Once more time. If you want to know more see http://rrmanning.blogspot.com.
(Red
text is as originally sent on paper, green
text below each section is more or less the real story.)
Rochelle
looks out the window. She cuts the grass, plants the flowers, sings the songs.
She goes to Montana, to California, (is that really one state?), to Montana, to
Montana, to California, to Montana, and New York, Virginia, Tennessee,
Kentucky, Alabama, Idaho, Utah, Mississippi, but missed seeing Helen Keller’s
house (there’s a joke there she prefers not to tell), even briefly into New
Jersey on foot. What about Arkansas? Oh
yeah, that too. Puamana, but why not St. Martin (in the field?), or Chennai, or
Tel Aviv? Oh, yeah, that one. Do you want to open a hotel, or a B&B? And
what about the music? Did the Wolf get
trapped or did (one of the) Eagles fly with his friends? What about that Beatle? Was it Bailey, or a bug? Did it have Wings?
Sir Lancelot, or Paul? And she uses AT&T on her phone, but Verizon for her
WIFI. Wow, she has a lot of questions. She
plays some games, but not others. Some strings, some buttons make her own
music, make her tougher than she appears. Does she meet kids on the street? At
the restaurant? In the library? Wow, you
are nice! Do you have a boyfriend? But you are probably too old for me, Marian.
There is, of course, nothing really new in New Mexico or Oklahoma, but the car
goes far, maybe next year, Wrigley? No more beehives to the beach, but was
Martha ever really there? More questions. How about McDonalds for strangers? Do
we need a wheelbarrow for that? Or a Facebook page, or a maple tree with blue
flowers?
When
she’s home, Rochelle takes care of the yard, making sure it’s pretty and green.
She is pretty good at it, but she wasn’t home much. Several times this year she
made her way to Montana and California to spend time on Grandma duty as Rachel
and Arrin both moved, both from the northern part of their respective states to
the southern parts (oops, Rachel moved cities last year, but this year she moved from one house to antoher in the same city, and Rochelle helped). She also spent a month+ in Montana with the birth of
grandchild 5. She also did the Utah thing a few times, of course, and Idaho for
good measure for Rich’s HS reunion (among other reasons). She spent last New
Year on Maui with the offspring and offspring2. She saw a BYU football game and had dinner with 2,000
close friends at a U of U banquet honoring the recipient of a scholarship
awarded in memory of Christopher. She accompanied Richard on a weekend road
trip to complete his 50 state bucket list (Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas). She
still lacks Oklahoma.Louisana and New Mexico herself.
Maybe she’ll get to those places someday. Rich wouldn’t stop at Dollywood
on the road trip, but he did make a detour for her to see Graceland and the
Grand Ole Oprey. All that stuff but the
kaibosh on travel to India, Israel or the Caribbean. Maybe next year. She discovered Wolf Trap and
the Verizon Center and took Rich to a Don Henley concert at the former and a
Paul McCartney concert at the latter (his first two concerts, ignoring the
Beach Boys at Stadium of Fire in Provo years ago – Rich argues that didn’t
count as a concert). She hosted about 83 of her sister’s children and
grandchildren and friends for a couple of weeks in the summer. That’s a lot for
a tiny house. They stacked them 3 deep in the laundry room. She played Yahtzee
too many times and won more than her share. When she was home, she spent time
in the local elementary schools in classes and in the library and a local
preschool where she teaches part time, singing, amazing kids with her various
talents, her musical insturments (autoharp and ukulele) and her gift of being nice. She routinely makes quite an
impression on little boys in the local schools. To commemorate Christopher’s
birthday she and Rich went to a park in DC and gave away 100 McDonald’s meals
to homeless people. Chris would have liked that. It was a nice way to honor his
memory. She also planted in the back corner of our yard a small memorial garden
for him with hydrangeas and a Japanese Maple to remind us of our yard and time with
Chris in Connecticut. She thanks all those that shared memories of Chris on
Facebook on his day. It meant a great
deal to her and to all of us.
Richard is
mostly the same but he is taller than average with a BMI that indicates a
problem; he refuses to believe it, but the App really does help. So does
finishing off your bucket list with a road trip. He won a Pulitzer for a purple
hat. He has been telling people for years that it’s not as hard as they say to
get into the Julliard. The door is unlocked most days; all you need to do is
open it. Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin, slippin, slippin…. Where else
would it slip into? He still shares the
Cottage with Rochelle, when one or the other, or both, aren’t somewhere else.
Tiger has nothing to fear. Neither does Dennis Connor or Jimmy Connors. What
about Bobby Riggs? You know Billie beat him. Just ask Ted. How far does a
turtle swim, or a whale splash? Don’t worry Greg LeMond, the world is a big
place. Once again in Pocatello, twice again somewhere else. Thrice or more in
the Bates Motel. Is that Christmas prize from Germany or Belgium? Is that you,
or just an outline? Where there’s a will there’s a trust. Just follow her
around till you get there. She finds exceptionally cute and charming sprogs.
Five of them these days. NYT has nothing to fear; but maybe there should be
more butter in those potatoes, to go with the carrots and peas. Most things are
funnier than you realize, especially after he explains them to you. An extra
foot comes in handy (left or right); after the fact he realized he should have
left the room.
Really,
not much is new for Rich. He remains healthy and happy. His BMI is 26,which
suggests he is overweight, but he refuses to believe it, but he did spend some
time tracking what he ate and his exercise on his phone and he lost 5 pounds.
Paying attention works, he discovered. He wrote a children’s book for Rachel’s
daughter Harper. He thought it was clever. Perhaps more clever than it actually
was. He followed Rochelle around a lot, and took her around some (see above). Work
took him to NYC a few times. You know, the door to the Julliard really is open
during business hours. This and other old jokes keep on coming from him time
and time again. Some people humor him by laughing, others (mostly teenagers in the
neighborhood or at church) just try to ignore him. He tries not to let them. One
teenage boy in our neighborhood gave him a foot off a CPR dummy that had been
discarded at his high school as a gift for Autumnal Equinox. Rich found that
very useful. After Rochelle returned from her month+ in Montana, he put the
foot behind a door in the bathroom with just the toes sticking out. Rochelle
didn’t scream. Too bad. He should have
put it somewhere else. He only golfed once this year and he was really bad.
Much worse than is typical mediocre performance. He also went biking with
Rochelle only once this year. Not so good, I guess, if he wants to be a world
class athlete someday. Maybe he doesn’t. He did meet Billie Jean King and Ted
Koppel this year. That was cool, or joia as some people say. Don’t expect monotonicity
from him.
As for
the kids, Rachel is done, and seems happy about it. Numbers 3 and 4 are about as
close as any integers less than 5 can be. That’s a challenge, but one she can
handle. Landlord, swimming pools, movie stars. Ted Turner hasn’t bought it all
yet. All the kids are cute. Some say it’s due to genetics, others say it’s a
science fair, or Ferris Wheel. Matt Damon has nothing to fear, but maybe Tom
Cruise. Then there’s Shiloh, Harper,
Sam, Gus and Coen. Tooth deprived, brave, smart, determined, beautiful,
handsome, and happy in whatever order seems appropriate. Shaken, not stirred.
Rachel
gave birth to baby #4 (Coen Thomas Allen) in September, just 17 months after
having Gus. As we are told, Coen is a great baby; Gus is adorable, but also
tends to want to do kind of crazy things, which explains why Rochelle spent
five weeks there post Coen delivery to help keep Gus from eating too many
crayons and climbing into too many dangerous situations. Rachel and Shiloh
moved into a new house and are renting out their old one. Property values are
evidently rising in Bozeman as everyone from California wants to live there on
Tuesdays. They joined us all in Disneyland in July. That was fun. Harper (7)
began first grade this year and is a wonderful, kind, smart and all around good
girl.Sam (4) is in preschool. He loves trains and such things. He is smart,
cute, friendly, smart and good. Someday his grandfather will write a book for
him. Shiloh still does that thing he does, and some other things too. He seems
to be happy in Montana. Ask him about
it. It’s really joia, or cool, as some people say. He is not a spy though.
Arrin
is. So is Marcus. And Jonah. You know, northern California is really not where
the Warriors play, so they moved to where Marcus can see the smog clear. The
neighborhood is fancy and Superman flies around the streets with grandpa and
sings loud. Sleep? Dizzyland Pop? Grandma comes and goes, and so does the
gap. Then there is the bean place with
leaves with lots of data to analyze. Would you trust a car from Germany? How
about the UK?
Arrin,
Marcus and Jonah (2) are now in LA, having left Walnut Creek and SF for Marcus
to do an MBA at UCLA. As a consequence
Arrin changed jobs and is working to establish a market analytics function
(essentially) at a relatively new company in LA. It sounds challenging but
rewarding. She loves her little boy, but he is sometimes perhaps more like his
grandfather (Manning) than would be ideal. Jonah is a hoot. He loves to sing, is very independent and
strong willed, and talks very expressively when he wants to impress. Not a big
fan of sleeping on others’ schedules. They also joined us all in Disney and
Jonah was such a fan, and they live close enough, that they go back often. They
all work hard and play enough. Marcus runs races and iron people (you have to
be PC in LA, you know; Donald didn’t win in CA) races on occasion. The dog/sentient
being (LA again) is fine, but I’m sure misses having a yard. Marcus misses the
splash brothers. Maybe he’ll become a Clippers fan : ).
Right Ben? Living by the Bay was fun, it seems, but Utah called,
and he returned, without those kind of plans. It’s all about what you would
expect from the 21st century magic man of the year. Lots of beauty
and imagination. But how many people really know when to calculate (X’X)-1(X’Y)?
He gets too much grief about some things,
but he looks up to the mountains. The horizon isn’t that far away. Then who
knows where, how? But far.
Ben
is at BYU finishing up a degree in Marketing with a minor in Statistics. He spent the summer as an intern at a startup
health care company in San Francisco, living with Arrin and Marcus (kind of
them). He had some bad luck as his car was broken into, his camera ($$$) was
lost and when he got back to Provo, someone stole his bicycle. I thought such things didn’t happen there! He
continues to do photography for fun and some cash. He is talented, kind,
helpful, smart and creative. Some people expect him to get married. He was
selected as a member of the student leadership team for the Marketing department
and is working as a research assistant to one of his professors. He’s busy. He’ll
do well when he’s done. All we wonder is where. It will be fine wherever it is.
We love Christopher. We will see him, we will know
him again in a better realm. We will.
Peace and Good Cheer to all.
Finally,
we do love our son Christopher and miss him always. We are grateful for the
time we had with him in this life. We live in faith and confidence that the separation
will be temporary and that we will have a joyful reunion. We love the Christmas
season that gives us cause to remember the birth and the life of Jesus, in whom
we do find peace. In whatever source you find peace, we wish it for you this
season and always.
Richard
and Rochelle
