Christmas Letter 2002

Over the last year our car, aged 14 years, developed a habit of not starting on request. The annoyance was resolved in relatively quick fashion depending on your point of view during a 6 month period that included 3 visits to garage, $1000 spent not including rental car fees and several episodes that left Donna stranded. My frugal efforts to keep our Mazda MX6 GT with only 211,000 miles, 3 cross-country trips and a connection to our youthful days, including several mountain stream crossings and the original turbocharger running, were beginning to fail. It remained, however, the envy of kids working at the local muffler shop, where they asked “Is that the original equipment?”

Alas, it pains me to report, yes, that was the original equipment - tears streaming down my face now. What was to become my car, when we bought the Ford Escape hybrid in 2003 that gets 40 mpg in the city making a statement about the oil economy and wars in the Middle East, and then Mint’s first car when he turned 16 in only ten more years, will now be someone’s parts car!!! She was totaled in one of the many unsigned intersections in Seattle; i.e. a 4-way stop with no signs at which the approaching drivers yield (or not in this case) to the driver on the right. A confusing and dangerous heritage left over from our more trusting and cautious Nordic city founders. Fortunately, the van plowed into the left rear wheel well and not the driver’s side door. The kids and I weren’t in the car which was spun around causing a whiplash effect that strained Donna’s back and neck. She was at first prescribed massage therapy, but lingering problems with picking things up has lead to more involved physical therapy. This was not the way she wanted to end a year that was busy with real estate sales, Motherhood and me traveling a lot. She is proud of the fact that while I was gallivanting in England, France, Finland, Switzerland and Japan, she added service on a non-profit board overseeing groups like “Tent city” (a transient encampment of homeless families) to her duties.

Dang it, if the dog didn’t die too this year. At 15 years of age Dapper was as old as our marriage. We had her put to sleep after she refused for over a week to get up from what a post-mortem revealed to be a large abdominal tumor. The MX6 still bore the gouges in the passenger side window glass where she tried to get at our good friend Jeff Rohrer. He had just finished saying something like “nice to see you again Dapper” when she had at him. Apparently, he thought her memories of him fonder than she could recall. She could be a handful.

Mint, also quite a handful at times, had a good experience with T-ball. As the son of a former varsity-team water-boy for the high school football team, sports come natural to him. Anyway, he is enjoying first grade, learning to spell, read and socialize. Graham is quite a lad in his own right. He is the dirt eater, bathtub water drinker, chatterbox of the two. Turning 5 at October’s end meant he could not start kindergarten this year - a real disappointment to he and to Mint who are buddies first and brothers second. Together they spent three blissful weeks on my parent’s farm in Moulton, Alabama this past summer. Piles of cow’s poop, sweltering heat, catfish, fried okra, potatoes straight from the earth, swimming, lightning bugs, giant garden spiders, bees that sting, cousins and Grandma & Pa were good for them.

In celebration of 15 years of marriage Donna went along on one of my “business” trips to Europe. My Dad and Mom, who came out to stay with the boys during this time, found it odd that two lectures in two weeks in Prague and Siena qualified as business. Donna did too, but she caught on right away to this Euro-style business I was conducting. Each day saw her up by 9AM, breakfast, shopping, lunch, shopping, meeting Dave for drinks, a walk, dinner and bed.

In closing please say a prayer for the feuding children of Abraham. For those of you who don’t pray, please have a drink and discussion about why Jews, Christians and Muslims find it necessary to continue to blow each other up.

With hope for a peaceful future, we wish you all a prosperous new year!