GOODBYE 2005, HELLO 2006!

This past year hasn't been very good in many respects. Too much war and too many natural disasters. Just now we're dealing with flooding rivers here in northern California. It's good to be rid of 2005, as far as I'm concerned.

The tsunami in Indonesia happened earlier in the year, but was one of the most devastating events. Our son-in-law, Christopher Szecsey, who is a consultant for "Save the Children" got involved in the restoration in that part of the world and spent several weeks out there toward the end of the year. The local news media caught up with him recently and featured him in print and television broadcasts. We're proud of him and the work he does. Here's what the local newspaper, the Press Democrat, put on their front page:

You can enlarge the picture and read the article by clicking here.

Click here for Page A11 of the article above.

Dickie and I had decided not to put up a Christmas tree this year, but, at the last minute we weakened, since we discovered that the Home Depot was practically giving their remaining trees away. The tree came out pretty well, too. Of course, you can't see all the needles that have fallen on the floor!:


Dickie's sister and her husband have been gifting me with Santa Clauses for the past few years, so now we have a real Christmas rogues' gallery of the red-suited fellow. Here they are, all ten years of them:

Click here to enlarge the picture

Santa brought me another new camera lens for Christmas. It's a sharp macro lens that I've wanted for a while. Here's a picture that demonstrates what it can do. I caught one of our neighbors flying his model airplane on the local Little League field. It was a cloudy day, but the picture still looks quite sharp:

Click here to enlarge the picture.

So now it's on to 2006. What will the New Year bring? Hopefully, better days, peace, good health and much joy for all of us! Happy New Year to all!

BACK IN THE GOLDEN STATE

Here we are back in California. We flew back to this part of the world on December 7. It was a long trip, seventeen hours from door to door, according to Dickie's calculations.


We flew on American Airlines this time and had a stopover in Dallas where we barely managed to catch our next flight. In fact, the attendant at another the gate, where we stopped to ask about connections, said he thought our plane had already left. Fortunately, he was wrong by about ten minutes. Not only that, but, after we left the gate, we spent another hour on the ground while the plane was being de-iced. That was a new experience for us. We were still lucky to get in the air. Four hundred other flights from Dallas that day were cancelled.

We literally left the ice and snow behind us when we came west. This is what it looked like in our front yard a day or two before we left:


We got to celebrate Thanksgiving with our East Coast family and also with our son, Peter, from here on the West Coast. Peter had made the trip to Virginia and New Jersey a few days earlier. I also spent some time photographing the gulls as they jumped from the pier posts to avoid the splash of the incoming waves. This is what it looked like:


BACK IN CALIFORNIA

There's no snow in this part of the world. In fact, some of our trees still have quite a few leaves. I took this picture yesterday on our morning walk through the neighborhood:


We also caught this robin taking his morning bath in the local vineyard. He was one of many who are apparently stopping by on their way to warmer climes:


I have to show you one more picture. It's not mine, but I think it's a great one. Our daughter, Gretchen, loves to hike and spent several days in Yosemite National Park this past summer. She got this picture, among many others, on one of her trips:


That's about it for now. Hope you're enjoying the pre-holiday period!