December Already........(yikes!)

Well we're here. December. The last month of the year. The last year of the decade. Gone are the sixties.....the seventies.....the eighties......and the nineties.......and what do we call these years? The double aughties? Whatever they are, we've only got one month of them left.

Make the most of it.

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Word from Iowa is that Uncle Tony has come thru the surgery and is now beginning a period of recovery that will last him for several weeks. He is going to be in considerable pain the next two or three days, and from there it will get better.

I think in four or five months or so, when his situation has stabilized, I'll get on a plane and go see him and Marge. I'll see if I can talk my cousin Dusty into meeting me there, although he might tell me he won't be available until the summer sometime. Then again, maybe sooner.

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I'm not sure how prolific a writer I will be this month. There's this business of the holidaze. I was out this evening buying some Christmas cards, and I want to get these started now. Looking back, I should have started filling them out in July, and not sealing the envelopes until the annual letter was put in them. Then I could have chucked them all in the mail the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and some folks would be getting their very first Christmas card on Black Friday.

Maybe next year?

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And speaking of the Christmas letter, what do I write? I used to be very good at writing them off the seat of my pants (like I do a lot of these blog entries) but what do I say? There was a high point this year and there was a low point that followed. I could brag again about how well things are going for me at work (which they are), but do my friends and relatives really want to hear that again?

I could do a month by month summary. I've done that before and have been able to inject some humor into it, especially that year where I had to have my roof done. In one month when I got the estimate, the roofer joked about how I might want to knock off some liquor stores. The next month when it became time to send the check in (I paid it all off in one fell swoop) I joked about wanting to knock off some liquor.

I don't think I have all that much to joke about this year. However, it wasn't really a bad year. I made it back east, and I made it to Portland. I made it on a deer hunting trip, and I traded emails with Fred Turner of BTO a few times. I had a full blown biopsy for prostate cancer (which turned out negative), and I took twenty pounds off.

I'm sure I'll come up with something, but I don't think I should write that letter tonight.

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I think this will be it for now. I'm somewhat short of rest as I write this.