George and I Each Turn a Year Older

Our friend,George, and I have birthdays close together in January, so the four of us - George and Twilla, Dan and I - usually celebrate the two birthdays together, with a dinner out and birthday cake at one of our houses. This year we dined at Longhorn Steak House, and went to George and Twilla's for cake. I brought along the new game that Chris and Kelsey gave me for Christmas, called Azul, and we played it after feasting on the delicious poppy seed cake that Twilla made for us. You might notice the candles read "71" and "74." George is the youngster.

Christmas 2022

Christmas 2022 was spent with the Houston Judds. Tim drove all the way from Albuquerque to be with us, making it perfect, with our whole little flock together for the holiday. I rode with Tim from Temple to Houston, and back again, since I knew the route. That gave me a lot of one-on-one time to visit with him. Dan drove by himself, in the Tesla.

Tim drove back to Albuquerque on December 28, and a few days later Dan and I saw in the new year, in a quiet and uneventful way.

Here are a few photos from our time in Houston.

 

Tim and Chris, working together to build Chris' new desktop computer on Christmas Eve.

Our two teens, Clara and Robert!

Kelsey and Chris

Grandma and Grandpa, with the grands

Chris and me

Robert and Clara

 

 

 

 

 

The kitchen crew, making Monkey Bread for Christmas breakfast - Robert, Kelsey & Clara

Kelsey with her new charcuterie board set

The Houston Judds

Family picture - minus Tim. He got confused about the time, and didn't get there for the photo shoot.

But here he is, as we were opening presents on Christmas morning.

And not to forget the four-legged members of the family, here are pictures of Thor, Clara's sweet-but-a-little-bit-crazy corgi; and Robert's new pet, Zephyr, a bearded dragon.

Thor

 

Zephyr

The New Tesla

Dan took delivery on his new Tesla on Tuesday. Our friend, George, drove him to Austin, where he picked it up, and then he drove it home to Temple. He's having a lot of fun with it. I plan to get behind the wheel soon, myself, but want to test it out in an empty parking lot before I take it for a road test.

Implantable Loop Recorder

One of the follow-up appointments, after my stroke, came on Monday, September 12. It was for the implantation of an Implantable Loop Recorder (ILR). It was a simple procedure, where the doctor numbed a portion of my left chest area, made a small incision and inserted an device (the ILR). The photo below is of a to-scale model of the device, that the company representative, who was there to program the device, gave to me. It is about 1/8" thick.

The purpose of my hospital stay was to undergo various tests to try to determine the cause of the stroke, but no cause was identified during those three days. One common cause of a stroke is a blood clot. The purpose of this ILR is to continuously record my heart rhythm and electronically send to the doctor any arrhythmia it records, since certain types of arrhythmia can cause blood clots. The battery in this device is good for close to 5 years, according to the company that produces them, and I will probably be host to it for that long. 

The only down-side to the ILR is that it communicates, by Bluetooth, through an app on my iPhone, which I must have turned on and near me at all times, 24 hours a day. When I see the doctor, next week, who will be running a check on the device, I will ask him how strict I need to be about that.