Hi!
A bunch of us who were assigned to Hawaii back in the late 1980's and early 1990's got together for a reunion in Annapolis yesterday. It was lots of fun seeing old friends, especially those we hadn't seen in many years. We all looked the same, of course! Several people in the group return to Hawaii often, and we sometimes bump into them there while we are visiting Tracey and Alana. This year Dale will be there for most of December and early January, while I will have to be satisfied with a week or so around Christmas, since I still have to work at NSA. Ratz!
Next weekend we will be in Bradenton Florida. We've only been back from the Carribbean Cruise for a few weeks and already we need a vacation ;-)
My garden tractor has been giving me lots of trouble this year. It spent more than 5 weeks of the summer in the shop and I just got it back a week ago from the latest breakdown (the coil died - I guess 8 years isn't all that bad). Anyway, I was able to cut down the high grass in the back yard yesterday, and was working on manicuring the front this morning when the main belt broke. Luckily was able to find a replacement at the local hardware store so will probably fix that later this afternoon if I get a chance. Spent a couple of hours fixing leaky faucets today too. Not very exciting but this is another one of those things that's been on the "to do" list for a long time, so I'm happy ;-)
The temperature has been getting down into the low 30s at night, and some of last week's days weren't too much better. We are back to wearing heavy coats with hoods (especially with the wind up here on top of the hill). The sun shines at a low angle now and everything in the yard looks so nice with such sharp lighting. Halloween was fairly quiet. There aren't that many children around here (our little community is only 8 houses on this side of the valley and perhaps the same number on the hillside across from us). Darkness comes early now that the Daylight Savings Time now over. I was out in my garden with a flashlight, harvesting two large bags of the jalapeno and habanero hot peppers to save them from the expected frost, when I heard son-in-law Tom hauling all the neighborhood kids around with his tractor. I couldn't see what he was pulling but it was probably a cart of some sort, perhaps like a hayride. The kids were whooping it up as they went from house to house.
Okay, I'm going to cut this letter short because I have about 40 digital pictures to upload to the web site for your viewing enjoyment.
Love,
Dad & Mom/
Barry & Dale