Christmas – 1995

A joyous 1995 holiday greeting to all and I hope are looking forward to 1996 as much as we are.

The above “art” is a bit reminiscent of Roger Price and his “Droodles”, how many remember? It is also symbolic of a highlight of our year, a trip (epic, saga, excursion, trek, quest) to Tribune Kansas to visit Diane. Not that Kansas is flat, but we saw a guy with a T shirt showing a mountain climber half way up a grain elevator, with the caption “I climbed Kansas”. Yes, if it wasn’t for those Kansas “skyscrapers” the above illustration would be accurate. We drove out via San Antonio early in the summer and dodged several tornadoes.

In fact we had to bi-pass one of our motel stops in the northern Texas panhandle because of damage, and pushed on to Liberal, KS. Once there we just had to stop and visit Dorothy’s house and the Yellow Brick Road, all of which sat incongruously near the intersection of two four lane highways. We had a great visit with Diane and her army of five, four boys and a girl, A lot of spruce-up and patch-up, but a great day tripper to Colorado Springs was a highlight. It is amazing how little ones change when you don’t see them for awhile.

Meanwhile back home, Bruce and George are doing quite well in their own businesses. Pam and Bruce have expanded their framing operations significantly. Being in Athens, we of course enjoy that crowd all year. This year we took Robin and Greta to the festival of lights at Callaway Gardens. What a great experience that was. Georges forestry consulting business is doing well, and we collaborated on several projects this year, including a large image processing (satellite data) and mapping project involving the mosaicing over 100 Government topographic maps that had been scanned and put in digital form.

We also worked on urban forestry jobs here in Athens and the Ft. Lauderdale region of south Florida. We both made two trips to the Ft. Lauderdale area and on one of them this summer, we took Alyssa, one of Karen’s daughters, to help watch Ellen and Jason. The rest of Karen’s kids, Karen and Barry are doing fine. On one of our trips to Atlanta, we went to one of Jonathan’s football games. I had forgotten how entertaining that is. All helmet on top of a blob attached to two feet. Thank heavens for the feet, for without them we would not know which way the kid was pointing. They can turn 90° without the helmet moving.

Joyce and I? We have had a busy year. Joyce is still substituting at “Young World” though she was somewhat slowed by a bout with pneumonia during April-May. I was offered (under contract) a teaching position at the School of Forest Resources. The subject: Spatial Information for Resource Management. This is a multi-discipline effort: cartography, Earth’s observations (aerial photography and digital satellite imagery), and geographic information systems (GIS) which pull these spatial data together along with their non-spatial attributes, into a coherent information system accessible by managers at all levels.

Don’t have the space to get into it much, but it is exciting stuff, and I finished the first elective quarter this fall with 12 students. Starting in January, the course becomes required and I am looking at 40 students. (I must be crazy). So nary a spare moment. We hope you are all as busy as you want to be, and are looking forward to as great a new year as we are,

Love to all