You might be thinking to yourself, wow, Doug has posted to his blog, must be some big news, since it's been months since he posted. Well, your thought would be understandable, but not true. I've had plenty to write about, just been lazy. Now, with a brand new year upon us, the weather outside very, very cold, and a foot of snow on the ground, and run out of things to do inside, well, I decided it's time to write. Did I say cold? How about -6 degrees as I write this, at 8:15 AM!
Looking back, I did post at least twice this year, the last time in June. I missed a few important events, though, so will back track a bit.
My Uncle Clark passed away in May, and I drove down to Connecticut for his services. It only took six hours, a little longer than usual because I got lost and my cell phone ran out of juice and took my GPS with it, so I ended up Rhode Island. My uncle had been fighting cancer for a few years, so as hard as it is to lose someone, it was a blessing. It was also a great opportunity to re-connect with my East Coast cousins, whom I rarely get to see. And, I didn't post.
After Kathy arrived, she found a fantastic, furnished house on a pond, which is what they call small lakes here. I've written about this, so you can look back for that post. What I failed to write about was the fantastic job Kathy got, which she started in July. She is the Director for Disaster Behavior Health for the State of Maine! It's a perfect match for her skills and past experience. It's her responsibillity to recruit, train, and manage behavioral health professionals to step in during a disaster and offer assistance to those affected. And still, I didn't post.
The job is awesome, the commute from St. Albans not: an hour and 20 minutes each way. Ugh, another move in our future. Kathy found another place on a bigger pond, the Great Pond, in Belgrade, 25 minutes from work. This one was not furnished, so off we went to go furniture shopping, which was very fun. We brought only two Ikea bureaus and a dining room table with us from San Diego, and Kelli and Jared had moved an Adirondack chair and a few lamps for us. New pond, new house, new location, no new post.
My Mom passed away in September. How odd it feels typing this: she is gone, and I'll never see her again on this Earth. I know I wrote about her passing in my journal and so this isn't the first time, and yet it still feels very strange, making the fingers type those words. Thinking of her reminds me of how appropriate it is that I have her Kindle Fire: she felt very strongly that reading was a very important factor in a happy and successful life, something she passed on to her children and grandchildren. She, too, had been ill for several years, though not with one serious ailment. Her passing, too, was a blessing, as her quality of life was very, very low. And I didn't add a new post. I flew back the next day, and stayed with my Dad. He and Mom had moved to a wonderful retirement village six or so years ago. Mom had moved from their apartment over to the Assisted Living section about two years ago. We celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary at their village in 2011, with family and friends. Now I was flying back for her services, also at the village, with more family and friends, some I hadn't seen in many years. I even spoke at her service, along with my nieces and nephew, and still, no blog post. I had another great time with my Dad, too, who seemed to genuinely feel a sense of relief, as we kids all did, that Mom's suffering was finally over, at 81, and she was now at peace, with her mother and father and little sister.
Kelli presented us with our second grandchild in August, a boy named Sullivan Brady McCannell, and yet, no new post. He was a few weeks premature by the looks of him, but responded very, very well to mother's milk, and last week at his five month checkup, fell into the 95 percentile for weight, 90th for height, and 100th for head size! He is another real cutey, smiling now, grabbing for things, 'a perfect baby,' Kelli says. He has flown twice, and slept nearly the entire flight, for example.
Henry celebrated his third birthday a month later, and Kathy and I FINALLY got to celebrate with him, and still, no new post! We had missed his first and second parties, and, oh, did that sting! The party was at Jared's parents house, with lots of Henry's cousins, and was very fun.
In November, Faith and Brady flew in for Thanksgiving. It was really great to see them. Seeing them brought back wonderful memories of last years Thanksgiving, which they hosted in San Francisco. We had fun showing off our house on the lake, and around Maine. Just the week before, Faith had seen a show on TV which talked about the world's largest Christmas tree made out of lobster traps, and we ended up going to Rockland to see the lighting of this tree, very fun.
So here it is, a catchup post. We had an amazing 2013! Here's to a fulfilling New Year to you all.
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