After almost 2 years, Ray and Lynda are starting to get the hang of being retired. This year was less about projects and more about travel – especially with family.
Main Events
San Diego – Christmas 2023
Had a nice Christmas w/ Janet, Raymond, Emily and family. Travis, Alex and Ricky joined us.
Good-bye to the F-150
After almost 25 years, finally donated the F-150. It still worked and we were sad to see it go but just could not justify having it any longer now that Ray has the Maverick.
Maverick 2.0
Notice the difference in the top banner image from last year? From last year’s letter, you might remember that Ray bought a white 2023 Ford Maverick. What we didn’t mention was that there was a feature missing that he really wanted. Remarkably, the dealership offered to take his “used” vehicle back and credit us with the full price paid. So, in January, Ray bought a 2024 Maverick that had everything he wanted! This one is gray.
Trip to Florida
Ray and Lynda visited Ray’s family in Florida in February.
Janet Visits
Lynda’s sister Janet visited in April, ahead of the big trip to Italy so she and Lynda could coordinate their packing and planning for the trip.
Trip to Italy
We had a fantastic three weeks in Italy where Pastor Bernard led us through a portion of Paul’s final journey. The first 2 weeks we traveled from Malta up to the east coast of Sicily and then up the west coast of Italy to Rome.
The third week we stayed in a villa in northern Sicily with a fantastic view of Castelbuono.
Jury Duty/Braces/Diet/Cancer Scare
Early this year, Lynda went to a routine checkup, and they found a cancer marker. They spent the rest of the spring and summer doing scans and passing her from one specialist to another trying to find if there was a tumor. Along the way, they recommended she try a low FODMAP diet. During this time, the dentist recommended she wear Invisalign braces to straighten her teeth since the misalignment was beginning to cause damage. While all this was going on, in late July, she was called to Jury Duty! Imagine having to get ready to go out every morning, preparing a special diet for lunch — oh wait, most working people do that every day. I know you’ll be thinking “boo hoo” but it was remarkably disruptive. Eventually, the jury duty ended, her teeth were straightened, the oncologist said there was no sign of cancer, and she was able to settle back into her routine of walking, yoga, and knitting.
Visit to Janet in August
On relatively short notice, we decided to fly to San Diego and help Janet out with a few projects around her house.
Trip to KC
On our way to Rapid City, we stopped off and visited Ricky (Ok, yes, KC is WAY out of the way but, logically, it was all part of the same trip). We helped him with some projects around the house, played with his cat Bindle and ate some really great KC BBQ.
Trip to Rapid City, Mount Rushmore
After KC, we traveled to Rapid City and had a great week there with Ray’s brother Jay and wife, Debbie. We drove around the area visiting Badlands, Rushmore, Custer, Mammoth Site, Deadwood, Crazy Horse and many other sites in the area.
Full House @ Thanksgiving
Janet’s son, Raymond visited with his wife and 3 young kids. The kids were the highlight as they were all very verbal and entertaining. We also had Travis’ girlfriend Carol who brought along her daughter and daughter’s boyfriend – a total of 14 for dinner.
Wine
Ray continues with the Five Guys wine club. He’s very excited about the 2023 Zinfandel which they will bottle in 2025. For more information, please visit their website.
Dancing
We continued to climb the volunteer ladder by taking the roles of both President and Membership Chair for Debonair Dancers.
Song
Ray continues at drumming and running sound regularly at Peninsula Bible Church Cupertino
Golf?
Yes, can you believe it! One of our objectives in the visit to Florida was to get help from Ray’s brothers in purchasing some used clubs for Ray and Lynda. That was accomplished and they started attending a regular clinic at Pruneridge Golf Club. They have a Senior Monday deal where we get a 1-hour lesson followed by 9 holes of golf.
Additionally, Ray and Alex started going to the driving range regularly and eventually got a semi-private lesson together. Both of them feel that this improved their game immensely.
Travis
Travis adopted a 1yr old dog and they named her Coco. She loves to play fetch and is the sweetest dog you’ll ever meet.
Alex
Alex continues to pursue a degree in Computer Science at Santa Cruz State University. He plans to graduate in March of next year! And as reported earlier, he and Ray have been working on their golf game.
Ricky
Aside from playing his new electric drums, Ricky has continued to play year-round ice hockey. He got a promotion to a new position at the Jackson County Court which added new responsibility (which he appreciated as he was getting bored) and more money (also appreciated).
Conclusion
Thank you for reading through to the end. We wanted to give a brief overview of the happenings this year. We continue to be amazed at the blessings we have received and joy our families bring. While we have the ability, we want to take advantage of the gift of these blessings.
May you find peace and joy this Christmas season.
Ray and Lynda