Feliz Navidad
&
Season’s Greetings
From Phil & Meme
in Santa Fe, (SF) NM
(UTM 13S 0413700/3934592 – ca. 6686’ or 2038m)
No fantastic fantasies this year, like Eric Clapton asking Phil to play Duane Allman’s parts on “Layla”, but he was busy appearing with Willie Nelson singing duets of “Roll me up and smoke me when I die”, or Justin being Super Bowl MVP in his last game with the Saints, and a consortium of sport climbing gear companies offering Meme “7-figures” to use their stuff (and of course she donated the $$$ to charity).
A quick recap of our 2019 starts with Justin: as you may recall last year he was poised to start a new job as an attorney for the Great State of New Mexico in Las Vegas, NM. Just before he was to begin he was offered a NM Public Defender position in Carlsbad, NM. In addition to it being significantly more money, it was what he wanted to do: courtroom litigation. He has been there since late January. Carlsbad is an oil & gas boomtown these days, and filled with many challenges, but he enjoys the work and the colleagues. He gets up to ABQ/SF each month: we had a great scrabble game on Thanksgiving (37 rounds). He also met us in El Paso this Fall for our visit with Meme's sister Pat and her hubby/pal Hal.
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| Justin, Pat Medici, Phil, Hal Marcus & Meme on trolley (El Paso)
Late January also brought a snowstorm to Santa Fe that resulted in numerous “lack of traction” incidents, one of which found Phil getting arthroscopic surgeryon his left knee in mid-Feb. He was able to get home in plenty of time to watch his sister Chris judge the Terrier Group at Westminster Kennel Club at Madison Square Garden (good job Chris: she put up the dog that went on to win Best-in-Show). Later in the fall she judged the Hound Group at the National Show in Philadelphia.
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Continuing with PT for the knee, we went to Greece in early April, spending most of our time on the island of Kalymnos: a world-class rock-climbing destination, also known for its sponge diving. It was superb: fun & great food.
June and July saw Phil at a couple of short/small fire assignments as a Safety Officer in southern Arizona, and Meme had a rock-climbing sojourn to Maple Canyon (central Utah). That was followed up by a rock-trip to southern Colorado in Sept. We also had a couple of Lucy too road trips (Spring & Fall) to Phoenix for God-daughter Emily Erickson’s graduation from the Grand Canyon University nursing program and first RN job (Banner-University Medical Center) party, and added El Paso onto the latter to visit family- as noted above.
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| (Additional THANKS from Stephen Pastis !) |
Reading history remains a favorite activity for Phil, and site steward efforts via NM SiteWatch occasionally makes the calendar.
Meme has been taking Spanish lessons online with an instructor in Guatemala: esta bien. Her ’87 Saab 850 is a classic, but to help keep it chugging longer she acquired a new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid SUV a couple months ago. Sold the Subaru Forester (220k miles) to our mechanic.
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| New paint - contrast wall |
After over 30-years of residence in our home we repainted the interior. All rooms were treated to new tints. We’ve noticed the spider population is temporarily reduced. We’re sure they’ll be back to participate in our trap-and-relocate program. We are still loving our solar system and the backwards spin of the electric meter.
Both of us continue with the study of yoga, and probably will all our lives.
Hope you-n-yours have a happy & healthy 2020…
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| (Courtesy of Santa Fe Hotshots @ The Miller Fire) |
