HAPPY HOLIDAYS

FROM BRUCE AND JO-ANNE!!!

From Bryan, Texas

Here is a shot from the kitchen across the little German pyramide to the living room.

And loyal and cooperative Buster wishing all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love y'all and see you in 2009 ...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and as we prepare for Christmas, Jo-Anne has been busy getting our new place ready for the holiday; and as usual has done a super job! I just kinda follow her around and plug stuff in and make sure it all isn't a fire hasard, eh.

Here's Mom just this short time before her 90th birthday.

And Pop with his couch pal, Bandit.

It's a bit dark, but last but not least, Bandit explaining to Buster that this is a large stink bug on the screen that you really should avoid ... Buster promptly bit the thing and spent the next 15 minutes in the back yard shaking his head and spitting and muttering something about, "why is the stupid cat always right?"

Last weekend we decided the Flying Scotsman needed some exercise so we took it out of the cozy garage and headed to North Texas.

Leigh and Brooks had purchased a lot at the resort called The Cliffs, www.thecliffsresort.com many years ago and were curious about its value and what was happening at the resort now so we met them there. The resort is located about 60 miles west of Fort Worth and near the town of Mineral Wells. For those of us who became helicopter pilots, Mineral Wells was the home of Fort Wolters and where many of us did our first helicopter training for the Vietnam war.

They just came over from Dallas and we stayed at the RV park on the property of the resort; this is a huge piece of property with all the amenities. Here are the land owners on their piece of the rock.

The resort is really beautiful and the waterfront lots are in demand and quite spectacular with some multi-million dollar homes overlooking the Possum Kingdom reservoir.

The lake is large with a number of private establishments like The Cliffs around it.

However, their lot which is on the main road into the resort is not one of the more highly sought after ones, and there are probably 500 lots in the place that individuals might want to sell; making thiers not too desireable. They do have an option to trade the lot through the resort for a condo timeshare and the condos there are quite nice with views over the marina and lake from 200 feet above. This might be a better option and they might get some use out of their investment, especially if they don't intend to build anytime soon.

It was a fun weekend and great to be back in the RV for a few days ... especially with gas at $1.49 a gallon!!

We'll title this one, "Water, water, everywhere!!"

About a week after we got all moved into our new place, and about 3am after the first rain here, we heard the pitter-pat of running water, and yup, it was coming from the ceiling of the bedroom, pretty hard. Somehow ... we found out later, there is a hole in the roof right through the shingles, tar paper, and 5/8 plywood. The hole looks about 9mm in diameter ... so either a meteorite or falling lead or contractor goof up ... we don't know. The contractor has assumed full responsibility so far ... so that's good.



At the same time and during the same rain, the yard between our house and the next one turned into a quagmire where you had to wear some pretty tough and high rubber boots even to venture out there ... poor Buster was up to his armpits.



Anyhow the builder has again assumed responsibility and has begun to create a drainage ditch for us and we will enhance the "Big Dig" with our own flagstone and river rock dry creek.

About 2 miles from us is the Messina Hof winery, which is rather convenient. In addition to the traditional wine tasting they offer classes in regional wine qualities versus the Texas varitials. Anyhow, during the two hour class you get to taste some excellent wines from Texas paired with, during this class, the similar wines from France. Well done and here we are, with, Dr Kerry Hope (brother Richard's spouse), after the latest class. In December it will be the wines of Spain compared with the locals, which should be fun!

"Hi. My name is Buster and I'm a dog ... what are you and what's your name? Oooo, you make funny noises but you sort of look look like my cat, Bandit. I don't know why you have to hiss and spit and growl at me like that, when all I want to do is be friends."

I actually walked right up to Buster, picked him up, and brought him into the house, and the opossum stayed right there ... growling and hissing.

Yes, it’s been a while for the traveling Gunns, but our first month back as residents of Texas has been very busy and I’ll try to catch everyone back up and get back on track for the next adventures.

The most significant happening was the passing of Jo-Anne’s mom on the 13th of November. Helen Loraine Purvis was born on February 11th, 1926, and she lived a wonderfully full life until just the last few years. She and William Martin were married a long and happy 62 years.

While we have talked about her Alzheimer’s affliction and relatively slow decline during the summer, this fall she declined even faster and passed away quite peacefully, with both Rick, Jo-Anne’s brother, and her husband Bill at her side.

She and Bill were both in the Army during WWII and met in Ottawa; Leighanne, our dauther was always proud to say that “My Grandma wore Army boots.” It is still undecided where her ashes will be spread and most likely will wait until we return to Canada in the spring.

We will all miss a wonderful wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, friend, and basically well rounded, intelligent, and fun person; yet fond memories will be with us all forever.