept 12 here at the house, close to a record. It was great
fun, good company, busy little kids, and lots of cooks. Oh, and two
wishbones to pull, of course!
The New Year Beckons
As the year winds down, we’re doing hand therapy (Larry), keeping the streets safe (Cathy), enlivening our days (Tori), painting landscapes and portraits (me), and thinking about projects other than replacing cabinets, installing solar, and doing termite repairs, which we checked off our list this year. We hope that only fun, excitement, and pleasant surprises await us in 2015.
Have a wonderful holiday!