2002

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We've been so busy getting ready for the holidays that we didn't have a chance to send this out prior to the new year, so here it is - a wrap up of what we've been doing here at the Handel/Cox residence in Langley, B.C.

We started off 2002 with Brant in a cast from a broken ankle - he'd fallen in late November 2001 on the job and broken one of the bones in his leg. Luckily he was able to get away with an "air cast" and didn't need major surgery, which it looked like he would need at first. When he was well enough in January, he went back to work on "Taken", the Stephen Speilberg miniseries for the U.S. Space channel. He worked as a location scout for the series till May 2002. Brant enjoyed working for the series, as the show was shot in a wide variety of Fraser Valley locations.

I (Trudy) started working on a new program for BCIT called "FilmFLEX", a specialized course in film production. I continued to work on that program for the balance of the year, taking me away from my regular teaching duties at BCIT.

We continued to work on a solution for the traffic problems on the road where we live - Zero Avenue. We live on a small rural road, and cars have been caught going up to 151 kmph in our 60 kmph zone. We've worked on a couple of committees, and we still hope something will be resolved to slow the traffic down.

The weather was "unusual" in 2002 - we had a fairly large snowstorm on March 15, something pretty much unheard of here in the Lower Mainland. During the storm, someone travelling too fast trying to pass someone took out a section of our front fence. Luckily we had a witness, and he was caught by the police. And even more luckily, our next door neighbour phoned and told us what had happened before a bunch of the animals got out on the road!

Shannon and Carly both continued to work full time in preparation for going back to school in September. On April 8 they celebrated their 20th birthday.

Three days later Carly and her boyfriend Rod left for Newfoundland to see the Juno Awards. Carly had been lucky enough to win the grand prize in a radio contest, which was a flight and accomodation and tickets for two to all the Juno celebrations. What a neat opportunity! They got to meet a number of members of local bands including Nickelback and Default.

Shannon and I and Marilyn Ross went up to Enderby in April to attend an alpaca sale. One of the largest breeders in B.C. was selling out, and we bought two half Peruvian males, Elmo and Fossie Bear, both unbearably cute.

We still have many llamas and we bought a small herd of female alpacas as well in late April. You can see pictures of the whole herd by clicking on the picture of Trudy and Puddin, our preemie baby. Yes, that is a diaper!

On April 29, Essie became a great grandmother when Cody Curtis Orville was born to grand daughter Mandi, daughter of John and Anne.

In early May Carly and some friends left for California, where they had a great time going through Disneyland and a bunch of theme parks.

Brant finished working on "Taken" as a scout, and then found the the film industry had hit a real low point - there was no work to be had for many months ahead.

Essie continues to do well, although she has some problems with her eyes as she has macular degeneration, which makes it harder for her to read. However, she's still very active and we go to a lot of movies, and do lots of shopping. On May 26, we celebrated her 85th birthday. Mandi and Raymond brought Cody down to visit, so Essie got to hold her great grandson for her 85th birthday.

We also had several of her other old friends over to visit.

In June, Brant went to follow his rock idol Jethro Tull around the U.S. for several concerts. While he was away, Trudy, Shannon and Essie left for the interior. Essie stayed with John and Anne in Invermere, getting to know her new great grandson while Trudy and Shannon attended the Banff Television Festival.

On the way home, we stopped to see several friends along the way. One of them, Mary Reviere, passed away soon after our visit.

Aunt Francis and family with Trudy & Essie

In July Brant turned 50 (!!) Everyone gathered to commiserate with him over hamburgers and beer.

Carly and Rod went to the Merrit Mountain Music Festival in mid July and had a great time. They were very tired and very burnt when they came home.

In August the llama and alpaca babies started appearing at a great rate. Twice we started out to the Lynden Fair and the PNE, only to have babies popping out all over. We had up to three crias born in one day.

In late August, we had a show called "Animal Miracles" shooting here. They brought a bear (yes, a live bear....) into our front yard to climb the walnut trees for their shoot. That meant that they shot almost all night, and we had to have the dogs and the llamas and alpacas out of the way all night. All you can see here all the lights in our front yard.

Then around 1 a.m. they decided they wanted to shoot in another field, so we were out there shooing animals around in the middle of the night. So if you see Animal Miracles and a bear is grabbing at a dog in the middle of the night, that's probably our place!

In September Brant, Mom and I managed to make it up to Kye Bay for a long weekend with Brant's Mom - it had been several years since I had been able to get up there. The weather cooperated nicely.

Brant worked occasionally on a new mini series based on mystery novels, but generally the film industry was really poor for the rest of the year.

Shannon and Carly started back to post secondary school full time in September - Shannon to Kwantlen College to take courses towards her teaching degree - she wants to be a primary school teacher. Carly went to BCIT with me to take Marketing. So Carly ended up with a great parking spot and a corner of my office while she does her marketing diploma. The only down side is that her classes start at 8:30 every morning, and one night we work till 11 p.m., plus our one hour commute each way, so the days can be pretty long!

The rest of the fall passed in a bit of a haze - everybody was very busy. Both Shannon and Carly did really well in their courses and are looking forward to going back to school in January. In November Mom left the water running in her kitchen one evening when she came over to our house for dinner. Five hours later we came back to her house to find the kitchen and dining room totally flooded, floors ruined, countertops lifted, etc. We had to have the entire kitchen and dining room ripped out from the floor up and redone, but everything is now back together and looks great.

Essie and Trudy have been putting together some of the old family photos and assembling them. We had hoped to have something together by Christmas, but the kitchen flood slowed things down. It's amazing what new technology can do for 89 year old pictures!

My brother Gary managed to get down in early December for a few days. Mom didn't know he was coming till he arrived, so that was a nice surprise.

We spent a happy Christmas here, and a very quiet New Years.

Except for the fire...... but maybe I shouldn't mention that till next year, as technically speaking, it happened in 2003!

Carly was coming home from her New Years party at about 2 a.m. and alerted us that a burning pickup truck was next door to us at the big abandoned arena - it had drifted off Zero Avenue into the arena after the truck had been set on fire, and it had set the arena on fire. Luckily Carly saw it and we got the fire department here in time to put out the fire before the arena went up in flames.A final set of fireworks for 2002! We haven't heard the whole story about it yet, but it looks like the truck was stolen and set on fire near the arena, then when the truck was burning it started to move, and hit the gate of the arena.

So that's it for us for 2002 - everybody is healthy and happy, and we ate too much over the holidays. Here's hoping everyone else had a good year in 2002, and an even better one is on the way for 2003!