The Absent Uncle: And in the blink of an eye ...

It is almost hard to believe – 2025 is coming to a close. Unbelievably fast – in a blink of an eye. 

Before I write this year off I went through my desk calendar before replacing it with a fresh 2026 version. It is amazing what got crammed into this past year.

January started auspiciously with colonoscopy that marked five years since about half my colon being removed and thankfully – cancer and polyp free! Great start to the new year. I had some major landscaping projects planned and completed in February, plus a visit from an old New Mexico friend.

March was all about getting ready for our annual trip to Mexico in April – pet care, lawn care, and arrangements finalized for the trip. 

April in Mexico, where we hosted two couples in two different weeks (a first for us) and ended the trip by stopping in San Diego to see Sherrill’s mother and sister on our way back to Houston in early May. 

The rest of May was filled with doctor appointments for the both of us and at the end of May and first part of June, a quick trip to Minnesota to see family and friends, a couple of days in your fair city of Brandon, S.D., before heading home to prepare for my left knee replacement in early July.

July was all about rehab appointments, exercises, and getting back to close to full mobility. August was more of the same, although other annual appointments with other doctors are showing all over the calendar. August was also the month when our son and daughter-in-law departed for San Francisco to begin a new job and life adventure for them. Big change for us. 

September marked the end of physical therapy, and I was so thankful to not have to write in any more PT appointments. 

October was pretty calm – just a quick trip to Minnesota for my oldest sister’s birthday and to see the rest of the family and a short Minnesota boys reunion in Minneapolis. 

November.  esides another plethora of doctor visits for both of us and planning for Thanksgiving we had a two-week-plus visit from Sherrill’s mom. That month just flew by. 

And here we are at the end of December. It was a huge effort this year to go through the myriad of the boxes marked Christmas – display, sort, and repack hopefully more efficiently to eliminate the annual hunt for something missed or mixed in with other unrelated items.

As I look back, we have a lot of doctor’s appointments for two people in generally good health with some chronic conditions under control. I guess those appointments are meant to keep them that way. Overall though, it reminds me of a saying my late sister Joyce relayed to me: “Life is like a roll of toilet paper – the closer to end you get, the faster it goes around.”