My Tenth Birthday, an Anniversary of My Brain Surgery

Written on 6-28-21.

       Today is the anniversary of my brain surgery from ten years ago.  Cool.  Another birthday to celebrate.  Ten years.  Ten “extra” years.  I remember receiving my certificate for ten years of service in the Aztec School District and thinking, “What?! Already?”

Time is a goofy thing, though, and I am not surprised it’s been ten years since I had my brain surgery.  Soon, it will be ten years since I had my stroke, too.  Time marches on; no stopping it.  Lately, I have been saying this little phrase in my head, “On the day he died, he…fill in the blank here.”

Sounds morbid, doesn’t it?  It guides what I do, however.  For example, fill the blank space with, “…he kissed his wife goodbye before heading off to work.”

Gives it a better perspective, right?  That sounds more joyful than, “…forgot to kiss his wife before heading off to work.”    

For this birthday update, I had some time to write this afternoon, since I went to...

work this morning (thus, the example above).  It was actually my final school visit for the ’20-’21 school year, and I modeled/taught two lessons at McCoy’s summer school.  That’s one of the many things I am thankful for this past year.  

My school, McCoy, became available for our grant for the first time, and I grabbed it as fast as a puppy bites a dog treat.  It’s been surreal helping out at the school where I taught for 25 years, but I have enjoyed working with “old” friends and making new ones.

Other highlights for sticking around another year are as follows…

  

-Seeing my father and mother celebrate their 85th and 80th birthdays, respectively.

-B and I celebrating 30 years of marriage. 

-Multiple trips in our Safari Condo Alto F-2114 (I am sitting in it as I write this).

-Having Danielle and James live spend time with us during the pandemic.

-Seeing James move back to the U.S.A. from New Zealand.

-Learning a new golf swing (still a work in progress).

Once again, it’s been an exciting and wonderful year (despite Covid-19), and I’m thankful to be alive.  I take none of it for granted, and I am looking forward to what next year brings.

“On the day he died, he…wrote about what he was thankful for in the past year, and shared it with family and friends.”

See?  Sounds good, right?  Hopefully, this is not that day, though, and I will be given many, many more.