Time for our annual Christmas letter.Its longer this year as we have had more time to write it and given how quiet Christmas will be this year we are hoping most of you will have more time to read it.
Prior to late March, it was a pretty normal year for pretty much everyone.

Gary was driving the 50 minutes or so to work every day. Ryan was working for FDM Group (a consultancy) posted to Fannie Mae and living in Herndon, VA and anticipating being offered a position with Fannie Mae as a regular employee. Gillian was recovering from her illness & a bad break up.

And then COVID.

Gary began working from home in March, and in the succeeding 9 months has actually physically been in to work 3 or 4 times. Fannie Mae laid off its consultants, and FDM carried Ryan for several months, then let him go.
So Ryan began laying in plans to move from Virginia to New Mexico. Of course, he looked for work ... but no one expected his search to bear fruit. There was a pretty serious recession going on.
(CUE TRUMPETS)
And then a miracle happened. Some company found his CV on Monster.com and asked if he was interested in interviewing ... they gave him 2 interviews on the same day ... and he ended up with a job offer (that same day) and a new employer. They gave him a hefty raise. So Ryan's plans to relocate to NM were scuttled, and he is starting to look like a long term Virginia resident.

Carolyn interviewed at the University of New Mexico in early February which at the time only had a visiting professorship which involves teaching. Later in early summer a clinical supervision position opened but ultimately was not funded due to the pandemic. In the late summer a part-time position opened but was almost immediately replaced by a full-time position supervising remotely. Carolyn decided that is not what she wants to do and especially not full-time. So she is crossing her fingers that eventually there will be a real live part-time position for a clinical supervisor as she really misses that work with graduate students.

Meanwhile, in the summer Gary & Carolyn had to learn how to care for the pool. It was difficult at first but we developed a rhythm, and managed to keep the water pretty clear all summer.

This in addition to the work that we did on the house. Painting touch ups ... gardening ... repairs ... decorating. We redid the shower in the master bath with new glass and a new color. We had a hard time finding workmen who weren't charging double during the pandemic but found someone to fix the wooden spindles on our balcony. We had the furnace fixed, the roof fixed (a couple of small leaks in the new roof), solar panels installed.

Our garden didn't fare as well. Our big beautiful trees in the back yard got bark beetle and had to be removed as they were dying. Two of the three fruitless olive trees died too, the third seems to be doing okay but apparently it gets too cold for that species, so we've got incandescent Christmas lights all over it. Trying to rescue the doomed plants consumed a lot of Carolyn's time ... along with planning their replacements. Gary meanwhile performed maintenance delayed for more than a decade on the irrigation system. There are still some shrubs struggling with fungus (which we are hoping can be cured) ... but Carolyn did get some very robust herbs growing, which have survived transplant into a pot and are thriving under a growing light in the basement.

We had our own personal run in with some bats having nothing to do with COVID. We kept noticing what looked like mouse poop near the front door in the outside vestibule. It turned out to not be mouse scat, but bat scat. The bats were hanging from the top of the vestibule walls. While we didn't mind the bats, the poop was definitely not welcome. We tried moth balls (bats ignored them), ground and cooked spices (Smelled yummy, bats ignored them) and squirting the bats with a garden hose. Gary constructed a frame with PVC pipe and put up some mosquito netting ... the hose and the netting together seemed to do the trick. We'll see if the bats return next summer. The old Sesame Street skit, "Batty Bat" kept ringing in our ears.

In addition to our work around our new home, Carolyn does what she does best when things get tough. Work out. A lot. As she had to leave the gym at the beginning of the pandemic she downloaded an online fitness app for yoga and pilates and other exercise and of course swam daily in the pool. She took walks and bike rides with Gillian. And she joined a local Jazzercise group who meet remotely and she is hoping to meet in person next year. Unfortunately her body did not cooperate with the onslaught this time and we ended up in the emergency room with her knee blown up to twice it’s size. It turned out to be bursitis due to the cartilage wearing away under the patella (knee cap) which has been occurring now for the past 15 years.

At the same time she experienced pain in her wrists which was also due to the wearing away of cartilage. It was fortunate that she was able to at least swim. Over the past 5 months, the inflammation has eased and she received both a cortisone injection and then an injection of gel into the knee which lubricates the joint for six months. This has helped for the time being until she has a partial knee replacement. Anyone who knows Carolyn well has been constantly yelling at her to slow down and not overdo it which is easier said than done.

Gary's & Gillian's judo school has closed - permanently - because with COVID they couldn't make rent. Mushing events are being canceled, so it looks like he won't be going to any events. Folk dancing has been canceled, or more accurately been moved to unsatisfying ZOOM meetings. He exercised in the pool all summer (100 pool lengths ~= 1 km), and is now running the dogs almost every day by the Rio Grande.

Hopefully the new administration will institute a national policy to combat the COVID infections, and the old administration will not actively detract from it. Hopefully by Christmas 2021 we won't be in the midst of an uncontrolled pandemic. We know people who got sick with COVID, and we know people who have died from it. We don't have any time for folks claiming this is just a mild flu.

We have all been very grateful for our refuge here in Rio Rancho. There is plenty of open space and places to enjoy being outside along the Rio Grande river* right by our house. We have enjoyed the pool every day during the summer and the daily views of the mountains that change every minute of the day and offer fabulous sunsets.

We are gradually adapting to life in the Wild West. There are some interesting animals including hawks, snakes, giant centipedes, mountain lions, bobcats and coyotes that make off with small pets. Gary frequently sees coyotes when he's out running the dogs in the very early morning. Thanks to our garden walls and regular extermination service we have not had any issues on our property except for a centipede a half foot long that was dead (but Vita was loath to part with….) Carolyn stepped on a snake on the trails but we think it was a milk snake that is very shy and was no happier than Carolyn was to make the encounter. Both slithered or ran in opposite directions.  

We also experienced crazy weather this year but fortunately no fires. Just smoke that blew towards us from California and micro dust from the dry conditions in the desert. The summer is usually the rainy season but not this year. We had the second hottest and the driest August on record and were very thankful for central air-conditioning and a pool to jump into. This Autumn was the coolest Fall in a while with three falls of snow so far and our first ski this month

Carolyn hopes to visit Britain next year and also Chicago and LA. Her flights to all those places were canceled and credits given. So maybe she will see her friends and family on those trips and get to spend time with her brother and family in Chester, England as was planned and also canceled last June. Carolyn’s Mum is doing as well as can be expected and we were blessed with the best possible place to shelter her from this pandemic in North Wales. The manager of Haulfryn was nominated and received an award for her handling of COVID in a care home where everyone stayed well despite she and her husband getting it themselves. It has maintained its cheerful and supportive atmosphere during all of these trails and tribulations and the staff have been very helpful keeping Carolyn and her Mum in touch. They chat via Face Time a couple of times a week, and her Mum seems to benefit a lot from that contact and stimulation talking, looking at photos and even accompanying her around the house on the screen. What a marvelous thing technology has been this year.

Gary is hoping to get to Iron River and elsewhere in the Midwest during 2021. He finally feels unpacked in Albuquerque, but misses his old friends. We all do.

Gillian has fallen in love with the most geographically inconvenient partner yet: a man in Australia (her fellow Yanks apparently aren't good enough for her anymore). So she is now looking forward to seeing him once  international travel restrictions  are lifted.

Maybe the less we say about politics and the election this year, the better. We do have some friends on the other side of the aisle and it has been a strain. We also live in a very conservative enclave apparently for a “blue state” so we have kept our heads down. Not that it was difficult, given that we are not socializing during the pandemic. Just as well perhaps.

We are relieved and glad it’s mostly over, and we hope to go back to a time when the politics of a neighbor or friend is not going to make folks argue and fall out. This has been a very upsetting year in many ways for all of us.

Roll on ’21 and good riddance to 2020. Our hopes are all pinned on the vaccine that please God had better be effective!

We did sort of have a visitor in September, as Matt & Suzie Candelaria parked their RV in our 3rd driveway (constructed specifically for RVs). We did manage a backyard bbq of sorts ... it was great to see them. Matt & Gary worked together at Symantec in LA and particularly enjoyed arguing politics over lunches there. We mostly avoided politics this trip ... everyone feels more passionate than is good for them.

Two of Gillian's close friends moved to Colorado in the late summer. This gave them the opportunity to form a bubble allowing her to see them in late October and early November Thanks to their caution and mask wearing there was no disease transmission.

We do have a spare bedroom available once the danger from the pandemic is behind us. There is a lot of stuff to see around here - enough to keep a tourist busy for a while. We haven't been able to see most of it yet.

We hope you and your families stay safe, well, and happy in 2021. The link to our website (for those folks reading this on paper) is www.hughes-fenchel.net with a selection of photos from this year. Note that Ryan is on none of these photos because sadly we have not seen him since Xmas 2019.

Gary, Carolyn, Gillian, Ryan, Vita, and Gusty

*Author's note: I've always wondered if bi-lingual people cringe when they here the term, "Rio Grande River". It's kind of like saying "The Big River river". Or stranger still, "The big Rio Grande river" which would translate to "The big Big River river".

Sunset

Same view, after first snow

Gary likes to scooter before work. As the days get short, he often sets out before sun up. This picture was taken about 2 miles away from home along the Bosque (right by the Rio Grande). The mountain in the background is Sandia Peak, the same mountain photographed elsewhere.


Fall colors. Rio Rancho is desert, but we do get some rain ... and this particular stretch is by the Rio Grande.