Bonny's Letter to All

February 13, 2010 .........EMAIL BONNY

Hi Everyone,

For those of you that are interested, I wanted to add a few more details of the last year. As I addressed our Valentine letter, I feel like I would like to talk to each one of you individually. I so much enjoy hearing about what YOU have been up to.

This time last year we were returning from a family cruise to the Caribbean. This was our first trip with the granddaughters. It was a lot of fun and we are planning on repeating a grand cruise when Sean turns 40. In September Doug flew down from Redding to celebrate his 64th birthday and return to LB for the first time since July. We were able to pull off the surprise of all surprise parties. It was great. We also celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary in October at a small seaside town in Northern California, Trinidad. With the exception of a trip to Ashland Oregon, Doug has been on a 30 minute tether to Shasta Regional Medical Center 24/7. This has really been OK because there is a lot to explore within a 30 minute radius.

Ah Redding.......being a LB native, I never thought I would live any place else. Never say never. This has been an energizing and exciting experience. It is true, when something is meant to be, everything falls easily into place. Doug found the perfect condo near the river with a view of a beautiful hill covered with oak and Manzanita trees. Losing their leaves in winter, we can now see the lights from the freeway and the back side of Best Buy (Doug thinks it great. Best Buy is his favorite store here). We are about a block from one of the trail heads down to the 10 mile Sacramento River Trail. It is beautiful and I can’t wait for spring. I am going to take advantage of the proximity to Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta and use snowshoes for the first time next week – they are sold at Costco up here. We can cross town in 10 minutes and then be in the country. We have felt very welcome by the community. The folks here love the outdoors. Kayaking, hiking, fishing, and hunting are very popular. I love walking to the bluff overlooking the river and often see fly fishermen out after work. They call Southern California “the other California”. There seems to be more to do here than time to do it.

We had the great opportunity to see Sarah Palin when she was in town to speak at a logging convention. We had front row seats at our 2000 seat convention center.
Doug moved up here immediately after he signed his contract and didn’t even have time to say goodbye to his friends and colleagues at the hospital. He is enjoying the challenge of this rural community and feeling valued. We are finding that being away from the politics at LBMMC is like a headache that you don’t realize has gone away.

Retirement……..maybe a year from now I will have more to say about this. With the flurry of activities at Christmas, my birthday, and retirement gatherings, I don’t know what it feels like yet. Doug already has me working one afternoon a week in his office. That is quite a change from the pace of a 12 hour shift in a very busy L&D unit. “Sleeping until I am through” is the best part so far. With the exception of a 7am flight to LA, I haven’t set an alarm clock yet. Being 500 miles north, the days in winter are short. The sun doesn’t peak over the hill until 7 am. I continued to be awed buy the beauty God has created.

As always, I am the manager and list maker and Doug is the techanical director. I wish I could help, but have no idea how to build a website. So we are under construction, but hope to get a few pictures up by Valentines Day.

Bonny ( Email Bonny)