This year has brought some significant changes to our lives. My mother, Freda Brooks Hadley, died relatively peacefully Sept. 22 at the age of 90 at the Kingswood nursing center. My mom always supported me and I will miss her very much.

In the spring, Randy’s company, WRQ, was merged with its largest competitor, Attachmate. That accelerated the change that was already under way in the company since it had been sold last year to private investors. At first, Randy ended up with sort of half a job, but then was promoted to what seems like a job and a half.

The other big change in our lives is my retirement. My last day was Dec. 2, and, so far, I’ve been quite busy buying a new computer and doing Christmas stuff. I was very happy with my job, my beat, and the people at work, but I was just tired of the 40-hour-a-week treadmill.  I plan to volunteer, exercise, read, socialize, birdwatch, play golf, enjoy my hobby of computer programming, surf the Internet, hike, fish, kayak and travel. And no doubt I’ve forgotten a few things. I got a very heartwarming send-off from my colleagues at work.

Randy has been working on building a double kayak and is nearing the end of that. He has enjoyed that tremendously, though it’s taken longer than he expected. Our kayak group went to the Misty Fjord Wilderness in Alaska in August, but I backed out at the last minute over my concern about the bears. They did see grizzlies but had no problems.

We wish you the very best in health and happiness for 2006!