The paper today is Dec. ….

The paper today is Dec. 28. Time to wish everyone a happy New Year. Next week I’ll have to remember to write 2023. Remember all the fuss back in December 1999? And if I remember correctly, some people stayed at the courthouse to make sure everything was all right.

I am closing in on year 2030 when I can be around when the mortgage on Thomas Apartments was supposed to be paid up. I understand it might be pushed back as a number of improvements have been made since it was built. Things like walk-in showers. I guess I’ve had one for so many years I never realized we were building a faculty with just old-fashioned bathtubs.

This is the paper of the year that has always been a chance to review all my activities for the year. To sum it up, it is pretty simple to say it has been a strange one. It actually got started back on Christmas Day 2021. I’m really not sure why I was spending some time in the Marshfield Hospital. I do recall visiting with a doctor who told me my kidneys were in fine shape and should last me.

I got released and Mark picked me up so we could drive to Sue’s house for Christmas. When I got released, I was fitted with an attachment which just held my urine in a bag.

I made it but it was an ordeal, which prompted Sue to make arrangements to transfer me to one of the best places in the world — the Clark County Rehab and Living Center. I spent most of January there and never did solve a mystery I found. I could view a huge tower out my window. On the top was a light that flashed red in the day and white at night. But it seemed to me there was a lapse of several minutes when there was no flashing light, red or white. I came to the conclusion pilots are probably warned ahead of time to just avoid the tower.

When I was released and sent home, I discovered my kids had been at work. I found a Life Alert machine to wear and a five-day-a-week delivery of Meals on Wheels. My bowl of Cheerios made my breakfast and Kwik Trip was handy for snacks and meals I was missing. Then a weekly trip to the House of Spirits provided me with milk and a week’s worth of gossip.

Then there was another smiley face I saw almost every day. That was Glen Bennett who visited the post office and brought me my mail. That was it. Zippo. No one else came or stopped by.

Now consider things here. First there is someone checking my blood sugar and giving me a shot of insulin. Then the pill guy comes around and later I’ll get two water pills and later in the evening, a pill I call my “goodnight pill.”

And just like minutes ago. Always a knock on the door and someone came in with a fruit basket from the Loyal Lions Club. I was around when the club started that project to give to the elderly. I guess I was probably lucky enough to get a few when I was living at home. But if there was one I would consider special it would be the one today.

I never considered myself a very good Lions Club member. I missed lots of projects. There is one that still stands out. It was when we built the shelter in the East Side Park. I got roped in, I guess because I lived close and the regular guys who would do those things were not around.

So there I was up on the framework, helping to get the rafters in place. I might have been a grown man, but I was just plain scared.

If there was a lesson I learned after many years of attending meetings, it was that you could not stop after the meeting and have “a” drink. It always seemed like someone wanted to buy you another, so it just seemed natural to return the favor. For some unknown reason I always got by by telling Florence it was Bill Hesse’s fault.

It is Thursday morning and I’m just waiting for the big blow that is expected to come. If I was excited about the Lions fruit basket that came yesterday, just wait until you hear about today.

One was a Christmas card from my nephew who lives in Cumberland. His wife Sandy had written about how happy they were to get copies of my column I sent them. Then there is the new column, “Striking a Chord” by Valorie Brecht. I have been the lucky one. God has been good, but wait until you read about my diploma from Holy Toledo University next week.