 he
year blazes past us at warpspeed, and here it is, December already!
We are warm and safe, and in this day and age, we are grateful for both.
Dear Karen’s white Dodge Caravan was
hit from behind AGAIN this year.
She’s fine, sheltered by angels AGAIN.
After sweating to salvage and repaired our first white Dodge two years
ago, and then replacing it after our accident a year ago, Kay’s latest
white van was totaled a couple of months back by someone who stupidly
accelerated into her moving car on Beechmont. We are now the proud
owners of a hunter green Plymouth Grand Voyager
(sister car to the Dodge Caravan.) Of course, since the insurance
people don’t give a dang about what
a wonderful car the last one was, how you JUST
put in a new serpentine belt and fresh brakes all around, how…don’t get
me started. Long story short, we got an older car with more mileage
to replace one that worked wonderfully. Upside, it has a lot more
electric doohickeys to wear out, but as Karen points out, “at least it’s
not 'Target White'!”
Karen’s “temp” stint at GE finally wound down
after several years, but she’s back in other capacities, and doing good
tech temping after that. Andy is still at L3/KDI in the defense sector,
and grateful to be there. Good to be working anywhere during these
days of “prosperity”. Much Hope, Small Change.
Darling Bethany has had an eventful year.
She enjoys Dr. Horrible, Big Bang Theory, Conan O’Brian, country music,
and has been listening to Christmas music since the start of November.
She is fully a teenager; Cell phone, Ipod and digital camera at the ready,
hooked to Youtube and Facebook. (As are we all, these days.)
She got her drivers license this year in a car loaned by a friend, during
the nightmare weeks of our car shopping. She’s working hard in school
at Walnut Hills, and spent the summer working hard at Camp Kirkwood, saving
up pocket cash. Regrettably, her knees are still giving her some
trouble, so we are pursuing that. (And we are grateful that for
now, we still have access to the best healthcare in the world.)
Sweet Katie is living life large and at full
tilt. She’s doing jazz dance when we can, and has taken up tumbling
at the rec center after school. Her grades are really good, and she
plays soccer during part of the year. She’s also in National Honor
Society.
You should surf into to Andy’s new hobby site,
www.yestercade.net to see his latest passion.
Right now, he’s working on an arcade machine for the family down the street,
and scored two lovely empty shells at a local auction: an old “Bump N’
Jump” and a vintage “GORF”! He’s pleased to note that this
year has seen remakes of “Star Trek”, “V”, and “The Prisoner” and the PC
crowd hasn’t messed them up too much. (And the computer game
“Tomb Raider” is back, with better graphics!)
We’ve gotten involved with Facebook this year,
and run into many, many old friends from college and elsewhere. We
have now found the three boys we played Dungeons & Dragons with after
college, and have snickered quietly at their postings of how hard
it is to be forty. (Hold on tight guys!) Speaking
of that, Andy has finally been worn
down by |
 
pleadings from his two girls, and
is finally teaching them to play D&D. (“And
we’ll be using the original 1st Edition rules, thank you very much!”
says he.)
We were able to get away for a week this summer,
visiting the Toledo family and stopping in Grand Rapids to see some good
friends from college we haven’t seen in a decade. God’s grace is good,
and our friends are a blessing. Andy painted half of the house
outside before cold weather prompted us to leave the rest until next year.
(It was the back half!) We are also overjoyed that our church is
soon to be blessed with a new pastor!
Andy’s dear dad continues on, buoyed up by
the family, after Wilma’s passing in February, 2008. He continues with
treadmill, solitaire and email as his constant companions. He greets
each day with coffee in hand and deer outside on the front lawn.
We trundle ahead towards 2010, although Andy
is still upset that here it is, the future, and we still
don’t have hovercars or cheap fusion power. (And while
the government can completely take over the banking and car industries,
they still won’t let us drill for our own oil off our own coasts for energy
independence, but don’t get him started.) We are snug in our home,
surrounded by friends, and waiting to see what the New Year has in store.
Here come the Forbidden Words…
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COMEDY CORNER:
Just for fun, go into your local Lowe’s or Home
Depot, and walk into the giant, candyland, Santa- piloting-airplanes, reindeer-in-hot-air-balloons
section. (Sadly, this may be over by the “Holiday
Trees”. You know, those trees that we put the Holiday
ornaments on, while we eat our Holiday
cookies and address our Holiday cards?)
When the attendant stops in, ask where you can buy a Nativity for your
lawn. (You may need to describe it as “a manger”, or “that tiny barn
thing Jesus was born in.” Depending upon who waits on you, you may
need to define “Jesus.”) I followed one fellow around the department
for ten minutes before he told me that um, well, I “should try the Milford
store, because they’re a lot bigger.” You may be the only one who
gets to laugh at this, because most people today are Irony Challenged. |
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