Happy Day +4680 and
Merry Christmas to You All!
We usually find a way to print these updates and mail them with our Christmas cards, but 2023 has been an interesting year.
Gemma Larisa McKellar was born January 5, 2023, about 3:30 PST. She debuted at 7 lbs 5 oz of wiggling cuteness. Michael and Stefanie are proud parents. We are proud grandparents! Gemma is rapidly approaching her first birthday, and will experience the wonder and confusion of having a birthday within approximately a week of Christmas and New Year's. Because my birthday is in January, I have a fair notion of what it's like when your folks have to find you a birthday present during the time that they're still busted from Christmas.
Our first child, Heather, is starting a new job with the police department. She will be working in the records department. Their oldest, Eli started his freshman year at Iowa State University and Rose is a senior in high school. Both are accomplished musicians and top students. Chris continues to improve.
Andrew and Kris are still in Iowa. Daren is working and Raine is in his senior year of high school. Amanda is upstairs at home and makes her living streaming online. She is always available to explain to me how and why I am wrong. That used to be my function for my Dad. It’s a unique experience to be on the other end of that equation. Also, it's good to have someone younger in the house.
Marian remains in good health, despite a stroke (Nov. 2021) and a bout with colon cancer in 2019.
April 17th was a day full of surprises. After wandering around, doing housework (for men that means vacuuming), I called up the stairs for Marian to drive me to the hospital. I was having a classic heart attack! I walked into the hospital and announced that I was having a heart attack, and shortly thereafter, I was (not) enjoying my second ambulance ride to Marquette. When I came home on April 25th, I had seven shiny, new stents and some more medications to take. I did 25 weeks of cardiac rehab, and I now carry Nitroglycerin pills.
Thanks to the kind help of a local friend I made the trip to Wausau, WI to see a pulmonologist for an evaluation and pulmonary function study. That news wasn’t cheerful. My FEV1 (lung capacity) has dropped from 25% to 19%. Now, I have to work on proving him wrong as well. It’s good to have goals.
Merry Christmas Everyone.
