Subject: Weekend Update: New Year 2001
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2001 11:30:08 -0500

Happy New Year!

Late again.  Last Saturday, in Northern Massachuseetts, Pepperell was
blanketed by a full foot of snow.  This, while receiving Christmas
cards from Down Under (thanks Harry) where the temperatures are a
balmy 32 degrees - centigrade (very warm and summery).  Southern
California checked in yesterday with sunny and warm in the 80s
(farenheit), and the Campbells in Africa should be watching their
grapes ripen soon, I would guess.  Meanwhile, I failed to start a
small used snow thrower that came my way, so we revved up the family
once again and got six shovels working to dig out the driveway at 9
o'clock in the evening as the storm wound down.  My lower back says
that stacking wood is a little easier.  It isn't all work and no play,
by the way.  Most of the day was spent on whatever activities that
contented everyone.  I contented myself with shoveling the walk every
3 or 4 inches that fell.

After the big job, we all put on our bathing suits, thinking warm
thoughts about our neighbors in other parts of the world, and got in
the hot tub - first time all together as a family, I think - family
bath time!  I opened one of the windows to scoop some snow off the
sill and throw it on a daughter or two or three.

Pepperell was jolted that day.  A 15-year old boy, about a mile or so
from our house, was killed when he ran his snowmobile in front of a
sanding truck at a time where visibility was at its worst.  One of
Emily's classmates, something like this seems to affect the entire
population of a small town.  You never know when you're going to go.

Thanks to Meredith, we found out that Sunday service at church was
abbreviated to one service at 11 o'clock.  Too late for some of us to
go back to bed, but not all.  At church, the home-visiting college
students each told us how college life was treating them.  Miranda
made us cry, and Jessica made us laugh, and both of them made me
proud.

In the afternoon, New Year's Eve day, my brother Stephen and his
family made their annual pilgrimage to spend the night with us, a
tradition he started a few years back.  We brought in some Chinese
food.  With is jaw wired shut, Steve pureed some hot and sour soup to
mince the chunks into a slurry.  Sharon also had a taste and said it
was good if you can get past the look of it.  I could not.  I would
not. Not me.

On Monday morning, 2001, we made them a heart-stopping breakfast of
pancakes, eggs and bacon, and home fries made in bacon grease.  (I
should serve that with a chaser of some artery-cleaning antidote.)
Steve could only smell it.  The rest of us made it all disappear.

We took the older girls back to college that evening.  Miranda has
fogotten her purse and keys but fortuenately she thought of it only 15
minutes into our trip to Quincy, so the detour wasn't so bad.  I did
wonder if I was going to knock on Brian and Jill's door that night
because my gas guage told me I didn't have enough to get back to
Pepperell that night and most of the gas stations were closed for New
Year's Day.  Most means not all, and I found one to tank up and get us
home.

I am looking forward to a little routine for a while.  Everyone has
returned to work with a zeal to get out from under the backlog they
created for themselves over the holiday period.  January should prove
a busy month, but at work and not elsewhere.  So life balances out; at
least it is what we hope for.

Have a blessed New Year, and God bless us, every one!

Mark
--
+---_-----------+ Mark Metcalfe, metcalfe@cadence.com
| c a d e n c e | Cadence Design Systems, Inc.    Phone: (978) 446-6451
+---------------+ PCB Systems Division, Technical Communications Manager