Annual Update

By “popular” demand (all one of you!), here’s an update on goings-on in my life over the last year – What I can remember anyway!

As far as turning 50 goes, I feel a little rustier than I did before.  I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with turning 50, but more to do with being more conscious of getting fucking old.  Thankfully, I didn’t die in October.  Short of that, I’ve got nothing interesting to report for that month.

November brought Thanksgiving and all the madness associated with it.  We went to Shelley’s daughter’s in-laws’ house for Thanksgiving, as we normally do nowadays.  Here are some pros and cons:

Pros

- No cleaning up afterward.  They do everything.

- Tons of food!!!

- It doesn’t last forever and ever.

Cons

- Tons of people – around 40 usually.

- No leftover turkey carcass from which to make turkey soup :-(

- I can’t just eat and then plop on the floor to watch football.  We have to sit and watch football.

It’s a decent day, but I’d sometimes like to be able to have a small Thanksgiving at home every now and then.

December was uneventful, aside from the Christmas madness.  I did all my shopping online.  It’s great.  We spent Christmas down here this year.  Shelley’s daughter and son-in-law came down.  They had a bug though…some kind of stomach thing, so it wasn’t as much fun as it normally is.  We usually spend Christmas Eve eating, drinking, and playing games.  We did a little eating and a little drinking, and a little game-playing, but not much of anything for very long.   

In January I went to Phoenix for work, which was fortunate.  I got to see my sister, my best friend, and an old family friend.  It was nice.  They also set record low temperature records during my stay.  The record they broke was one dating back to my high school days there.  I remember it well.  We lit fires in 55 gallon drums out in front of the school where we hung out before class. 

In May Shelley’s daughter and son-in-law came down from Austin and we all spent Mother’s Day weekend in a nice little hotel.  During the stay, the daughter found out she was pregnant.  It was good news for all.  Also occurring this weekend was a terrible hailstorm resulting in a total roof replacement, and overall about $18,000 in insurance claims.

In June Shelley and I, along with her daughter and son-in-law, went to South Padre Island and spent four days in a condo at the beach.  It was nice.  Very relaxing, and very nice.  I got suitably sun-burned too, which I hadn’t done for a long time.

July wasn’t so hot.  Shelley’s mom passed away suddenly on the 11^th.  She’d been diagnosed with lung cancer shortly before going o visit Shelley’s sister on the 2^nd of July for a long weekend.  At some point she had a couple of minor heart attacks.  On the 4^th of July she woke up and they realized she’d had a stroke.    She was admitted to the hospital.  After being released from the ICU, she had a massive stroke while telling the nurse about her impending visit to spend three months with us in October.  She was going to be here for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the birth of a great-grandchild.  Shelley rushed out to Seattle, followed shortly thereafter by me.  On the 9^th Mom was brought home to Shelley’s sister’s house for home-hospice care.  She had medical directives in place, which was good.  Mom passed away at 3:55pm on the 11^th of July at home.  She was 84.  All four kids were there with their spouses and significant others.  It was a very, very sad time.  Two grandchildren were there, as was a great-grandchild.  We stayed for two weeks.  The house full of people while Mom was there tempered the melancholy.  We ate, drank, and played games.  And we talked to Mom and showered her with love every time we walked by her bed.

To say losing this woman was sad, is an understatement, even for me.  Over the last seven years, I fell in love with that woman.  She took me in like her own son, and made me feel just as special and important as my own mother did before she passed away.  Shelley, her family, and the rest of the world lost a beautiful woman in July.

So…It’s August now.  We were going to take a two-week trip starting on the 16^th, flying into Cody, visiting Yellowstone, then making a slow drive west to Tillamook, thence up to Aberdeen, Washington (my genealogy stuff) and on to Olympia where Shelley’s mom lived.  We’d stay there for a couple of days, then drive to a little town west of Olympia to stay with Shelley’s sister for a while.  After that, we were to head back east to Cody, taking a detour to Glacier National Park before flying back to Texas. 

But…life changes things.  So we re-routed our trip directly to Seattle and thereabouts, and will spend two weeks there.  Shelley’s the executrix of her mom’s estate, so she’s got plenty to do.  We’ll stay with her sister and do fun things between working on the estate. 

Perhaps needless to say, it’s been hot as fuck here in Texas.  And humid.  I’m so sick of it, and am ready to move the hell to cooler climes!

So there you go.  An update.  It’s nice to post something here again.  Much better than Facebook.   

Thanks for kicking me in the Ass, TC.  :-)   Good to hear from you.

And Nay - Well, you suck as always in the communications department, but I still love you muchly my friend.  How long have we known one another now?  Almost 34 years.  Wow.  Mail me soon.  XO