1998 Christmas Web Page
December 21, 1998 - A white Christmas is a rare event in this part of California, but this is about as close as it gets. It actually snowed here yesterday. Today the hills were capped white and ice stayed on the ground all day. This is unusual for the San Francisco Bay Area.
It has been an unusual year. It started out very bad with the death of Sue's dad, Frank Graziano. He died on January 5th. After that, no way could this be characterized as a "good" year.
Frank was the kind of guy who was so liked by people that everybody called him by a nickname. Where he worked in New York, before he retired, he was called "Rocky." To his grandsons he was "Grandpa Guy'" to his closest friends and family he was called "Grit."
Grit had lung cancer. Even though he had given up smoking years before, that wasn't enough. Grit lived up to both his nicknames Grit and Rocky. He battled his cancer for over five years before it won. His death was a very sad time for us all.
There was a funeral for Grit in Florida and later, in the summer, there was a mass for him in their hometown, Rye, New York. That memorial was a big motivation for our trip to the East Coast.
Still 1998 wasn't all bad, either. In 1998 we took a
trip to the East Coast. We went to New York, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts.
It was a hot summer on the East Coast. We went to New York City a couple of times. We were there right after the scaffold collapsed in Times Square closing that section of city for well over a week. We had a good time in New York and Boston. We went for a neat bike ride from Boston to Concord and Lexington along the Minuteman Trail. That was a good trip.
Speaking of cycling, that was a major part of my life that summer. In May I rode my bike on a 100-mile ride called a Century. I also went on a lot of other rides including a ride to the top of Mount Hamilton. Toward the end of summer I started riding with a mountain bike group that was a lot of fun.
We went on a lot of outings as a family. Sue, Ken and I got new bikes the end of last year and we spent time doing riding them together as well as going on hikes in the hills around our home. I started seriously bike commuting to and from work, about 20 miles a day. Our family joined the Almaden Cycle Touring Club and went on some of their rides.
Ken graduated from elementary school, started middle
school and took up the alto saxophone . He did well academically
and made the honor roll. He received a Presidential Citation.
Ken played soccer. His team did well and he got another trophy. Between the soccer, the sax and our cat Tupper, we were all entertained this year.
Sue was busy at work (IBM) and in the home. She
is in a book group that meets monthly and attended regular
aerobics classes. She and I celebrated our five years together by
going to Sausalito. She also went to Mendocino and Napa with
friends and family. We did a lot of gardening, landscaping and
refinished our hot tub. She also made a lot of progress in her
quest to redecorate our home. We joined a local health club and
started working out together.
This was a political year. I was active in the elections supporting Democrats and working with Pro-Labor candidates. I also was active in the union at San Jose State and met the new governor of California, Gray Davis, several times.
The older boys are doing well too. Jeff is working for Network Appliance as a customer support representative and is going to college. He also is active in his church, where he was recently baptized. Steve works for Tangent Computers as a systems analyst.
We had some great company over the year. We got to entertain friends and spend time with them. We did a lot of stuff with Diane and Jonathon Chauncey, including bike rides and a concert at Ken's school. We also did things separately with our friends.
The head of the house, however is Tupper, our Calico cat. She rules the roost. Everybody works for her and she goes and sleeps whenever and wherever she wants. Like Kenneth, she is very good at keeping us entertained.
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This page last updated:
December 20, 1999
Steve Sloan, San Jose, CA, USA