From our Family to
you . . .
At
night, high in my frosty tower, I sometimes read my Herodotus: .
. . and Solon, the Greek sage came to Croesus, king of the
Lydians at Sardis, and Croesus teased and baited him saying
"whom, of all men that thou has seen, (doth) thou deemest
the most happy?" And Solon answered and gave him the name of
Tellus of Athens. Surprised, Croesus asked the reasons. And Solon
named among them that "he had children both beautiful and
good, and he lived to see children born to each of them . .
." :-) Haylie Kay was born December 20th to Jon and
Misty. It was touch-and-go there for a while . . . just like
life: One moment you are on the way to the hospital thinking that
in a couple of hours you’ll be home and eating lunch and,
instead, a couple of hours later you’re pacing the floor in
some waiting room at Primary Children’s Hospital and eating
out of a vending machine for two days . . . ;-) But everything
turned out just fine.
We had two weddings this year . . . Whew! .
. . First Jon & Misty, and then Melissa & Brodie. We are
very proud of our two new couples.
Melissa and Brodie bought a neat little
condo not too far from us and Jon and Misty bought a cute new
house just a little further still. Jon still travels the valley
in his Ben Lomond Heating and Air Conditioning truck, helping
keep families cool in the summer and warm in the winter; Misty
works at Pizzeria, feeding those pizza-crazed masses, but now the
baby is here that may be part-time. Brodie is a Graphics
Designer, Web Master, Creative V.P., and a bunch of other things
. . . deep in the night, Melissa says, he sometimes sneaks
downstairs to play ‘Zelda’ on the Nintendo 64 ;-)
Melissa is employed as my favorite Section Manager at Gart Sports
and works hard at her college studies. They have a new little
Bagel . . . err I mean Beagle . . . Mika (which means
‘mischievous spirit’ in some tribal tongue). Jon, Pat,
Nick, James, and I toiled together on Jon’s new fence . . .
lots of concrete and wood (and "No!" it hasn’t
fallen down . . . Yet! ;-)
Christie? She looks forward to the end of
her last year of High School, works part-time at Lil’
Audrey’s Health Spa, and she’s hardly ever without a
certain young gentlemen at her side ;-) She has a sporty, red
Celica . . . What’s the Beach Boy’s song . . . Oh yeah!
. . . "Well she got her daddy’s car and she cruised to
the hamburger stand now . . . seems she forgot all about the
library like she told her old-man now . . . and she’ll have
fun, fun, fun ‘till her daddy takes the T-bird a w a y . . .
" ;-)
Patrick is deep into Junior High School. He
spends a lot of time ‘surfing the net’, playing
Nintendo games, and playing Quake -II, Command and Conquer, and
anything else complicated and flashy on the P.C. He also gets a
lot of phone calls from Girls . . . ;-)
He’s into hunting, though, too. His
Christmas and birthday were pretty much filled up with his very
own hunting rifle and all the accessories . . . well, there are
still a few he has to save up for (now there’s real life for
yah ;-)
Nick is really our ‘mischievous
spirit’ . . . I think he must have my sense of humor.
He’s sharp as a tack and soaks up Third-Grade knowledge like
a sponge. He looks forward to Soccer he says. He and I got a
robot kit for Christmas to put together . . . after soldering
tens of resisters, condensers, transistors, two Micro-chips,
etc., I thought we had it -- the bench-test was successful -- but
after putting it all together ‘that robot just won’t
robo’. I fear I’ve killed it --- I’m not Dr.
Frankenstein after all, I must be the assistant, Igor ;-) --- and
I don’t think Nick is too impressed with me. Oh well, we
learned a lot, and we’ll try again . . .
James is still my little helper and the
only one who still sneaks me a hug and a kiss once in a while . .
. he’s not ‘too old’ yet. He’s a pretty good
little reader . . . soon to be an excellent one, and he loves his
school and the First Grade. He’s an excellent artist, as is
Nick, and come to think of it Pat, and then there’s the
professional Brodie . . . I seem to be in a family of artists. He
got an ant farm for Christmas and we sent off for the ants a
couple of days ago. He doesn’t believe in Santa anymore ;-(
When I questioned him he said that he thinks it’s just the
Mom and Dad who go out at midnight on Christmas Eve, buy the
presents, and hurry home before sunrise . . . Hmm . . . O K A Y .
. . might work ;-)
The beloved Bunny Battenburg (Barbara for
you that are not in on the inside joke ;-) still leads a cub den,
teaches tole painting, and seem to be doing a lot of quilting
lately ;-) She just got back from visiting Haylie . . . "I
miss her" she said to me" . . . I think she’s
going to make a great Grandmother . . . and she’ll probably
be one of those (i.e. a Great Grandmother) some day too. She
walks/runs/jogs about 5 miles everyday now . . . and, if
I do say so myself, she cuts a flashy figure doing it too ;-)
(this struck-out by order of Barb ;-)
Me? Well I got a new telescope eyepiece for
Christmas (this marks me as a true amateur astronomer, by the way
;-) I still defend the country by working at Thiokol ;-) and I am
joined in the great Y2k battle also. What a guy, what a guy . . .
"a legend in his own mind" ;-) as Dirty Harry would
say. Actually, it’s all I can do just to hang-on most days.
I sometimes find solace in the words of wise men of ancient
years. I’m reading now of Moorish Spain, the Berbers, the
Visigoths, etc. . . . yes I -am- crazy . . . but here’s a
quote for you:
"At times of
distress, strengthen your heart,
Even if you stand at
death’s door.
The lamp has light before
it is extinquished.
Wounded lions still know
how to roar."
(Samuel ibn Naghrila, ca
1013 AD.)
All in all, as I look back at the year,
I’m reminded of Mark Twain, who said: "you
can’t travel to old age by another man’s road. My
vices, which work to preserve my life, would surely assassinate
you" ;-) I wonder about the busy past year and marvel
how we ever survived. Warning! Don’t try this at home
without adequate adult supervision! ;-)
I just went down to check on Nick’s
new hamster. Hamster! you say? Not after last year’s
debacle!? "Yes," I reply, the other ‘Hammy’,
long gone, has been replaced. It looks at me with its beady
little eyes . . . it's plotting, scheming . . . I just know . . .
It knows it can escape . . . It knows it can defeat me ;-)
You like good writing? You like good humor?
Then don’t visit http://home1.gte.net/psneeley
;-)
Merry Christmas!!
and have a Happy New Year!
The images, articles, and concepts of this page are
copyrighted by P.S. Neeley -- copyright 1998