Seasons greetings from Bob and Betsy!
Well, 2019 was quite the year. We started with Betsy retiring at the end of 2018. But our plans for a quiet, relaxing, uneventful transition to retirement didn’t even last a month.
Betsy’s mother passed away unexpectedly in late January. She lived by herself up in Michigan, and it was just a matter of luck that we found out quickly. Mary Bond was active and socially involved right up to the end. She was also a big collector of things, and even with professional help it took us about 10 trips to Livonia to get her house cleared out and ready to sell. The whole family met up in Abingdon, IL so she could be buried with her husband Paul.
A few weeks later Bob’s mother Lorraine passed. She had been slowing down recently, and we thought her time was likely coming. Although the Blichmann brothers rarely have the opportunity to all get together, we were all able to pitch in and put together a nice memorial service for Mom.
Nathaniel’s final Occupation Therapy internship was located close to Brevard, so in April he and Lindsey moved in with us. He finished his OT degree - yay! They are now both working in the Asheville area. We really do enjoy having them around - Nathaniel is a great cook, and Lindsey has been our personal tour guide as we work our way through Game of Thrones. We’ve had some interesting conversations with their Senegal parrot, Mako. Now officially degreed and gainfully employed, their next big project will be house hunting and moving out of our basement.
In that same timeframe we sold our Charlotte house and moved to Brevard full time (new address on back). Bob made many trips to the mountains with the old ’88 Ford pickup loaded up like the Beverly Hillbillies. It was a big challenge to condense 25 years worth of junk into a pile small enough to fit into a downsized abode. Craigslist Free became our new best friend, “stuff” our new arch enemy.
Although a lot of our time and energy went to driving between Brevard and Charlotte and Livonia, we did manage to squeeze in some recreational travel. We had a great time at the Big Ears Music Festival in Knoxville, TN. Pat and Betty Schroeder were down in June for a big bike ride, and I was able to meet up with Pat again in August for the Ride Across Wisconsin. A week in Washington, DC, taking in the art museums, monuments, and famous places in general rounded things out.
Paul is still enjoying Madison, WI. We got to see more of him this year with all our Michigan trips.
Betsy completed her Master Gardener program, which seemed to require a lot of volunteer weeding. She has been exploring hand dyeing yarn, and is currently working on a sweater based on the coloring of Mako the parrot.
Zeela is looking forward to her first winter as an outside rabbit in the mountains. She has mellowed out somewhat, being a somewhat elderly, single rabbit. She still likes bossing us around, though. And chasing those dang wild rabbits out of her yard.
We are looking forward to 2020. Here’s to a new decade! I think we all deserve it.
Contact and social media info:
- New address: 17 Broadview Circle, Brevard, NC 28712
- Bob 704-989-9230 bob.blichmann@gmail.com
- Betsy 704-292-5378 betsy.j.bond@gmail.com
- Knitting: Betsy’s knitting creations are found under “Knitbert” on Ravelry.com
- Photography: www.flickr.com/photos/bobblich/albums
- We are both be easily findable on Facebook.
- Cycling and hiking activities are tracked on Strava.com (think Facebook for fitness geeks).
