Martha says: 2024 has been a very full year.  I’ve continued to enjoy playing with my grandsons.  Gabriel (13) came kayaking with us last summer and spotted great blue herons from a distance with his young eyes.  Ezra (10) doesn’t need help after school anymore but needed a ride to the local mini golf with a friend.  Elijah (9) comes here after school twice a week and I drive him to Hebrew school on Wednesdays so we have lots of time together.
      Elder care has needed more time lately.  Bob’s sister continues to need help arranging doctor visits, especially since her mobility has decreased this year.  My brother needed me to clear piles of papers out of his home office so his wife could file their taxes for the first time.  He has Alzheimers among other health problems so supporting them is challenging.  Bob has needed help with transportation for his cataract surgery and cortisone treatments for sciatica.  Then I had my cataracts done and needed him to drive me.  Now we’re both seeing great!  Old age sucks but it beats the alternative.
     I’m still coordinating the volunteers at the New England Quilt Museum library with 5 new (and some younger) women on the team in the past 3 years.  The Massachusetts Quilt Documentation Project continues with over 8000 quilts studied since 1994 with 2 more historical societies visited this year.
     My high school class had its 59^th reunion in Rochester, NY in late October after weekly zoom meetings for planning that lasted for months.  The planning committee spread over several states but we succeeded in having a great weekend.  Reconnecting with old friends was a treat.
     Our travel hasn’t been far but was fun.  We went to Rochester for the Eclipse, spent 2 weeks at Timberlock this summer, and to New Hampshire for fall foliage.  The snow in Northern Vermont last New Year was disappointing but I skied frequently closer to home.  I won’t drive as far north this winter with Jonathan and Elijah to ski but have made reservations for a few days New Hampshire in February already.
     Before driving to Rochester for my reunion, our mechanic advised me to replace my 2013 Subaru Impreza.  Luckily I got a 2024 version with more safety features than the old one and have been loving it.
     We are VERY disappointed in the election results despite my effort to send money to Kamala and write 100 postcards to rural black voters in the south.  To keep from focusing on the bad news since November, I’m keeping extra busy with my quilting projects, with several ready to go when each is done.  See the photos and descriptions of this year’s quilts here.

Bob says: So... I ordered Girl Scout cookies this year, as usual; by email, because their mother said her Scouts were too busy to come by in person. A few weeks later, Martha says to me, “There are three adult women coming up the sidewalk. Are you expecting them?” They turn out to be the Girl Scouts and their mother, delivering the cookies… except that one of the “little girls” I remember is about to get her driver’s license, and the other is about to be Bat Mitzvahed. It’s startling how time has simply flown by. Like the song in Fiddler on the Roof says, “Swiftly fly the years/One season following another/Laden with happiness and tears.”
    Happiness is… family and friends. Our children and grandchildren are doing well; each their own person, each navigating the challenges of modern life (the children) or growing up (the grandchildren). Gabriel is taller than me (by a lot) and will be driving in less than three years; amazing. I have a good friend with whom I walk and exercise and kvetch about the slings and arrows of old age. His dog has provided a lot of fun companionship, and at the end of our walks, it goes home with him.
    Happiness is… an ornery cat. At 17, Pixel is going strong. He’s deeply set in his ways and not the least bit afraid to show his displeasure when his routines are upset. He’s become fairly social and makes friends with strangers in the house, especially those with cat allergies. He wants lots of lap time. He particularly enjoys it when Martha and I watch TV together, and he can have his choice of laps. He knows when I’m trying to do computer work and plunks down in front of the keyboard, daring me to risk my fingers by typing.
    Happiness is… helping others. This year, I’ve donated 42 renovated computers to refugee organizations, for distribution to immigrants and asylum seekers, and a few more to local Councils on Aging, for distribution to seniors in need. I’ve helped local seniors with their computer problems (modern technology is bafflingly complicated for seniors). I’ve lectured on key computer problems facing seniors, such as the coming demise of Windows 10. Keeping usable computers out of landfills has become a personal, if quite local, crusade.
    Happiness is… old anime. I haven’t been this busy editing (and typesetting) scripts in a decade, thanks to new volunteers found on the social media platform Discord. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to use it, and I still don’t like that it has (gasp!) pictures and (no!) voice instead of just plain old text; but I discovered a new generation of fansubbers there who were more than willing to volunteer. To explain why he wanted to help, one translator told me, “I grew up watching your fansubs!” Yeah, I’m that old.
    Happiness is… keeping the history of computing alive. Another obscure operating system (MUMPS-15) has been rescued from oblivion, thanks to the help of SimH and its Internet contributors. SimH has become the “reference” for volunteers restoring an IBM 1401 at the Computer History Museum.
    Tears are… my back. You knew there had to be a complaint about my health, didn’t you? I’d been doing okay until September, when my increasing strength from Personal Training tempted me to try repairing the loose pavers on our front steps. In the process, I violated every rule the spine doctor had given me and compressed (or ruptured) a disc. I’ve had near constant pain ever since, and it has proved unresponsive to treatment or drugs so far. I’ll have one more shot at palliative measures in January. After that… who knows?
    Tears are… the election. Don’t ask.

Ben says: 2024 felt like a normal year, but that may only be because of how low the bar has been pushed. Gabriel is in the middle of 8th grade and Ezra is in the middle of 5th grade, so both boys are at the end of a phase of their school lives.
   Gabriel started an Ultimate Frisbee club at his school; it is a pleasure to watch his crew play. I have always known that a day would come when my kids would out-jump me, but now that Gabriel is taller than me, the day of reckoning feels quite close. I look forward to being skyed. Ezra is playing on a pre-state club soccer team and remains fearless in goal - he dives on the ball like a secret service agent wrestling a rotund assailant to the ground.
   It was a busy year at Laminar Research - Microsoft put out a new version of Microsoft Flight Simulator this year. We have weathered the storm while refining X-Plane for both the consumer and professional markets. And after two decades, we hired a product manager; I am glad to see someone else fully embrace this job. Lori continues work as an inspector for the FDA - she started this year with an inspection trip to India, which ruined her on our local Indian take-out for months.
   The family picture is from a trip to Ireland this August - we started in Dublin and drove all the way out to the Cliffs of Moher, down to Dingle, and then on to the Ring of Kerry, which is where the photo was taken, ending back in Dublin where we met up with Lori's college roommate, a fellow WBRU college radio alumna of mine. It was a wonderful trip; I've never seen a place so green, and the people we met there were very warm and welcoming.
   We had hoped to renovate the kitchen in time for Thanksgiving this year, but due to numerous delays in permitting, that project could not begin until after Thanksgiving. We are in full demolition mode now, so hopefully 2025 will bring us a working kitchen again, and room to host the whole family. In the meantime, the fridge is enjoying its new home in the living room.

Jonathan says: 2024 has been a time of transitions for our extended family of pets. The youngest cats (Mittens, Luna, and Vader) continue to be adorable, frisky, and cuddly. Gandalf remains remarkably spry for his age, though he is now on a regular prescription for his digestive health for the rest of his life (I'll spare readers the unpleasant details), and has learned to come when called to his medicine in exchange for a bribe of canned tuna.
     Kaya had a year of increasing affection and friendship with the other cats that was unfortunately marred by her declining health. She almost made it to 19 years old, but a complication of IBS and progressive kidney failure meant that eating was no longer a thing she was interested in doing, and when her health began to decline from lack of calories, we had to make the difficult decision to put her down. She overcame her dislike for both kittens and children and became a loving companion to both this year, and we miss her terribly.
     On the horse front, we had to put Skandalous down back in January when his cushings disease impacted his feet so badly that he could no longer stand on them. Since we figured we'd need at least one rideable horse, we bought Yoshi, who was advertised as being nine years old and calm, but turned out to be six years old and interested in putting many, many things in his mouth all the time. We didn't need a thousand pound toddler, so we sent him back to the horse seller and got the 19-year-old Duncan, who has been lovely both for riding and for petting, though he  does crib a fair amount.
     Due to our increased horse count, we're making improvements to our barn that have consumed a great deal of our attention. Things are stable at Larissa's work. I've been working on Marvel Snap for a few years. Elijah's doing well in school, learning to parallel ski, and making a computer pinball game as an extracurricular activity.