The Bag Lady's 2016 Christmas letter

Christmas 2016

We’re in Tucson again, year five, for the winter. This time we arrived on November 4^th. Longer each year, it seems. But we have no plans to move here permanently. We are Washington people!

Since we got here we appear to have dislodged the javalina who’d made a home under our park model. We’ve successfully removed a palo verde tree that, while beautiful, was a nuisance to the neighborhood with its messy needles and plentiful pollen. Art was delighted to be able to climb the tree to limb it before the professionals came in, and to supervise those pros from the roof.    

Indoors, we’re enhancing our winter home little by little, with silk plants and other touches. Just 620 square feet. Just right.

At home, we had a full house for most of the year, but that is changing. My sister Alyx and her husband Virgil found a place of their own in Snoqualmie – a rural house with plenty of room for their cats and chickens. They moved in November after two and a half years in their RV in our back yard.

And Peter, Art’s son, will be graduating from nursing school in March, taking his boards and then, he hopes, finding a job and a place of his own.

It will be quiet with just Art and me and the cat again. And more work for us, since we’ll be responsible for the garden after two years of other residents tending it. We were spoiled with good organic vegetables grown on our property but produced by others.

Here in Arizona, Art had a leading role last March in the Voyager’s production of Oklahoma! Our winter last year was scheduled around his rehearsals. Art’s daughter Laura and son Peter flew in for the production, which delighted Art.  

Summer was full of travel. I flew from Seattle to Tucson in May to go to the dentist in Mexico. I needed a root canal and a crown, and even with the airfare the cost was half of what it would have been in Washington.  

In June Art and I took a road trip ending in Bend, Oregon, at a family gathering planned by Art’s daughter Melissa and son-in-law Scott. We especially enjoyed a moonlight canoe outing.

I took solo trips to Muskoka, Ontario to visit my friend Judy; to Chautauqua, New York for a fascinating week themed “The Future of Cities”; to Oinofyta, Greece to volunteer for a week at a refugee camp; to a five-day writers’ workshop on Vashon Island, Washington; and back to Oinofyta for two weeks in October.

Art and I flew to Maine in September for yet another cruise on the Schooner Heritage.

Now, back at the Voyager, it’s not even high season yet, but already Art is busy with rehearsals for this year’s Evening of One-Act Plays. I’m helping out as assistant producer.

In late March I’m planning to return to the refugee camp in Greece for a month. And Art will be coming with me. He’ll be very useful as handyman, driver and shopper/cook.

We’re wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Art and Linda