Name: Rich Bruns

E-mail update – February 18, 2022

All healthy and happy here in Melbourne, Australia. 

Three years ago

Linda and I stuffed 380 UHaul moving boxes into our 2-bedroom flat here in Ashburton from our 40-foot shipping container. We love it here with our extended Aussie family and the exciting Melbourne culture. We live several blocks  from Loren, Caitlin, Natalie (6 years), Ellie (3 years), Caitlin's parents, Caitlin's brother & partner and dozens of relatives -- 7 girls under 7.

We're all exhausted, but happy

taking care of our wonderful granddaughters - they're very cute and talk in Aussie English. Linda makes princess dresses for them. Linda and I are fortunate to enjoy rewarding relationships with our family here -- we also miss you guys in America, but we try to stay in touch.

Linda and I don't need a car.

Melbourne, population 5 million, runs light rail trains, buses and Ubers to 100+ villages with gentle hills and many parks. The Melbourne gold rush in 1852 was even richer than the San Francisco gold rush. Wealth built Melbourne to rival Queen Victoria's London, including grand architecture, transportation and public services.

The weather is moderate -- very similar to Palo Alto (palm trees) and Portland rain( but without snow). It's not super hot like the rest of Australia, because it's further south from the equator with breezes from Antarctica.

Melbourne supports world-class culture

Art galleries, museums, opera, ballet, theater, symphony, sports, TV, film, and music concerts. Celebrities like to travel to Melbourne to build first-run productions. Linda and I can walk half a block to board a 30-minute light rail train to the Opera House, Symphony Hall, Ballet Theater, Playhouse Theater, Art Gallery, Museum, Musical Theater. We got bargain tickets for best seats for dozens of shows before the Covid shutdown -- we eagerly await reopening.

Australia is 90% metro cities -- Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Darwin. 

· Very healthy and family-oriented.

· Public services are economical, because everyone lives close together-- hospitals, schools, cultural and shopping, home deliveries. It's expensive to support a high standard of living in the outback - but few people live there, since it's much harsher than rural America. 

· Everyone has medical coverage and economic education through college. The diverse population has immigrants from all over the world -- 

· the food is fabulous since Australia has productive farmers in all climates (like Canada to Panama) with easy ocean, truck and rail shipping. 

· Strong Asian influence with British high street villages.We walk a block up to High Street to buy fresh meat, fruit, veggies and bread. 

· Most of our stuff is home-delivered from Amazon, free-shipping businesses and groceries from Woolworths. Several world-class shopping centers are a 10-minute bus or train ride.

The natural beauty is overwhelming

Hundreds of different breeds of parrots flying in annually on high-altitude wind currents from Africa, Asia and South America, Flocks of 100 white cockatoos, melodious magpies, noisy wrens, clicking cicadas, frogs, hawks, owls all compete with crazy sounds -- it's perfect gardening climate for flowers and greenery -- 100's of varieties of Eucalyptus, from big white gum tree to willowy giants - palm trees. Geology lover's dream with every possible example preserved for a billion years in the dry climate (no Glaciers) - Linda and I loved the big red rock at Uluru and looked at the full moon with an Aboriginal astrophysicist - We rode a thrilling boat ride with Joan and Buzz Schadel to see Tasmanian coastal geology and seal rocks up close.

We've adapted to big migration changes 

American English sounds weird. People always think we're from Canada.

· Christmas in summer.

· Sun on the north side, drive and walk toward people on the left, crazy car roundabouts and tricky pedestrian crossings, public transportation, steering wheel on right side.

· 240 voltage. Different TV standard and phone system

· Money, banking, taxes and immigration red tape

· English dialects (British, Irish, Aussie regions, educational background) and pronunciation, clever Aussie slang

· Strange city names -- many from 60,000 year-old First Nation Aboriginal culture. 

· We watch TV from all over the world -- British murder mysteries are our favorites - Australia Broadcasting Corporation has excellent news and entertainment coverage from around Australia and the world, working with BBC, Deutsche Welle, PBS and we see PBS and cable news on YouTube.

I hope some of you will come and visit when Australia opens up. We'll have some fun together.

Rich and Linda Bruns

(July 2009) - Personal narrative!

Linda and I celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on August 5 and share 33 years together. We've always been crazy about each other, and knew right away that were doomed to a zany life together. We've worked hard on the stuff we liked, have never been politically correct nor financially secure. High tech has been a wild ride for both of us, and Linda has also been a great mother and wife.

We're very proud of our son, Loren, who is an honors physics major at Reed College, famous for its undergraduate physics program. I work at Intel with software companies developing consumer software for PCs in the "Digital Home." Within five years, mainstream consumers will be able to control playback of movies, audio and product information (replacing ads) anywhere in the home. They'll select content from PC hard drives, Internet, cable boxes or satellite using a "remote control" to display choices on a high-definition TV. We're pushing the technology and industry standards to make it happen.

Looking forward to seeing you all again! ~ "Raspy" Rich Bruns

A Loveland memory from 1950/60 era!
Otto Fick, our school bus driver, stopped at the railroad track near Garfield School and opened the door to check for trains. There was a sugar beet train about 200 feet away moving toward our bus at 5 miles per hour. Rich Cherry yelled "Yeah, the train!" amid the rowdy school bus chaos, so Otto closed the door and drives our bus onto the tracks. The train hit the front wheels, which were between the steel tracks, bumping violently along the wood ties and dragging us about 100 feet. No serious injuries and Otto's skillful explanation kept his job for even more school bus excitement on our route.

Walt Graese and Caroline Kezer invited us all to her birthday party at her house after the Friday football game. Everyone showed up, except for Walt and Caroline, who had fallen asleep parking north of town listening to the radio. "Wake Up Little Suzie" by the Everly Brothers woke them up at 2AM. Scandalous!