|
Merry Christmas Happy New Year After all the excitement of living until the year 2000 and reaching the 50 year mark in our marriage, 2001 was bound to seem a little quiet by comparison. It's been a rather lazy year for us. We did celebrate Bob's 75th birthday, but he didn't want a big party. (Do you remember the movie On Golden Pond?) So we did some things he wanted to do, ate at a restaurant he chose, and played the games he selected. Nan made him a "watercolor" quilted wallhanging, which hangs near him at the computer. She is now facing a birthday that begins with a 7 in less than two months, so she's somewhat sympathetic about his eagerness to see her retire (and take over part of the housework), but she's not ready yet to trade her exciting international work for cleaning the bathroom. We've been accumulating pre-retirement information, and the knowledge gained form our financial advisors has us scurrying to find ways to shore up our investments. So far we aren't ready to give lessons, but we do know a lot more than we did about what we should be doing, and we're taking tiny baby steps toward our goals. It's like a whole new world. Nancy is starting to consider her fabric collection a smart investment instead of a shining example of conspicuous consumption. After all, she can look forward to making many more quilts before it gets depleted. Of course, they have to be small quilts, because she has a high percentage of quarter-yards - with pieces cut out of them. But that's okay, because Bob has asked her not to make any more large quilts. He doesn't really enjoy helping her manipulate them so she can machine quilt after the piecing is done, and they seem to loom larger and heavier than formerly. Our biggest triumph for 2001 was getting the MURDOCK MUSE on the Web! Our son Darrel in Minnesota was very patient as he assisted us in completing this minor miracle, and granddaughter Khendra got us feeling we could do it by showing that she had recently set up a site in two hours. (We figured if we just multiplied that by some unknown large number, we would be in good shape.) So we enter 2002 with the feeling that we are catching up with the 21st century, or at least the late 20th. Who cares if the hair is getting a little thin on top; we have our own Web site - with no commercials! We finally got a cordless phone, too. Both our phone and answerphone were becoming unreliable, so we looked for a combination appliance that had all the features we wanted, including call screening. After reading and re-reading the instructions, Nancy got it more or less fully operational over a period of three evenings. However, it has a display that requires a lot of squinting and guessing to read, and we are still figuring out how to avoid cutting off our callers in mid-stride. We've done less traveling than usual this year. We didn't see any of our children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren. We need to remedy this in 2002. Without September 11 we might have done a little more traveling, but we haven't taken any plane trips for so long that we were able to get two tickets from frequent flyer accumulations. (This is mainly from buying, not flying.) So we are planning a flight to California, probably in February. For 2001, however, we did get up to New England twice: for the Howlett Family Reunion around July 4th, and niece Sarah's wedding in October. The trade-off for the latter was that Bob suggested we stay home for Thanksgiving. We did a traditional meal, with bean loaf substituting for turkey, and Bob's mashed potatoes were such a hit that our guest chose a baggie of mashed potatoes when we offered her whatever she wanted to take home after dinner. Strange she didn't choose the bean loaf, wasn't it? We ate leftovers for days, and were very glad for the excessive amount of mushroom and onion gravy Nancy had made. A week later, the rolls and apple pie (both from scratch) were gone, but we still had two servings of the cherry pie made with fruit from a quilt guild friend's tree that fell down in late summer. We make about one pie per year, so this was a banner year. Polly and Carl Soberg were wonderful about hosting us for both New England trips this year, even though they were the hosts for the Howlett Reunion. We had a great time at both events. The most unusual happening at the reunion was a drenching thunderstorm that took place as 50 of us gathered under the party tent, which of course had no sides. As loud thunderbolts crashed, and the wind blew the rain so that it went through the clothing of even those in the center, we all just kept visiting and eating while pretending we were calm and serene. After the storm passed, we found that the children, who were holed up in a screen tent, were standing in water up to their ankles from being on the downside of a slope, down which coursed enough water to keep a small town from dehydrating. It was a great event to remember! Barb and Pete DiStefano hosted us for their New York State Fair in late August. We thoroughly enjoyed the excellent layout of this fair, which is much more open than Maryland's. All went well until we discovered that Bob had gotten separated from both Pete, who went out one door, and Barb and Nancy, who exited through another. After several forays by B. and P. while Nancy watched the parking lot entrance, Nancy reported a lost person to the state trooper, who looked a little taken aback when he asked how old this person was and was told "75." Then he thoughtfully inquired as to the health of said individual, obviously meaning the mental health. Bob was doing fine, of course, and he was finally found doing his Cross Sums puzzles in the area we'd been told was the place to wait if we got parted. We saw most of our siblings during 2001, and we also had a nice visit with Orrel and Charlie Frost. The Frosts celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in the "other" millennium change year, but we weren't able to make that trip. We enjoyed their booklet with a timeline from their early dates and courtship to the present. Our final month of 2001 will include a one-week vacation in Williamsburg, VA. This is the treat we offer ourselves to spur us on to get the presents on their way early in the month. As usual, we will pack equipment for fabric dyeing, the sewing machine, our Scrabble game, and lots of maps and booklets about featured tourist sites and quilt shops. We can hardly wait! We wish you the best of years in 2002. May you find yourselves, like us, blessed with the love of family and friends. Murmuse@erols.com 4-D Fallridge Ct. Baltimore, MD 21244 http://d21c.com/murmuse/ |
