December 18, 2007

Friends Far &Wide,

Greetings from Virginia/Carolina! After 27 years in the same locale and 26 years in the same house, we've moved -- twice-- sort-of. After a number of years of neglect, I'm determined to get re-connected this year.

First our housing saga.

We purchased land in Alleghany County in 1999, and in 2004 made a commitment to build a house in 2006. So far, so good. We got our plans, found a contractor, and all was set -- we thought. We should have seen the signals, but about half-way through our contractor went bankrupt. Fortunately the big stuff was behind us, and I hired his three superb carpenters and they finished the house. It took an extra three months, and there are still unsettled legal hassles, but at least we have a house and no problems that a lawyer can't solve (for a fee, of course). We finally got an occupancy permit last January. We built the house as our retirement house, so we still consider Clifton Forge our home, and the kids are keeping it as their address while in college.

In the middle of construction (about the same time as the bankruptcy), Lon got the opportunity to become director of corporate engineering for MeadWestvaco. That meant a move to Raleigh, North Carolina. So Lon moved to Raleigh in January 2007, while John and I stayed behind in Clifton Forge to finish out the school year. We bought a townhouse in Raleigh near the NC State campus and are re-living our grad school days. (Even some of the same furniture!) For six months we owned three houses and the cash hemorrhage was ugly.

Fortunately, our old house sold quickly. (Anyone want to come where the living is cheap? 2700 SF, 4 BR, 2.5 B, EIK, DR, LR, Den, FR, 2-car garage, carport, 1/3 acre, fenced, $165K.) Selling was an experience. Our "appraisals" ranged from $130K to $205K and the relocation company didn't know what to do with a property like that.

Moving out of a house after 26 years was a challenge. It was embarrassing how much stuff we accumulated. I know I've still kept too much (teachers are packrats), but we probably could have filled three dumpsters with no longer needed papers, toys, and such. That doesn't include the three pick-up truck loads of donated clothes and furniture.

On to family matters.

I resigned my position of director of the Jackson River Governor's School and am now unemployed. It was time to move on anyway, as the Governor's School was moving to a "virtual" format, and I'm a face-to-face person. I'll probably take a year off, then find a job in Raleigh. Who knows? Right now I'm enjoying the freedom to take long weekends to visit the kids and families.

David graduated from Carnegie Mellon in June 2006 with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and a minor in music performance (euphonium). He fell in love with Pittsburgh and lives in a house on the South Side Slopes and pretends it's really San Francisco. After graduation he bicycled solo from San Francisco to Assateague Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore. He still races in Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania when his job permits. He's a mechanical engineer for Red Zone Robotics and plays euphonium in the Allegheny Brass Band.

Christy is graduating from Oberlin in June. She wants to pursue forestry and environmental management. Right now she's in the midst of grad school applications. Christy has used her summers to sample different parts of the country. She spent one summer killing weeds and mowing backcountry sites in the Smoky Mountains. The next summer she got an undergraduate research position at the Harvard Forest in western Massachusetts. Last summer she worked for the Nature Conservancy in northwestern Montana and came very close to getting evicted from her cabin by forest fires. She also had "my" car for the summer and could not keep packrats from taking up residence under the hood. Within two minutes of parking the car, you could watch the packrats jump up into the engine area and start making a nest. When she took the car to town for an oil change, the mechanic said, "You must work for the Nature Conservancy" as soon as he popped the hood!

John has embarked on a different path. He graduated from high school last June and started his plebe year at West Point on July 2. He's doing great. He's able to tolerate (or just let be) all those things that are part of West Point that would drive me out in a matter of hours (if not minutes). West Point is a great place to visit. "Plebe Parent Weekend" way outdid any of the other parents' weekends we've been to. If anyone knows of other vehicles with both Oberlin (on the left side, of course) and West Point (right side) stickers, I'd love to know! We like to think that we raised independent-minded children!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Sue & Lon

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