December 12, 2001

Dear friends and family,

This year still finds us happy and healthy. Unfortunately, we also find ourselves unemployed. Luckily, we're not financially desperate due to having saved, but we are being very thrifty this Christmas.  One of the positive things about being unemployed is having time for personal projects. We have gone through our entire household and devoted much energy to getting rid of stuff. Some of it has gone to goodwill, some sold at used book and record stores, on eBay and lots of items sold well at flea markets and garage sales. We've also spent time organizing papers, starting new IRA and joint checking and savings accounts, rearranging furniture and just doing all the little things that can make life less complex and cluttered. We really like having all this time to spend together too!

I should try to stay chronological in these Christmas letters, so to backtrack, last time I wrote one we were just starting off the Christmas of 2000 with plans to stay home. We in fact did stay home last Christmas, and had a terrific time shopping for everybody's gifts. I remember we got so many presents both from each other and from our relatives and friends that we were extending the anticipation by opening only a few each day. Both of us had a couple of weeks of vacation, and we spent it lazing around just enjoying the holiday.

Two weeks after Christmas, I learned that the “dot com” company where I worked as a JavaScript programmer was now laying off half the staff, including me! I've been "downsized" many times, but this was the most abrupt reduction in force that I'd ever experienced. At 10 A.M. we were all busily working; by 11 A.M. we'd all been literally thrown out on the street, asked to clean our belongings out of our offices and go! Apparently a major investor had insisted the company cut half of its projects. By noon, I was home and perusing the Internet seeking another job.

Over the next few months, many of our friends and acquaintances in Silicon Valley experienced the same thing. By March, the same “dot com” company I'd worked for was bankrupt and had no employees at all! Whereas the year before I'd had two job offers in one day and dozens of requests for interviews, this time the market was flooded with people whose skills were similar to mine. I felt lucky when companies even acknowledged receipt of my resume. I alternated between looking for work with bursts of creative enthusiasm and just going through the motions while feeling depressed.

But there were good things about staying home and being domestic. I experimented with the low-fat cooking techniques I'd been reading about. I started in earnest to try to sell some of my freelance writing. After about 25 rejection letters, I've finally sold my first piece. "Success With Cuttings" will be published in the Spring 2002 issue of The Herb Quarterly.

Meanwhile, Bob's work at Philips continued to be interesting. He worked with a group that designed LCD televisions so he was able to experiment with various stages of building these modern TVs. I loved to visit him in his lab (Bob never had a LAB before!!) where all the  fanciest test equipment was available and there were always new toys to play with. And because I was unemployed, I met him a lot, sometimes bringing a picnic. We had many happy long lunches and peaceful walks together.

In June, Bob proposed to me and I said Yes. Now that we’re engaged, I have to plan a wedding, something I keep putting off because of our financial situation. Family members keep asking us when we’re getting married and I don’t have an answer. Once I’m working and can pay my share I’ll feel much better about planning an event. Meanwhile we’re happy being together and are lives are far more intertwined than those of some married couples I know.

In July, we spent the first week visiting the Armstrong’s in Indianapolis. At the well-organized family reunion, it was so fun for me to finally meet many of you I'd been sending these Christmas letters to. Glade got to experience a real Midwest thunderstorm, which I don't think she enjoyed at all! I loved the time there: the relaxed conversations with Bob's family, the long walks along the canal, visiting the shopping malls and giving a presentation about Glade to the local 4-H. Bob also enjoyed a much needed break from his work.

Meanwhile, we kept busy with the usual ham radio activities I've told you about in previous letters. We're especially active this year with our city's emergency preparedness group; for example we completed a disaster readiness training that had us putting out real gasoline fires and rescuing dummies from collapsing buildings.

By August, Philips was saying that Bob's job was likely to be phased out, but they were not sure when. This spurred us to do our own personal downsizing, so we spent many of the hot weekends of August and September selling our wares at local electronics flea markets. It is amazing how much stuff we accumulated just through our radio and computer hobbies. And though we'd attended these electronics swap meets for years we'd never been there before as sellers. Bob’s job did finally drift to an end in the middle of November. Philips ran out of projects to assign him to so he spent the last month at work just waiting for it to be over.

Glade turned nine in September and I finally had to face the fact that it's time to retire Glade. She is still an alert and confident guide, but she’s not as fast crossing streets as she used to be and her health problems are beginning to multiply.  I began to fear that I would get a job, need to depend on her and she suddenly would not be able to work. So I went through the application process and will be training with a new dog in a residential program in San Rafael. It will start January 13th, 2002 and I'll graduate on February 2nd.

We will be looking for a home for Glade, if we can find someone who is home during the day. We hope we can find someone to adopt her who is a friend of ours, so we can occasionally still see her. Meanwhile we've been trying to leave her home more, so she gets used to it. Glade has the saddest doggy-face when she sees us leaving; she is so people-oriented. We both wish she could guide forever.

Well, I've come to the end of the news. I'll be looking forward to everyone else's cards and letters this Christmas. Hope our letter finds all of you happy and healthy as well!

Debee