Christmas Letter for the Gleaner Readers

Christmas 2016 and we’re still here

Waking up every day and seeing I am still here is not yet a surprise…but …. You know.  Peggy and I are well.. as can be expected.  We are working very hard. I didn’t think we would be toting that barge and lifting that bale at this time in our lives.  But in the last year I have conducted appraisals and valuations in Gainesville FL, Portland OR, Boise ID, Near Lewiston ID, and Near Ashville NC.  Along the way I was instrumental in putting up for sale and selling a sizeable nursery in Cobden IL (southern IL).  All in all a busy and profitable year;  AND I’m still working.  I enjoy the expert work and while I have no projects on the docket right now..   the phone still works.

The Nursery itself did well.  It helps to have some good people in place.  BUT  I am still in search of a successor or buyer.  I know the day will come when it will go from a blessing to a burden.  It’s a good little business and makes money.. but it needs to find home. 

Peggy and I got a chance to freshen up our tans in Florida - bit at Ormand Beach and then later in the summer at Mexico Beach which is Becoming one of my favorite places.  Still primitive.  Not overdeveloped.. yet.  It’s pretty with it’s Dolphins in the morning and the little sting rays in mating season.  On Ormand we saw a crab trying to eat a baby turtle. I rescued it.  There is a very angry crab in Florida.  Florida is a tradition now.  On  the last trip we stopped at the Fountain of Youth in St Augustine.  We both took a big drink from the fountain.  I’m pretty sure we are good for another 50.

We were there this spring to get some trucks loaded out of a growers operation in North Florida.  Peggy played the role of counting plants as they were loaded, but she insisted on getting up in the truck and helping to load.  I kept yelling .. GET OFF THAT TRUCK! She’s something.

We celebrated our 50^th wedding anniversary this year.  Tim, Raquella and Kevin put together a wonderful celebration party in West Fargo.   We are more appreciative than you can know.  She is as beautiful as she ever was and looking at the wonderful photo album Raquella put together Peggy looking at it couldn’t figure out for a second who that pretty lady was.  It was wonderful to see so many cousins.

I hadn’t seen some of them in years.  Jim, Elaine and Wally.

                 Of course we had to visit our “Summer Home”

                 Asheville NC.  The Biltmore. 

                They let us rent it (a tiny piece) for 50 bucks a day.   

    Tim, Raquella and the Four Grands are doing great in

    West Fargo ND.  Tim’s construction business is booming. 

    They makes us proud. Nearly all photos here by Raquella.

Kevin is in Dallas and is about  to move to a new restaurant

location downtown.  He does everything but wash the windows. 

He owns one condo and is in the process of buying another. Kevin also is my extant technical consultant on EXCEL issues.  Proud of his exceptional ability

Peggy’s Mom has moved to a new place with more security.  Living alone without Ben had become difficult and she is over 9 decades of age.  Peggy, to help make the move work, roared back and forth to Oakes in the little Mercedes till the tires nearly wore off.  Then we went for Thanksgiving.  We are going no where this winter.  Did you know there can be snow on the roads?  Speaking of snow on the road, we made a trip on the road to Oakes to celebrate Mom’s 100^th Birthday (Ruth Redlin) in February.   That only comes round once a century.  She’s doing well enough for a centenarian.  Well attended and well deserved.

In Church News… we have joined ourselves to a small church in Oswego IL.  Good preaching and it’s coming along.  Great things are in store. I still, when I am able, try to be part of Crusaders in the city. The drive is a bit difficult… but worth it. The impact network is restarting next year.   I’ll be part of it. 

                                  Peggy has the house decorated inside and out full on old school

for Christmas.  If there is a flat surface  it now jingles with bells. 

            It’s cheerful and wonderful. I “supervised” a bit. 

           

We bought our Christmas present to each other.  The Old Panasonic Twin Power Microwave we have had since 1977 finally gave up after moving with us to 5 different residences in which have lived the last 40 years.  We now have a brand new Breville.   I don’t know if we will see it last 40 years.

This last year has been one of great change ..  mostly for the better.  I think the changes we see in our nation bode well. 

Make Your Christmas GREAT AGAIN..  And the New Year GREATER

Gene and Peggy Redlin

Established July 16, 1966

23 People and Organizations That NEED to be on Donald Trump's Christmas List

There are people and organizations Donald Trump needs to thank this holiday season for helping him become our next President.  In no particular order, other than the last one, here is a partial list.  I hope he has added them to his Christmas List.  

The Occupy whatever movement that fizzled out.  They illustrated how vacuous the left has become.

The Dakota Pipeline Protesters for their demonstration of fake news and people's gullibility.

The Black Lives Matter folks who look for a reason to riot even against Trump.  Every torched building and city helped him get elected.

The crooked IRS under this Administration.  Their continued persecution of right wing causes showed how evil bad governance can be.

The corruption in the Clinton Foundation that tainted Hillary the most.  She was seen as a gangster and she is.

The liberal mainstream media who never found a fantasy or a lie they didn't spread.  Credibility was destroyed in this election cycle.. and not a minute to soon.

The college fragile snowflakes and their propagator enablers in the left wing faculty and administrations

The establishment elites in both the Republican and Democrat parties that couldn't figure it out till it was too late.

Those who expressed faux outrage at every tweet, every speech and every debate for everything that Trump said during the last 18 months.  They became background noise.

The Bureau of Land Management for it's gestapo like tactics with Land Owners in Texas in out west.  Slow motion Branch Davidian Burning

Planned Parenthood for showing us the underbelly of the women's rights movement complete moral bankruptcy in selling the body parts of our tiniest and most vulnerable Americans.

Those Muslim Jihadists who murdered so many here and abroad.. and the war front ISIS where ineptitude created them.  They firmed up a policy that needs change badly.

The teachers unions and the education establishment in secondary and higher education which has failed to educate but only succeeded in spending money on nothing.

The EPA, HUD, IRS, DOE and all the other Alphabet agencies that oppress our lives so radically and steal our money. Anger over these people is not lost on the Trump voter.

Those crony capitalist companies that took our money and failed and those who still are.  TESLA would be out of business tomorrow if it was not a crony capitalist company. So would most solar panel and wind power companies.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz.. the gift that keeps on giving

Faux Intellectuals who point out that uneducated white men put Trump in Office...  Never mind they showed themselves profoundly stupid this whole cycle right up till 10 PM Eastern Time November 8, 2106

The Supreme Court that couldn't bring itself to sanity regarding Homosex Marriage or Obamacare's takeover of the economy.. and put a scare into all of us who RAN to the polls to vote for Trump.

Every accusation of racism, race baiting, race war, race race race race till it became background noise.  And in fact the question "What have you got to lose" caused many to say.. NOTHING AT ALL

Lawyers that overwhelmingly voted for Clinton which demonstrates LAWYERS.

Bernie Sanders who in a way HELPED Trump by bringing to light corruption in our elective system. He never had a chance.  Many Sanders voters eventually voted TRUMP.

Hillary Clinton for being a really bad uninspiring drone of a candidate.  There were better choices not made by an insipid cowardly DNC.

AND LAST but MOST IMPORTANT
Thanks must be given to President Barack Hussein Obama for having brought this nation to it's knees with the highest unemployed worker participation rate in 4 decades, nearly all new job creation has been part time or low pay service jobs, the lowest home ownership rate since the 1940s, the lowest GDP growth since the great depression, the worst 8 years for new business starts ever and reported today that 6 MILLION car loans are in default.  All the while our reputation around the world stinks, the middle east is in flames and regulations on EVERYTHING has skyrocketed.  It's easy to understand that the greatest thanks belongs to President Obama.  The bar is pretty low for President Trump to come up from.