Dad’s Weekly Report

Update on this past week’s snowfall.  From Monday through Saturday Flagstaff had 53.8 inches of snow, 5.27 inches of water.

Dear Family,

We are at the end of a week long snow storm. Over the past week we officially got 45.7 inches of snow. Today is Saturday and the worst snow day was Thursday. That day we got 19.6 inches of snow with 4.3 inches water. In the evening the snow turned to rain which melted some of the snow so we only have about 30 inches of snow on the level. Here are two pictures that Sandy took from our back deck.

One is at the start of our week and one is near the end. We have been shoveling snow several times a day and I am getting pretty sore. Today we dug Allen’s car out of the snow. We haven’t used it this week and it had about 2 feet of snow on the roof. They have been plowing our condo’s parking area and road at least once a day and the piles are pretty high. Hopefully they will come back today and move the snow that we knocked off Allen’s car. Here is a picture of where Allen’s car was.

I was told that they never close my work. Thursday I went to work in the morning. It was snowing hard. I left before noon, put the chains on my car and drove home. Friday they canceled work. Several places with flat roofs had their roofs collapse including the local ice skating rink and JoAnn’s Fabrics store, (Sandy is sad about that.). We are supposed to have a couple of days of sunshine before the next storm so hopefully the snowplows will have a chance to keep up. They are generally doing a great job.

I have been to my new job for 2 weeks now. It is a lot different than my previous company. They make tubes that go into your blood vessels to repair aneurisms. Since it is an implantable medical device they are closely monitored by the FDA. So there is lots of regulations and lots of forms to fill out. There are papers to fill out and procedures to follow for about everything. Nevertheless they are quite behind the industry norms in Supplier Quality which is my job. So there are lots of chances for me to help them. So far I have been meeting people, reading procedures and generally trying to figure out what I am supposed to be doing.

Our house is still up for sale. The real estate agent is convinced that we need a fence to enclose the back so we are going to spend some money to have a fence built. We both think that it will not be a great idea but hopefully the agent knows better than us. Yesterday we heard that the garbage disposal broke in the basement apartment. Luckily we purchased insurance when we listed the house that will cover the repair.

Sandy and I have been driving around Flagstaff to see where we might want to buy a house. Unfortunately there are not too many for sale. I sure hope the house sells soon so that we can get on with our move. It is kind of annoying not having all our stuff.

Well that is all the news. I hope that all is well with you. Take care.

Love,

John

Dear Family,

Happy New Year to you all. We moved to Flagstaff, AZ this week. Monday I start my new job at W.L.Gore Company. It is a little scary to start all over, but I am excited to have work again and I think that it is a really great company. We are now in temporary housing which the company is paying for, for up to three months. Hopefully during that time our house in Washington will sell and then we will fly back there, supervise the packing of our belongings and move to a new house here.

On Tuesday afternoon it started snowing in Camas and snowed pretty much all night. Luckily it was warm enough that not much stuck to the roads. We left Camas on Wednesday morning with our small white car and Allen’s car and drove to Fresno, CA. It took us just about 14 hours. Then on Thursday, another 10 hours driving brought us to Flagstaff. We stayed in a motel on Thursday and then moved into our place on Friday morning. We brought just what we could jam into our two little cars. The place we are staying is a condo. We think that it is owned by someone who lives in Phoenix or Tucson and is there summer home. They just rent it out during the winter. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large room that is the kitchen, eating area and family room. It also has a washer & dryer in the front hall. It is pretty nice and will be fine for us. Hopefully we won’t have to be here very long. Here is a picture. Ours is the lower right. You can see we have quite a bit of snow on the ground. It gets cold here, especially when the sun goes down, lots of blue sky though.

Izzie, our dog is the most upset about our move. She rode in the car fine, sitting on her bed on top of all of our stuff. However she is not used to the new place and gets very upset if we leave her at all.

We had a great Christmas. All our kids except for Lyle and Emily came to see us. We weren’t expecting Ruth & Curt to be there and they surprised us. Ruth called Sandy to ask her what she was doing. Sandy said that the UPS guy was there delivering the last of the Christmas packages. Ruth said no there was one more coming and then walked up to our door. It was a great surprise.

Christmas Eve we went to April’s parents home for a nice dinner and party. On Christmas morning everyone was at our house to open presents. We got a ton of really nice gifts. Everyone was very generous. I am afraid our gift giving was sparse this year because of my being out of work for 6 months. Thank you everyone.

We have already had two sets of visitors. On Thursday night when we arrived, Candy, Philis, LaNell & Greg were staying in Flagstaff. We met at a restaurant for dinner then played some games. It was a nice New Years Eve celebration. Then yesterday Dale and Ann came for a short visit. They were on their way from a visit to Beaver, UT.

Well we have lots to learn about our new home and job. It will be a fun new adventure.

Love,

John