December 2023

This was an interesting month. It started with Sue’s surgery. I went into Sutter Roseville for a small wedge resection for removal of a precancerous lesion and ended up in surgery for 4 hours for a complete lobectomy of the upper left lung for cancer. The doc kept me in the hospital for 5 days waiting for the drainage to stop. Glad to be home, it took a while to get my strength back and be able to get back to my usual routine. By the end of the month, I was keeping up with my daily chores. In January, I’ll get back to the treadmill at the gym and help Rog clean up the massive amount of leaves that have accumulated. It looks like they got all of the cancer and all of the lymph nodes were clean, so no chemo or radiation. Just regular CAT scan follow ups.

The month still had its share of holiday events. The weekend before surgery, Rog and I joined the 49er LIons Club for their annual Christmas brunch. Nice to see a lot of old friends we haven’t seen for a long time.

The Blooms had their Solstice bonfire on the 22nd. By this time, I was pretty well recuperated and was able to contribute the homemade sun bread. The weather was almost perfect and the food excellent.

The next day, we headed back to the Blooms for the holiday gift exchange. A fun afternoon!

We spent the rest of the weekend doing lots of prep work for the holiday dinner on Monday. On Chrstmas, we had a delicious breakfast of Eggs Benedict at Beth and Ryan’s for a gift exchange. Then home to get the turkey on the grill and the roast in the oven. At 1pm, guests arrived. My oldest brother and his wife joined us as well as my oldest sister and her husband. We had an early 3pm dinner so that they could get on the road early. What a great day!

We ended the month with a celebration potluck at the Aikido dojo. They had a practice and then we shared some great food and conversation. I had dressed for the bonfire, but we stayed in the dojo. Nice to be able to be out and about again. Welcome to 2024!!!