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Christmas Letter 1998 Some, I imagine, will consider this the end of an era; as one of the last hold outs finally resorts to writing a Christmas letter. I had actually sworn never to write one but arthritic fingers, rheumatoid hands, physical decrepitude, and perhaps a modicum of physical laziness made it clear that at last the time for such was at hand. I was in a quandry: to break my word about a Christmas letter or to continue to subject friends and family to my increasingly illegible scrawls and scribbles. Then it came to me in a flash, inspired by our fearless leader Bill and his guidance on word definitions. This is not a Christmas letter but a Christmas web page that contains a letter. All the difference in the world. So now I can relax and enjoy writing this. On a more semi-serious note: I did want to learn at least the rudiments of HTML and this seemed to be as good a way as any to make a start. If anyone is interested, check http://members.aol.com/acowell954/index.html occasionally. I may start doing various holiday pages for fun. It's been an interesting year. The Forces of Darkness in Washington finally won their long struggle to put the research lab I worked for out of business. A classic case of unbridled avarice coupled with blinding stupidity and political ineptitude. Millions of tax dollars down the drain. Our money at work. Somebody should write a book! Strange year for the garden, which seems to be controlled by forces beyond my comprehension. Yields seem to have no bearing or correlation with physical input, TLC, or BS (yes bullshit, Trish's uncle raises cattle). Every year it's never again. The fish in our pond are doing well. They have developed a decided preference for commercial fish food and don't seem much to care for the worm-kabobs Trish tries to temp them with. Gets her kind of exasperated. We're beginning to wonder if we'll ever get to have a fish fry. Ungrateful fish! Since we now belong to the landed gentry-thought I'd take a stab at raising bees. Started one hive this year. Didn't get much honey. We had a hot incredibly dry summer and there wasn't much blooming. Guess it was lucky that they managed to stay alive. Better luck next year. If I ever get some honey I'll try my hand at mead. Speaking of which I'm still having fun doing home brew. Tastes great, much more filling, and you save the environment from hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of empty cans and bottles per year. Hard to drink anything but anymore. A highly recommended hobby for all. Now that I'm living a life of leisure it's time to start having fun: the house needs to be rewired, the kitchen remodeled, and the mansion for our country estate needs to be designed and built. We didn't travel much this year. Actually haven't much for years. Those of you who are active and on the move are always welcome to drop in and sit a spell. Hope you all have a merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season and we wish you all the best for the coming year. |