Our Christmas Card for 2009

Scroll down for more pix and our letter

This September, we celebrated our 10th year back in the USA- and our continuing good life in our lovely home on the water in St Pete Beach.   We could measure the passage of time by the growth of our mango trees, or the transformation of our gardens by our master landscaper - Pen Holcomb. The gardens are awash with colors from her flowers and flowering bushes. She installed several bird-of-paradise plants- only to find out they grew to 50 ft tall trees!! Pen has also leaped whole heartedly into the American tradition of seasonally decorating the house - inside and outside. For Halloween, she even installed a motion sensing bird scaring device at the front door with loud Raven and Owl sounds (we bought it originally to chase parrots away from our grapefruit tree). Over the same ten years, Phil has physically transformed from a tall, standing/walking rather svelte chap to a thinner, wobbly bearded fellow on a 3-wheeled all-terrain scooter. Back pain has kept Phil from playing in band this year, but he still plans to play Tuba Christmas, and his usual Christmas eve gig!  He has, however, just about caught up with 20 years of Star Trek!

The major transformations, of course, have been in our lovely daughters, Samantha and Jennifer. They have blossomed into lovely young ladies who continue to amaze us and who make us so proud to be their parents. Sammi and Jenni are now in 8th Grade and both are on the honor roll with straight As on their report cards.  They are active in the school band and both received “Superior” ratings in the solo and ensemble competitions last spring.  Jenni auditioned and has been selected to play in the All-County Band next year. Sammi auditioned, but was up against 40 clarinetists and they selected only 10. Both girls continue to take private instruction in horn and clarinet - as well as in piano - and have improved greatly in sight-reading.  They recently were asked to play solos at a Barnes and Noble book fair.  Jenni’s art has recently been placed on permanent display at the county school offices. During the summer, they volunteered at the St Pete Beach Public Library and continue once a week after school.  It is, however, still a major exercise to get them up, dressed, fed and pushed out the door at 6:45 AM every school morning!!

Not to be outdone by our scholarly daughters, Pen decided to take a course to become a Nursing Assistant. She attended Florida Medical Prep school, successfully passed the practical and written exams, and was awarded a Florida Certified Nurse Assistant license.  This was an especially significant achievement, as most of the medical terms she had to learn are based on Latin or Greek!! Every night she would burn the midnight oil and made a long list of words to consult with Phil the following morning!  In the process, Phil learned a lot more about his current ailments!  Pen then went on to earn certificates from the American Red Cross CPR/AED (Adult and Child) and the ARC course in Standard First Aid. She also took a course as a medical technician regarding the issuance of medications.  When asked if she now wants to go full time into the medical field - she points to her current - and exclusive - full-time patient! 

This summer the girls attended two 2-week sailing camps- one just across the water at the yacht club, and the second at the St Petersburg Yacht Club Sailing Center downtown.  They learned boat handling and racing tactics in little Optimist dinghies.  When the wind was flat, the class would disintegrate into a “fire drill” condition where everyone would jump overboard!  At home, we formed a trio to “play along” with a Canadian Brass CD.   This was the first time Phil picked up his Tuba since last Christmas!

Our mini orchard suffered a major disaster in April this year from a series of massive thunderstorms with high winds - which blew away most of the young fruit and blossoms on our mango, avocado and tangerine trees. Our banana trees are less wind sensitive and still deliver big bunches of fat plantains all year round!  Our pink grapefruit and key lime trees are better sheltered and we still hope to have good crops.

Our website, Rugs-n-Relics.com, continues to receive e-mail and telephone compliments from collectors all over the world. Several have indicated that they use our website as a valuable resource for carpets as well as for brass instruments!  We also sell a few carpets from time to time to people who randomly find our website or to return customers who appreciate Phil’s taste in tribal carpets (and our low prices).  Phil has stopped collecting musical instruments, and has already sold several of his treasures. We recently donated - and sold - several horns to the new Musical Instrument Museum which opens in Phoenix next year.  These occasional sales, however, have not produced a noticeable dent in either collection! We recently discovered that we operate under “Phil’s Principal” which means that immediately we sell anything and get a little ahead, something major will fail and will need to be replaced - i.e.: dish washer; car computer; pool filter system; clothes dryer; complete shower stall replacement  (leaking pan-rotten joists); shower valve assembly (new holes in wall); a new computer, etc. etc.

Speaking of which, Phil’s trusty Mac G5 desktop computer’s motherboard recently suffered a catastrophic failure. This was Phil’s the first hardware failure in 25 years using Apple computers. Luckily we saved the hard drives and years of data. We were in the Apple dealer’ showroom when we got the bad news –and were shown the new iMac all-in-one computer with a brilliant 24 inch monitor, 640Gb HDD, and 4Gb memory.  Being used to the convenience of side-by-side screens, Phil just had to buy a companion 24” LED monitor – so he now has a full 4 feet of monitor space to play around in! Our four iMacs and one MacBook are all connected wirelessly to each other, the internet, printers, and even the kid’s Wii !!

You may recall Phil had a lumbar laminectomy and spinal fusion (14 screws) in August last year. Recovery has been painfully slow (literally) - necessitating continued use of opiates - with all the attending side effects. Further, he had been schlepping around a catheter for over a year.  In February, Phil agreed to a procedure in which a second hole was drilled through his tummy into the bladder.  This freed up the usual apparatus with an intention of re-training the bladder.  This didn’t work - and Phil faced the reality of permanent catheterization – and continuing bladder infections.  In August, Phil changed urologists again and this one  - a no-nonsense older physician - asked Phil why he still had a catheter?  Not fazed by Phil’s tale of woe, he did a detailed exam and then performed a proper TURP.  In September, Phil started peeing again!  However, due to the continuing infections in his urinary tract, Phil had to be hospitalized 3 times in October. He was a very sick puppy, lost all appetite and dropped 25 pounds in a month! After a course of antibiotics, the catheter was taken out permanently! Further, Phil’s back pain has subsided and he has greatly reduced the pain meds!  Editors Note: While this paragraph is not particularly suited for a Christmas card, one can see why the Holcomb family now anticipates a much happier Christmas this year!!

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