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We hope this letter
finds you healthy and happy for the holiday season. For us, it marks about 1˝ years since we
moved from Ohio to North Carolina. We still haven’t accomplished all the things
we want to do around the house such as replacing paint and wallpaper but we’re
making some progress. We definitely
enjoy the warmer winter weather, which averages about 15-20° higher than back
in Twinsburg. Even now in late December
birds can still be found singing outside.
On Christmas Eve a cardinal sat outside our garage and sang us a song.
One
thing that really sticks with me is walking out to get the morning paper. Nearly every morning, even though it might be
quite chilly out, I can look up and see stars in a clear sky. That’s a dramatic change from Ohio where if I look up
I’m more likely to see clouds than anything else. During the daytime, you can usually look up
and see a cloudless Carolina
blue sky.
The other thing we find here is how green
everything is. We live in an area that
apparently was never farmed or was farmed so long ago that the trees have all
re-grown. Pines and other trees frame
the roads to such a degree that I commonly refer to ‘driving through a tunnel
of trees’ as we run our errands. Of
course that makes it easier to miss your turn or exit as well since landmarks
are often concealed by the foliage.
Although the year was a tough one for many people
around the world owing to the near-collapse of the global economy, we managed
to make it through ok. Nancy’s original six-month contract with RTI was extended month-by-month until it finally
ended in early December. There are many
people who would have loved to have had a job for most of 2009, so we feel very
fortunate that Nancy
did. Rather than jump right into a job
search, Nancy
decided to take a mini-vacation for the holidays and then see what 2010 brings. I continue to work at IBM and travel to Buffalo, NY. Winters in Buffalo are as tough as you might think, but
at least now I have someplace warmer to return to on weekends.
Our major trip this year was a safari to Tanzania in Africa. The trip
was certainly full of highlights. We
visited the foothills of Kilimanjaro
where we could see the snow-covered mountain, the largest mountain on the
equator. We also visited Ngorongoro
Crater, a volcanic caldera that with high mountain sides that serve as a
natural enclosure for the wildlife inside.
We ended at the Serengeti
and saw every sort of animal imaginable, all nearly close enough to touch. Lions, elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos,
and leopards, all oblivious to our presence.
On the Serengeti we slept in tents and one night the wildebeest and
zebra migrated right through our camp!
Our guides said we were one of the luckiest tour groups they’d ever had,
with perfect weather and perfect animal viewing. In all it felt like we were on some TV wildlife
show. We also met some very nice folks on the trip,
many of whom were serious amateur photographers who shared their pictures with
us. One person on the tour said that
she’d read that the tour was geared for those 50 and over; I replied that I had
a fake ID! Check our online photo
album for more pictures from the trip.
We were homebodies for the rest of the year, with
just two visits to Columbus
for Ohio State football games and other trips to Ohio to see family.
Jackson and Spookie continue
to keep us amused and enjoy the new house.
They often can be found on the screened porch trying to figure out how
to catch one of those squirrels – or even just a leaf fluttering past in the
wind.
We hope we can keep in touch with our friends more
frequently during the year. If you are
on LinkedIn or Facebook please find and connect to us
using the links below.
Happy Holidays!
Nancy and Jerry Canterbury
Last updated 2009/12/26
