The Schneider Times

Greetings to you all,

This year we have been clearing out and trying to cut down on clutter—so we’ll even try to do that with this letter and get to the top ten things we’ll remember about 2003, in no particular order:

1. David has his driver’s license.

Freedom for him—and, Sue no longer has to drive the 5 a.m. carpool for Crew team practice, YIPPEE! He passed his driving test on the second try—the first time the examiner said he was “too cautious”. He’s becoming a fine driver—only ONE accident so far—and that just made his car a bit narrower and gave him a terrible case of poison ivy (but that’s another story altogether…).

2. Thirty years! Yes, we celebrated 30 years of marriage in May. At a dinner party with 3 other couples, we added up to nearly 100 years of “marital bliss” around the table (200 if you count each person).

3. Jean’s a “sophomore at Swarthmore”. (Say that ten times fast.) She’s having a great time, both academically and socially. She’s becoming quite an activist, instrumental in a multi-campus AIDS effort. She’s also done the “boyfriend thing”, dating, breaking-up, and “summer love”. Right now, though, academics take the priority.

When Jean says “biophysical chemistry” the eyes of others glaze over, but hers light up. Jean spent the summer in Bloomington, Indiana, doing research in a chem. lab, synthesizing proteins. It’s an elaborate process, sometimes tedious, but fun if you like to play with mass spectrometers, liquid nitrogen and flow chambers. The experience confirmed her desire to major in chemistry.

4. David attended Governor’s School for Information Technology. For five weeks this summer, David was immersed in computer science and information technology classes at Drexel University, Philadelphia. Unlike Jean’s summer confirmation of her interests, David’s experience taught him that he does not want to be a computer programmer, so he’s now looking at majoring in business when

he attends college next year. (College applications are currently being processed—so no news yet as to where he’ll go next fall.)

5. Now that the kids are moving out, we are building an addition to our house. Isn’t that so typical? Sue’s always wanted a “cabin in the woods”, but Walt never wanted all the extra maintenance of a “second home”—so we are just pushing

out the back of our house to create a family room that looks out over the woodsy backyard. In addition, we get a larger dining space in the kitchen and Sue gets a windowed studio space on the lower level. It will be wonderful—we hope it will be finished in another month or so. For photos of the process—and eventually the finished project, see our family website: http://schneider.lrdc.pitt.edu/family

6. Sue is becoming the artist she always wanted to be. Even without the new studio, Sue has been painting away, mostly watercolors of women working in Malawi, Africa, for two shows that she has scheduled in the next couple of months. She sold three paintings!—and did some other commissioned work. Walt says she is supposed to help pay her share of the studio addition cost. Sue’s trying to negotiate over exactly how many years….

7. Walt has begun an exciting new area of research on reading skills. cat is “cat” in the typeface Walt invented to teach reading skills, without the interference of previous learning, so as to be able to induce normal reading patterns or dyslexic patterns on demand in subjects. This allows him to interpret the basic learning process.

8. Ten Thousand Villages celebrated its 5^th anniversary; sales this year will top $500,000 in Pittsburgh. Sue stepped down from the Presidency to Vice-Presidency of the Board, but remains very actively involved in this mission to aid artisans in developing countries. We successfully transitioned to a new manager as our original manager retired. Visit a store near you: www.tenthousandvillages.org.

9. Three BAD cars tried to thwart our summer vacation. With both kids gone much of the summer (and Sue even going to grown-up art camp for a week), our summer vacation took special meaning as a precious bit of family time together. “Let’s go camping!”

With three cars, each pushing about 100,000 miles, we were already supporting our mechanic’s vacation plans. David’s car needed a new transmission; Walt’s was making “funny” noises; so we loaded all our gear into Sue’s van, strapped the canoe on top and headed out of town. But, alas, only blocks from home, the engine started ka-chuncking sounds of its own. We drove straight to the repair shop where we got the diagnosis that we needed a whole new engine…

We left the van there, got a rental and loaded IT up, then proceeded to Deep Creek Lake for a few days of R&R. What we might have spent on a fancy vacation went to car repairs—but we had a fine time nevertheless, hiking, boating and trying to water ski. (Walt eventually junked his 14-year-old car and got a spiffy new one.)

10. We actually got this newsletter out on time. Can you believe it??? Thanks to Sue’s working the FlyLady system of home management, she is actually getting organized effectively. (www.flylady.net , I highly recommend it.) In cleaning out some old files, Sue reviewed past editions of The Schneider Times—including the one that went out as a Valentine’s letter. It is amusing to see the snapshot that each year’s news provides for our maturing family. We enjoy sharing our news each year and hope you have enjoyed receiving it.

So, that’s our snapshot for 2003. Send us your own news, stay in touch; we do love to hear from you.

May you live richly, love much and laugh often.