December 2021
Welcome to our 28th edition of the Janz annual retrospective. This year we slept outdoors at a REAL campground, blew Bonairian bubbles, continued with good health, and pulled in a regular paycheck. Unfortunately, we lost our beloved 2 furry hockey players; however, we drafted two new members on to team Janz.
After getting fully vaccinated, we celebrated Lori’s birthday with close friends camping at Sanborn Park. This was a significant improvement over our 2020 backyard glamping experience. We set up the tent, unrolled the sleeping bags, and then promptly returned home to retrieve the Thermarests (oops!). No cell phone coverage, no power, fantastic friends, fire TV, and fabulous food – what could possibly be better? More camping trips!
For the first time in 2 years, we dusted off our passports and C-Cards and jetted off to Bonaire for our 27th anniversary. Traveling in 2021 requires flexibility, creativity, and adaptability – countries constantly changing Covid conditions; frequent flight rescheduling, revectoring to avoid sudden “high risk” locales, navigating trip insurance nuances, and praying the entry regulations wouldn’t change mid-flight. Despite all the pre-vacation stress, we enjoyed the mental break from the daily grind, decompressed from work, and were thrilled to be doing something different. We chose Bonaire because we could easily social distance - we had our own truck and private bungalow, cooked and ate on our many private patios, and dove whenever, wherever, however long we desired (our 1st ever 2-hour dive!). Our primary objective each day was to be in the water before noon(ish). The water was warm, the seas were calm, and we found creatures we’ve never seen in Bonaire. Happy place!
Surprisingly, we accomplished just a single home improvement project - installing an 11’ paver circle in the back yard. We hand excavated green fescue, dug down dirt, loving leveled, meticulously marked, cut, & placed paver panels, purposely positioned pavers, and applied polymeric super sand. We now have a cozy gathering place with a table-top fire pit beside our water fountain. We find ourselves using it more than we expected. SCORE!
Our small Christmas Light spectacular (18,750 lights, 2+ miles of wiring) is now below 16A as a result of painstakingly replacing 1000 incandescent bulbs with LED (4A reduction from 2020). Next year we are targeting a further 3.5A reduction by replacing 950 more power-hungry incandescent bulbs with LED. Let us know if you want to help with this project. It took us only one hour/100 bulbs … or just come by and see the show and say Hi.
Mike just finished his 28th year at Lockheed and Lori reached 21 years at Intel. Mike has been driving into work solo through the pandemic, and Lori has been working from the front bedroom (her short commute and window office is nice). She was looking forward to going back into the office, but with the Covid resurgence(s), return is now TBD. Lori is still on the HOA Board and the website she created is highly appreciated by the membership.
After 15 fabulous years, we said goodbye to our two furry hockey namesakes: We lost Murray in April and Marleau in September (2 days before our Bonaire trip). Cancer sucks! Since March ’20, they were Lori’s co-workers and close companions. We miss their personalities and unique antics/quirks. For the 1st time since our honeymoon, we were sans felines – the house was too empty, too quiet, too clean, and too depressing ☹. Enter Tolo and Trout – our furry therapy kittens. Tolo is named after one of our favorite dive sites, and Trout, well his foster name just grew on us and aligned with the nautical theme. Trout is very cautious and takes a lot of time (days) to warm up to you. Once he does, he is your best friend and has the loudest purr! Tolo investigates everything. We have come to the conclusion that this is his world, and we are just living in it. They will never replace Marleau or Murray; they are creating their own chapter and we are curious to see where they take us.
For next year, we will double down on our “work to live” philosophy. We are weighing our options for dive trips, but it’s tough to make plans not knowing how the Covid twists will go. Mike will be cancer free for 23 years in January and 5 years past his heart surgery in March (but who is counting….)
We hope you had a safe, healthy, and wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! Feel free to email us at or visit us (inluding dive pictures!) at http://www.mljanz.com/.