My End of the Year 2017 Letter
December 31, 2017 Winamac,
Indiana
Dear
family, relatives, and friends,
The end of 2017 is here, 2018 is almost here. So let’s see if I can get an end of the year
letter together. As we all know, procrastination is one of my
best skills.
I hope everyone is having or had a Happy
Halloween, a Happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and Happy
Holidays.
As usual, it seems, 2017 was a pretty big
year. Let’s see if I can talk about it
without getting too carried away. And
no, I am not going to talk about politics.
I managed to visit 75% of my kids. I missed making it to North Carolina. North Carolina is at the top of my 2018
list.
Was it ever fun flying in a little 2 seater
airplane around the mountains and glaciers of Juneau AK. Daughter Maries friend took me for a ride in
her little airplane. Also, the great
total surprise birthday party for my step Granddaughter Kiera.
Camping it was in Minnesota on my son Bruces
birthday... Me with my tent and Bruce
& Ruth and Ruths sisters family in their campers. And a trip with Bruce as he inspected all the
lakes in his county around Bemidji, for invasive species of plants and snail
critters.
I made it to DDRanch in Oregon in August to
help my brother from Boston who was helping with their new camping
venture. It was very good and
interesting watching the total eclipse with everyone including all the campers. It is just amazing as usual to see the
operation that Linda and son Jeff and my grandkids have going on at DDRanch
Son Tommy from NC came up Thanksgiving to
help straighten out some stuff. I am
still having trouble finding stuff that I saved because I might need it
later. While he was here and brother
Earl was here they cleared out the trail in the pines to moms old bench. I later cut up the down trees lying across
the trail. I had not walked it for
several years. Now the trail to moms
bench is open again.
An extremely sad happing was the passing of my
dog pal Brandy in early December. We had
been together for 14+ years or so. It
had an extremely emotional effect on me.
But I am recovering. All kinds of
things remind me of her. This evening
for instance, as I was eating popcorn.
She would pick the dropped ones from the floor and catch them when I
tossed them to her. Popcorn was the only thing she would catch when I tossed
it. Brandy’s life story is on my Blog. I am sure I will always miss her.
In early July I had an attack of old age
spinal degeneration, as I call it – Degenerative Spondylolisthesis. It got to the point where I could hardly
walk. So had to see the doc. They sent me to the local hospital Physical
Therapy. The PT managed to get it
straighten out and manageable. I have
been following their instructions since then, some of them, and so far it is
manageable.
I sort of word it that in the last Year and a
half I have aged more than I have in my previous 80 years combined. Probably as a result my Sepsis and Colon
Cancer occurrences in 2017 and the Spondylolisthesis in 2017. But not too worry I am still doing well.
Which leads me to my biggest goals for 2018,
Stay out of the Hospital, visit North Carolina, climb up the Fire Tire at the
Tippecanoe River State Park on my 85th birthday, and do the big
bridge (Mackinaw) walk on Labor Day. Everything
else will just be extra.
A huge surprise, source unknown, package
arrived in early December. It turned out
to be a Christmas present from my kids. It was a new (gently used) windows 8.1
HP Pavilion 17.3 laptop computer. They had heard that my 9 year old Vista
computer was giving me trouble and decided they would replace it for my
Christmas present. It is testing my
computer skills to and beyond the limit.
The 1st mistake I made
when initially cranking it up was to forget my computer password that I had
just assigned. I finally had to take it
to the local tech and he was able to bypass the password. Then I heard that I
could get a free upgrade to windows 10, in a roundabout devious method, even
though the free upgrade had expired about 6 months ago. Everyone said I should
do that. I managed to get that
done. Took me about 8 hours moving
through the maize. Whew!!. Now I am trying to figure out how to use it.
(I am on the old Vista Computer typing this).
Patty is still working hard with her Pulik
Club of America. Really keeps her busy,
which she enjoys immensely. I get to dog
sit when she is gone. The 2 big times
were to Connecticut and Tennessee.
I did manage to complete an important 2017
goal and set up about 5 cairns from Dad’s old field rock pile.
Well I think that is enough for now. You can if you wish look at this as, ‘sort of’
a Christmas Card. . . . which I am very bad about (not) sending out..
I hope 2018 is a great year for you.
posted by IN Tom at 4:32 PM
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