and the letter . . .
A Capsule of Our Lives 2007 and 2008
Hello to everyone. Just as we finished writing our 2007 letter our computer died on us so it never did get sent out. So this will be a two year flight through our lives. Put on your reading glasses, we have a lot to cover.
The last two years have seen many significant developments in our household. Sally started a new job, and Bethany is now in her second year at Hampshire College. Rodney and Sally have bought a holiday/ weekend/ retirement home in Vermont, Chris got engaged to his girlfriend Meg, and Rodney has sent off his papers applying for American Citizenship.
2007 started off with Sally ending her consulting career as she started working for Intuit, a software firm with its HQ in California. She loves working for this company that is recognized as one of the great places to work. It is amazing to see her morale stay high, when the work environment is a great one. She has made ½ a dozen trips to the West Coast in 2 years, including combining a long weekend to rendezvous in San Diego with Kathy, a friend who moved to Hawaii a few years ago.
Bethany ended her high school years on a high note as our house seemed to be filled more and more often with more and more young men and women simply enjoying one another’s company. They arrive back within minutes of her arrival home from college.
Rodney still works at Fidelity and in 2007 was embarking on an exciting project to replace the database he has spent most of his working career supporting in some fashion. At the end of 2008 the project is still keeping him employed but as we end the year with financial markets melting down into a monetary roué every week things do not anything close to certain he’ll be employed at Fidelity next year.
We bought the Mini Cooper for his commute to Merrimack NH.
On the health front, Sally had arthroscopic surgery to trim a meniscus in her left knee. Rodney had a trip to the doctors office as one of his two kidney stones decided to make its way out, the other is still in there and he awaits its appearance with trepidation and a supply of Vicodin close at had.
Riding remained a focus through the last two years. Bethany competed on Autumn while still in Eastern Massachusetts and took him with her to Hampshire last year. She joined the pretty new Hampshire equestrian team and the team surprised lots of competing better financed college teams by doing pretty well. Rodney started riding again last year before Autumn went off to college last year and when her returned this summer. He stayed here this fall, not the least, because he had damaged his eye. But now he has recovered and Rodney is looking forward to riding him again.
This year Sally and Rodney independently stumbled upon a house online that they ended up buying in March this year. They named it CONISTON after the street Rodney grew up on and after one of his favorite places in the English Lake District. It in South Hero on the southern most tip of the Lake Champlain islands in Vermont. As we write this it marks the first time that Rodney has been away from the place for more than two weeks. Our first summer/fall we have had a flurry of visitors up there. We want people to know where to find us once we move. The Sisters came for 2 weeks in September, and we drove them straight to Coniston for 5 days. One friend named our front floor to ceiling windows that look out on Mt. Mansfield, Camel’s Hump and Lake Champlain, “Channel 1”. So far, we have resisted having a TV in Vermont.
Rodney and Bethany went down to work in New Orleans with the church youth group last year, and Rodney and Sally went down with the youth group this year. The appalling state of the city has to be seen to be believed, or not believed. Bethany also went down this year with a fellow youth group friend to work in Plaquemines Parish in an area that was almost obliterated from the earth by Katrina in 2005.
Things that continue to sustain us are our UU churches, VT and MA, Star Island (the family has a new ballerina), family, friends, General Assembly in Portland and Ft. Lauderdale.
Our travel and vacations in the last 6 months have been to Coniston. We travel there every other week and sometimes drive back early on a Monday morning to be able to spend one more night there. While up there this last weekend, the wind from the South was absolutely wonderful. The snow drifts in the driveway accumulated pretty quickly. Fortunately we have someone who plows when there is 4 inches.
To quote Bethany “our faith in humanity was renewed” at 11pm on November 4th this year, or 10: 57 if you were watching Jon Stewart. We have never watched an election with so much passion and excitement.
Last year marked the end of our annual First Foot celebration. It did throw a few people off, but we intend to replace it with something, sometime, somehow.
If you feel inclined to contact us more personally our email and cell #s are: (removed since this is open to the WWW . . .
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