Report 25

December 15, 2011

No races for a couple of weeks just granddaughter’s basketball and shopping.

Merry Christmas. The winter weather is holding off (no snow on the ground – only 1.5 inches so far this season and it melted the day after it fell) but it is time to send some updates for the year and wish you all happy holidays. I had my surgery last December and started to recover after 10 days of exceptional care from Nurse Haley and Nurse Sydney. I stayed at the Grossman’s and was fed very well before and after school. My quarterly follow-up blood tests have shown no PSA count so I have no more treatment scheduled. So as my year improved Aunt Mary’s (91) did not. She suffered a couple falls and spent a June week in the hospital before being sent to a nursing home. I made nearly daily visits but her health declined and after another fall she was back in the hospital for a week before hospice care started in October. Aunt Mary died October 29^th and I have been busy with clearing out and cleaning at her apartment. Although the heirs are allowed to keep some personal property I have been gathering all her monetary assets to turn over to the State as she was under State care the last 3 months.

The Grossman’s generously provided me with some better Christmas lights so in November I took down the mostly burned out dusty ones and vacuumed the cob webs out of the windows then installed the new ones that all lighted! I have been busy attending Sidney and Haley’s volleyball and basketball games this fall but back in August I made a trip to Kansas to visit Lee and his family. A J is eating all the time so he can try and keep up to big sister Emma who is two and talking non-stop. Emma went upstairs to take her nap talking to her dolls most of the time about how they must lay down and be quiet. Soon a very loud crash came from her room and Lee went up to see what fell. He opened her door as she exclaimed “Its OK, everything is fine, it’s all right.” Lee discovered that she had stacked her chairs two high on the bed before they fell over. Who knows what kind of circus act she was rehearsing! Emma also got out to a race track with dad as they went to the races in Grain Valley Missouri and it was very therapeutic as she could talk all night and no one seemed to mind.

Siesta is my favorite hour or two of the day and I must have rested more than usual this year – if you can believe that is possible - but I may have rested too much on my glasses as the bow broke off and I had to find my tube of super glue to make the needed repair. The glue has held for six months now!

I am still busy in Stoughton as sec.–treas. for the Optimist Club and running the food stand during the Syttende Mai celebration and I am V-P of the Friends of the Stoughton Area Youth Center that operates the new center in Stoughton. The youth center found a new person to run the annual golf outing who didn’t even know what a golf ball was – ME! The rest of my routine remains constant and I managed to travel on a few big trips. I still made a February Florida trip and I made a July 4^th trip to Utah to see races in a state that I had not seen a race in and enjoyed the beautiful countryside. I also made a late season trip to Pensacola Florida. On the local scene the racing was some what back to normal with Angell Park in Sun Prairie Wisconsin scheduling 10 races for the summer but that left some free weeks to make some bigger trips such as the one to Utah. This year I only spent 113 nights in the spacious Dodge Caravan and 10 nights with friends in addition to the 8 nights in motels. With the poor economy and my advanced math that’s 123 nights that I saved – let’s say - $42 for a total $5166 saved and I only spent $1755.50 in race admissions so I should be over $3400 ahead – at least that is what I tell myself! I made it my priority to see a new state and some tracks that I had not been to before and got to another 78 tracks bringing my lifetime total to 1423 tracks and keeping me in second place on the list as kept at the new website www.roamingtheraceways.com . I made it to only 130 races in 26 states this year and traveled 68,316 miles all by car.

The kids are really hard to chase down, the grandkids even harder. Jody J and Jody L are still in Cottage Grove with daughters Sydney (14) and Haley (11). Jody J is still with McDonalds and Jody L is part-time as a scientist with Semba Biosciences and part time at McDonalds too. Both Jody’s were coaching softball and Jody L is the assistant coach for freshmen girl’s basketball at Monona Grove High School where Sydney is playing as a freshmen. The granddaughters were both on softball teams this summer and Haley is now playing tri-county basketball. Sydney shot another deer in her third hunting season and has completed her freshmen volleyball season. Lori is settled in downtown Chicago and teaching at Freedom Junior High in Berwyn where she coaches the 7-8 grade girl’s basketball team. Freedom won a million dollar grant and Lori and two others are in charge of designing and outfitting a brand new fitness center for the school. She is also coaching the Windy City AAU basketball team in the summer. Lee and Carrie are living in Leavenworth Kansas for the year (before Lee’s next assignment) with daughter Emma (2) and son AJ (1). Lee is going to school full-time at Intermediate Level Education (ILE) with graduation in June while still taking masters courses at UW-Stout where he expects to finish his masters in Mech Engr. this June as well. Carrie is expecting their third child in December and is still in the reserves working for ROTC at Missouri Western State University in St Joseph Missouri and their 11 affiliates in Kansas and Missouri.

        Have a Healthy, Safe and Prosperous New Year!