New Beginings

     Dear Michael & Stacey,

Congratulations on your new home.  You're going to like living here.  It will be a terrific place to start your family.  Linda and I have loved this place and find it almost impossible to believe we've spent nearly ten years enjoying its cozy confines.  It's warm in the winter--well, what passes for winter in San Diego--and comfortably cool in the summer months.  We've never had to run the air conditioning more than a couple of weeks in either August or September.  The neighbors are nice and we'll miss them but it's time for us to go.  In 46 years we've packed and hit the road 17 times and this has been a longer than usual stay.  Southern California can be seductive that way.

Our kids are grown and it's time for us to go ride bikes, play in boats and--who knows--maybe even mess around with the old game of golf after an extended layoff.  We'll come back to San Diego often since our youngest daughter and her family live here.  It would be impossible to stay away from our one and only grandson for very long.  (Who else but grandpa can pull candy from his ears?)  Grandchildren are the icing on the cake of a lucky and very blessed life.  You'll see what I mean in another twenty or thirty years.

I wish you many happy years in the home that will now only exist for us in old photos and misty memories.   As we now embark on what is no doubt our "senior tour" I invite you to stop and see us if you should find yourselves in the Lake Coeur D' Alene area of the Gem State of Idaho.  We should be settled in before the year has ended and unpacked sometime in 2016.

Al, Padre fan and genuine alligator lizard

Pay no attention to the psychotic barking of the mutt next door.  You'll get used to it after awhile and the little bastard will no doubt head for that big bone yard in the sky in a couple of years.  Oh, while you're at it, please say hello to my little pal Al the alligator lizard who lives on the west side of the patio.  Al is, like me, a longtime Padre fan (see, Cub fan of the western U.S.) and will commiserate with you throughout the many sad and gone bad seasons waiting to be endured.  Toss him a spider or grub if you get the chance.  Unlike most of us wearing Padre gear, he can catch.

So, enjoy the house: raise your children and have some laughs.  One day, when the kids are gone and your hair is either gone or gray, I've got a beautiful little place on the shores of Lake Coeur D' Alene I can probably offer you at a bargain price.

Sincerely,

Ken Copper