A new friend wanted to see our website, and I looked it over before I sent him the address. Once again, I was shocked by how much time had passed and how out-of-date our website had become. It seems like only yesterday I was writing about our adventures aboard the Sea Cloud II, but that's old hat now.
Andrea is embarked upon a great career in nursing. Upon her graduation and RN certification,
she joined the Step-Down Staffing Pool at Mission Hospitals. Working in a staffing
pool means that you are sent wherever you are needed. Working in step-downs at
Mission means that you may be working in any one of 5 areas that employ telemetry,
which are one "step down" from Intensive Care. During the past couple of years, Andrea
also attended school for her BSN (graduated 4.0 again, resulting in her induction into Sigma
Theta Tau, the Honors Society of Nursing) and she also qualified as
an ICU staffing pool nurse. This was a difficult qualification, but one she
needed to reach her goal of becoming a CRNA (Nurse Anesthestist).
I am going back to school again, too. I enrolled in the MLA
program at UNCA. This will allow me to eventually teach as an adjunct, and my friend Mike
Ruiz has indicated that they would have a place for me teaching in the Physics
Department. That'll make six degrees for me: Marketing, Management, Finance,
Biology, Physics, and a Master of Liberal Arts. Put 'em all
together, though, and you still wind up with a bum.
I work out a few days a week with my friend Pete Nielsen. Pete is a North Carolina State Trooper who got to know a number of landscapers while zooming around the back roads. He took me out to meet one last spring, which led to a huge landscaping project at our house. We've got a few acres here on the mountain, and about two acres were singled out for the job. The garden starts well out of sight of the house about 100 yards down the mountain. From there it winds its way along a private road up to and beyond the actual site of the house. It concludes maybe fifty yards beyond and behind us, again out of sight of the house. Getting the gardens established and generally weed-free has proven to be a monumental task, but one that we both enjoy. (Truth be known, we enjoy it even more now that we have hired a gardner. He has the world's best name: Gardner. I'm not making this up.)
We lost Mom a couple of years ago last March. Dad used to call her "Barney Good-Dog" from time-to-time
for some inexplicable reason. But, it gave us the inspiration to name our garden. See,
Mom loved flowers and gardening. She would have loved to have puttered around
in our new "digs". So when you come to see us, you'll be seeing "Barney's Bloomers."
Andrea's Mom and Dad visited this October from Austria. They hadn't
been here for a few years, so we were really looking forward to it. Just in time,
too, as our supply of Schnaps was running dangerously low. We had also squeezed out
our last tube of Lunstenaur Senf. Dad drove up here at that time as well,
which made for a nice mini-reunion and happy times.
We've had the usual assortment of wildlife in the garden: five bears (one huge
male, one female, two cubs and a teenager), turkeys, red-tail hawks, and more.
But this year, we had a bat problem, too. The bats--known as "big brown bats"--
took up residence in the attic over one of our patios. We wouldn't have minded
(in fact, it was kind of interesting), but they left hundreds of droppings
scattered over the patio, right where we sat. Getting rid of them depended on
making and installing a framed screen covering at the attic's peak . . . 45 feet
above the rocky ground below. It was a challenge, accomplished by making some
special long-range tools and lubricating the installer with industrial-strength rum and cokes.
Andrea trained for and competed in the "Sunset Stampede", the toughest footrace in Western North Carolina. Winding its way up 10 miles of steep mountain roads, it requires good legs and great heart. The longest race Andrea has ever run, Andrea finished in the very respectable time of 1:32:27, only a minute or so behind Pete (pictured directly above Andrea, in gold), who is an excellent distance runner and a tough competitor. Later in the year, she ran a mountain half-Marathon in under two hours.
Shortly afterwards and just in time for July 4th, we had a too-short visit from Dad and his friend Fonnie, who made quite an impression on the biddies at Asheville Racquet Club. One asked, "What are you doing traveling with your granddaughter?"
It's a new life all over again. We miss our apartment
in Bregenz, to be sure, but the world seems a little wider now that we don't
automatically head to Austria for
months at a time. That's the problem with having a vacation house--it's where
you go, often to the exclusion of a whole wonderful world.
This just in! I have been trying, on and off for 20 years, to get in touch with my Captain, Jack Conley. I served with him aboard the USS Ethan Allen (SSBN 608) in the early 70's. I finally got to say "hello" today, and he sounds exactly the same as he ever did. If you ever read this, Jack, know that I still hold you in the highest esteem.
So there you go, John! Up to the minute! If you would like to see a mini photo-essay
of our past year, click here.
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