2005 Is a Very Good and Busy Year

2005 is a very good and busy year. In particular, Jean had many trips and went to a lot of places where I only had 3 trips.

In January, we went to Washington attending the inaugural ceremony. We had a lot of big parties. During the parade, we were in a warm greenhouse like room overlooking the Pennsylvania Avenue. There, I took a picture of the President’s limousine as shown below.

This year, we had an early spring in Northern California. In February, there were so many beautiful flowers at our home. I stayed at home and took many pictures during the weekends. I was extremely relaxing and happy in the good weather with many flowers.

In June, we took a weekend staying at beautiful Monterey just to enjoy ourselves. I had someone taking a picture of both of us at the corner of the hotel. The weather and the sceneries are all perfect.

In July and August, we had our Tan flower (曇花) blossom in large quantities. I counted that there must be more than 40 Tan flowers during the 1 week peak time. Again, I took many nice pictures. As you may remember, Tan flower blossoms only during the night and only last for a few hours. So, it is famous for its 曇花一現. When we were in Taiwan, Tan flower blossom was very rare and valuable. Somehow, the California weather seems to make this rare Chinese flower blossom quite often. During the past few years, Jean has grown this flower from a single pot to more than 10 pots now.

In September, we went to Nashville, Tennessee to attend the NFRW (National Federation of Republican Women) Annual National Meeting. Jean is on the board of directors. It is her meeting. However, Nashville is the Capital City of Country Music. During my 8 years stay in Texas in the 60s, I became very fond of the country music. So, I went with Jean to Nashville. Over there, we went to see the Music Hall of Fames, the Ryman Auditorium where most of the singers we know started their career, the Cadillac that owned by Elvis, and many things relating to my old memory. It was a nice trip.

Of course, we had meetings and parties. In one of the meetings, we sat together with two couples, shortly we learned that the two gentlemen were retired Generals, one a 3-star general and the other 1-star general. After the meeting, we took a picture together. The 1-star general had a bad leg and his wife helped him getting around. That brought up some sorrow feeling in my mind. Thinking about when he was young, as a General, how tough and brave he was. It is indeed as a Chinese poem says 自古美人如名將, 不許人間見白頭!! Only in this case, 美人 and 名將should be reversed! Well, I must be too sentimental.

To cheer us up, I attach another picture here with two young ladies at a party in the California Room of the meeting place.

Then came the glorious October, Jean was invited to deliver a speech, representing the overseas Chinese 全球僑胞, at the Double Ten National Celebration in Taipei on Oct. 10th. She felt very nervous to do that and had to prepare the speech for several days. This was broadcasted world wide on Chinese TV networks of ROC. After that, she got phone calls from many old classmates and friends that were not in contact for decades.

In September and October, Jean also went to southern California twice for meetings of California Republican Women. The second time, she and another lady hosted a lunch party for the wives of the soldiers in Iraq. After the lunch, some of the wives expressed deep appreciation that people in this country did not forget their husband’s sacrifices.

In November during thanksgiving days, we, and our daughter Jennifer, went to LA to visit our son Sam. We stayed at his home in Venice, a very relaxing small town in west LA with cannels in the back of the houses. We had Thanksgiving turkey and touring around quite a few places.

Unfortunately, both our son and daughter are not married yet. And as a result, we do not have grand children as most of you guys have. To be frankly, this is the only thing lacking to make our life perfect.

As the 2006 new year coming like a jet, wishing every classmate and his or her family having a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

May God bless us all.

Sincerely,

Sun & Jean Lu

Dec. 23, 2005