End Of Year Note 2025

Greeting Family and Friends,

Here's hoping everyone had a great holiday. I can't believe another year is closed as  a new one opens. Definitely been a roller coaster around here. Between travel and writing I have certainly  kept busy. Actually I'm trying something new, writing this entry on my blog and then copying it into an email!  However as tradition, I will start with the family

Chris, Natalie and the kids are all doing fine. I can't believe both Zander and Quinn are in high school. Quinn's freshman year is going well, she's likes most of her classes. She joined a travelling soccer team that has taken her to places like Florida this past spring and California the first week of December. She's taking a break for the winter, but joined the girl's basketball team. I actually should say teams because the freshman and JV teams don't have enough players so she and a few of her teammates are bouncing around between the two teams.. Dad and I actually got to see her play when we went out for Christmas! Zander got his driver's permit and even drove my dad to pick up takeout on Christmas Eve dinner. He'll be starting to look at colleges in thee spring, including in South Carolina (more about SC in a second)

Pete and Sue are still very busy. Besides his job, Pete has been involved with his town in Pennsylvania.   He takes after  dad and enjoys working in his yard along with other projects around the house. He and dad replaced a ceiling  in his basement in the spring. Sue has been coming back and forth to Cape May a lot because her parents had some medical issues these past few months.  She pops in when she comes d own. We were all together again for Thanksgiving, including  her parents and then on Saturday I was invited to her parents, sister, bother-in-law and nephews which is always fun! Her dad is a beach tagger during the summer months so I visit him on duty often. 

Well I saved exciting news for last ! Some of you might have heard my  dad bought a second home in Murrells Inlet, SC (emphasis on second). We have been getting away from Cape May for a few weeks over the past few winters, mostly down in Florida, however  he has friends who have lived in Murrells Inlet for many years. We have visited them a few times and dad found a house in a decent community. He has wanted to get out of the Cape May winters for years.  While I'll never admit it to him, the winters are getting to  me too.  So as of this Monday we'll be SC  residents until the end of March! Although that timeline is very negotiable I do this all the time, but if you're ever in the area let us know!!

My turn.. Well, I am doing ok, things are pretty good. I still have my aide Anthony coming three times a week doing laundry and shaving. My writing is going well. The Cape May Herald has a feature called Spout Off where I sharpen my skills while remaining anonymous. Over the summer Cape May offered a few writing seminars that I really enjoyed but I missed the poetry section because of the license plate convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I still contribute to 1st Responder News; I might even expand my territory to South Carolina!  I figure South Carolina will offer a lot of writing material if nothing else. However Cape May is my home!!

Yes as I mentioned before, I finally crossed something off my bucket list. I finally rode on Route 66, just a year shy of its 100th birthday! I visited Tulsa Fire Station 66 and picked up another challenge coin. I always got the real Tulsa feel with my  license plate friends Clark, Dean and Ed. Pete and Sue once again came along, they explored Tulsa. I have been in the club for thirty-one years!! Besides the convention, I still cohost a meet here in New Jersey with my good friend Ed Butler every October! I am attending a meet in  St Petersburg Florida in a few weeks with a friend of mine.

Well, they're calling me to go out. We're spending New Year's with friends! I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2026. Please keep in touch !

Justin Mattes
201-390-8344

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One Contact - Five Lighthouses--W9C

Back in the summer I wrote an entry in here about my Lighthouse phone contact with Bill,N8ET , so now I had to top that with a five lighthouse PSK contact in Wisconsin! I was orginally going to wait until I got the card like my other contacts but I think at this stage of the game you can take my word for it. This contact was with a husband and wife team also known as "Team Cheese"--WI9TC (I love the callsign). Like the contact with Bill, they were in the line of sight of five lighthouses located on the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan. As soon as I saw them on the BeaconBot (the e-mail reflector used to notify people of lighthouse activations-) I knew I had to take my best shot. There were tons of stations dying to get a contact. Well after some monitoring of the waterfall and waiting for a break in the QSO's, I dropped my call. Unfortunately I was getting overpowered a lot so I actually wound up waiting for quite awhile. Although I have to admit it was also fun just ...
More Posts to Mattes's Madness

2025 New Year's Note

 WELL here we are folks one quarter of the way into this century!! I have been thinking about writing this email since the beginning of December but of course I am a month late. I am happy to report the Mattes Family is healthy!  Chirs, Natalie, Zander and Quinn are busy as ever! Zander is now a sophomore and studying for his written test to get his driving permit! I have to double check that fact because it's so hard to believe. Quinn is doing well in eighth grade and is on a travelling soccer team which plays in tournaments all over the country. She has one coming up in Florida in  February that dad and I are thinking about going down for a few days to watch her. They BOTH are getting as tall as their uncle Jay which is very hard for him to accept! The family adopted three kittens which as a dog person even I admit they are cute!! We spent Christmas with them and got  to see the new Bob Dylan movie, partly filmed right here in Cape May. Unfortunately, I didn't get ...
More Posts to Mattes's Madness

Bob Dylan blows into town

Image
       For a few months there has buzz around Cape May NJ that Bob Dylan was coming to America's Oldest Seaside Resort. No he wasn't playing a concert at Convention Hall. For most of this weeks parts of 2024 Cape May,NJ was transformed into 1965 Newport, RI. A Complete Unknown is a new film about Dylan's conversion from acoustic  to electric guitar starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan is in production and the location scouting team decided that  Cape May today looked like Newport back in '65. Bob Dylan debuted  his hit song Like a Rolling Stone   at t he Newport Folk Festival. They even transformed Perry Street  into Belevedere Avenue. Shops along the Washington Mall were temporarily renamed to match shops up in Newport.  The Victorian Motel was baptized then Viking Motel for the film  Days prior I started seeing filming equipment  being transported into town.       Like most o f the town I was hopi...
More Posts to Mattes's Madness