Dear Friends
& Relatives,
Christmas is such a joyous time of the
year. I look forward every year to receiving letters from all my friends and
hearing about their families and their lives. But writing this letter is always
hard for me. Theresa used to do it and I'd help her.
But this year
I'm going to do something different. I'm writing the letter as an e-mail
message. In future years, I'd like to send it to you as an e-mail. But I need
your e-mail address to do that. So, would each of you send me an e-mail from
which I can save your e-mail address? This process will
save trees and stamps. Now on with my annual news report.
Mid-January, I
went to South Texas where I stayed with Jim (brother) and Diane for a month.
But it wasn't long enough - we still had lots of snow and cold after I got home
in mid-February. We did have a good time - pictures and journal are available
at http://tx2013.wordpress.com/.
Late summer,
Mike (brother) and Mary invited me out to the San Francisco Bay Area to stay
with them for couple weeks in their new (retirement) home in Pleasanton. We had
a great time in Lake Tahoe at their second home and at their new Bay Area home.
The highlight was their daily 10 mile bike ride - long for me as I usually go
no farther than about 5 miles in Minnesota. But, anyway, it was fun catching up
on news and seeing their kids and grandkids.
No sooner was I
home, then Jim called asking me to come help him with his fall harvest. I spent
about 3 weeks in Blue
You'll recall
that a couple of years ago, I gave up chorus singing and contest judging. It
was necessitated by not being able to make the commitment either organization
expected of its participants. This past fall (giving me a day off from fall
harvest), I was invited to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, to receive their Judge Emeritus
award at the annual district convention. Many very nice words were said about
me in front of an audience of several hundred. I received a very nice plaque
for the honor (Theresa would have been proud).
The kids are
all doing fine. And it's so much fun to stand by and watch the grandkids
interacting with their parents in much the same way they did with Theresa and
me when they were young. It must be true that history does repeat itself. And
this year all the grandkids have driver's licenses which adds a new set of
challenges for their parents.
I continue to
live at RidgePointe doing volunteer work in the community providing answers and
help with senior citizens electronic gadgetry. Slowly, more and more seniors
are adopting the technology and they have fewer and fewer questions. So they
are making progress. At this link, you may see pictures of me at our weekly
excursions to sites around the Twin Cities -
http://www.ridgepointeseniorliving.com. More pictures are available on
Facebook at "RidgePointe of Minnetonka" - https://www.facebook.com/pages/RidgePointe-ofMinnetonka/143659305706938.
Last year I completed my duties as the
chairman of the Minnetonka Seniors Computer Interest Group. They meet weekly
for coffee and snacks and answers to their questions or to hear a presentation.
It was a good year and I enjoyed working with lots of interesting seniors.
Finally, Merry
Christmas & Happy New Year to each and every one of you.
Love, Roger