Greetings everyone, on the cusp of 2019. Good-bye 2018..what a year.
I hope your Christmas was a good one. We had a fine time…son Scott and wife Heidi visited us with their 4 month old daughter Elyra (our first grandchild), and their parent-trainer dog, Jojo. On their first night here, we were also joined by Carol’s brother Ted, wife Kim, and UCLA-student son, Carl. We had a wild and crazy dinner, as per usual when that crew is around.
For the next few days, we had a fun and relaxing time with Scott, Heidi, and Elyra. We played a little Pedro, went for walks with Jojo, and ate well, including Alaska-caught halibut for Christmas dinner.
Son Andrew and wife Mel couldn’t join us for Christmas proper, as they were very busy with their startup cleaning business in South Lake Tahoe. But, they joined us for an overnight visit a few days before Christmas. As luck would have it, they were here the same time as nephew Matt, wife Laura, and daughter Evalis, who were visiting from their home in Norway. We had a houseful, and a lot of laughs at dinner.
So we had a good time over the Christmas holiday, with lots of laughs and lots of family in and out.
Now on to my ‘medical’ recap, physical and mental.
I looked back at my ‘weight log’ and saw that I was 120 lbs at the start of 2018. I am pleased to report I’m now 140 lbs. It was a long, slow haul, and I didn’t know if I’d ever get my weight back. I was about 150 lbs when this whole ordeal started, but I’m quite happy at 140. Now I just need to gain some strength…and shift some of the weight from around my stomach to other, more productive places. I’ve been going to the gym (YMCA) since March, about three times a week (when we’re in town), but I’m not looking like Charles Atlas yet. The strength is very tough to get back….lots of muscle mass lost with the weight loss.
My physical therapy has greatly reduced the pain in my shoulders (pain from many years of swimming and rotator cuff repairs), but I still have a hard time passing the gravy boat to someone across the table.
Woodside Park, where I walk to on my walking days, has a nice new exercise area with brand new equipment for all kinds of exercises: benches for sit-ups, bars for chin-ups, ropes for climbing, and a whole host of other torture ‘stations.’ I tried a couple yesterday.
I laid on a plank, with my head higher than my feet, reached my arms over my head to a bar attached to the plank, and then I tried to lift my legs straight up and over my body. I actually broke out laughing…no way in the world could I do that!! Then I tried the chin-up bar. I did one ‘nose-up’…..couldn’t quite get to the chin.
Overall I’m feeling good. Occasionally I’ll eat too much at a sitting and be uncomfortable for a few hours. My wind, or endurance, is not very good if I’m going up hill…on the flat is okay. My nighttime pillow arrangement is better…that is, I’m staying in position, keeping my head above my stomach, so I haven’t been experiencing the very unpleasant acid reflux, with a hot throat and lots of coughing. I am coming to grips with the fact that I will have to sleep on my back for the rest of my life. I just must resist the occasional very strong desire to sleep on my side for just a little bit!
Mentally, I vacillate between being happy and contented, and feeling sad and melancholy. I feel very fortunate to have survived my bout with cancer, at least this far, but I am saddened by the misfortunes of so many others: good friends lost a son a year ago; an old college buddy dueled the grim reaper last year and barely survived; another college friend was diagnosed with an even grimmer case of cancer in the liver and colon; and a fellow esophageal cancer victim diagnosed about the same time as I was, died a few months ago.
All these things have made me think more about the mystery of life, afterlife, and the Creator. Not that I’ve come up with any answers, but I’m thinking more about it (which is saying something, since ‘death’ and the ‘hereafter’ are mostly what I write about in my poetic attempts).
I’m enjoying going to church more regularly now. I saw a priest before my surgery to go to confession and receive an ‘anointment of the sick.’ I felt good after that. I’m appreciating the community of the church-goers, and the quietude in the church. And we are blessed with two really fine priests in our parish.
I get emotional much more easily now. I can get teary-eyed hearing a song in church, like Amazing Grace, or the Ave Maria, or seeing a movie like The Green Book, or saying good-bye to the kids when they leave after a visit.
On the other hand, I also laugh more easily. So many things are funny, like watching the cats chase each other, or baby Elyra flashing a big grin, or a clever quip from Carol.
Anyhow, life is good. I’m happy, and thankful to be alive. Now I want to pray for others, that they may survive and enjoy life a little longer. We’re all gonna die eventually, but, hey, in the meantime, let’s be good people, and show some love.
See you next month, I hope.
Here’s a little something that showed up here last Christmas:
Family Christmas
Christmas is over and the kids have gone home
Their spirits’ still here but now we’re alone
When they were with us the times they were sweet
With laughter and games and tenderloin treats.
We gathered around and shared a few gifts
We listened to them and their goofy old riffs
We always have fun when they come to stay
But a longing can linger when they’ve gone away.
We’ll do it again and we talk about when
We pick out a date and let’s do it then
Fixing the when of our next rendezvous
Gives the heart something to look ahead to
Memories forward and memories past
Sweeten each meeting, and longer they last
Thanks for the memories, here’s for some more
We’ll write down the date, and wait by the door.
Hello Chris, and. Carol, too!
Thank you for the beautiful missive. I am always touched by your blog, but this one was special. Happy New Year. See you in Oceanside.
Don