ENVIRONMENT

We had a fairly mild summer, although Kathy will tell you we did have some warm days.

In addition to an above average amount of flowers in both Spring and Fall, we had an unusual Fall this year. Our fall happened in December due to the October rains allowing the normally dormant ocotillos to grow some healthy leaves. A cold spell around Thanksgiving made these leaves turn the usual fall colours: yellow, orange and red!

Our road, WestStar, has been in great need of resurfacing for many years. This month, it was finally resurfaced, and is now in great shape.

ADVENTURES

• In July, we spent a long weekend at Desert Hot Springs. This time, we all went up the Palm Springs Tram (the most amazing tram in the world -- going up over 6000' in 15 minutes!) and hiked a bit 8000' above the desert.
• In September we camped at San Clemente State Beach - our last tent camping trip according to Kathy ;) We had dinner at sunset on the pier, played tennis, and got sunburned at the beach!
• In November, we flew to Houston to visit with Jef's dad, Bob, to belatedly celebrate his 90th birthday, and Bob's daughter, Elsa. Bob showed us the San Jacinto Monument (taller than the Washington Monument!) and the Texas (the last of the Dreadnaught-class battleships). Elsa and Bob took us on a tour of their houses and old Galveston. We also had a few small pre-Thanksgiving feasts during our 2 day visit while in Houston, including a couple excellent restaurant outings.

HEALTH

Kathy was making progress before an accident totalled our Jeep and set her back. To get back on the road to recovery, Kathy had 2 "nerve blocks" in her spine, where some nerves were burned so as to relieve her back pain. The first one reduced pain considerably, and worked so well she got a 2nd one in December this year.

Holley was diagnosed with severe scoliosis, and so had a couple of rods attached to her upper back July 30th this year. The operation increased her height by 1 - 2"! All went well, and she will be back to normal in her activities in the first few months of 2011.

Jef continued on diagnosing his problems, but all tests, including the camera swallow determined they were minor, and so nothing needed fixing on him this year.

HOME AND WORK

Jef and Kathy continued to be extremely busy at Borrego PT. Their offices were recarpeted this year.

Holley became a sophomore in high school this year, and did moderately well in academia. She had to opt out of volleyball and limit her cheerleading activities after her operation. There also was some activity on the boyfriend front towards the end of the year.

The WestStar house got some major renovations this year: 5 new windows and a complete facelift of the exterior with a stucco and stone installation. The old stucco job was fixed, but completion of this job was delayed until after Christmas, due to wet weather the week before. Jef also painted much of the roof and started insulating the ducting.