2018 Annus Mirabilis

Sorrow and joy describe 2018 best, for me at least.  This really begins with Christmas 2017, which Chris and I spent in Arkansas.  Here's the last picture I took of my dad in reasonably good health. 
The whole trip was great family time. Around mid-January, dad began to experience health problems, which led to his hospitalization and diagnosis with bladder cancer.

 He chose the hospice solution, which allowed him to stay at home.  I made two visits over the course of the Spring, during Spring Break in March, and then at the end of April.  Dad passed on April 28th, and I feel fortunate to have been there.  But it was a difficult time, made easier by my children's presence at the funeral.  Mom has made it through these difficult times, and has had some health issues of her own.

But, Joy!  Just before Easter, my second grand-daughter, Eliza, was born.  We traveled over the Easter weekend to see the family in California.

We've actually made several trips to California over the course of the year, both to see the children and vacation. But over the summer, we actually made a wine country bicycle tour of Sonoma, complete with a 3-day VRBO rental with Nate's family on the banks of the Russian River, in the redwoods near its mouth. 

We also spent several days camping on our own in Schoolhouse Canyon, a great and scenic campground on the Russian River.  The river's a great place to cool off after a warm day riding the back roads of Sonoma.  On the way back, after spending a day on the 15-mile drive in Carmel (on bikes), we went down the coast through Big Sur, down Highway 1, just reopened after long-term road closures. 

It's impossible to describe the beauty and the dangerous excitement of those curves, that scenery, the fog--I'm an experienced bicyclist, but even I would not attempt what I saw some bicyclists doing on that road.  A car was frightening enough.  The night we camped at the town of Big Sur, Chris began to experience some gastric pain, which she felt was unfair, since her appendix is gone, a casualty that occurred soon after our Alaska cruise last year.

Anyway, there is no good cell service in the Big Sur (as well as, surprisingly, around the Russian River), so she waited until we got out to the coast near Hearst Castle to call the medical hotline.  They suggested watching the symptoms until we got to the L.A. area, where the problems were so bad that she had to be hospitalized.  This time, it was her gall bladder.  The surgeon joked that she had few easily removable body parts left, so next year, we could vacation with confidence.

This has slowed Chris's learning curve on the toy car we got last spring, a 2012 red Corvette C6.  What's the learning curve?  It's a manual.  But we have taken it around the state, and to California (perhaps a big mistake on the 405 at rush hour).  It is pretty, though.

In the fall, we had a great time in Rhode Island, doing a family celebration of Beth and Steve's marriage.  Chris arranged the outdoor ceremony, I got to celebrate their vows, and Tom, Steve's dad, did the music.  Then we adjourned to the Bristol Oyster House to celebrate.  It was a wonderful time.

This brings us to this Christmas, which was spent in Mesa.  We had eight people sleeping at the house, and more who came to do a family celebration of Beth and Steve's wedding, along with Beth's and Tana's birthdays.

And so the year comes around, beginning in sorrow and ending in joy.

Those who sow in tears

will reap with shouts of joy!

He who goes out weeping,

bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy,

bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 126:5-6