2022 Holiday Letter
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Hi All!
Travel Highlights
JEDEC is back to having in-person meetings, so our travel this year has picked up. In March, we had two trips. The first was a JEDEC trip to Las Vegas and the second was a vacation to Charlotte, NC, to visit with Helen’s son, daughter-in-law, grand-daughter and cousins. It was a fun trip! During the trip, we helped Helen’s son to build a huge play structure with multiple slides, poles to slide down and many other jungle gym items for the kids to play on.
JEDEC also had us working in Palm Springs, CA, Denver, CO and Anaheim, CA. In Anaheim, we were within walking distance of Disneyland. We were able spend 3 hours there and had a good time.
Our next JEDEC trip is to Maui! We haven’t been there since the JEDEC meeting in December, 2019. We are both really excited to get a chance to visit the island again!
JEDEC March Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada
The Las Vegas JEDEC meeting was very interesting. It was our first meeting since the beginning of the pandemic. As a result there were strict protocols in place. JEDEC hired Helen to be the "COVID police" for the meeting. As members entered the room, she would verify the status of their COVID vaccinations and COVID tests. If a member had neither, she had a supply of tests available for the member to do a self-test.
This was the first time JEDEC was having a hybrid meeting where some members were in person and other members were attending remotely. This was needed as many of our foreign members could not travel to the USA and if they could, they would have to quarantine for several weeks once they returned to their home country. Some countries like Japan and Taiwan, required returnees to quarantine in government designated hotels. In most cases, these hotels were high end and were expensive.
The members attending via video conference had to be able to see the presentations, hear the speaker and be able to ask questions. If the chairman was attending remotely, as many did, they had to be able to run the meeting. All of this was very challenging.
We started preparing for this meeting months in advance. Fortunately, one of the people helping us was the former meeting secretary. He is a very technical person, having been a manager at IBM. Like me, Mark is retired. He lives in a big retirement community in Florida and was able to reserve a large conference room in his community. We were able to completely simulate the meeting. Of course, we ran into a few minor problems which were easily resolved.
The meeting was held at Harrah's on the strip. They had a wonderful audio/visual team. We had had several phone meetings with them prior to our arrival. Of course, when we got there, our equipment would not interface to their equipment. Fortunately, one of the techs had a special adapter we needed squirreled away which he was able to locate. The next day we placed an order with Amazon and we had that adapter in our hands the following day. We have used this adapter several times at the last couple of meetings, so I'm glad the JEDEC office was able to purchase it.
Flying into Las Vegas. If you look closely, you can see the airport just to the right of the tall building (casinos) on the strip. You may need to click on the picture to make it larger in order to see this detail.
Helen and Charles posing for a selfie in front of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino
Helen with Planet Hollywood behind her. The Paris is on the left side of the picture.
The Bellagio water show
The view from our room of the Mirage hotels valcano
A closer view of the volcano
The Mirage's Volcano erupting. It did this till 11 PM. This was shot from our hotel room and notice you can hear the volcano erupting. Since we go to bed around 8:30 PM, it woke us up every half hour when it erupted.
Visiting Relatives in Hickory, North Carolina
Our second trip in March was to the East Coast. We flew into Charlotte, NC. Helen's cousin John and Ginger, picked us up at the airport and we stay with them Thursday night, Friday and Saturday. Friday morning they took us to the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte. We spent the morning wandering through grounds and watching people on both peaceful sections of the center and on the Whitwater section of the center. Then we enjoyed a quiet lunch overlooking the whitewater.
Charles had reserved a rental car, at same time the plane tickets were purchased, to drive to Hickory, NC, a little over an hour drive from their house. Early Saturday morning, the day we were scheduled to pick up the car, the rental car company called to let us know they didn't have any vehicles. We then found out there were no cars available at the Charlotte airport or anywhere else in Charlotte. Fortunately, John and Ginger came to the rescue and drove us to Hickory! Thank you very much!
Once in Hickory, we visited with Helen's son Dave's family and in-laws. Dave's inlaws, Janet and Dave, graciously invited us to stay at their beautiful home for 9-days.
Helen's son Dave had a project in mind as he knows Charles enjoys working on other people's projects ;-). He and Charles spent a week putting together a play structure on his unimproved property. He had purchased it, at a deep discount, from a from a contractor that had dismantled it from a school that was upgrading their playground. This is the start of a wonderful playground for Helena.
As you can see in the pictures below, this was quite a complicated piece of equipment and we didn't have the instructions! The most difficult part was trying to determine the spacing and relationship of the poles to each other. This had to be precise for the platforms to fit perfectly between the poles. Needless to say, we had to juggle the individual poles till the entire unit fit together.
The second most difficult part was digging the holes the poles went into. The ground was hard. In some cases, we had to bring water up from the creek to put into the holes to make them a bit easier to dig. Fortunately, for Charles, Dave did most of the digging ;-)
Once the play structure was assembled, Helena just loved it. Although, at first, she was a little unsure as she was so high and the structure was a bit wobbly since we hadn't filled the holes with concrete. That was a project Dave completed after we had returned home.
Toward the end of our stay, Helen's brothers, Harold and Robert, drove up from Florida to visit with us. They stayed 3 or 4 days and we had a great time visiting with them. They also enjoyed playing with Helena and visiting with Dave (Helen's son), Dave (Karen's Dad), Karen and Shelbea (Helen's granddaughter).
Helen's cousins, John & Ginger who graciously invite us to stay with them when visiting Charlotte.
Charles & Helena
One of Helena's many expressions.
Grandfather Dave (left), Helen's brother Robert (middle), granddaughter Helena and Harold (not shown). Dave, Harold and Robert are musicians. They are entertaining Helena during this jam session.
Robert is playing for Helena
Helena is grooving to the music!
The three siblings, Harold (left), Robert (center) and Helen (right)
Great uncles: Harold and Robert, grandmother: Helen, grandchildren/neices Shelbea and Helena
An afternoon at Dave's property, after painting the stepping stones various colors, Helen and Helena are playing a game. Helen calls out a color and Helena jumps on it.
Helena riding her bike around Dave's 8 acre property
Charles and Dave taking a break from digging holes for the play structure. Wellll, Dave is resting as he was the one doing all the hard work ;-)
Dave resting
Installing the stairs
Helena's first time on the playstructure. She's a little timid about falling off the spiral.
JEDEC May Meeting in Palm Springs, California
JEDEC had asked Helen and Charles to help out with a 2 day meeting in Monterey, CA as the person contracted for the job couldn't make it. Helen was going to handle the COVID procedures and Charles was handling the registration. Then 4-days before the Monterey meeting, JEDEC called asked us to change our plans to work at another meeting they were having in Palm Springs, CA. This was going to be a week long hybrid meeting and since the Las Vegas meeting had been a huge success, they wanted us to work at this meeting. Helen would handle the COVID procedures and Charles would handle the technical portion of making sure the remote members could participate in the meeting.
Since neither Helen or Charles had been to Palm Springs, we thought this was a great change. We had a wonderful time eating in the many restaurants and sightseeing downtown. As this was a last minute trip, we only a two half-days for sightseeing. The day we arrived and the day before we left as the meeting was over by noon. Since Palm Springs only has one main street, that was all the time we needed. If we had had a car, there would have been a lot more we could have done and it would have taken a couple of days to see everything.
Veiw of the pool area from our room.
Huge statue of Marilyn Monroe from the front...
...and from the back.
JEDEC June Meeting in Denver, Colorado
The June meeting was in Denver this year. I like Denver in the Summertime.
This meeting was also the last meeting where COVID protocols were in place, so after this meeting, Helen was no longer needed by JEDEC :-( It was great having Helen working for JEDEC. She is the ideal person as she already knew most of the members. She has met them over the years of going with Charles to the meetings. She has also been the registration person for most of the JEDEC workshops that have been held, both in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Germany where she was able to meet many JEDEC members.
As usual, Charles' birthday occured during the June JEDEC meeting week. Charles usually goes out to dinner with several members for his birthday. He always lets the waitress know it is his birthday as most restaurants do something a little special. The restaurant we went to had a really novel way of serving the birthday dessert. He was so impressed, He took a picture of it. What do you think of it?
Charles' Birthday Dessert
On the last day of the meeting, 6 of us went out for dinner to a mexican restaurant. Since there were only a table for 4 and a table for 2 available, Helen and Charles ate separate from the group (only one table away). All except one of the group came down with COVID after arriving home. Since several others at the meeting also came down with COVID, we are not convinced we caught it at the restaurant, but who knows...
The JEDEC meeting ended a day early, so we had a full day to do a bit of sightseeing. Since the Colorado State capital building was close-by, we decided to visit it. Once there, we signed up for a very interesting, and free, 2 hour tour. We even got to go out onto the walk-way around the dome of the building!
Near our hotel, was a restaurant "The Delectable Egg". They served a really good breakfast. Here is Charles' huevos rancheros.
Helen had a really good Dever Omelette. What else would she get in Denver...
A replica of the medallion indicating Denver is 1 mile above sea level.
The historical marker saying the exact 1 mile point above of sea level has been measured 3 times. Each time the location has been a few feet different.
All three one mile points have been marked on the capital steps. Unfortunately, this thumbnail of the photo only shows one of them. To see the other two, you will need to click on the photo to expand it, then click on it again to expand it even further. Then you will see the two medalions and the original marker which was engraved on the steps.
The museum in the capital building had a model of the building. The Colorado capital building was constructed
in the early 1890s. It opened in 1894.
At the base of the gold dome, there is a walkway around the top.
It is open to the public on guided tours. The following pictures were taken from the walkway.
This picture is taken looking in the direction of Pike's Peak. Unfortunately, the low clouds are obscuring the peak.
We Caught COVID
The day after we got home, Helen and Charles came down with COVID. We had a very mild case. We both had a fever and a sore throat. The fever lasted for 3 days and then broke, after which we felt much better. We quarantined, per CDC guidelines, for a week after our first positive COVID test. We used the government provided COVID test kits.
In November, Helen and Charles both received the flu shot and the latest COVID vaccine. This will give plenty of time for them to become effective before we travel to the December JEDEC meeting in Maui.
JEDEC August Meeting in Anaheim, California
We were excited to be going to Anaheim, CA, home of Disneyland. We arrived late in the afternoon. All we had time to do was to wonder around the hotel and go out to dinner. The next morning, we got up early and walked to Disneyland, which was about a mile away. Since we only had about 3 hours before we had to start work at JEDEC, we limited our visit to the FREE part of the park, which was basically a shopping mall with lots of Disney themed stores. We enjoyed wondering around looking in the various shops. Our favorites were the StarWars shop and the Legoland shop.
One of the perks of being affiliated with JEDEC, is sometimes the hotel will put a fruit tray, with a bottle of wine, in our room. This does not happen often as I usually don't interact with the hotel staff. However, since we are having hybrid meetings, I have been in contact with the audio/visual departments, before the meeting, to ensure our equipment will interface to the hotel's audio mixer.
Our hotel was the Embassy Suites. This is a picture looking down from the hallway outside our room onto the breakfast and bar area. You can see they have water features running through the area.
A close-up of the water fall.
A live turtle. Yes, it has a head! The neck and head are currently retracted into it's shell.
A bronze monkey. I *think* this is to give it a tropical feel.
An animated lion resting at the top of the waterfall.
Close-up of the lion.
The mighty lion roars!
Installing Solar in the Travel Trailer
Last year Helen and Charles tried boondocking in our travel trailer. Boondocking is camping at places that do not have any hookups, such as water, sewer and electricity. I found two weak points in our experience. The first was the amount of water in the onboard tanks and the second was having to run the generator all the time. To solve the first problem, we I bought a number of 3 gallon containers and we then pack those in the trailer or in the Ford Expedition.
Solving the second problem of having enough power was much more difficult. Last year I designed a solar power system for the trailer. However, due to supply chain problems, it took 6 months for all the pieces to arrive. By then, it was late in the season and starting to get cold.
This year, as soon as the Spring warmth arrived I started the installation. My initial thought was to mount solar panels on the roof. However, the roof of a travel trailer is very thin, about 3/8 inch thick (9.5 mm) plywood. After having watched a bunch of Youtube videos of solar panels flying off the roof when travelling at highway speeds, I decided the various method of attaching them to the roof would not be adequate. Instead, I'll be setting them up at every campsite, on the ground. Unfortunately, the panels I had purchased last year were for mounting on a hard surface. So, I had to design a system to use them on the ground. I came up with a method of making an adjustable PVC frame and attaching the panels to it. This has the advantage that I can move the panels to where the sun is shining and I can adjust the angle of the panels to the elevation of the sun to maximize energy production.
The battery I will be using is a 206 AH Lithium-Ion battery. I have a Victron MPPT 100/30 charge controller to convert the output voltage of the solar cells to a charging voltage for the battery. I also have installed a 600 Watt inverter to convert the 12 volt DC output from the battery to 120 volts to power the outlets in the trailer. This will be going through a 30 Amp transfer switch to prevent electricity from the AC power cord going into the trailer from mixing with AC power from the inverter.
The 600 Watt inverter sounds pretty small, and it is. I chose this size as the entire system in the trailer does not have much capacity. The main things I want to power when boondocking are:
- Lights
- Computers
- 12 volt refrigerator controls (the fridge uses propane for cooling)
- Charging cell phones
- Small fan in the Summer
- Electric blanket in the Winter
If I keep an eye on the amount of power left in the battery, 206 AH will be plenty to last one or two nights. With 400 watts of solar power, the battery should charge up in about 5 to 6 hours each day, if the sun is shining. I will not be running the airconditioner.
Power connector for the solar cells.
Upper-left, the Victron MPPT controller; Bottom: 206 AH SOK Lithium-Ion battery; Upper-center: Balmar SG200 smart controller to monitor battery power; Upper-right: 600 W Giandel pure sinewave inverter.
Left: 40 Amp circuit breaker to protect the battery from too much charging current; Right: 120 Amp circuit breaker to protect the battery from too much discharge current
600 Watt inverter. I used a 30 Amp power cord to power the trailer as I or the next owner of the trailer may want to install a 3,000 watt inverter. It was a pain to run the wire under the trailer, so I thought it would be best to put in the biggest cable that would be needed in the future.
The system is located in the storage area under the queen size bed.
Top: The display for the SG200 to monitor power usage and battery state of charge. The bottom control turns the power inverter on and off.
One of the 4 solar panels. This panel has not yet been modified to stand on its own.
Helen's Garden
Helen's green thumb appeared again this year :-) Our crops included strawberries, tomatoes, red peppers, basil, green beans, spaghetti squash and tons of flowers. All Summer long we were able to eat from our garden.
Green beans and strawberries
This was a volunteer plant that sprouted in our compost bin. We couldn't wait for it to fruit so we could determine what it might be.
Oh, it looks like a watermelon.
Yep, definitely a watermelon!
Wait, it's turning yellow??? Hmmm, doesn't look like a watermelon any more.
Mitzi, the neighborhood
cat is also wondering what it will be. She wondered by everyday to check out its progress.
Whatever it is, we got a lot of them!
Oh, it's a spaghetti squash. It must have come from one of the spaghetti squashes we bought at the grocery store last year.
Age Well Center (A.K.A Senior Center)
During one of our walks, we wondered into a mixed residential and industrial area that is across the main road from where we live. We happened upon the Age Well center (senior center) in South Fremont. We knew it was there as we saw an article about it in the Fremont newsletter. However, Helen and Charles felt the senior center was for OLD people and we don't feel old ;-) Anyway, we wondered in and were given a tour. They mentioned it was lunch time and invited us for lunch.
The meal was really good and at only $6 each, very affordable. The meals are cooked on-site and more like a homemade meal. They serve meals at lunch time, Monday through Friday. There are two Age Well centers in Fremont and the daily meal is different at each center. So, we decide which of the two meals we would prefer and go to that center. We have been eating there 3 to 4 times per week. Helen really likes it as she doesn't have to decide what to make and Charles likes it as he doesn't have to wash the dishes!
The center is open to all seniors, regardless of income. We have met many professionals there, including retired medical doctors and many engineers and former school teachers, so Helen and Charles fit right in.
Exercising
Helen and Charles started a regular exercise schedule last July. We were motivated as a good friend of ours, Eileen, will be joining us in Maui this December. Eileen goes hiking/walking 4 to 6 miles per day. Helen and Charles barely get out of the house :-( So, we decided last July we had better get into shape to keep up with Eileen in Maui. We started out just walking 2 miles a day. After 2 months, Charles started running 1.5 miles of the 2 miles. Now, Helen has even started running part of the way. We are now in shape for Maui!
Charles has been keeping track of his running since he first started when he was 27 years old. He is really disappointed that at 72 years old, his times are twice what they were in 1978. From the ages of 27 to 31, he could run a mile in around 7.5 minutes. Today, his time is 14 minutes 20 seconds! What a bummer!
We hope your year was as eventful and as exciting as ours and...
We wish you a merry holiday season and a happy New Year!
Love,
Charles & Helen