You look forward to this every year, don't you?

That pretty well sums up the last year. For now, neither of us are planning to go back to just one full time job. The fractional, intermittent, entrepreneurial, volunteering thing fits.

Jo and Keith have been learning Italian for over a year, Jo is much further along (to no one’s surprise). That was inspired because right after we posted last year’s letter, we left for a planned 16 hour trip to Rome and arrived at our hotel 56 hours later. That’s not a typo. We are not going to dwell on the fact that Jo refused to book our flights out of the airport that was finally (after two other tries) able to get us out and we are also not going to dwell on the fact that one of the flights cancelled less than a minute after Jo said, “Well at least this one is on time.” We are going to dwell on the fact that nobody lost their temper once during that escapade (really) and once we got there we had a great time with the Gargiulos, Karams, and even a day with the Maddens climbing all over Capri. Our luggage enjoyed a week in Philly (where we never went). Rome is loud on new year’s eve. Also, don’t go in a Jubilee year. Sure, we have a free pass on sins (that’s how it works when you walk through that door in St. Peters, right?) but Rome is a madhouse even in the middle of winter.

When we came back it was to a house still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s flood and a couple other construction projects, all of which was finally resolved just 13 short months after it started. Of the 60ish projects we put on our 3 year plan (10 years ago), there’s only a handful left that we haven’t done. It’s nice to spend time enjoying the work. Unfortunately, it means we have more photos of projects than we do of the family.

March was full of travel: Cooperstown with Aunt Lucille, Connecticut with the Zuccas, Maine with Kelleys (which included an ocean dunking in March) / Steve Davis / Bates and Nicholas/Shore, then Troy for the first of many rounds of restoration projects at the old fraternity house (the link is a 3D walk through after 5 years of restoration projects. If you've never seen it, you might be surprised if you check it out).

April Bad News: a tornado totaled the SUV. April Good News: no one hurt, and we learned we have replacement value insurance. Between that surprise and selling another car Keith was able to get a used small block Chevy (a ‘24 Corvette, otherwise known as April Great News). We were shopping for a replacement SUV, but the first place we stopped had the exact model Keith always wanted (meaning since he was 8). That was ridiculously spur of the moment for us. We’ve spent more time agonizing over a lawnmower.

Wade Heintz, also ex- of PTC, and his wife Jenny pulled off a long-proposed visit in April.

Mason’s class held their sixth annual bonfire and end of school party at the house in May.

Keith got a free airfare that we couldn’t refuse and Jo and Keith ended up back in Italy for a week. This time Sorrento. You can’t swing a cat in Sorrento without hitting a Gargiulo, we’re everywhere. Travel was uneventful. The food was very eventful. So good. If you ever go, call us for recommendations. There are many tourist restaurants, your job is to avoid them.

July had us in New Hampshire for another visit, with everyone congregating at the house we rented. Which by utter chance was a quarter mile away from a fraternity brother. Karams provided the boat, and we just kicked back and had a nice visit. Keith water skiied for the first time in 20 years (and the 2nd time ever). Jeff failed to eject Keith, Megan, or Mason from the tube which we know he considers a defeat to be avenged next time. Jo refused all water ski and tubing invitations.

Things cooled down for our travel after that. Which is just fine. Keith’s parents visited in Illinois for about two weeks in late October including over Megan’s birthday.

Keith is now a part time instructor for Mechanical Engineering capstone design at Bradley University (being called professor is weird, he insists on Keith), has soft-launched a non-technology (!) startup (called Tyche Insights) with his long time friend Karl, and is doing some intermittent consulting. Two of them provide a little income. The other one (for now) consumes money. He also wrote his first essay inspired by a five week battle with Osage Orange trees which you can read on Medium if you’d like. Keith still works with the Robotics team and occasionally mentors for Defy Ventures.

Jo is working on what comes next, with several ideas floating around but nothing really taking hold yet. Keith and Jo are both still CASA volunteers. We have 6 (oops, sold one) 5 horses right now, on the way down to 3 and then back up to 4. Jo was very active and doing well competitively in Reining and Ranch this year, however a hoof problem in one horse (hence 5 not 6) and a joint problem in the other sidelined most of her competitions. Texas was probably our most frequently traveled-to destination this year, which we didn’t even cover in detail. There were lots of horses. We’ve started looking for a non-winter place to live in winter as well as checking out a return to the northeast.

Mason is in 10th grade and has now moved into the downstairs bedroom. Which means his old room is being converted into a maker space. Don't call it a craft room. Mason is trying to take after his cousin Connor and learn guitar, except he has to teach himself. Mason instantly loses interest in any topic that includes a formal lesson, no matter how into it he was before that. He’s looking for a job and hopefully will take after his cousin Paige and get to work at Jersey Mike’s next year when he’s 16. He’s also just over 6’ if he’s got his boots on, likely an all time record for Gargiulo height. He thinks he’s heading to the trades, but opinions shift fast with him so by next letter it will likely be something else. Which is all fine with us.

Megan turned 21 this year! She has a newfound love of Bellinis (ugh) and a constant love of roller coasters. So in September (yes, her birthday is in October but keep reading) we hauled to one of her coaster to-do lists parks and had a great time. Parks aren’t open at the end of October around us, so we had to compromise. Jo is not a coaster person. Mason is getting there. Megan is continuing her dog training development and has had a few paying customers now, including starting service dog training for allergy protection. She really likes it and is doing great. She still works part time in the barn. She’s also been studying welding so Keith finally got his grandfather’s (it looks brand new) stick welder set up in the shop.

Dad Gargiulo, who will be 90 next year, had hip replacement surgery in early May and by the 4th of July was fully mobile again and in the lake with us when we visited NH for a week, which was great.

Mom Gargiulo is still kicking cancer’s ass. She has also taken up water skiing and introductory rock climbing. Ever play “two truths and a lie”? Well that was two lies and a truth. You can guess. Both mom and dad got around well in Italy which had been a source of some speculation and concern before the trip.

Dad Johnson has picked up, or re-picked up, bee keeping and with Megan’s help we now have three hives on the property. And a few dozen stings. If they make it through the winter then we’ll have honey. And more bee stings. Doing our part for pollinators.

For the second year in a row we have northern lights here, and for the second year in a row we’re boggled that we were 100 miles from the arctic circle and saw nothing.

Buona fortuna, Buon Natale, è Buon Anno!

With Love from Jo, Keith, Megan, Mason, Twix, Teagan, Luna (the cat, not the bunny), Clark, Brooks, Hope, Dean, Wilson, and maybe 60,000 bees