Merry Christmas and the very best wishes for a Happy New Year from Northwest Arkansas! We pray that all is well with you and yours and that the past year has been a good one for you too. Despite our best intentions, the past year was as hectic for us as most the others have been. The well-earned rest that is supposed to come with retirement came, and then passed us by quite quickly. Nevertheless, it has been a good year, with a few exceptions, and we are very thankful for a full life, family, friends, and many blessings.
We again had a major sadness early in the year. On the sixth of January, Sylvia’s Father died suddenly. Sylvia and I attended the funeral and Sylvia stayed about a month with her family in England. We’ll be going over to spend the holidays with Mother and Sylvia’s family in a few weeks. It will be good to see them and to have some time back in the old country…looking forward to family, friends, a shoulder of mutton and a few pints of real ale.
Although many things didn’t change this past year, one big event changed our retirement from slow to frenzied. We bought a “fixer-upper” home and a few acres about a mile down the road from where we live now. You may be familiar with it. A home just like it was featured in a film entitled the “The Money Pit” a few years ago. While we like where we are now, Bentonville is rapidly encroaching and we can envision commercial development on the empty acres across the street. So far, we’ve completely gutted “Tall Oaks” and added a new 12’x50’ extension. If were lucky we’ll have it “roughed in” by Christmas and maybe ready to live in by summer. Right now, we’re only a few months and Paul’s entire inheritance behind schedule. Instead of working for a living, we’re putting in 10-hour days on the biggest challenge of our lives.
We had a couple of nice trips and some great visitors. In March, we went to the Yucatan in Mexico for a week to celebrate our birthday with twin sister Joyce and brother-in-law Kenn. It was a most impressive place and our recollections of its historical attractions `rank` with our memories of Egypt. In May, we had a great two weeks touring Yellowstone and some of the West Country with our friends, Al and Sheila from Omaha. Our family agreed to move up our annual reunion in Minnesota to mid-August this year to coincide with Jerry’s 40th high school class reunion. The reunions were very successful and we also had a few days to our selves to drive along Lake Superior’s north shore and to take a swing through some of Canada. In October, friends Lindsey and Bill from Cheltenham came for a couple of weeks. Along with some quality time catching up on the British, we cranked in trips to Las Vegas and St. Joseph, Missouri, and a few day trips from here. Al & Sheila made what has become an annual pilgrimage to help us celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving. Right now we’re packing for our trip to visit Sylva's family back in Jolly Ole England.
We also have other interests to keep us off the streets. Sylvia is now helping out a couple of half-days a week at the local Habitat for Humanity resale store and I've made some time to help raise a couple of houses and to help remodel their store. We’ve also worked with AARP and tutored English. Unfortunately, the local AARP chapter, where Sylvia served as an officer, disbanded in October. At about the same time, the young Vietnamese student I’ve been tutoring for the past couple of years has become too busy to attend class any longer. Last spring was a very busy time assisting the AARP Volunteer Tax Preparation program and I’ll continue with it again in February. We’ve gone off antiques, but still have our little booth at the local antique mall, called True Treasures, and it’s made enough money to give us enough “earned” income to optimize our tax situation. We’ve sold a lot of redundant things we brought back from England. But after a couple of years, we’re running out of the things that sell best. Soon we may have to make a decision about whether to get serious about restocking the inventory and continuing or to give it up. To keep busy, Sylvia finished another big embroidery project, but it’s not hanging yet…needs more walls to hang it.
So that’s the news from the Argetsinger’s for now. If you are ever driving US highway 71/I-540 between Bella Vista and Rogers in the NW corner of Arkansas, stop in. We’d love to see you.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Sylvia and Jerry
2803 Garden Place, Bentonville, AR 72712
Telephone 479-271-8572
Email: jerry@argets.com
Web site: http://www.argets.com