Staying in touch

I had breakfast with an old Hart & Cooley pal this week. Bob is still employed (for a while) there and he and his wife venture to Newberg to see his son and daughter-in-law and grand kids several times a year. We limit our contacts to an hour a couple of times a year. They keep a very busy schedule when they are here. It reminds us of the days gone by when we made 2-3 trips west a year not so long ago. Bob's last statement to me was to keep blogging as that was his best way of staying abreast of things going on in our lives here in Newberg.

I gave up writing Christmas letters. I find them harder and harder to write and with blogging, I am much more current with those who really want to know. We do so appreciate those who stay in touch with us on a regular basis through email, blog reading, notes and phone calls...it makes us feel less detached from our former life. So keep the news flowing.

I have one reader in Fennville who also blogs, so it is as if we are abreast of each other's families and acquaintances. Which is to say more of you should be blogging. It works.

Aleene is working on a project at church this morning, so I am finishing up grades for my class that just finished. I had one wayward child who ultimately stood me up twice to get her final project done. I was waiting for her...but no longer. With technology, we can do lots of stuff over the internet, but it is hard to do oral presentations that way. Maybe some day I will accept a video instead of standing in front of the class and speaking, but not yet.

On the weather....got lots of cards from folks concerned about us and the weather. As ghastly as the storms were two weeks ago (120 mph winds and rain) that was primarily at the coast. The localized stuff was due to saturated ground and rivers flooding that flow through canyons. We never lost power. The big, lazy Willamette hardly flinched with this most recent storm. That is what we have to watch. About every 30 years it floods parts of Newberg...never as far as our house, but pictures of the last one in the mid 90s were not pretty.

I noticed that the Sentinel commented about the over hyped weather forecasts for last week in W. Michigan. They do that here, too. I know why that happens; they don't want to under forecast a major event. They have done that, too. Weather forecasters have a tough job. It makes me wonder if the dire predictions about global warming are a bit over hyped as well...just so they can error on the side of safety. Let's see now, if forecasting the next 24 hours is difficult what chance do climate change forecasts for the next 24 years have of being correct? I wonder.