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December 16 to 31, 2009: Diether had an
extended holiday between Christams and the New Year. On Christmas
Day, theygot together with local friends 
at the house in Reno. Jutta prepared a goose as
Christmas meal. On Saturday, a friend from the SF Bay Area
visited, and in dry and cold weather, we enjoyed the outdoors in
the Reno and Fallon area. On the 20th Ben and Ruth came to visit,
and they stayed until New Year's day. We went on a few outings,
walking on frozen rivers and lakes in the Fallon area. On
December 31st we stayed uop after dinner, and watched a movie at
home to wait for the midnight fireworks.
December 1 to 15, 2009: In this year, we participated in Diether's company's yearend holiday party on a Saturday in early December. Diether left for a business trip to the east coast on the following Sunday, while Jutta drove back to Reno in a snowstorm. The US west coast was extremely cold during the week, and Diether experience an evening flight delay later in the week between Manchester NH and Philadelphia PA, because the Southwest Airlines plane was delayed by 2 hours because of lack of de-icing equipment in Oakland CA. On his return to Reno on Friday, his United Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Denver was more than an hour late, and he had to stay in Denver overnight, because his connecting flight did not wait. He arrived in Reno on Saturday around noon, Jutta picked him up, and after lunch they both exercised by removing a thick layer of snow from the deck of their home.
November 2009: We spent Halloween at home,
handing candy to "Trick or Treaters". A few days later
our relative returned to Europe. Diether and Jutta 
spent the Thanksgiving weekend at home, having a
small turkey, prepared by Jutta, for Thanksgiving dinner.
October 1 to October 31, 2009: In the 2nd
week of October Diether and Jutta were invited to a wedding 
of Ben's friends in Cupertino. On the following
weekend, a relative of theirs arrived in Reno from Europe, and
they started a late "summer vacation" in the Nevada.
Because of the potential of rain they changed plans from
northeastern Nevada to central Nevada. From a hotel in Tonopah
they explored Belmont, Manhattan, Round Mountain, and
mountaintops and canyons with rivers in the Toiyabe mountains.
The timing was perfect, because the countryside was beautiful
with strong fall colors. From the Tonopah hotel they continued to
a motel in Carvers, visited the local saloon for dinner, drinks,
and a game of darts with the locals. On the next day, they hiked
and had a picnic in another canyon, took photos of old mining
equipment, and enjoyed two different hot springs. They returned
home to Reno for the night.
September 1 to September 30, 2009: Diether
and Jutta are very active over a long Labor Day weekend in the
Reno area. On the first day they go swimming in Pyramid Lake and
their umbrella is blown away by the wind, first into the water,
and then into the hills above the lake. The retrieval from the
lake was not too difficult, because the wind slowed down at the
right moment; the retrieval from the hills was successful after a
long search. On the next 
day they enjoyed a swim in
the Soda Lake, and then had a car excursion to Rawhide. During
the return drive, they decided to drive into a canyon on a dirt
road, and created a leak in one of the tires (sidewall cut).
Diether managed to drive the car back to the road. They called
for AAA service, but the dispatchers were not too effective,
suggesting service from Colorado and Hawthorne NV. By the time,
they had realized, that Fallon had very close service providers
some good samaritans had stopped and helped us to get going
again. This incident prompted us to inquire about all terrain
tires and skid plates for the car, and to stay on paved roads
with the street tires. Therefore we hiked in the Mount Rose area
on 2 consecutive days. Later in September we watched the balloon
races, and spent another weekend (09/19&20) swimming in
Pyramid Lake and Soda Lake. During the last weekend of the month,
Jutta was at a women's wilderness retreat, while Diether took
photos of the "street vibrations" in Reno during a very
hot weekend.
August 17 to August 31, 2009: Diether works in San Jose during the week, joining Jutta for the weekends to enjoy eating, drinking, and walking in the city of Reno or driving and hiking in the surrounding country.
August 3 to August 16, 2009: Diether went on a business trip to Boston, and continued on to Germany to support Jutta and her mother for a few days. Then he travelled with Jutta to a company anniversary celebration in the Cologne area. After the event, both returned to California. Jutta continued to Reno and Diether spend the next week at work in San Jose.
July 11 to August 2, 2009: Jutta travelled to Europe to support her mother, who needed a medical procedure. After her mother had just returned from the hospital, her father died. She helped her mother to handle the funeral arrangements. Diether had been at work during that time, looking after the Reno house on weekends.
Independence Day weekend, 2009: Diether took
two vacation days for a long weekend from Thursday through
Monday. He arrived in Reno on Wednesday night. On Thursday
morning Diether and Jutta sun-bathed in the morning in the rocks
close to Pyramid Highway. In early afternoon, they took a friend
to the airport, and were then joined by friends (JPW) from the SF
Bay Area to show the house, and then to vist the Roxy Bar and
restaurant in 
downtown Reno. On Friday morning they
drove to Fallon, and then continued to Middlegate, where they had
reserved a motel room. After lunch there, they drove to a
close-by wildlife viewing area, and hiked along a creek into a
deep canyon. When the canyon became so narrow, that they could
not continue without walking through the creek, they turned
around. The then took the dirt road to Ione, turned south towards
Gabbs, and made another stops at the rocks between Gabbs and
Middlegate. Dinner at the Middlegate station was delayed by a
power failure, but beer was available. After breakfast on
Saturday, they drove to the Old Overland Rd and enjoyed the fresh
water in the creek there. Diether took many photos. They returned
to Fallon for lunch, followed by some garden work, a swim in a
local lake, and a stay overnight after watching the impressive
4th of July fireworks in the evening. On Sunday they returned to
Reno in the early afternoon after a stay in the desert on Leter
Rd. They attended the mass with the Catholic university community
in the evening, followed by dinner in town. On Monday, they had a
late morning picnic in the hills close to Winnemucca Ranch Rd
north of Reno, followed by a walk in town to conclude a pleasant
long weekend.
June 1 to June 30, 2009: In June Diether and Jutta had just a few weekends in Reno, because of events in the San Jose area, like a wedding of good friends of Ben and Ruth, the yearly family party, and Ben's graduation from Santa Clara University with a BS in mecahnical engineering. During the few weekends in the Reno area, we continued work on the garden in Fallon, interrupted by swimming in the local lakes.
May 1 to May 31, 2009: In May we started
swimming in Nevada Lakes again, even though a good part of the
month was relatively cold. We burned some 
additional dry
brush in the Churchill County garden, and planted some seeds in
the wet part to find out, what survives without manual irrigation
there. On one Saturday we walked through the river and saw a few
beavers. On some weekends, we enjoyed the desert, and on one we
explored some canyons in the Humboldt Mountain range.
April 1 to April 30, 2009: Except for a business trip for Diether to Washington DC, which included a weekend in the middle of the month, we spent our free time in the Reno area. We enjoyed April snow on the Peavine mountain, worked the Churchill County garden, and took photos of spring flowers in the later part of the months. For the Easter weekend, we had invited the children to a hotel in Lake Tahoe. After we had checked in, we found out, that they had caught a severe cold, and could not come. We enjoyed the area, and had a fabulous dinner at a lakefront restaurant with a waiter, who had been a coach at Monta Vista High School. Because the children could not come, we shortened our stay, and returned to Reno early.
March 1 to 31, 2009: The night before their
return from Europe, Diether and Jutta stayed in a hotel in
Mannheim, and had dinner with Petra in a traditional German
restaurant, which served wine, produced by Petra's relatives.
After returning to SFO, Jutta travelled to Reno in the next
morning, and Diether joined her in the late evening. We continued
to enjoy the outdoors and indoors in and around Reno. The weekend
of March 21 brought some more snow to Reno, but the roads were
easily passable for an outing to the Walker river with lunch in
Yerington and coffee at the Walker River resort, where the
attendant told us about keeping goats. The last weekend of the
month was warm enough to allow a picnic iat a remote part of the 
Winnemucca Ranch Rd north of Reno.
February 1 to 28, 2009: Early in the months, Diether and Jutta spent their weekends together in the Reno area, hiking in the mountains and valleys on Pyramid Highway, and in Churchill County. Sometimes it was very cold, and they only spend a short time outdoors, and instead enjoyed music and drinks at Roxy's and a dinner at Beaujolais. Shortly after the middle of the months, Jutta travelled to Germany to support her parents. Diether spent the weekend in Reno alone, with a drive to Carson City, Minden, Wellington, Yerington, and Silver Springs to take landscape photos on Saturday, and church follwed by a short hike on Sunday. On Saturday night he walked to and from the Cactus Grill for dinner. On the last day of the months, he took some photos around his apartment in the morning, and then travelled to Munich in the evening to participate in a scientific event.
January 1 to 31, 2009: On New Year's Day
Diether and Jutta enjoyed the snow covered countryside to drive
east 
on Interstate 80 to take photos of the mountains in
the area of Lovelock in Pershing County. They did not venture too
far from paved roads, because they did not want to be stranded
far away from potential help. When they drove by some residences
out in the country, some dogs enjoyed chasing their car. On the
next day the drove to Pyramid Lake for renewing their yearly
recreation pass with the Paiute Indians, and to take an extensive
walk along the lake-shore. On the second weekend of the year
after a week of work in Silicon Valley, they exercised by
climbing another mountain on Pyramid Highway on Saturday, and
hiking in the desert along the Carson River in Churchill County
on Sunday. On the Martin Luther King weekend, Diether and Jutta
were joined by Ben and Ruth in Pismo Beach in California for the
traditional get together for a long weekend to celebrate Ben's
birthday. This year Diether had a business phone conference on
Monday afternoon, and the resort hotel had allowed them a late
6pm checkout for a small fee. This let them enjoy a full day on
the coast, and a traffic-free return drive to San Jose with a
dinner at the pizzeria close to their appartment there. They
spend the next weekend of the month in Reno again, and found
another mountain top to hike to.
(For the other parts of the family news click: (2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, July-Dec 2002, Jan-Jun2002, Jul-Dec2001,Jan-Jun2001,Oct-Dec2000, Jul-Sep 2000, Jan-Jun 2000, 1999, 1998)