Merry Christmas 2018!
Around Thanksgiving, Susan and I were discussing this upcoming news letter and I pondered “if we just change the date on last year's letter, do you think anyone will notice?” But purpose of this annual missive is to reflect on the year and share it with our friends and family. Despite occasional feelings of déjà vu, I assure you, dear reader that this is a new letter; it's just that little changes as we go about enjoying our lives together.
Susan is still working at L & S, counting down her days until retirement. If we could find health insurance at a reasonable price, she'd be retired right now. But I'm sure that the next two years will fly by. J It's just that she has so many things that she would rather do! This year she's been on three retreats; two knitting and one sewing. During the sewing weekend she made 42 pillow cases. When a child goes into Social Services, they often go empty handed, without any of their clothes, toys, etc. A local organization puts together a care package to help them, A pillow case, filled with toiletries, change of under wear, other things that they need; things that they can call their own. During one of the knitting retreats, Susan turned out 15 olive drab stocking caps that can be used as helmet liners for our military. Susan also continues to make sanitary kits for girls around the world. Check out Days for Girls () on the web. The local team that Susan leads made and shipped over two hundred kits this year. And now that it's winter, she makes breakfast for 20-25 people at the Warming Center (a local homeless shelter) every Sunday.
As to the rest of the family, Dalyte moved to new barn (farther from home but more convenient to trails). All Spring, Summer, and Fall Susan and another boarder from the barn has gone out with the trailer. There are a number of trails available for horse riding in the county, and Susan knows them all. In fact, she's been invited to join the county board of overseers that create and upkeep these trails. Yes dear reader she does like to stay busy!
Carlotta continues to let us know (at all hours) what she needs. The vet is concerned about her kidneys, but right now everything is stable.
As for Paul, he continues to enjoy retirement, doing as little as possible every day that he can. He highly recommends retirement to one and all.
I did save our one adventure of the year to end this letter. Susan encourages me to leave the county at least once a year, so this Summer, she invited me to ride along with her on a road trip. She heard about a horse trail in Lincoln county and wanted to inspect it before she hauled the trailer up there. Is there parking? Is there room to easily turn the trailer around? How remote is it? So we set out to find out. No big deal, about an hour north in Antigo we found the road to the trail park; part way there the road did become a dirt road but again no big deal, wide and well maintained. The park was right where she thought it was and was set up nicely. As we left the park, Susan turned the other way; she had checked out a map that shows this should bring us to a road that will drop us back down on the west side of Wausau. You can never go back the way you came. There might be something different to see on the way home. It was a pleasant afternoon, and I was enjoying the ride so again no big deal. Gradually this dirt road got narrower and rougher, and we noticed that we hadn't seen any houses or farms in a while. Susan was driving our Vibe, so as the road gradually changed, she gradually slowed our speed. After a while we realized that something was wrong. We were in the forest primeval, on a track barely wide enough for the car; no shoulder, no place to turn around, with large boulders in the road bed every so often. Susan kept our progress to a crawl, (At one point, I noticed a cloud of big mosquitoes keeping pace with us in hope of lunch) winding as much as she could around the rocks. She's a careful driver and protected the undercarriage while maintaining forward motion. And yes, gradually her temperament changed, from concerned to nervous to praying out loud; at times right on the edge of panic. I wasn't driving, I knew she was doing a good job, and I knew we had no options but to continue, so I stayed calm, relaxed and cool, giving her encouragement, letting her know that everything will be okay. We got to a fork in the road, Susan asked “which way do we go?” I said turn right and follow the sign pointing the direction to a bar ahead. We continued on and on and on. Susan was sure that we would die in these woods. Suddenly we went around a bend and the forest turned to meadow and we saw pavement about fifty feet to our left. Once Susan was on the pavement, I confessed I was never so scared in my whole life, but that I was sure that she would have panicked if I had let her know. When we got home, we found out the dirt “road” was an ATV/snow mobile trail, but we never saw any road sign indicating the change. A couple of weeks later, Susan found out that two other people at the barn made the same mistake and drove on the same ATV trail; at least they had pickup trucks. Susan and I still laugh about our adventure; but we do have a new rule: No dirt roads, maybe a dirt driveway, if you can see the house, but no dirt roads!
Well, dear reader, this brings us to the end for this year. Enjoy Christmas and enjoy Life!
God's blessings to you for the coming year.
Susan and Paul Stomieroski
6310 Setter Road
Weston, WI 54476
(715) 355-7769
Susan@Stomieroski.com
Paul@Stomieroski.com
Return to list of Christmas letters