Christmas Greetings!!
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Jan tells me her handwriting prevents her from writing messages on our Christmas cards this year, so here’s a quick summary of our year.
January was a busy month with celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary, having a sleepover for special attendees of the Atlanta International Motorcycle Show (Pete Tamblyn, Donnie Brous, Russ & Cindy Baldwin, and Ross Akin), and breaking bread with a bunch of old friends at the annual KSA Old Timers Party.
February slowed up a bit. Mid-month, Jan & Bill spent an extended weekend in Hilton Head with the KSA bridge group, and toward the end of the month, Bill wandered off to Daytona Beach to start his racing season and see if he could help maintain order on Main Street (former successful; latter not successful). After their AHRMA racing was finished, Bill and race buddy Bob Adams camped for a week in the Speedway infield and filled themselves with enough AMA racing & wine to last till their race season started in earnest later in the spring.
Early in the year, John decided that life in the big-corporation world had ceased to be fun & jumped from the BellSouth ship onto a fast moving runabout, sole proprietorship Busker Communications. Responsible for sales & marketing, he is enjoying his new role and visibility and has had a major impact on company growth. Sharon has earned her real estate license and is actively selling properties in Gwinnett County. Chase (8) and Abby (5) are enjoying school at a local academy, and working on training new dog Clyde. When they’re not otherwise occupied, weekends usually find them enjoying their new pop-up camper at southeast campgrounds.
In March, Jan & Bill headed to Italy with good friends Tony & Diane DeMaria. It was a never to be forgotten trip for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was the Pope expiring while we were there, and standing in line for a lot of (would you believe 18?) hours to view his remains. In reality the best part was the opportunity to share two glorious weeks in Liguria, Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio with a couple whose friendship we value and whose company we enjoy.
Bill did a small consulting gig for KSA in March through early May, helping sort out internal software development and marketing issues. And since we’d seen lots of grape vines in Italy, Tony assumed we were now seasoned wine growers and enlisted us to help trim his grape vines prior to the heavy growing season.
Late in May, Jan & I headed to Washington DC to make sure James didn’t skip his GW law school graduation ceremony (no issues there). They (James & Gretchen) rewarded their success with a two-week trip to South Africa late in the summer, thereby delaying the start of James’ clerkship in … New Orleans. The delay was a fortunate decision. Katrina hit a few days before they were scheduled to arrive with belongings. So Atlanta had a few more refugees for a few days. James & Gretchen are currently camped in Shreveport LA, and anticipate moving to New Orleans on January 4. Thankfully, James’ Judge, Jacques Wiener, has been a firm foundation throughout the unsettled period, and has done everything in his power to make sure all three of his clerks have the resources to make life as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.