January -- The ice storm of December 1, 2007 ushered in one of the coldest, snowiest winters in our 30 years of living in Iowa. But when the caucuses rolled around on the 10-degree night of Thursday, January 3, 2008, I was filled with enough civic zeal to give up my status as a registered Independent voter just long enough to spend 3 hours at the Democratic caucus in my precinct and cast my lot with Obama. Well, the rest is history, so let’s move on to February.
February -- How nice to have a daughter in a warmer clime. I took my frequent flyer miles and headed to Austin, Texas to visit Lia and her husband Robert for a week at their place near Barton’s Springs (see pool at left). Poor Andre was left to crank out another chapter of his short history of the Baltic States, already overdue at the publisher’s. Not easy to return to Iowa on Feb. 19, the coldest night of the year.
April – Andre finally had hip replacement surgery in Des Moines, which he had needed for a long time. The relief from chronic pain and improvement in his spirits have been remarkable, and he claims it was the best thing that happened to him in 2008, if not the past decade.
May – With Andre able to drive distances again, we made the first of three trips to Beloit Wisconsin during the summer and fall to visit Brenda and her family. This one was in time to attend Eamonn’s final preschool performance (shown in superman pjs), while one of the later visits coincided with Alec taking his first steps (shown in highchair).
June – Iowa’s crazy weather led to major flooding on some of the rivers in the central and eastern part of the state. After getting 5 inches of rain overnight at the end of May, the Skunk overflowed its bank and the athletic fields, parks and businesses just down the hill from us, incurred some water damage (see Stuart Smith Park above). Nothing, however, compared to what happened the following week in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City, and made national news. The best things to come from this sorry situation for us were the phone calls and e-mails from far-flung friends and relatives asking if we’d been affected. Your concern was appreciated, and it was nice to here with you.
August – The weather this month and the two following was so gloriously warm (rarely hot) and sunny, it almost compensated for the nasty stuff earlier. My nicest memory for 2008 remains the celebration of my 50th high school class reunion—helping with the class website, writing a weekly blog about life north of Pittsburgh in 1958, and getting reacquainted with classmates, who have only improved with age. It was also good to be back in beautiful Pennsylvania to see relatives and old friends and enjoy perfect weather there, too.(Thanks to classmate Pete Brandt, who gave me a lift in his '33 Packard, I visited my mom's and relatives' graves in Pine Twp.)
September – Right after Labor Day, we took off in opposite directions. My college friend Beth and I went walking for a week – something that has become an annual delight. This time it was in the Pacific Northwest, in and around Victoria on Vancouver Island, B.C. Meanwhile, Andre was on a professional trip to Tallinn and Riga.
November – The AAASS meetings in Philadelphia were another excuse to visit Pennsylvania, this time Philadelphia and Lancaster, where we had a chance to see some of the Plakanses (see photo of Andre with his sister-in-law Louise and grandniece Elizabeth). Afterward, Andre went on to Glasgow for a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Latvian independence.
December – How nice to spend 12+ Days of Christmas with both Brenda and Lia and their families in Ames, despite the colds and coughs that ensued. And how deafening the silence when the two young laddies leave! B.S.P.
