Dear Friends,                                                                    Saturday, December 7th, 1996

         This has been a very busy year for us.  We can’t think of a year with more good things happening!

   In February, the Bickerdikes bought two “Sea Doos”, known as PWC’s (or personal watercraft) that carry up to three people each.  Almost every weekend until Labor day, we were in the water somewhere. Many trips were to Long Beach. After a 10 mile “ride”, we arrived at the 55 foot live-a-board boat (ship?) of our friends, Bob and Charlotte, for a picnic lunch that we brought with us. We made several trips over to the Colorado River at

Laughlin including Spring Break and the week after Labor Day. 

Kevin turned 16 and is now driving!  A condition for solo driving was getting his ham license, KF6GRC. After hundreds of hours of work with his high school solar car team, Kevin was selected to be part of the team that went to Australia for a month. The team built SOLAR SHADOW, their solar car, and raced it 1900 miles across the outback of Australia from Darwin to Adelaide.  It was a very difficult but rewarding adventure.  The team finished the race which was a major accomplishment for a high school team.   The 1996 World Solar Challenge was an incredible experience, and now Kevin is trying to catch up on all the schoolwork he missed!

Karen and Katie have been active in National Charity League for the second year. They have done a great deal of volunteer work with food distribution, fund raising, and the La Habra Children’s museum.

Katie had her “own” classes for two months this fall. Teaching English and History five days a week with all of the preparation and grading really wore her out. She is now back to her normal  substituting schedule with a three  to five day teaching week. 

We just returned from a week in Maui where we snorkeled, swam, ate, went sightseeing, and relaxed a bit. Thanksgiving with the ocean in the background was a different experience.  We now have a permanent location to visit there with a three bedroom condominium right on the beach at Kahana.

Pete’s work has taken several turns this year. A month ago he had to move from the facility he has been in for two years to one of Edison’s main office buildings.  It is so big that it is a ten minute walk each way to the parking lot. It is not fun working in a huge building.  With over 20,000 Metricom radios up for Edison, work is more interesting (and complicated) every day.

 Metricom, Pete’s employer for almost nine years now (a record), has announced that they will start deploying    their Ricochet service in the Los Angeles area next year.  This is a wireless service that allows full internet access without a phone line for a flat rate of $29.95 per month. Kevin used Ricochet modems to send data from the solar car to the chase motorhome during his Australian trip.

Pete and Katie took a flying/driving trip this summer to visit Pete’s sister in Salem, Oregon and the Nelsons  (Pete’s best man) in the Seattle, Washington area. A loop through Victoria, Canada provided some great scenery, especially the ferry ride from Seattle. Our whitewater rafting experience on the Chilliwack River provided some icy cold thrills for a few hours.

 Jennifer and Liberty, Pete’s daughters are still in Santa Barbara.  Jennifer is working at Goleta Valley  Hospital and Liberty is at Santa Barbara City College.

The biggest news is that before the end of the year, we will have a new mailing address.  We made an offer just before our Hawaii trip, on a house that we had been interested in for the last six months. The offer was  accepted and we will be in before 1997, just barely.  Our Christmas will be a moving experience.  Our new address is 2650 Daytona Avenue, Hacienda Heights, CA 91745-5101.  Our new phone number will be 818-907-9003.  It is two blocks from the church where we were married. Please update your address and phone books.

Happy 1997 to everyone....