The grass is always greener across the fence and others live in exotic places; "we", whoever we are, live in our humdrum cities. Substitute "life" for "grass" or "home" and you get an idea what is on our mind: While to others our lives may seem exotic to us they are just "home". Events rush along, there are always things undone and things we wish we could do and places we wish we could go

Recap for those who missed the previous season and who are just tuning in:  Our heros were last seen toiling away in the confines of Bell Laboratories working on the Jupiter project. When they signed on they had promised to be good, loyal kids and not disappear for months on end just when they were needed. This has been a growing pyschological stress for three reasons: a promise made is a promise to be broken; staying in one place is stress itself; and Jupiter was (to mix metaphors) not all milk and honey.

Gerry has had the pleasure of learning to make Web pages and we now have our own web site. You can read an expanded version of this letter (we alway limit it to four printed pages) at http://members.aol.com/xmas1997.

Books read
Gerry as usual has too many projects going on. This year he started with some determination on Chinese. Does everyone say they won't do certain things when they get older and break the mold? And in spite of that in one way or another do it? Well as we get older we get more interested in religion and roots, even though we are not getting religious. So we welcome the chance for Gerry to re-experience Judiasm. This year as last we went to our friend's Seder, which celebrates the exodus of Jews from slavery in Egypt. And for the first time we attended together a Yom Kippur service, which is the Jewish day of Atonement.

Falling apart: buying glasses, out of shape for skiing, running ruins ankles, xrays for imagined ills.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let It Snow!
The year began in Vermont where a decent snow covering quickly succumbed to one of those awful winter thaws leaving only ice and rocks in its wake. But when there was still snow on the ground, Jan came to the conclusion that this was the year to buy new skis and having tried the new extreme shaped skis ended up rejecting them in favor of something more suited to her conservative tastes and abilities.

The new skis are a delight especially in comparison to the old ones bought some 17 years ago.  They are modern in design (slightly parabolic), materials (much lighter and more flexible), and of course color (jazzy purple). They were bought to be used for a trip to the mecca of Western skiing, Lake Tahoe, in late February early March.  We spent a terrific week sampling not only Heavenly Valley, but Squaw Valley and Kirkwood too. We planned to avoid the weekend crowds and instead drove down to Yosemite, alas still suffering from the devastating floods of '96 and except for the outer extremities of the park, closed to visitors.  We didn't mind too much and spent our time hiking over snow to two of the groves of Sequoia (giant redwoods) in the park.  We were happy to have our hiking poles with us especially when the snow pack softened in the middle of the day.

Those of us who know and love Gerry, will not be surprised to learn that a trip to Tahoe even with a side trip to Yosemite is not much of a trip. When Gerry learned that flying to Reno required a stopover somewhere, it was a foregone conclusion that this would not be just a ski trip. The stopover he suggested found great favor with Jan.  It was Phoenix, Arizona, gateway to the Grand Canyon.  We had visited the Grand Canyon in the summer of 1981 for less than an hour when we were en route from Utah to Las Vegas and on to California at the end of a month spent driving from the east coast to the west just prior to leaving for Hong Kong. Jan's enthusiasm meant that the two day stopover grew to four days and then ultimately to five.

The choice was a great one.  Early March is definitely off-season. We had fresh snow on the ground and saw a very different Grand Canyon from the one of 1981 in the height of summer!  The only sad note was that we did not get to fulfill Gerry's dream of hiking from the rim into the Canyon.  Gerry had twisted his knee getting off the ski lift at Heavenly Valley and dared not undertake such a long and strenuous hike. We did hike down from the rim on two trails, but in each case turned back after only a couple of hours.  Needless to say we plan to go back.

The Trail Changes Direction
As usual even great holidays come to an end and so early March found us back at work on the Jupiter project for Lucent Technologies. The project, originally scheduled to finish by summer of '97, was very much behind largely due to lack of good management. Gerry had been very unhappy with the way things were done and soon after getting back from vacation this unhappiness crested and he quit. Jan was asked to dissuade him but found that she really couldn't think of a good reason to stay! After a very long weekend of discussions this way and that, we decided that not only should Gerry quit but Jan too. We talked to our boss and after some negotiation gave them almost two months to find replacements for us. Our final date was set for April 30.

We had been talking desultorily over the past couple of years about selling the house and setting off on our travels again while we were still healthy enough to enjoy it. Jan was very much in favor of taking this opportunity to do just that. The rest of March and most of April was filled with the task of training and transitioning our various tasks to our replacements. Thankfully the overtime we had been putting in levelled off and we started to appreciate the leisure time to come. Jan started making plans for painting and cleaning up the house. Gerry made a list of plumbing and other repair jobs to be done. The hope was that by end of summer, we would be able to put the house on the market. And then came the bombshell.

The Sky Falls
In the last week of April, Jan learned that her mother had a tumor on her lung that proved to be cancerous. Suddenly the world turned upside down. The initial shock was replaced with a determination on Jan's part to spend this difficult time with her mother and to go to her as soon as possible. Gerry was immensely supportive and within 48 hours of learning the news and a week before our official last day at work, we were in Darlington with Jan's mother.

We both spent the next six weeks in Darlington as mother went through the process of hurry up and wait as tests and results were scheduled in what seemed sometimes like slow motion, culminating at the end of the six weeks with a date in late June for surgery. At that point we agreed that Gerry should come back home without Jan to take back care of our house from our wonderful neighbor Harold. Jan extended her stay to mid August.

We will not bore you with all of the dramas of the surgery and its aftermath. Suffice it to say that Mam survived it to our great relief and although now somewhat debilitated by the lack of her right lung, has adjusted admirably and is certain to be here in January 1998 to greet her first great-grandchild, firstborn of the firstborn of her firstborn and see him or her grow!

Back In The Nest
For Jan, the silver lining to this drama has been the joy of spending such a long time with her mother and the rest of the family after so many years of little but flying visits. Nonetheless, once she was no longer needed, she was happy to get back onto the main track of life and get back home to New Jersey. What a joy it was to see the garden looking green and lush and in full flower thanks to Gerry's efforts. The first day or so were spent in the garden recharging her emotional batteries. Then followed reunions with close friends who had been so supportive.

Soon after Jan's return, we learned that there was to be a wedding in our future. Wayne Huber, Gerry's friend from high school in Hawthorne, California, and his wife Cathy were about to see their only daughter Lydia married, co-incidentally in the same city and location where they had celebrated their own marriage 29 years ago. We were delighted to be invited and needed no better excuse to plan a trip to places new and old, but first we had to get back to taking care of the house.

Gerry had already reduced the list of plumbing repairs to only one item and Jan joined in by planning and completing the repainting of the dining room. It seemed to take forever, but the end result was most pleasing with white paintwork and very pale blue walls. So the remainder of August and the first week of September sped by in a social whirl as Jan tried to touch bases with friends and neighbors after her long absence.

Middletown to Minneapolis via Algonquin Park, Ontario
When we learned that Lydia Huber was getting married in Minneapolis, Minnesota, it didn't take us long to decide to combine the wedding with a driving holiday or for Gerry to contact the Tourist Authorities in each transit state for information. It also only took one look at the brochure on Algonquin Park, west of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada to decide that here was a place we must visit.

We spent three nights and four days exploring its lakes and hiking trails and barely scratched the surface. Highlight of our stay was a paddle by moonlight from our remote campsite (accessible only by canoe) on the shores of Lake Pen. This was our first canoe camping expedition in our very own canoe, a 17-ft fiberglass quiet water canoe. It was also the first time we had transported the canoe over such long distances over high-speed freeways. Fortunately it worked quite well, although it took us most of the trip to learn how to tie down the canoe in just the right way to avoid ear-splitting vibrations that made the car cabin a noisy hell-hole.

Next major stop was two nights on the southern shore of Lake Superior in a campground in the Painted Rocks National Lakeshore. Our campsite was about as idyllic as could be. The drive in, on the other hand, could be described as horrific. The road is un-paved through a fairly dense forest in which the trees form a canopy over the road. We were in a race against the sunset, not wanting to disturb our fellow campers by setting up our tent in the dark. However, we were losing the race and driving along this windy road with a canopy of trees was like driving into a bewitched forest that slowly transformed itself into an increasingly black tunnel! Needless to say we lost the race. But by this time we were pretty expert at setting up the tent and managed quite well in the half-light of our car's parking lights.

We spent the next day exploring the shoreline on a very delightful hike to another lakeshore campground some 3.5 miles along the beach. The weather was bright and warm and we were in no hurry to get anywhere, spending lots of time on the outward journey foraging for beautifully colored rocks that litter the lakeshore beaches there.

But on we had to go as the day of the wedding approached. Our last stopover before Minneapolis was another lakeshore campground, but this one in Wisconsin. The lake was much much smaller but the campsite was almost as idyllic, although it did involve carrying the canoe down a rather steep slope to put it into the water. Before saying goodbye to Wisconsin, we put the canoe in the water one more time to paddle out onto Lake Chippewa, where we had a stiff paddle against the wind but found ourselves a stretch of water sheltered by an off-shore island where we enjoyed some refreshment and a half-hour with a good book.

Minneapolis to Middletown, via Chicago, Cleveland, and Akron
We spent a relaxed three days in Minneapolis, enjoying a very warm and pleasant wedding-eve dinner at the home of Cathy's sister Barbara. Gerry was delighted to see some members of Wayne and Cathy's families he had not seen for some 25 or even 29 years. We also managed to take some time to see downtown St. Paul and the State Capitol building and explore the historic area centered on St. Anthony's Falls.

The wedding itself, held at a Country Club on the shores of Lake Minnetonka, with the lake providing a stunning backdrop, went off without a hitch and was followed by a delicious meal. It was sad to say goodbye. But we had to move on.
We drove next to Chicago where we spent a very busy but very interesting three days. Jan had been told by her friend Barbara, that Chicago was a wonderful city. How right she was! We both loved the downtown area with its beautiful buildings designed by such famous names as Sullivan and ???. We spent a half-day at the Chicago Institute, visited as many of the famous buildings as we could manage, toured the Auditorium theater, and saw a Shakespeare play at the G?? theater. All in all we found Chicago a city that we could quite happily live in. Perhaps, some day …?

From Chicago, we went on to Cleveland. Another so-called rustbelt city that surprised us with its attractive cityscape and breadth of cultural offerings. We did, of course, visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which left Jan bopping for days afterwards. We also took our usual self-guided walking tour of downtown and spent a very pleasant afternoon in the Cleveland Art Museum, which has a remarkably good collection of pre-Impressionist, Impressionist, and Modern Art. And finally on to Akron. The one disappointment of the trip. We found little of interest although we would probably have enjoyed the art museum had we had the time to invest in a visit.

The end, like the beginning, was a long, long day of driving. Leaving Akron just before noon, we finally made it home at about 11:30p.m.

Post Vacation Vacation
We imagine you are all wondering how we are managing to fill our days now that we are no longer part of the hyper-active workforce of America. It has been amazingly easy to get used to not having a fixed schedule and to not being so desperately busy all the time. Our days get filled up with so little effort, it is quite wonderful. We are of course still trying to sort out our photographs ready for storage. We are starting to try and throw away anything that is non-essential and are planning to re-arrange the furniture for better showing-off of the house's good features. But everything is done very slowly.

And because travelling gives one a taste for travelling, we are already planning the last trip of the year which will be back to England to make sure that Jan's mother is still doing OK. Because of that we are trying to be the first to get our annual greetings in the mail this year, rather than the last.

We therefore wish you all a very happy holiday season and a most healthy and prosperous year in 1998. Please note that we have a new area code, a change from 908 to 732. Our phone number is now 732-842-7498. Happy New Year!