Dave Howe's 2005 New Year Letter

January 1, 2005

Dear Family and Friends,

Just when you thought it was safe to open the mailbox, when you thought the last of the end-of-the-year family letters had been delivered… the dreaded New Year’s Day letter shows up!

As you all know, alongside the road on every highway, there are mile markers, each one numbering the distance from some location. In addition to this number, each mile marker has written upon it a summary description of the area contained within that mile. Some may just say “Farmland”, while others may contain several paragraphs describing various points of interest. In a similar, yet very different way, years act like these mile markers in our lives, and, at the end of each year, we sit down and write a summary description of the events of that year. For some years, a simple “Farmland” will do as a description, while others may contain several paragraphs describing various points of interest.

My step-father, Ernie Hugenbruch, passed away in March of this year. I’ll always remember Ernie as the embodiment of earnestness – whether it was building a set of book-shelves, or learning how to use Windows on the computer, he always put 100 percent effort into it.

I remember selling him my old PC back in 1987 and the time and effort he spent learning how to use it. He used that computer for the next 13 years. Ernie worked with what he had, and once he found a good way of doing something, he stuck with it!

At the beginning of May, my mother, sister and I took a trip to Key West. That place is for the birds – literally! Our first breakfast there was spent watching Mom feed the rooster that was loitering on the sidewalk. And then there was the huge parrot with the loud, piercing voice at the place we had lunch. Still, it was a beautiful place in its own way and we had fun shopping, swimming and visiting the Butterfly Museum.

Later in May, I took a trip to visit my Uncle Jim, Mark and cousin Zoey in Yonkers with my father and stepmother Susan. It was a time of dogs, blueberry pancakes and Broadway shows. Ok, it was just one Broadway show (Mama Mia!), but it was my first (I think), and it was great fun seeing it, and seeing Jim and Mark’s beautiful old new house. Poor Zoey was not only sick, but had to do schoolwork just about the whole time. But we did manage to fit a game of Scattergories in there!

In July, I took a few weeks off from work and went off on a road trip. For those of you with internet access, you can read a full report at:

http://howehome.net/Davidvacation/SummerTrip2004.html

For those of you who do not have internet access, I am enclosing a printed copy of my long and painfully detailed report. Needless to say, my trip was great fun, and I was pleasantly reminded of how kind, warmhearted and generous my relatives are.

My sister Julie and her husband Jim adopted a little boy from Guatemala in August. They have named him Nathaniel and he’s been the star of every family gathering we’ve had since then. Again, for those of you with internet access, you can see photos at:

http://howehome.net/howelee/NathanielLee-Welcome.html

Much more has happened this year: a trip to Kripalu (a yoga retreat: http://www.kripalu.org) with my mother and sister; the house-painting (and painting and painting) party for my mother; the Howe reunion at Watkins Glen (no group picture this year!); Thanksgiving and game night at my father and Susan’s; and many other happenings, events, and occurrences. I learned that my cat Zachary has the beginnings of kidney disease (he’s chosen a very controversial treatment called extreme sleep exposure therapy!). I’ve been assured by the vet that this (the kidney disease, not the therapy) is common and not a big cause for concern yet.

In November my step-niece (Ernie’s grand-daughter) Meghann was married at a small church at the Genesee Country Museum. Photos are at:

http://btiefert.smugmug.com

I now feel officially “old”!

This letter could easily be twice as long, and I’m sure I’ve left out a thing or two. But I really didn’t want to go over two pages. So, as Garrison Keillor intones at the end of his daily Writer’s Almanac…

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch…^®

…and don’t tell Garrison I used his trademark!

Love,

Dave,
Sarah and Zachary