2025

Happy Winter Solstice!

By the time most of you read this, there will be few, if any, days left until the New Year. Our hope is that the past year left you healthy and surrounded by the people who know how to love you best! Here’s a quick snapshot of how we spent 2025:

January, February, March

-Josh competed in the Mesa Marathon and squeaked out another qualifying time for Boston, but the field was so competitive that when it came time to apply he opted not to. After six months of retirement, he is finding no shortage of ways to keep himself busy!

-Another birthday for Susan, but still no “sparkles” in her hair to reinforce the fact that this is the last year of her 40’s. 

-Aaron began his second semester at Embry-Riddle in Prescott.  

April, May

-Construction of our holiday flat in Tenby was completed! We are delighted to have our own little hobbit hole to escape to when the summer temperatures in Tucson are unbearable.  

-Josh took a road trip to TX/OK/MO/TN to compete in Ironman 70.3 in Galveston and to visit friends.

-In April, Aaron participated in the Arizona NASA Space Grant Consortium Student Research Symposium to present the outcomes of research he was involved in regarding potential security improvements for baggage handling systems.

-Susan completed another full year of kindergarten with roughly the same amount of hair/sanity she began the year with and signed up to do it all over again after summer break.

June, July, August

-We spent most of June and July catching up with wonderful friends, eating delicious food, walking the beaches, strolling through town, and exploring as far as we could on foot around Tenby. We also snuck away for a week in the middle to visit family in Switzerland and to explore parts of Northern Italy and Milan. On the return trip from Poschiavo (as a result of track repairs for the Winter Olympics being carried out on the train route between Tirano and Milan) we found ourselves on a bus with a couple from Australia who felt like old friends by the time we reached our destination. Travel is like that — you just never know where you are going to encounter the people you didn’t know were missing from your family of choice. (Pics at the end!)

-Josh competed in Long Course Weekend, Wales and was awarded a plaque for being the fastest runner in his age group!

-Another school year began for Susan.

-Aaron traveled to Las Vegas to participate at DEF CON with a group of students from Embry-Riddle where they ran a “capture the flag” competition for attendees. While there, he met and began collaborating with a group of students from Michigan Tech University who were presenting findings on security risks in the hospitality industry. Also in August, the cohort Aaron presented with in April published their findings on Vulnerability Assessment of IoT Airport Luggage Management Systems.

September, October, November, December

-Josh ran the Tucson Marathon and finished with his second fastest marathon time! His final time of 3.14.49 puts him well under the 3.20 cut-off for applying to Boston, but we will still have to cross our fingers and toes until the applications have been processed next October to find out if it was a strong enough finish for us to be planning a trip to MA for April of 2027.

-Susan finished the US government/Constitution course and has begun studying for the exam she will need to renew her teaching credential in April. She continues to take courses for credit towards her GATE endorsement and is enrolled in a 2-year program that will culminate in a literacy endorsement.

-Aaron turned 20! He is glad to be home for a much needed break after completing the first semester of his sophomore year. This year, in addition to his coursework, he is continuing to research the risks and develop solutions to hospitality industry security through the Undergraduate Research Institute on campus.

Pictures from our summer travels as promised:

Tenby!

Harbour Beach, Tenby

Croeso i Nyth Tawel

Caldy Island

Castle Beach, Tenby

Welcome Home bouquet from The (fabulous) Floral Goat

North Beach, Tenby

Croft House Garden, Tenby

Hostaria del Borgo, Poschiavo

Plata, Poschiavo

Plata, Poschiavo

Plata, Poschiavo

Tirano, Italy

Tirano, Italy

Gelato in Tirano

Lecco, Italy

Lecco, Italy

Duomo di Milano

Castello Sforzesco, Milan

Navigli, Milan

Navigli, Milan

Castle Beach, Tenby

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A personal note from Susan:

It’s been harder than normal for me to sit down and write this end-of-the-year missive. Something out of place, something not quite right, something dusty, something shiny, something keeps catching my eye, diverting my attention, pulling me away from sitting quietly in reflection to pull out the memories and events that feel important enough to encapsulate here. My first therapist told me that I, like so many of the people who had sat on in his presence over the years, was likely to discover that I had the ability to effectively manage the chaos inside of my head or outside of my head, but not both at the same time. I cringed at that at the time, thinking of the baseboards that had kept me up the night before, wiping at specks of dust and spots that turned out to be brushstrokes in the paint. Almost 20 years later, it has taken a half-hour of wiping countertops, loading the dishwasher, investigating the contents of containers in the refrigerator and then reloading the dishwasher to accommodate the resulting empty dishes, folding blankets to hang just so on the back of the couch/loveseat, and aligning the legs of the barstools with the footrest at the base of the kitchen island to convince myself that the best thing to do is just sit down and start typing. It feels like an apology in advance is in order, but I don’t actually know what I would be apologizing for. I don’t even know if that sentence or this one will make the final cut before I push publish on this entry.

Normally my goal with this letter is to encapsulate the past year in a sentence or two, add a few bullet points to highlight the moments that stood out, then finish up with something funny or heartwarming or thought-provoking. And while this will probably turn into that, it somehow feels “off”… hollow… shallow. It just doesn’t feel right to post the good without also addressing the harm that lurks at the edges and threatens to swallow the good whole.  

Most reading this will be familiar with the diary of Anne Frank in which she writes, 

In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.

What may be less familiar are the words that come after that assertion: 

I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.

This year it just feels incredibly important to not leave out the context — the chaos, the harm, the ongoing dehumanization and denial of basic dignity — in which this holiday season is embedded. Even so, I am at a loss for the words to adequately provide such context without fully obscuring the points of goodness that also exist. It feels a little like looking up at the night sky without having had enough time for your eyes to adjust. Even out here in the heart of the desert, on the outskirts of a community that has regulations to minimize the amount of light pollution, it sometimes takes minutes of turning your face to the sky with only the conviction that past experiences will hold before darkness transforms into a velvet tapestry bejeweled with countless glittering diamonds.  

In 2023 the poet Andrea Gibson (1975-2025) wrote an essay entitled 17 Ways to Open Your Heart on their Substack Things That Don’t Suck. Andrea refers to the items in this list as their keychain — the practice that they use to keep an open heart despite the challenges of navigating life after an incurable cancer diagnosis. In the second item on their list, Andrea writes

Contemplate this sentence: “The universe is incapable of sending anything wrong for me my way.” Another way to work with this is to ask yourself, “How is this perfect?”...

I have taken that to mean: how is this moment perfect for the change that needs to take place in me, in my community, in the world, in order for us to grow and evolve together on this planet? How is this moment teaching me, showing me that I have the capacity to do that I never would have considered otherwise? What good can I do with what I have at my immediate disposal? How do I stay active in a fight for peace and “do no harm” including to those whose views I oppose? To borrow a phrase I wish I knew the origins of: 

How do I act Hippocratic-ly without acting hypocritically?

My wish is that 2026 will bring all of you an abundance of love, joy, and peace. And for those of you struggling like me, I am also hoping for slivers of clarity to point the way forward.

Happy Holidays 2024

Season’s Greetings from “Nidito Sereno” — our little desert oasis! Remember blogging as a form of communication?  I’m sure if I dig around in the comments enough I’ll remember that it had it’s own set of complications, but I am curious to see if my current rose-and-nostaglia colored memories of slower, more thoughtful, more intimate conversations through this medium hold true.  Maybe I’ll actually get around to finally posting all the trip summaries/photos that I promised would be housed here way back when I set it up? (Pro-tip: don’t hold your breath.) At a minimum it will serve as this year’s “Tulino catch-up” missive before fading back into the virtual shelves of the interwebs to collect dust for another decade or more. Here goes!

TL;DR:  Happy Holidays!  

We

-made several big changes in 2024 

-remain healthy

-wish you and those you surround yourself with all the joy, love, and prosperity that 2025 can hold. 

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On with the details:

The first quarter of 2024 held a birthday for me (48!), the Napa Valley Marathon for Josh, and the beginning of Aaron’s final semester of high school.  I also (finally!) underwent an MRI to figure out why I was still struggling to move fluidly with the knee that I blew out whilst doing jumping-jacks (star jumps) with my TK class the previous September.  Turns out my ACL was hanging together by a few fibers, so…

2nd quarter:  at the end of April I underwent reconstructive surgery and had a new ACL put in place. In May, Josh competed in a Half-Ironman in Morro Bay, CA and finished 10th in his age group! Then, less than a month later AND the day before Aaron graduated from high school,  Josh marked his final day as a Valero employee.  The following Friday, we packed the last of our belongings into a variety of vehicles, borrowed space in a friend’s garage for what wouldn’t fit, and followed the pods packed with everything else to our new home in Tucson, AZ.  We stopped in Morro Bay to visit friends and take a quick-but-much needed sanity break on our way through and celebrated Josh’s 50th.  We then had a couple of weeks to unpack the moving pods and find a home for the items we needed for daily living.  By the middle of June we were headed out of the country for a quick Tenby visit before…

3rd quarter: I began my new position as a Kindergarten teacher at a Title 1 school in TUSD and Aaron began to sort out what he would need to take with him to begin his degree in cyber-security at Embry-Riddle University in Prescott, AZ.  At the end of August, Josh drove Aaron to campus, helped him unpack and get settled into his dorm and then returned to begin his new position of General Home Manager ™.  It’s a helluva pay cut and his coworker spends most of her hours eating, sleeping, and digging holes (or barking at said holes), but his life-work balance has greatly improved and the quality of meals ‘round here has improved exponentially!

4th quarter: At the end of October, Aaron participated in the Tracer FIRE 12 Cybersecurity Conference organized by Sandia National Laboratories.  Following the event, he was asked to reflect on his experience.  The following week he voted in his first Presidential election, then flew to Dallas where he and Josh met up, stayed with friends, and attended one of the few concerts Linkin Park has scheduled in the US for their From Zero World tour for 2024.  He then wrapped up his first semester as a college freshman the second week of Dec (4 As & 2 Bs!). On Dec 15th, Josh competed in the Tucson Marathon. Josh was hoping for his second Boston qualifying time and although this was his second fastest marathon, he just missed the cut off.  It will surprise no one to learn that he already has another race lined up for February.  We currently have no big plans for the rest of this year, but the beauty of sharing our news with all of you like this is that I can always edit later…

If I have time to…

And remember to do so…

If 2025 should bring you our way, please don’t hesitate to reach out!  We would love to share our time, space, and energy with you.  My emails are the same as they always were, we have kept our Memphis phone numbers, and (for now), I can still be reached via FB messenger.  We hope your New Year will be filled with more gain than loss, that your challenges will be met with success, and that you will find plenty of love and kindness to balance out any harm or doubt that comes your way.

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Now a personal note-  

I’ve never been exactly subtle about my political leanings, so if you happen to be one of those who are uncomfortable with my “bleeding heart”, what follows may not be what you want to read.  Also: it’s not all sweetness and light.  For those of you still reading, I leave you with this:

It may strike you as strange to end a holiday missive with this image from our trip two summers ago to the Dachau concentration camp: the Statue of the Unknown Prisoner. 

The image is striking in its own right, but it is the setting — just steps outside of one of the gas chambers initially used to annihilate those politically opposed to the Nazi regime — that has brought this image to mind frequently since learning the outcome of the last election and subsequently listening to those who ostensibly wish to lead this country denigrate those they deem as “other” and call for retribution for those who have called out their past abuses of power.   What stood out to me when we initially approached this statue was how shriveled, how shrunken this man appears.  How the horrors that he must have witnessed seem to have carved away at him physically.  How unimpressive, how frail, how alone he appears to be in the face of unimaginable albeit documented evil. 

What my mind keeps coming back to, though, is how our guide admonished us to direct our gaze and our imaginations to the fact that this man is looking up and has his hands in his pockets, both forbidden acts for those imprisoned here.  Two simple acts of resistance that are easy to overlook, but impossible to miss once pointed out.  

And so my personal wish for each of you is that whatever the immediate future may bring, I hope that you are all able to face each moment with the courage to resist harm to yourselves and those around you.  I don’t have much hope for what this next administration will attempt to do in the name of “greatness”, and yet the solidarity and resistance that is already very much alive in the communities that I am adjacent to fills me with resolve to do everything I can to multiply and spread what little hope I do have. The family that we have been so fortunate to build as we have traveled around this country and other parts of the world reminds me that there are good, whole-hearted, courageous people everywhere.  They may not be the faces that show up on the front page or get to share a sound-bite that goes viral, but THEY ARE HERE and because of them, good will prevail.  And, ultimately, isn’t that what every major religion celebrates during their holy days?   The triumph of good over evil?  And so I wish you all Happy Holy-days.  May we all look for the many little ways that we can  “…be the light in the dark of this danger…”

Love,

Susan

Place Holder Post

Just got confirmation that our 2015 New Years cards are shipping today and realized that there is a good likelihood that at least some of our nearest and dearest will get theirs (and directions to our happy online home) before I actually get the latest news and pics posted.  Sooooo...

Welcome!  Glad you're here! C'mon in and look around! Grab a chair and a cuppa and browse the archives (aka the posts before the hard-drive crashed and updating our travel blog slipped to the bottom of the to-do list).  

I hope to get back to posting regularly before the end of January, though the once-a-week thing isn't likely to be sustainable now that we've thrown our family hat into the homeschooling arena (again).   I also hope to fill in the gaps of the past two years with the images and stories that we collected along the way.  I'll try to make it obvious that there's something new to see, even if it isn't the most recent chronologically.  

It's good to have you here... We hope you'll come back often!

~Josh, Susan, and Aaron

      

                     ( from the balcony of our hotel room in Hurghada, Egypt; December 2015)

The Great Catch-up Post, Part I: Tenby to London

Yikes, so much to catch up on!  The week after I last wrote was spent, as you might imagine, in a flurry of packing and repacking and quick trips to the shops to grab last minute items so that we could unpack and repack again.  Oh, yeah, and Josh went to work and Aaron went to school.  I think.  They were gone away during the day doing something that left me free for the above mentioned frenzy.

First stop:  London, England

We picked Aaron up from school a little early on Friday afternoon so that we could catch the train from Tenby to London.  We had taken the train a time or two before, but it was this journey that convinced me that rail travel is really the way to go.  After a quick stop to switch trains in Swansea, we were comfy, had access to food options and (clean!) toilets and didn't have to worry about anything beyond whether or not the outlets at our seats were properly charging our myriad of devices.  5 hours passes rather quickly in such luxury!  We arrived at Paddington Station around 9pm, gathered our bags, and made our way to the hotel in London.  The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel (one of Aaron's favorite things to do!), then made our way to the  Marble Arch  and then to the bus stop at the edge of Hyde Park so that we could begin our double decker bus tour to see as much of London as we could possibly pack into one day!

 

Marble Arch was designed in 1825 by John Nash as a ceremonial entrance to the courtyard of the (then) new Buckingham Palace.  The arch was moved to its current location near Hyde Park (2nd picture) in 1850.

 

On the tour bus, headed towards our first stop of the day. The tour guide warned us that due to road construction in preparation for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this summer, the normal route past Buckingham Palace wouldn't be followed.  We hopped off the bus at the stop near The Grosvenor Hotel instead and walked up Buckingham Palace Road.

    

As the skiff of snow on the ground might indicate, it was a bit chilly!

        

Fortunately, we weren't the only tourists in town, so by the time we made it around Buckingham Fountain, played a game or two of tag in front of the Canada Gate, and recrossed Constitution Hill, several(hundred) of our soon-to-be closest friends were already gathered, generating enough body heat to keep us quite toasty!  (Pictures above in order mentioned.)

  

  

   

The Changing of the Guard, at last!  I don't think any of us really knew what to expect, but a half-hour program complete with swing music was a complete, albeit pleasant surprise.  Aaron enjoyed a shoulder-top viewing of the proceedings while I viewed it all from the screen of the iPhone held aloft by the Italian couple in front of me.  Josh snapped as many pictures as he could through the gates and over the heads of our nearest and dearest.

After the crowd dispersed enough that we could move, we made our way back to the bus  stop near the Grosvenor Hotel for the quick ride to Piccadilly where we found a cute little pizza place for lunch.  

     

Re-energized, we walked down and around the corner to Trafalgar Square.  There was a Free Syria rally going on when we got there.  Aaron was more interested in how they got the giant TV on the back of the lorry than he was in the images on the screen so we were able to snap a few photos and leave the family discussion on Middle-Eastern politics for another time.  Bookended by The National Gallery and Admiralty Arch the square is in constant motion.  

   

 

 

We headed south along Parliament Street, past the Horse Guards on the right and the London Eye on left (across the River Thames), stopping a few times for some iconic shots before reaching Parliament Square.

      

Look kids, Big Ben!  Parliament!  (Westminster Abbey!)  Tummies were starting to get hungry and tempers were starting to flare, so we waited at the stop just past Parliament for the next bus. 

   

 

Along with our energy, the light and temperatures were was beginning to drop.  We were quite content to let the rest of the city slip by with a few pictures and promises to come back to explore more thoroughly another time.  (Pictured:  Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Hungerford Bridge, London Eye, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London)

Back at the hotel, we got a recommendation for local take away and enjoyed a feast of Middle Eastern delicacies in our room before turning in for an early night in preparation for our day of travel to the States.