|
|
Happy New Year!
Greetings from Santa Fe! 2017 was an interesting year, to say the least.
The big news this year is that Hubert retired in March, as announced
in last year's newsletter.
Here is the short version of 2017, mostly in order. By the way, all pictures are clickable.
|
Looking in the mirror on the Navy Pier
|
| In February, Hubert spent some time in Chicago for a
conference (why would anyone
organize a major conference there in
February?), but
there was not a trace of snow, and the weather was
relatively pleasant.
It offered a chance to visit with Ron and Judy Stevens and their children, who
moved
from Santa Fe some years ago.
In March, Hubert officially retired after 32 years at Los Alamos. However, there are
a few fun projects that he'll stay involved with for now, at the level of one or two
days a week, designing and building hardware for LHCb at CERN, a dark matter search
at Fermilab, and a silicon detector destined for BNL.
In the meantime, Deb cut back to only one job and limited workdays to Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday. She is at Santa Fe Therapy Associates with a group of very fine OT, PT
and SLP providers and continues to enjoy her Spanish-speaking families. Getting to hold
babies who have feeding difficulties is a plus. Other specialties include working with
childern with cleft palates and young children with autism. The bonus surprise is that
daughter Saskia is studying to be a Speech and Language Pathologist at the University of
Arizona, where she is in the the bilingual Communication Disorders program. She will never
be out of work, that's for sure, since robots will not be able to substitute for us in
this lifetime!
|
On our 40th
|
| We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary
this year and Hubert's retirement with a spectacular trip to Peru
and Ecuador. More on that trip later. We are ready to go back to South America any time.
The people were friendly and both countries are gorgeous. Plus Quito, Ecuador is only
5 hours from Houston by plane and is on Central time! No jetlag is good for us seniors!
|
At the Science March and expo
|
|
In Santa Fe, the Women's March was the largest
protest march that our city has ever seen. Later in the year,
the
March for Science again brought out a large crowd, and we manned a
booth for the
Santa Fe Alliance For Science, using some of
my stuff. One of our protest signs got re-used later in the year when
we (successfully) fought for proper State science education standards,
which were under attack by our idiot governor and her incompetent cronies
(sound familiar?).
Deb is now involved in local politics which means getting information to neighbors in
our Ward. As a community, we need to pay attention to the performance of politicians
and hold them accountable. Our city is in fairly dire fiscal straights due, in large
part, to some creative book keeping. There are mayoral and city council elections in
March. Hopefully we will get some realists at City Hall who can steer us in a better
direction.
|
With Rick and Yvonne, and Saskia
|
|
In the Spring, we visited with our college friends
Rick and Yvonne Greene from Vancouver, who now play snowbirds in Tucson for part of
each year. How handy that Saskia and Andrew live in Tucson so that we have two sets
of great people to visit.
|
Apres-biking in Cortez
|
| In May, we were again invited to join our friends, Bruce and Lynette
Hamby, with a group of mountain bikers in Cortez, CO. Cortez is a wonderful place
to bike, with all levels of difficulty. Plus Mesa Verde and Hovenweep National Monuments
are nearby. It's a beautiful area to visit for biking, hiking and escaping for a weekend.
|
At Machu Pichu
|
| In July, we flew to Lima, Peru and after a few days there on to
Cuzco, a beautiful old city that is near the Sacred Valley. Cuzco sits at almost
12,000 feet, making us glad to have come from 7000 foot Santa Fe. From Cuzco, we
travelled down the Sacred Valley visiting small towns and Inca sites, culminating
at Machu Pichu. Machu Pichu is a magical place, so green and lush, perched at the edge
of the Amazonian rainforest.
The Incas were expert stone masons. They used almost no wood other than the roof
beams. All of the lintels were carved from stone that was artfully pieced together
using a great amount of patience and stone tools. If you enjoy climbing and descending
stairs, this is the place for you! Our friend's fitbit indicated that in one day we
had negotiated the equivalent of 191 flights of stairs!
We stayed overnight just outside the gates of Macchu Pichu at a beautiful hotel that
had an exquisite garden with a large collection of orchids. While we can barely keep
orchids alive at our home, these were beautifully tended and included
varieties we had never seen.
|
Our traveling group
|
|
|
Part of what made the whole trip so wonderful is that we were
traveling with a small group of great people, including Jeff Brennan, one of Hubert's
soccer buddies and his wife, Mary.
|
View from above, at the Sun Gate
|
|
|
Landing on one of the Galapagos islands
|
|
From Cuzco, we flew to Quito, Ecuador. Quito is a bustling city with an old center
that includes the presidential palace. We were able to walk right up onto the veranda
of the palace and take a peek at the interior courtyard. The old center was lovely
but in other areas colorful older buildings have either been torn down or else
surrounded by giant skyscrapers. We then flew on to the Galapagos Islands.
The Galapagos were not inhabited by humans when Charles Darwin visited then to collect
data for his Origin of the Species. He was able to observe animal species that had
been largely isolated and evolved undisturbed, other than the fact that Spanish
sailors would drop by and grab a couple of giant tortoises to dine on. The islands
could be overrun by well-meaning ecotourists. However, there is a conscious and
determined effort to limit the number of visitors. We were reminded not to leave walking
paths, but imagine our surprise when a blue-footed booby practically hopped under
friend's foot! Deb's favorites were the male frigate birds with their bight red gular
(throat) pouches that they would puff out to attract the ladies. The giant tortoises
were amazing to watch, as well.
|
At about 90% of totality
|
|
In August, of course, we drove North for the total solar eclipse. We had picked
Torrington, WY, where we had been able to make a hotel reservation a year and a half
earlier, after hitting more than a dozen 'no vacancy' sites. It turned out to be a
wonderful spot, and we met many fellow enthousiasts there. I had brought my solar
projectors, which were a hit with the younger kids on the field.
Tip for the next time: stay another day, and not only because the hotel room
then goes for 1/5th of the price.
It was a fantastic experience, and we are now keeping an eye on the next ones:
Chile 2019, Texas 2024.
|
FSM religeous headwear?
|
|
|
Laura, Susan, Doug, Suze
|
|
In the Fall, when the temperatures in Tucson had finally fallen below 100°F
(38°C), we again visited Saskia and Andrew. During the
Dia de los Muertos procession,
we honored some of the friends and family we had lost in the past year.
|
(Re-)cycle clock
|
| Although Hubert is now (mostly) retired, the weeks are still filled
with the
"mr Science"
duties and other educational outreach activities, Spanish classes, soccer and work at the
Maker Space.
The (functioning) clock on the left, made from bike parts, was entered in the Santa Fe
recycled art show, and won a prize! Busier than ever.
|
Hiking in Ojo Sarco
|
| Saskia and Andrew came to Santa Fe for Christmas, as well as their
dear friend Rachel. Niels and Rebecca still live around the corner. We celebrated the
traditional gift-giving the Dutch way, with 'surprises' and
bad poetry (see
here, items 8 and 9). After Christmas, we visited our friends Carol and Larry Miller in
Ojo Sarco, a lovely place on the high road to Taos, with great hikes right out the back
door. Notice that we are out in light sweaters at 8,000 ft. elevation in December!
The south seems to have gotten what would normally have been our snow this year. It is
bone dry here and there is really no skiing anywhere nearby. We are hoping for some
snow in the next two months.
|
|
|
Wishing you health, peace and happiness in the next year,
|
|
home
|
All pictures
back
|
