2022 and Beyond

Okay, so it’s been over a year since I wrote for my blog. But I think it’s time to catch up. For the past year there have been very busy periods, but also not so busy periods where I suffered from writer’s malaise (I bet Jimmy Carter wishes he had never heard that word). So here goes.

Last summer and fall, I took three significant trips, two for pleasure and one for a family memorial. 

In May, Pam and I has some unused airline credits from the pandemic that were about to expire. So, we booked a flight to Florida and stayed for a week at condo in Ft Myers Beach, Florida. Obviously, this was before Hurricane Ian wiped out large portions of that city in September.

We had a very nice eighth-floor condo with a wonderful view of the Gulf of Mexico. The weather was unseasonably hot, so we didn’t sit out on the beach much during the day. We had a nice visit with Pam’s cousin Sarah who lives in nearby Naples; toured Thomas Edison’s winter home and attended a street festival in downtown Ft Myers.

In July, we decided to visit the other Stowe, the one in Vermont. It was about a 12-hour drive that included an auto-ferry trip across Lake Champlain. The scenery was delightful with plenty of scenic views of the Green Mountain State. We toured the state museum in Montpelier; had lunch with my brother Tim and his wife Shannon at the Trapp Family Lodge (of Sound of Music fame); and spent a couple of afternoons at the Shelburne Museum near Burlington. We wanted to tour the Ben and Jerry’s factory, but the tours were all booked to capacity.

We had a lot of fun touring the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory outside Burlington. Pam is an avid collector of Teddy bears, and we learned how the bears are manufactured and visited the Teddy Bear Hospital, where owners can send in injured bears for repair. The guide said that 90 percent of the bears are victims of dog attacks.

The remainder of the summer was filled with concerts at Blossom Music Center, Akron Rubberducks baseball and couple of visits to the beach on Lake Erie.

In September, my sister-in-law Wanda passed away in Yakima, Washington, after battling cancer for several years. The family decided to hold a memorial service and inurnment in mid-October. It was a great opportunity to spend time with my niece Angela and her family and my nephew Neil Brent. 

At the graveside ceremony both Wanda and my brother Neil’s ashes were buried. He passed away in 2018 and he wanted his ashes spread in Puget Sound from the ferry boat that he used to get from his home on Whidbey Island to his insurance business on the mainland. Washington state law limited the amount of ashes that could be spread in the water, so the family took the remaining ashes and buried them with his wife in Toppenish, Washington where Wanda grew up.

I developed bronchitis two weeks before Christmas, but was able to recover in time to attend a production of the “Nutcracker” ballet in Akron with Brian and his girlfriend as our guests. We also celebrated New Year’s Eve with a group of friends at a condo clubhouse party.

For the past few years, I had been suffering from "slow flow" and the situation was getting worse. In February, I was referred to a urological surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic and I had surgery in Akron in early March. I spent the next several weeks recuperating at home while watching a lot of March Madness games on TV. 

I am now nearly fully recovered and looking forward to some new adventures this summer. I hope it won’t be nearly as long until I post on this blog again.