Another year gone by.

Okay, not quite. But 2014 (pronounced twenty fourteen) is looming large on the horizon.
Casey left yesterday after being with us from Christmas Eve. Peggie celebrated her birthday Saturday and we went to the movies. We were again able to skype with GajT while opening gifts on Christmas morning. I must again express my gratitude for the techie geniuses who developed skype in time for us to use it with our distant family.
Oh, my pneumonia is cleared up.
We recently saw "Saving Mr. Banks," which made us get "Mary Poppins," a movie neither Peggie nor I had ever seen from beginning to end. Over the years we have seen pieces of it, but never the entire thing. Strange, I know. We also saw "Walter Mitty." That was okay, but the result was that we want to go to Iceland.
We originally thought we would begin the upstairs remodel this coming week, but that is now scheduled for March. We are engaged in selecting tiles, cabinets, hardware, lighting, and paint. It is good to have a little more time for that.
Just a silly observation.... I realize that it has taken seven years for me to adjust my thinking from "school years," to "calendar years."
What the heck?  At the risk of giving ammunition to my sister and other smart-alecks, the use of "two thousand" in expressing any year beyond '09 rubs me like fingernails on chalkboard. I don't know why. It is really a non-important issue. I can trace it to Stanley Kubrik who made 'two thousand one a space odyssey' followed by 'twenty ten the odyssey continues' way before the rest of us thought about how to say the years of the twenty first century.

We actually had an adventure

Yesterday, Peggie and I went to Scottsdale for a follow-up on my pneumonia. It is not gone. So, I have new antibiotics and a new inhaler and instructions to get plenty of rest and drink plenty of liquids and come back in two weeks.
We took Casey's birthday presents and called to take her to dinner to celebrate. She had a date with a friend to screen a movie due out in January. He has a part-time job that involves getting audiences for events like that. So, while we were having dinner, he arranged for us to see the movie, as well. He did the whole thing wordlessly on his smart phone while we ate and talked. The name of the movie is "Lone Survivor" and stars Mark Wahlberg. All I can say is that it is a true story of a SEAL mission in Afghanistan. It is very bloody and intense. But, I recommend it to all for the heroism. Think "Band of Brothers" and "Saving Private Ryan."

When is a cold not a cold?

When it is pneumonia.
The cold I came home from NY with morphed into pneumonia. We stopped at our Dr.'s office in Scottsdale on our way to Thanksgiving in Cottonwood last Wed. Peggie had the appointment, but I asked if they could check out my persistent cough while I was there.
Yep. They could. And I got a breathing treatment, X-ray, shot, anti-biotics and cough medicine. My sneak-in visit was longer than Peggie's scheduled one. I have to go back tomorrow to see how all of that worked.
Aside from the pneumonia, Bill, how was your holiday?
We had a good time. We stayed with (brother) Don and Karin at the house they bought in February. It has a wonderful view of the Sedona red rocks. They have a recliner sofa, so I could sleep in a semi-upright position. Better for the cough. We got to go jeeping twice. We chased around Sat. night trying to find somebody with coverage of the Territorial Cup (ASU v UA football) on TV. Nobody had it. The cable provider in the Verde Valley doesn't provide that channel. Casey was bummed. She has season tickets, and would have been at the game, live, if she wasn't in Cottonwood. At half time, Peggie was able to find a  live-stream. So we watched the Sun Devils absolutely cream the Wildcats. Good news is; if the Devils win one more game, they get to play in the Rose Bowl.
The train derailment in NY was on the line that Greg rides, but was not his train. Still, beginning yesterday, he has to find alternative ways to get to work until they get it cleaned up and repaired.