Welcome Aboard the Crazy Train

So the rat bastard 2016 is over.

It was the year I learned the term “popliteal aneurysm.” It started with the mister asking me to take him to the ER one morning in January. After about 8 hours, he was admitted and spent the next 10 days there, eventually having his right leg cut open from ankle to groin so they could remove the clot and clogged artery, and replace it with a vein that you really don’t need. Thank you God for spare parts. He was lucky he did not lose his lower leg or foot, and still walks with a limp because complete feeling never returned due to nerves dying.

It was the year of intense arthritis finally driving me to a full knee replacement. The left knee will just have to live with arthritis when it gets bad. Never. Doing. That. Again.

It was the year of intense political hatred to the point I came closerthanthis to hiding Facebook posts of friends from BOTH sides of the political spectrum because of their vitriol towards the other side. Still might in the case of a couple of them that refuse to let go, or maybe I’ll just introduce them to each other, lock them in a room and let them scream at each other until neither has a voice or the will to keep it up.

It was the year of loss. Three wonderful, dear, kind, funny, intelligent friends of mine went on to their final reward. Seems like I have cried continually since July, and with each one, the tears come from deeper within me. At 66, my mortality is staring back at me every time I look in the mirror. So many “I shouldas” that will never be. Kids….live life when you are physically able. The day will come when you can’t.

The rat bastard wasn’t all bad, though. Connected with even more friends from high school and went on the second annual WHS Class of 68 trip to southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Such a wonderful group of people. Those of us born in 1950 are just plain exceptional.  LOL. We ladies still get together monthly –in warm months only, because we are older, not insane – and “do” lunch. I think we get rowdier and laugh more with each gathering. So much fun!

After a few career false starts, the kid went to work for a world-wide IT company and enjoys his job, especially the fact that there are set hours and nothing ever gets brought home. After a lifetime of watching his father and I bring the office home evenings and weekends, he knew what not to do. He still runs with the same group of friends from elementary/middle/high school, and we have been watching them slowly pair off, starting lives and families of their own. I still look at those mid to late 20 faces and see the 8-10 year olds I first met. So hard to see them as homeowners and parents, but time marches on and waits for no one.

So here it is 2017, and a few decisions have been made for this year.

The interior of the house will be updated and once finished, we will start looking for a much smaller one story with laundry room NOT in the basement. Stairs are not kind to either of us these days. Personally, I’d move to where snow is something you only see on a calendar, but that’s a battle I’d never win without involving attorneys and property settlements, and quite frankly I’m too damn cheap to pay their fees, so Kansas remains my home.

After purposefully gorging on first a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper and another of Barq’s in 2016, I have now been soda free for months. I am tackling sugar and flour this year.

I am in collaboration with a friend to write a book, and I have vowed to finish the one I started in 2005, even if I have to plot all year and commit to finishing it for NaNoWriMo. It will get done.I still am fortunate enough to be a 'first-reader' for a couple of established authors, and love seeing the entire process from first draft to published book.

I have vowed to blog weekly on something, be it short and whimsical or a long rambling rant.

There are a few other things rattling around in my strange mind, but those are still in formation or discussion within myself. What it boils down to is that 2017 is the year of living. Since retiring at the end of March 2013, I have pretty much stagnated, so in 2017 I have chosen to change.  We shall see where my journey takes me. Welcome aboard the Crazy Train.