Season’s Greetings for 2003!
We hope that the last year has been good to you and we wish you well at this joyous season and in the year ahead.
Our year was pretty standard and without major trauma. We were a little shocked when Glenn’s Dad required sextuple bypass surgery in February, but he has recovered well and had another busy season of golfing.
Glenn is still working in the Control Tower at Regina Airport. His diabetes is under control and, other than restricting his consumption of chocolate and ice cream, has not been much of an obstacle. He has pretty much settled on a retirement date in April, 2005, giving him just over 35 years of service. Retirement can't come too soon, as work gets in the way of his many other interests. He is still active as president of the Zichydorf Village Association and is spearheading a drive to produce a history book for Saskatchewan's 2005 centennial in addition to his other duties. A ghost from the past has risen from the almost dead. Accutrak Systems Ltd. has converted its ground-based positioning technology and now uses GPS satellite signals to control the hydraulic steering of farm vehicles. Interest is high and sales are gaining momentum. Cash flow has permitted the hiring of staff for most of the day to day operations, but Glenn still supervises the office portion of the business and is involved in frequent strategy, tactics, and policy discussions.
Celeste is still working for Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food, Food Safety Branch. Since her branch was downsized more than a year ago, she has become accustomed to the less harried pace. She actually has free time occasionally! She still walks daily, weather permitting, usually twice or more. Ever since retirement became a topic of discussion, she has maintained that she couldn’t possibly retire as early as Glenn. But, now that the time is getting closer and the plans are firming up, the idea is becoming more appealing. We’ll see.
Carla has been working at Accutrak, mostly on writing and maintaining operator manuals and the web page along with some bookkeeping. She and Tyler are planning on traveling to Japan and teaching English. Their preferred company interviews in February for departures in July. If they are not successful in getting on with this company, they will pursue other options. At long last, after nine years of being a couple, they have decided to get married! Because of the uncertainty of the timing of their departure for Japan, they have decided to wait until they return to tie the knot. They have also taken up the sport of Kendo, Japanese sword fighting, for fun and fitness.
Darren completed his year of working for Cominco and returned to school in September, hopefully with enough money to complete his degree. He enjoyed the change, but not the increase in workload. They are keeping him pretty busy. His girlfriend, Sue, was hired on a contract to build a water distribution system in rural Uganda. She left late in October and will be gone until late in the spring. While he misses her company, it is easier to stay focused on schoolwork. He continues to greatly enjoy the snow boarding, hiking, and camping on the West Coast. During the summer, Glenn and Celeste visited with the request to show them some of the places he likes to go. One of the places was the Stawamus Chief, a mountain at Squamish, B.C. Sue had warned him that this might be too taxing for a couple of old folks like us, but he assured her that we walk daily and were in pretty good shape. It turned out, though, that walking half an hour every day on Regina streets is a little different from climbing a long, steep mountain trail. It was a good workout, but we made it to the top and the view was well worth the effort. We took a lot of pictures so that we could enjoy the view in the comfort of our living room in future, but they don’t really do it justice, so maybe we will have to do it again some time.
Laura is now well established in Pharmacy at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. She shares the main floor of a nice, older bungalow a fifteen-minute walk from her classes. Having been away from home before, she adjusted well, but still misses home and maybe even Devin a little bit. She comes home an average of about every third weekend and he has visited up there a few times. She has become quite good friends with her cousin Lyndon Schwartz, who also started Pharmacy this year. They helped each other get settled, sometimes travel home to Regina together, and Lyndon usually picks Laura up on the way to school. She found quite a difference from the U of Regina. Instead of the theatre seating for large classes that she was accustomed to, her large class of 85 students is crammed into a level room in which you cannot see the front from the back. Instead of checking her marks, managing her account, and doing other personal business online at her convenience, she must queue up in person or on the telephone for most student services. I am sure U of S will get with the 90’s in the near future. (Couldn’t resist that dig at all of our Saskatoon friends and relatives.)
We are looking forward to seeing a new face at Christmas this year. Ryan Jones, from Australia, will be driving in from Vancouver with Darren with a few stops for skiing or snow boarding on the way. Ryan is the son of Barb and Tony Jones who showed Carla and Tyler such good time in Australia last year. We hope we can reciprocate equally as well. The initial plan is to stay with Glenn’s sister Gail’s family, but we hope he will spend a little time with us also.
From our house to yours, have a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!
Glenn, Celeste, Carla, Darren, and Laura Schwartz
We hope that the last year has been good to you and we wish you well at this joyous season and in the year ahead.
Our year was pretty standard and without major trauma. We were a little shocked when Glenn’s Dad required sextuple bypass surgery in February, but he has recovered well and had another busy season of golfing.
Glenn is still working in the Control Tower at Regina Airport. His diabetes is under control and, other than restricting his consumption of chocolate and ice cream, has not been much of an obstacle. He has pretty much settled on a retirement date in April, 2005, giving him just over 35 years of service. Retirement can't come too soon, as work gets in the way of his many other interests. He is still active as president of the Zichydorf Village Association and is spearheading a drive to produce a history book for Saskatchewan's 2005 centennial in addition to his other duties. A ghost from the past has risen from the almost dead. Accutrak Systems Ltd. has converted its ground-based positioning technology and now uses GPS satellite signals to control the hydraulic steering of farm vehicles. Interest is high and sales are gaining momentum. Cash flow has permitted the hiring of staff for most of the day to day operations, but Glenn still supervises the office portion of the business and is involved in frequent strategy, tactics, and policy discussions.
Celeste is still working for Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food, Food Safety Branch. Since her branch was downsized more than a year ago, she has become accustomed to the less harried pace. She actually has free time occasionally! She still walks daily, weather permitting, usually twice or more. Ever since retirement became a topic of discussion, she has maintained that she couldn’t possibly retire as early as Glenn. But, now that the time is getting closer and the plans are firming up, the idea is becoming more appealing. We’ll see.
Carla has been working at Accutrak, mostly on writing and maintaining operator manuals and the web page along with some bookkeeping. She and Tyler are planning on traveling to Japan and teaching English. Their preferred company interviews in February for departures in July. If they are not successful in getting on with this company, they will pursue other options. At long last, after nine years of being a couple, they have decided to get married! Because of the uncertainty of the timing of their departure for Japan, they have decided to wait until they return to tie the knot. They have also taken up the sport of Kendo, Japanese sword fighting, for fun and fitness.
Darren completed his year of working for Cominco and returned to school in September, hopefully with enough money to complete his degree. He enjoyed the change, but not the increase in workload. They are keeping him pretty busy. His girlfriend, Sue, was hired on a contract to build a water distribution system in rural Uganda. She left late in October and will be gone until late in the spring. While he misses her company, it is easier to stay focused on schoolwork. He continues to greatly enjoy the snow boarding, hiking, and camping on the West Coast. During the summer, Glenn and Celeste visited with the request to show them some of the places he likes to go. One of the places was the Stawamus Chief, a mountain at Squamish, B.C. Sue had warned him that this might be too taxing for a couple of old folks like us, but he assured her that we walk daily and were in pretty good shape. It turned out, though, that walking half an hour every day on Regina streets is a little different from climbing a long, steep mountain trail. It was a good workout, but we made it to the top and the view was well worth the effort. We took a lot of pictures so that we could enjoy the view in the comfort of our living room in future, but they don’t really do it justice, so maybe we will have to do it again some time.Laura is now well established in Pharmacy at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. She shares the main floor of a nice, older bungalow a fifteen-minute walk from her classes. Having been away from home before, she adjusted well, but still misses home and maybe even Devin a little bit. She comes home an average of about every third weekend and he has visited up there a few times. She has become quite good friends with her cousin Lyndon Schwartz, who also started Pharmacy this year. They helped each other get settled, sometimes travel home to Regina together, and Lyndon usually picks Laura up on the way to school. She found quite a difference from the U of Regina. Instead of the theatre seating for large classes that she was accustomed to, her large class of 85 students is crammed into a level room in which you cannot see the front from the back. Instead of checking her marks, managing her account, and doing other personal business online at her convenience, she must queue up in person or on the telephone for most student services. I am sure U of S will get with the 90’s in the near future. (Couldn’t resist that dig at all of our Saskatoon friends and relatives.)
We are looking forward to seeing a new face at Christmas this year. Ryan Jones, from Australia, will be driving in from Vancouver with Darren with a few stops for skiing or snow boarding on the way. Ryan is the son of Barb and Tony Jones who showed Carla and Tyler such good time in Australia last year. We hope we can reciprocate equally as well. The initial plan is to stay with Glenn’s sister Gail’s family, but we hope he will spend a little time with us also.
From our house to yours, have a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!
Glenn, Celeste, Carla, Darren, and Laura Schwartz
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