Christmas letter 2009
Christmas 2009, with updates on 26 Feb 2010
Click on this picture to see our photos from Big Bend, TX
Use rsbeatty@gmail.com to e-mail me; the old AOL e-address is now defunct. Google still finds me first whenever you search for Ron Beatty. Cynthia updates http://WhereIsRonNow.blogspot.com almost daily, quoting me and posting embarrassing pictures. We've posted hundreds of photos on the old Picasa, now in Google's Album Archive at https://get.google.com/albumarchive/113780268026608859160. This has been a banner year. Cynthia and I have thoroughly enjoyed our time together. She is a wonderful smooch smooch cousin, girlfriend, wife and fiance. She laughs at all my jokes and witticisms, and she loves to travel. I continue to thank God for Cynthia ... and whatever still works on this aging body of mine. Most days I am pain free although pain avoidance limits my running, my grip, and my activities. Cynthia and I eat lots of pills (vitamins), eat meals of no meat fats, no milk fats, no sugar, and no salt. Cynthia is self-appointed "fat gram police woman," limiting my fats & oils to 20 grams a day - about 1.5 tablespoons. Yup, I can eat all the cardboard & styrofoam my little heart desires. Despite the limitations, we can eat salad, fish, chicken, & sourdough until stuffed FULL ... i.e. I don't feel deprived at all. Update: The cardiologist in Houston analyzed my propensity to plaster plaques on my artery walls as due to LP(a) cholesterol that affects 3% of males. My LP(a) is 130 in a "normal" range of 0-30. LP(a) potentiates LDL (bad) cholesterol, so my bad cholesterol is really, really bad - but it is easily treated with massive doses of niacin --- at $250 per month for Niaspan. Dr. put me on a low carb diet (no more sourdough .. Now I am deprived.)
Genealogy is a BORING topic to others but a consuming passion for both of us. Three of the 5 Rambo volumes are in print & the last two volumes are nearly ready, the publisher sent the galley proofs to the wrong address.
With travel as a mutual passion, it was wonderful that Cynthia enjoyed riding on the back of my old, refurbished "Beemer" for a 10-day tour of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado in September. We were just a couple of weeks too early for the fall foliage display. We are looking forward to and "endless summer" next year. Cynthia and I have been together 24/7 since August 14th, 2008 when I exited the Appalachian Trail at Dalton, Mass after hiking for 3.5 months and 1550 miles; you can read more details than anyone would care for at www.TrailJournals.com or at http://WhereIsRonNow.blogspot.com Last December & January Cynthia and I spent the winter at a vacation rental house on the shore of Lake Murray, near Greg and Donna in Columbia, South Carolina. I walked three miles daily with Dick & Jim up and down the hilly subdivision roads in the neighborhood. In April we left the lake house and towed motorcycles (2) in a U-Haul trailer to Illinois where we enjoyed my sister, nephew, cousins, and friends. In June we towed a bigger, enclosed Featherlight trailer through Phoenix up to Vernon, British Columbia where friends rebuilt the better of the two Beemers, using parts from the "newer" bike. We spent a month in Salt Lake City enjoying the company of cousin Roy and researching improvements to the final Rambo volumes. Then we hurried to Santa Fe for Linda's 70th birthday party and a few good hikes. We spent the month of October in Sedona and are now in Hawaii until January 3rd. Cynthia has been in constant awe of the scenery, and we've eaten some marvelously fine food.
Click photo for more of British Columbia.
Click photo for more Sedona in Sept.
Click photo for more of Hawaii in Dec.
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The BIG news is that Cynthia and I plan to be married on May 12th, 2011 at Gloria Dei Church in Philadelphia near the waterfront. This provides adequate advanced notice, so come if you can. We will have a wonderfully good time. Formal invitations are in the works. (Cynthia is in charge.)
Please relay this notice to anyone we know in common, because many people have fallen out of touch after changing e-addresses. The original Christmas letter was sent to 219 e-addresses and 137 were no longer good.
Love from Ron Beatty, still traveling, but now with one wonderful companion
Click here to return to Ron Beatty's home page,
These links are on all my web pages:
Eve's Garden Organic Bed and Breakfast, a wonderful, eclectic, artistic papercrete alternative living learning mecca in Marathon, Texas
Rambo family genealogy, Bankston & Bankson family genealogy, the Camblin family genealogy, the Dorsey Overturff family, cousin Jean's Schenck and Hageman genealogy, and
Click photo: Lake Murray 2010.
Click photo: Helicopter ride
Click for all photo albums.