The year is ending the way it began for me. I am recovering from foot surgery. At the end of last December I had a hammertoe repaired on my left foot and at the beginning of December I had surgery to repair two toes on my right foot. I have been told that I won’t have as long a recovery period as last year because last time I had to have a screw inserted in that toe and wore a protective boot for about two months. Recovery from my first surgery interrupted my hiking regimen which is my principle form of exercise.
Last winter I again worked
for VITA doing taxes. I was a site coordinator at the YWCA and worked as a tax
return reviewer checking the work of volunteers who prepared returns mostly for
Spanish speaking clients. During the winter we had a visitor over one weekend. Jerry
Hagstrom from Washington DC came to AZ for his Hagstrom Report and
stayed with us for a couple of nights. The weekend coincided with the Academy
Awards presentation so we hosted an Oscar night party that Sunday night.
Spring
Work continued with VITA
through the end of tax season on April 15th. In March I took in the
University of Arizona’s Festival of Books which is held during the week of
Spring Break. It regularly brings in a number of well-known authors and I
attended several of those presentations and bought several of their books
including one entitled Chasing Arizona by Ken Lamberton. It’s
subtitled; “One Man’s Yearlong Obsession
with the Grand Canyon State.” We also attended outdoor concerts at Udall
Park put on by the Arizona Symphonic Winds.
In order to celebrate the end
of tax season, our anniversary, and to show off our new kitchen to family and
friends we held a back yard party on May 2nd. It coincided with a
visit by our friends Walt and Sarah Wolf from ND who were in AZ for the week
visiting other friends in the Phoenix area. We had a back yard full of people
and a good time was had by all. The next day we took the Wolfs to Tubac the
artisan town south of Tucson. They bought some items that were too big to take
back on the plane so I transported them when I drove to ND a month later.
At this point we could summarize
Margaret’s work for the year. She continues to work for ATI (AssessmentTechnology Inc.) as a trainer and does a significant amount of traveling. She
travels all around AZ and to a number of other states. This year her travels
took her to 34 cities including Los Angeles, St. Louis, Orlando, and Dallas. She
also went to lesser known locales such as Rogue River, OR; West Bend, WI; and
Troy, ID. All in all she traveled 28,632 miles and was gone 72 days during the
year, and was able to visit with family and friends along the way. Margaret
also continued her involvement with Literacy Connects and POWWOW (Produce OnWheels Without Waste) through her church.
Summer
On June 9th I
departed for ND. My trip to ND was shrouded in rain. From the time I left
Kayenta, AZ, and drove through Utah it rain. After spending a night in Grand
Junction, CO, with Dick and Marilyn Bartholomay I was expecting a leisurely
drive into Denver to spend a night with my cousin Ruthann Remele. However I-70
was blocked at Glenwood Springs with a rock slide because of heavy rain, so an
additional four hours was added to my journey with a detour through Aspen over
12,000 foot Independence Pass. It was a white knuckle driving experience! The next day rain plagued me again when I left
Denver and made my way north through western Nebraska into South Dakota. I stopped
in Sturgis and spent some time visiting Margaret’s friend Gloria Centofanti and
her husband Andy at their lovely Black Hills home. The following day I arrived
in Center, ND; in time to take in some of the Oliver County Old Settlers Days. The
next day I was able to see my cousin Jim Speten from Idaho who was in Wilton
for his 50th High School reunion.
My main reason for getting to
ND when I did was to get ready for the 2nd Eldo Johnson Estate Sale.
He died in March of 2014 and a sale was held in Mandan in July of 2014. However
cousin Eldo still had things stored at my farm including a tractor and lots of
garden tools so that’s where the second sale was held on July 18th. It
turned out to be a family sale as two of his sons (Mark and Tim) his sister
Marie, brother Archie, and myself all consigned items. It was the social event
of the summer in the Still Community. A good crowd of over 100 bidders was on
hand on the windy but sunny Saturday that the sale was held.
The summer in ND was eventful
because my sister Ardys from SC was also there for about the same amount of
time. She was there as a traveling nurse working out of St. Alexius Hospital in
Bismarck from June 18th until September 12th. Besides having a summer around my
sister, who I haven’t seen much of for many years, it was also a summer of
other reunions. A Johnson-Speten cousins reunion was held in June where we were
able to see many first cousins that hadn’t been together for several years. It
was also the summer of my 50th Bismarck High School reunion which
was held the first weekend of August. My brother-in-law Dennis came to ND
shortly after Ardys arrived accompanied by the two grandchildren, McCablyn and
Kelly, who live with them and spent the month of July. When Ardys had time off
they did a lot of sight-seeing but after he left in early August she
accompanied me on a couple of side trips. We went to Minnesota one weekend to
see Margaret’s mother in Dorset and also traveled to the Peace Gardens on the
US/Canadian border another weekend. That same trip we drove to Watford City to
visit our cousin Debbie Wahus and husband Don at their home on Tobacco Garden
Bay. The location is in the heart of the ND Bakken the oil development area.
After the auction sale was
over I was able to get some work done at the farm. I tore down a grain bin and
did a lot of tree trimming. Some I accomplished on my own and some I hired out.
While I was I was in ND I stayed a lot of time at the farm but also
headquartered with Dan and Sandy Johnson in Bismarck. At their place I was able
to do my laundry and to catch a shower as good plumbing facilities are lacking
in the old house at the farm even though I have good rural water available.
In September after 102 days
it was time to get back to Tucson. I had
a fully loaded pickup including fruits of the harvest in ND like wheat, pinto
beans and crabapples. Margaret has
turned those crabapples into jelly which we will share with our Tucson friends
and neighbors at Christmas.
As I write this we are two weeks away from the beginning of the winter season. Fall has been taken up with getting back in the groove of things after being gone all summer. I have caught up with yard work and cleaned out a storage shed. I have been attending tax seminars in preparation for work again with VITA this coming tax season. I fulfilled my civic duty by serving on a jury in a criminal trial which took up three days. For the first time we attended Rex Allen Days in Willcox the first weekend of October.
In October Margaret had a
short visit with her mother, great uncle, and most of her siblings in Lincoln,
NE. She welcomed Bonnie Faimon to the Fairfield clan when she married her
oldest brother, John. Margaret also spent a week in NC with her sister and
cousins on a Girls Week retreat. This was their 4th such adventure. Even
though it rained for most of the time, she had a great visit with Tim’s sister
and her family, and spending time with her sister, Carol, and her cousins
Meriel, Beth, Juli, and Catherine. Fall in western NC is gorgeous. With all the
rain it really helped them enjoy the waterfalls – who knew one can drive and
walk behind different falls! Margaret also found out why the Smokey Mountains
are called such. Even enjoyed having a drink at the smallest bar east of the MS
River (it’s in Brevard in case you want to visit) and seeing the whitesquirrels of Transylvania County.
Thanksgiving week we spent in
Sedona. It was a quiet relaxing week during which we read, hiked, and spent
time in the hot tub and pool. Our big adventure for the week was riding the
Verde Canyon Railroad out of Clarkdale on a 3½ hour roundtrip to Perkinsville. We
had taken this trip before but never in the fall. What a spectacular and
relaxing train ride! We highly recommend
this activity.
Summary
Another year is coming to a
close. It has seen lots of upheaval what with the refugee crisis coming out of
Syria and acts of terrorism in Paris, and here at home. However we have to
concentrate on the Reason for the Season and put our Hope and Faith in the Prince of
Peace and belief that reason and common sense will prevail among our elected
leaders in government at the national, state and local levels.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and
yours.
