This year Betty and Chuck are still serving as Lay Eucharistic Ministers at Our Mother of Sorrows Church.  Chuck has been flying and working on his home built airplane.  Also, Chuck has also been doing some engineering consulting for Blue Origin located in Seattle.
Our son, Bill, spent Christmas 2002 with us.  The girls (Carol in Washington state and Gini near Houston) stayed at home.
We brought in the New year playing dominos at Irene and Bernard Kleman’s along with the Winklers and Wilsons.  Gini and her kids came on New Year’s day for a few days.  Chuck managed to find time to install the baseboards in the guest bathroom.  Although the house will never be finished it is getting  pretty close.  We planted two peach trees in the back yard.
 In early February we received about an inch of snow but it only lasted a day or so.  On February 24 the temperature got down to17 degrees with sleet and snow.
In early March, we drove to Las Cruces, New Mexico  so Chuck could support meetings with Jim French and other space engineers.  The food at Jim’s and La Potsa de Masilla was outstanding.  After leaving Las Cruces we drove north to visit Bart and Betty Daly in Los Alamos.  As part of their hospitality, they showed us around the area, mountains, snow, and all.  Bart took us to Santa Fe to the Loretto Chapel with the miraculous spiral stairs.  Somehow our cat, Smokey, sneaked into the motor home before we left and was there for a week.  Luckily, for us and him, he did no permanent damage, just tore up some paper.  As usual, March is generally when we round up the goats and give them their shots.  This year they had 20 some kids.
 In April before it got too hot, we continued our battle (which we seem to be winning) with prickly pear cactus.  Our efforts are threefold.  When its cool, we spray and dig up the residual plants.  When it is hot we drive over it with our tractor and roller to flatten and crush it.  Each year, rolling gets rid of about 2/3 of the growth.  This year Chuck became eligible for social security.  It’s not much, but he is now signed up.  Again this year, Betty and Chuck had parts in the Passion Play for Good Friday at Our Mother of Sorrows Church.
By May, the billy kids were big enough to sell.   Chuck replaced the double garage door opener after it broke.  Chuck finally brought his airplane home to our runway.  On May 23, Betty’s mother passed away in Huntsville, TX.
  In June, we drove to Blue Origin in Seattle.  Combining business and pleasure, we did some sight seeing along the way.  We took in the Little Big Horn Battlefield, Seattle’s Space Needle, Promitory Point in Utah, Salt Lake City, Arches National Park near Moab, Utah and the narrow gauge Georgetown Loop Railroad in Colorado.
 In July, we contracted for a patio slab, 24 feet by 14 feet, next to the garage.  Chuck welded up a frame and built a cover for the patio.
We attended Chuck’s Galena Park High School reunion in September.  There were folks there whom we have not seen since graduation in 1956.  The organizers did a super job.  As there are a number of NASA/space retirees in the local area, Chuck met with a group of about 13 for lunch in Marble Falls.  Also this fall, we supported the Our Mother of Sorrows Church Autumn Fest.
In November, we bought a 2002 Chrysler Sebring convertible.  Nice car and fun to drive.  A good part of the fall has been windy but the temperatures have been generally warm.  We go to the Burnet High School football home games.  Again this year they did very well only to lose in the state championship game.

Have a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Chuck and Betty Deiterich  (web site: http://members.thegateway.net/cfd)