[mbuster]

Its been a trying year or two that we have been thru. Despite all of that, there has had to be some good things that have come about for us. Is there something positive you would like to share?

(Apologies in advance, yours doesn't have to be long winded.)

For me, I spent last Christmas Eve at the ER with chest pain. I had quad bypass in 2015, so I had some legitimate concern. The bypass wasn't a result of a heart attack, but from findings of doing a "Keep the Beat" voluntary $99 heart health check up. It showed some calcium deposits on the CT, they asked if I would like to make an appointment to see a cardiologist. I said yes, could have just as easily said no. That led to a stress test, that led to a heart cath, which found some blockage, that led to the bypasses.

Back to last Christmas Eve, they didn't find anything. I did follow up with my cardiologist after after he came back from Christmas/New Year's vacation. Did a nuclear stress test, followed by another heart cath in February. Preparing myself for the worst, I was very pleased to hear "Whatever was causing the chest pain, it's not your heart, nothing wrong with it." That has left me the remainder of the year to enjoy retirement. I have also became a great grand dad.

 

[etherea]

I've enjoyed my first year of retirement. My husband retired early this year--luckily we get along
I went to southwest Arkansas in June for a memorial service and got to see family from Indiana that I hadn't seen in years. The person that died was related by marriage and had died 6 months earlier. That made it easier to enjoy the company without fresh grief.

 

[itissteve]

I actually had to look back at my calendar for this year because nothing big popped up. It's been that kind of year.

We're all alive and well (not much of a bar, eh?). Seriously, everyone (even the grandkids) escaped serious illness, broken bones, etc. Our grandson, a year old last week, seems to have outgrown a congenital kidney issue that needed surgical attention before he was a month old. I had a bit of a cardiac scare myself this fall, brought on by one of those voluntary $99 heart health check ups (!) and a misread of the results by my primary care provider. A stress EKG and a bump to my BP medication and they say I'm okay. Lose some weight (last couple years have been a holding pattern, so yeah) and be more active (ditto).

And we got to see several people in person whom we hadn't seen since even before lockdown (my favorite cousin [shh -- don't tell any of the others]), some college friends who don't live in town. And our folk dancing resumed, so we got to see those folks without green rectangles around their faces and dance with them.

It wasn't a bad year at all, but it sure passed quickly while we did a lot of mundane things!

 

[etherea]

How could I have left out my retirement? I retired at the end of 2020 and I've loved it. I haven't accomplished all the "ought to" and "should" projects that I expected to, but they didn't go anywhere

 

[mbuster]

OOps, forgot my July 2020 thing too. I guess we were both too busy. Retirement is hard work.

 

[itissteve]

After he retired, my father noted he was busier in retirement than he was at his full-time job. Took me and DW retiring to understand what he meant.