[Gathnet] Masmusc at aol.com, oinkflyer at earthlink.net, margaret_dobson at sil.org

[stuart g gathman]

Dear Gathnetters.

I see that I haven't improved my writing frequency as of yet.   Sorry.  
A lot of things have been happening in the new year.  First of all,  
Jim's ship the USS Paul Hamilton has been cruising the west coast of the 
US.  We were able to drive up to Port Huenemie last week end and visit 
chief Jim on his ship and to spend Sunday afternoon with him enjoying 
the wine growing country north of Santa Barbara.  Our Beth was able to 
accompany us on this excursion and I think all had a wonderful time.  My 
only grip was that most of the growers in that area charge for wine 
tasting, unlike when we visited the Napa valley and other places 
before.  I guess that they think that Santa Barbara people can afford to 
pay the price for tasting since there is a lot of wealth in that little 
retirement town. 

We drove up on Saturday and were able to spend Saturday afternoon and 
share supper with the Orrs of Santa Barbara  (long time gathnetters). 
This was also a very enjoyable experience as we got to catch up on 
family news with my cousin Beth Orr.  (That is the reason we have to 
differentiate between the two Beths when we visit up there!)

Another wonderful thing is that Anne went to visit her heart doctor last 
week and he still found her problem completely gone.  Hence she is off 
of most of her hated medications!!!

A very sad thing happened this last Sunday evening when we heard that 
our pastor had resigned from our little church.  That will make for a 
lot of changes there.  I hope it survives.

Jim's ship is now here in San Diego and the McClatchy kids had a chance 
yesterday to visit the ship.  We spent this last Sunday afternoon with 
Jim also.  He plans on coming out to the house this afternoon to 
celebrate Anne's birthday. 

Along the more mundane things,  some of you might be interested in the 
fact that I have hired a bulldozer man to make a flat road from the 
street to my barn.  My steep dirt road didn't do too well in the rains 
this year and only my tractor can negotiate the road at this time. 

love to you all,   der alte Grossvater