Each year we send a holiday letter via Mailchimp and post it here for the records.
December 2022
Dear family and friends,
2022 was a perfect example of what has become our standard lifestyle, trying to stuff 20 pounds of activities into a 10-pound bag. Most of our activities involve visits from family and friends, flying to fun places, and the ever-increasing attention we have to pay to our health and fitness.
Most visits featured our ever-popular Fountain Hills house, as we hosted 7 sets of friends and family in the Spring and Fall. The great weather, the Fountain Hills Art Festival, the Tucson Gem show, and the local mountain bike trails were very popular draws. We expect 2023 to also be popular, with the PGA Open, the Super Bowl, and the continuing presence of Spring Training and the Arabian Horse Show.
Our new Genoa home is coming on strong as an attraction for visitors as we hosted Steve’s siblings in June for a mini-reunion, along with 3 other sets of friends for the Reno Air Races, beautiful Lake Tahoe, Genoa’s historic Candy Dance, and the local western ambiance. We are slowly getting it more organized, as we’ve discarded plans to build a custom home in that area. We plan to stay in what was initially considered a temporary home but is very nice and has a great location.
We put over 200 hours on our Vision Jet (Malcolm) this year. January saw us flying to Savannah and Tampa with our pilot buddies Susan and Marcie for the New Year. Many local flights over the Grand Canyon and Sedona, with flights to visit Marcie in California, helped keep Nancy current. She and Marcie went up to Portland for the all-women’s Hillsboro air show in May, then went to the 99s International Convention in Charleston in July. Unfortunately, they caught a mild case of covid so had to abort the rest of their planned trip. They returned to Knoxville later in the year to complete their jet recurrency training.
Steve had several interesting flights, including taking his young friend Brady on an East Coast college tour. He flew to Knoxville for his annual jet recurrence
y, and extended his trip to visit other friends and family on the East Coast. We were blessed to fly to Portland to attend the wedding of the daughter of some new flying friends, the Whitsell’s, in August. Steve has also focused on getting recurrent in sailplanes, and his new JS-3 was delivered at Minden airport in October. He looks forward to the start of the next good soaring season in April. However, his new hangar at Minden is currently 18 months into a 6-month project. The weather hit in November before some key items could be accomplished, so it looks like April may be the earliest likely completion date.
Sadly we said goodbye to Malcolm in October and sent him off to tax someone else’s checkbook. We recently acquired Patrick (N546PA), an SR22T G6, and found hangar space at Mesa’s Falcon Field. So we will still continue flying, just not quite as fast as before.
This time last year, Steve stepped back from his CEO duties at Seeq to focus on “health and fun.” He dealt with a prostate cancer diagnosis by having the TULSA procedure in May, and is now completely cancer-free. He also hired a concierge cardiologist, who has been guiding his diet and fitness program. He’s lost over 30 pounds and does impressive workouts and hikes to stay in shape. He also attended True North Health Center for the first time in October and did a 10-day water-only fast. Nancy still does what she can with workouts and walking while dealing with continuing knee issues.
Steve continues to serve on the board of directors at Seeq and provides some part-time coaching. He is also helping guide a spin-off company from Seeq called IOTA. IOTA officially released its first version of the software in July and has already signed up some big-name customers. To fuel continued growth, Steve is helping them raise a Series A round of funding, mostly from Seeq investors.
Rich and Tabitha have finally finished their remodel on their White Salmon house, and it is beautiful, with a giant wall of windows facing Mount Adams. Tabitha is just completing 10 years of work at Seeq, while Rich now works as VP of Finance at a start-up called Malbek. They have visited us in Arizona twice this year, this last time giving us the great gift of climbing up a huge ladder to replace the bulbs in our 18-foot ceilings. Their energetic black Labrador retriever Birdie has won over the entire family.
Beckett and Brandy, our dogs, just turned 6 and are as smart as ever. Beckett is very mellow, but Brandy can get feisty, mainly when she hears the local coyotes (in Fountain Hills) or sees the deer in our yard (in Genoa.) Brandy still gives us a big smile whenever we come home, while Beckett desperately yips for our attention.
We hope you all bask in the joy of the holiday season and consider coming to visit us in either Genoa or Fountain Hills.
We wish you all a joyous holiday season and a healthy and happy New Year.
Steve and Nancy
Brandy and Beckett
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