Season's Greetings Christmas 2012
Well, it was just a bit on the warm and dry side here in the Midwest this past summer, wasn't it? And isn't it nice to have the Silly Season of the 2012 election campaign behind us? Now, perhaps, our elected leaders in Washington will discover the word "compromise" in the dictionary and find their collective spines to finally address our nation's very pressing fiscal challenges.
My son, Johnathan, 31, Carissa, and their 18-month-old son, Hunter, are doing very well. Carissa does a very good job of sending me photos of Hunter, almost on a monthly basis, plus posting photos and videos of Hunter on Facebook for us all to see. Hunter is now walking (and running), talks a little and, from what I am told, he is quite the character! Hunter's teachers say that he is very smart and gives the best hugs! Johnathan is continuing his college courses to earn his M.B.A. while Carissa has made a career change, working about 50 hours/week, still as an ultrasound technician but at a hospital much closer to home which includes being on call at the emergency room and eliminates what was a very long drive to work for Carissa.
My daughter, Holly, 27, had an adventurous 2012, beginning with finishing out with the New York Giants' first dance group which ended with a Super Bowl victory. She tailgated, danced through rough weather and did promos for Monday Night Football with former Giant players. She was in the Maxim Magazine Release Party, the champions parade, and taught & danced with the kids of schools such as the Harlem Academy. Holly began a new relationship with a fine gentleman, Dave, who she met while they were working together at Bette Midler’s New Leaf Restaurant where he was sous chef. Dave left New Leaf in August, 2011 and traveled to France and worked in his birth city of Seoul, South Korea. Holly and Dave stayed in touch and Dave came back to New York City to see if they could make something out of it. Evidently, a good decision as they are still going strong after almost a full year. They traveled to several places on weekends, including visiting Dave’s mother in Springfield, MA where Dave grew up and they also visited Dave's dad and step-mom in gorgeous Cape Cod. Recently, Holly volunteered for the American Red Cross to help in the Sandy Disaster Relief and helped at local shelters/centers to feed and entertain the less fortunate and elderly on Thanksgiving while Dave is head chef working in his new French restaurant Petite Poullet, feeding visiting tourists at Midtown Manhattan's Martinique Hotel. Thankfully, Holly survived Hurricane Sandy in good shape without losing power.
My mother had much-needed double knee replacement surgery in March and all six of her children helped her out during her arduous recovery, mine being to take her to physical therapy for five weeks. "Our humor" surfaced when, coming back from therapy one day, Mother kindly declined my offer to move the car closer to the house to shorten her walk and I told her, "Oh, no. I'm moving the car closer to the house as I'm doing my best NOT to get 'The Worst Son of the Year Award'." My mother replied, "Oh, are you still trying not to get that?" leading me to laugh. A big event of 2012 was the surprise 80th birthday party for Mother (or, '69+11', as Mother prefers to call it) in which 'adopted' granddaughter, Emily, her mother, Connie, and my sister, Angela, did a great deal to make possible and many of Mother's friends attended.
On June 5, 2012 was the celestial event of the year, the Transit of Venus, in which I traveled to the farm and (thank God!) the skies cooperated and Mother and I watched Venus slowly creep across the sun's disc for a few hours, projected through my 2 1/2" childhood telescope onto sheet of paper affixed a clipboard that I've had since 1970 and I obtained many good photos of this remarkable event, not to occur again until December 11, 2117. Another space spectacular for 2012 was the amazing landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars with the science fiction-like 'Sky Crane' technique of landing.
Holly SHOCKED me by appearing on my front porch (with my being completely unawares) in June for my (belated) birthday and Father's Day and she had two tickets to a Cardinals game on 6/15/12 which had an exciting play in which Tyler Greene, on a play that began as a steal of second with two outs in the bottom of the 9th with the Cardinals trailing 3 - 2, and with the Royals players throwing the ball away twice on the infield, was thrown out on a very close ‘bang-bang’ play at home plate, ending the game. Holly and I witnessed baseball history being made when Carlos Beltran (an invaluable addition for the Cardinals with Mr. Pujols leaving) stole a base, making him only the 8th player, ever, with 300 homers and 300 stolen bases and the first switch hitter to do so. The Cardinals had a great postseason run but came up one victory short in the NLCS against the eventual champions, the San Francisco Giants.
While she was here, Holly and I traveled to the farm and had a very nice visit with my mother and while we ran an errand for Mother “over at Beryl’s” (where my mother grew up), Holly and I ran into Brent Magruder, a friend of Holly's mother from high school, and Holly became very emotional when she heard Brent speak very fondly and warmly of her late maternal grandparents who Holly did not have the opportunity to know.
Many in my family enjoyed seeing my mother’s sisters, my vivacious Aunts Ferne and Jane, when they made their annual trek to Missouri in September.
Two special people passed away this past year: My dear Aunt Yvonne who was my father's sister and who shared her birthday with me. And Ralph Kelsick, who was one of the special crew who I worked with during my years in the Doniphan watershed office in 1979-1989. Ralph was a stalwart worker and was known for his "a-steppin’ and a-fetchin’" across those Ozark hills.
My very good friend and old college roommate (beginning exactly 40 years ago at UM-Rolla!), Dr. Thomas Zweifel, and his wife, Jolaine, passed through Hannibal in August, en route to see their daughter, Jenny, participate in the Miss National Sweetheart Pageant in Hoopeston, IL, as a result of being chosen as runner-up in the 2012 Miss Missouri Pageant (a preliminary of the Miss America Pageant). Tom, Jolaine, and I met at Pizza Hut and we had much fun getting caught up with each other’s lives and regaling our past shared memories and, of course, there really is never enough time for such get-togethers.
My health issues are essentially unchanged from a year ago, which I am very thankful to God for.
In what might be considered an act of altruism, in September, using $20 in postage, I mailed "across the pond" to Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge (Princess Kate), via Her Majesty The Queen, my basic writings and the results of my 21 year (and counting) writing effort and, one month later, I received a very nice letter from a Mrs. Claudia Holloway, Correspondence Secretary for some of the Royals, in which Mrs. Holloway was asked to convey some very nice sentiments to me from the Duchess. Even though the letter was not actually from Princess Kate, receiving it was still a big thrill for me. Of course, I do not know if the Duchess actually received my letter and the enclosed materials and, if she did, what full impression they made on her. But perhaps the day will come in which I will receive a personal letter that is actually from The Duchess of Cambridge in which I will find out. Hope does spring eternal, you know.
Here is my closing amusing story for the year which I have already shared with some of you, but it is, as I like to say, one of those stories worth repeating: The phlebotomist that usually takes my blood one week before my visit with my cancer doctor is a very sweet, attractive, and kind (and very married!) woman in her late 30s named Tonia and we've always had a rather teasing, flirting relationship. And in my many, many years of "doctoring" which included MANY pokes for blood draws, Tonia is, by far, the least painful of them all---sometimes she can do it without causing any pain at all. In July, Tonia drew a blood sample but she called me the next day at home to tell me that the sample didn't get sent off in time which led to clotting and, thus, useless, so she very apologetically asked me to come in again to have another blood sample drawn. I told her not to feel bad and I'd be glad to make the ~8 mile out-of-my-way round trip to do it again. When I sat down for the blood draw, Tonia again told me she felt bad about my needing to come back out again and I told her, again, that she shouldn't since it wasn't her fault, at all. To try to express a rather delicate point, I carefully explained to Tonia, "I hope that you take this the right way, but if you were like a 300 pound Russian woman weightlifter named Helga,....then it would be a little different." Tonia smiled and I could tell that she felt flattered and she gently replied, "I think that I know what you're trying to say." As she eased the needle into the pit of my right elbow, just seconds later, a woman who I'd say was late 50s--early 60s, with very short brown and grayish hair, who was a bit overweight and on the short side, walked out of the adjoining lab and right behind Tonia and she deadpanned, "If it was me taking his blood, he probably wouldn't want to come back out here," and she kept on walking. Tonia and I burst out laughing and I could tell that Tonia was a bit embarrassed and after our laughter subsided, I asked Tonia, "Do you think that'll get around?" and Tonia replied, "I wouldn't be surprised." (And, man, has this story gotten around.)
I hope that you and your family have a prosperous 2013! Greg
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