A Christmas Message from Bill and Ava Frisinger,
December 2008
Other
Years
Greetings friends and family,
2008 has been an eventful year with both ups and downs for us. The most
dramatic and devastating event in our lives this year was the premature
birth and passing of our grandson Keegan Robert Frisinger on June 4th.
He was very premature, living only 6 hours. His parents, Rob and
Amber, had not expected to have another child but were ecstatic when Amber
became pregnant early in 2008. Although Keegan can never be replaced
they would like to have another child so they are working very hard to do
so.
Rob and Amber's other kids are doing well. Joshua, soon to be 12, has
moved up to Boy Scouts and, as all young men are, is an active gamer.
He is also involved in drama and in fact just played the lead male role in
“Scrooge Has Left the Building”. Kaleigh, age 17, now has a serious
boyfriend. It is nice to see young love from the grandparent's
viewpoint. You can better appreciate the innocent beauty of it without
worrying as much about the possible hazards. Amazingly she reserves
time for her other interests which include; glassblowing, photography, and
oil painting. She also is working almost full time framing
houses with her dad.
We got another shock when our son in law Scott Lindstrand was hospitalized
with Meningitis. It was extra tense at first because we were in Morocco and
the doctors have to assume it is the most virulent strain possible until
they get the lab results back. Although it was the least serious
strain, viral, it hit him hard and fast. He is on the road to
recovery but it has been slower than one might hope. Diane and
Scott's daughter Ava, soon to be 4, is as cute as ever. She has
transitioned from a toddler to a young lady. However, when she has
meltdowns they are, unfortunately, strictly toddleresque.
Ava and I have been staying reasonably healthy. Ava gets frustrated
with the city council but other wise continues to enjoy her work as Mayor.
Her term
is
up next year and she is trying to decide whether to run again. If she did
that would make it her fourth term. While she is much younger
than John McCain, she has been at this long enough that it gives one pause
before jumping in, however she probably will. In September Ava and
Diane attended a triple bill rock concert of Cheap Trick, Heart, and Journey
from the 7th row center stage. They returned late, worn out and very
pleased.
I am staying busy with my weekly hikes, tutoring at the Juvenile Justice
Center, church activities and happily being a well leaned upon father and
grandpa.
We had an unusually large amount of snow in the mountains last year.
At its
deepest,
the top rail on the fence around the horse pasture was just a bump in the
snow. What kept the horses in was that they like walking in deep snow
even less than people do, especially in a direction away from where their
food and water is.
This year we did another of our foreign trips with our good friends Walt and
Peggy Johnson. This time we took a three week trip to Southern Spain
and Morocco. We flew in to Madrid then immediately caught one of their
high speed trains down to Cordoba. From there we took the train down
to Algeciras at the Straits of Gibraltar. From there we took the ferry
to Tangier in Morocco. Once we got to Morocco our friends from our
sister city in Chefchaouen picked us up and treated us like royalty for our
total time there. We visited two days in Chefchaouen, a city just a
little bit larger than
Issaquah and situated in the mountains. We even visited the English class of
the teacher who was taking us around. We then spent a full day in Fez
before heading back to Spain. We finished up with about 4 days
in Granada and then Madrid. The picture at the top of the
page is of Chefchaouen.
Diane has two favorite books this year which may speak to her split
personality. One is Anne Rice's An Interview With A Vampire and the other is
the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Little Ava Ann likes Go Dog, Go!
by P. D. Eastman. Big Ava's favorite book is Merle's Door: Lessons
from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasotes. Mine is Code to Zero by Ken
Follett. Rob and Amber's favorite is Kabul Beauty School: An American
Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez. Kaleigh likes The
Twilight Saga a series by Stephanie Meyers. Joshua likes Seekers, The Quest
Begins by Erin Hunter.
I am working on the rough draft of this letter at a hospice facility in
Michigan. My good friend for over 50 years, David Whitaker, is on his
last legs. He is the person who used to own the island in Georgian Bay
that Ava and I have visited so often. Many pictures of the island are
on our web site www.frisinger.net
then click on ISLAND. Dave and I have enjoyed many great times
together over the years so it's important for me to be with him now.
May the New Year be a bright new start for us all.
Yours Truly,
