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To all our friends and family, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. As you can see, the plan to move into something smaller than our 4-bedroom house is still just a plan. Last January, I was still suffering the after-effect of the shingles from November 2008, and even now, some aches & pains from that attack have not completely gone away. However, the real problem this year has been Mary's health. In February, she was diagnosed with Auto-Immune Haemolytic Anemia, in which the body attacks its own red blood cells, leaving her with a low RBC count and little energy. After several days of treatment in hospital with prednisone, she had the first of three blood transfusions, and continued on the prednisone treatment in decreasing doses until the end of June. In early July, her RBC count was again dangerously low, and so another transfusion, back onto the drug and plans were made for a splenectomy. At the end of August, her spleen was removed and the drug therapy continued until the end of October. As of now, the RBC seems to be stable, but she's still not got her energy levels back. All this, of course, meant that for the first time in many years, we were unable to get to our cottage. As it turned out, the summer in New Brunswick was pretty dismal, as it was in Ontario. I don't know about global warming, but the temperatures in Ontario seem to have been way below normal for nearly all of the year (apart from a splendid November). There were only four days that we turned on the air conditioner this summer, twice in June and twice in August. We're now in the deep-freeze and after the first snow on 9th December, probably won't see the grass again until spring.
Also in February (what a month!) there was a fairly
serious fire at Warren's salon in Brampton. That caused a lot of
grief for several months, but everything was just about sorted out by the
end of October, when the place was sold to new owners. That means I
don't have my regular trip down to sort out the payroll and bills, but
there will still be odds and end to deal with.
We're still very much involved with the church music, with the regular Adult Choir, Chamber Choir and just recently, Trinity Festival Chorus. I remain web verger for Trinity www.trinityaurora.ca which takes several hours work each week, plus miscellaneous other jobs around the church. I have done very little organ playing lately, one All Souls' Day service and the clergy pre-Lenten day has been about the lot this year. However, I'm playing Christmas morning again for the 30th year. Mary still enjoys her Ecumenical Bible Study sessions at the United Church in Newmarket, also her Book Group meetings. Otherwise, it's just Theatre Aurora and York Symphony concerts by way of entertainment. Again, we hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Richard & Mary |
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