Jon Kennedy 411 Lewis Road #342 San Jose, CA 95111 | 408 629-2331 |
jrk@svtoday.com | http://www.svtoday.comDecember 5 1997
Dear family and friends,
The Christmas season is hard upon us again, the time for remembering friends, reflecting on another year, and giving some thought to the bigger picture of life.
After 13 months of unemployment and with very few freelance assignments, I found employment again on August 4. I was hired as the sole technical writer for Papyrus Technology, Inc. (soon to become Kanisa Inc.), a subsidiary of Ernst & Young accounting firm, which produces financial planning software that runs over the Internet (best known product is I-trader). It’s a great job with the best benefits I’ve ever had, a good corporate culture in Cupertino (about two miles from my church), and a 401K retirement savings plan that holds out the hope that in 10-12 years I may actually be able to kick back for my golden years. And perhaps I can take some nice vacations in the meanwhile, though ’97 was a year of virtually no travel after my big trip around the world with Bro Bob in ’96.
The children are all well and grown, still (!). Michael moved in with me last spring, and after a couple of years of living on his own, Kevin has moved back in with his Mom. Both boys are working at the Milpitas Home Club hardware superstore, and still taking some studies, though not full time. We all had Thanksgiving at Chris and Mark’s in Dublin, Calif., and 20-month-old grandson Antony Ian has yet to warm up to me, though he did smile and wave goodbye this time!
The big development this year is the launching of a new avocation, providing a home page (kind of a "living" encyclopedia entry) for my home town of Nanty Glo, Pa. (thus explaining the "masthead" atop this page). This project brings one the closest possible to being in two places at one time, or to leading two largely unrelated lives, so it’s a lot of fun and often rewarding as I get correspondence from Nanty Gloers and former Nanty Gloers (one of the most notable being Ruth Nipps Troutman, whose name my brothers at least will recognize as a lifelong family friend). I’ve also become close friends with a Belsano native like myself, Trudy Rummel Myers, with whom I exchange email several times a week. Those of you who don’t have a computer with Internet access and email, are missing out on the technological breakthrough of the 20th century.
Our parish, St. Stephen’s, has had some ups and downs this year, losing our senior pastor, but we end the year on an up as we were recently forced by circumstances to try to raise funds to buy the property we’re in. We seem to have won enough commitment from the parishioners to be able to move forward in that endeavor in this, the heart of the highest property value zone in America. I’ve been editor of the parish newsletter for its first year of publication just ending, and have done the weekly bulletin for the past year. I expect to continue the latter, though I’ve recruited another member to take over the newsletter next month.
My book, Evangelicalism and Orthodoxy, still doesn’t have a firm print date, though the publisher is still reassuring me that it’s in the company’s plan.
Blessings of Christmas to all, and much joy in 1998,
