The Good, the Bad, and the Baby

 Some of you are already aware that my Dad was stuck in the hospital over Christmas after suffering a heart attack. He'd actually gone in for a severe sinus infection, something I also had at the same time, but they found the more serious problem there. Later he also tested positive for the flu, so we'll see how well Emily's and my flu shots hold up.

Today (Thursday) Dad had angioplasty, and they put two stints in. Blood had found a way to flow around a second blocked artery, so they left that alone. A third artery was also partially blocked, but there were complications with the procedure, and the doctors decided not to proceed due to his age and health problems. At 86, sometimes the best thing to do is not to do the thing.

By the time you read this hopefully he'll be home, where my sister Traci should get extra credit for taking care of him.

By good luck Uncle Ishmael was up visiting from Alabama, and stopped in to see him. That's Ishmael in the middle, and of course me on the right. The other guy would have to be Dad, or else we really confused some other patient.

Meanwhile, on Monday night, at another hospital in Fort Wayne, my youngest daughter Jill gave birth to her third child and first son, Zander Repine.

I think he looks kind of grouchy--he had a rough day.

He was a little jaundiced so they kept him an extra day, but he and Mom are home now. Including the step-kids, I now have eight grandchildren! I think. That's awfully high to count.

So this is how our December calendar goes: Zander's sister Willa has her birthday toward the beginning of the month. Then Emily's birthday is on the 21st, Zander's is on the 23rd, pretty much everyone knows what happens on the 25th, and Jill's is on the 27th. I believe I'm missing something.

Close enough to a Christmas baby!

 

Then comes the 31st, and we start the whole darned thing over again.

Personally, I think we should have spread things out a bit more, but a lot of this stuff tends to schedule itself.

Oddly enough I'm exhausted, despite having very little direct involvement in everything.

Please order some books--I have presents to buy!

·        Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

·        Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

·        Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

·        Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

·        Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

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·        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

·        Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

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·        Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

·        Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter

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·        Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

Remember: Every new life is a potential new reader.

Happy Birthday/Christmas!

In the above photo you can see a Christmas decoration that depicts Emily and I kissing. This year we shared not a kiss, but coughing and hacking. (We're much better now, although there are other family members who would use good vibes.) Last year we shared Covid. Basically we didn't feel up to putting up the tree and decorations either time, so we didn't. However, I do have a Gilmore Girls "Luke's Diner" Christmas theme on the TV, so there's that.

Emily's birthday will be about the time you're reading this. She got her present early, but of course I wanted something to give her something that day, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Now I have reason to believe she's going to hate it. If I disappear, check in the big freezer in the garage.

She'll appreciate the effort, though. I hope.

Here's Emily with our house guest from earlier this year, Watson.

Between my Seasonal Affected Disorder and the way my brain naturally freezes when it comes to any kind of present shopping, added to the bronchitis/sinusitis thing, I have no confidence that I'll recover when it comes to the gift giving business, I'll try! Meanwhile, maybe I'll cook something for her. Or maybe that would just make things worse.

In any case, this will probably be the last blog from me until after Christmas, so I hope everyone has a great holiday. Our family get together might not come until after the New Year--but we'll still be together.

There's a nice Christmas tree at work, anyway!

Don't forget, we've got Coming Attractions and two other books for free until the end of the month, here:

 

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

 

 

 

We and our books can be found ... everywhere:

·        Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

·        Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

·        Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

·        Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

·        Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

·        Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

·        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

·        Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

·        Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

·        Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter

·        Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

·        Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

Remember: Reading is a great activity for Christmas break, especially if the kids are busy with their new boys.

 

R.I.P. Firefighter / Dispatcher Mitch Fiandt, a friend

 A week ago I wrote here that Mitch Fiandt was fighting cancer, and now he's gone.

Just like that.

That's Mitch on the left, still in his dispatch uniform pants. Yeah, that's me on the right. We were so young.

 

I've had so many friends fight and beat cancer, at least for awhile, that it never occurred to me he wouldn't. But Mitch died just short of fifty years as a volunteer firefighter, having started at Orange Township Fire before he was even eighteen, back in the days when you could do that kind of thing. Cancer takes a lot of firefighters, especially the ones were around in the days when breathing protection was a mild suggestion. He told me once he breathed in some particularly bad stuff off the hot side of a burning house, back before he moved to Albion and joined our Department.

That old lung damage was one reason why he usually drove the fire trucks and ran the pump, rather than going inside--not that I didn't see him go in, more than once. And yet, when we had our annual lung capacity test, he always passed and usually ran circles around the rest of us.

There's not much I can say that isn't in his obituary, here:

https://www.harperfuneralhomes.com/obituary/Mitch-Fiandt?fbclid

 

If memory serves, in addition to being the Albion Fire Department Chief Engineer--a kind of honorary title acknowledging the fact that if we needed an apparatus operator, he was there--he also served as Secretary and Treasurer on the AFD.

He was also my boss for several years in Noble County Communications, or the 911 Center, or Dispatch, or whatever people will call it next year. He was there for 35 years, which did not bode well for his sanity, and was 911 Director from 1999 until he retired in 2015.

Here Mitch and John Urso, also a combo firefighter/dispatch, present me my 25 year dispatcher award, along with a certificate for a free psychotherapy session.

Mitch and I both served at various times on the Albion Town Council and the Albion Plan Commission, and he was in about a hundred other things as well, being the type who was always helping out. Even with my writing gig, he stayed busier than me. He was the first to tell me I should write a book about dispatching, which I will, as soon as the statue of limitations runs out.

The last time I saw him was at my grandmother's funeral: He had a part time gig with Harper's Funeral Home here in Albion. I don't believe he ever had a job or hobby that wasn't, in one way or another, about helping people.

And if that it's the best thing you can say about a person, I don't know what is.

Baby Shower Photos ... spoiler: It's a boy!

 It was baby shower day for my newest grandkid, and the cake was good. Don't tell my doctor.

Jill explained to me that it's not Xander, because she doesn't want people to call him Alex. I predict people will call him "Zee".

 

The soon to be parents again. Could they have any more diapers? Yes, and they'll need more.

It's helpful to know if it's a boy or a girl. Due date? Late December. Just like half the family.

Including steps, we've got five granddaughters (and soon three grandsons) ... and do you think we could get them all in one photo? That mop of hair on the left is Distracted Willa.

So I just took another photo, and there's Willa in the center!

Five older sisters. I kinda feel sorry for the kid.

We and our books can be found ... everywhere:

·        Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

·        Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

·        Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

·        Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

·        Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

·        Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

·        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

·        Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

·        Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

·        Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter

·        Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

·        Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

Remember: Surround a kid with books, and chances are they'll read.

Grandma Nannie Bricker, R.I.P.

 Grandma Nannie had, by any standards, a challenging life.

She was raised in rural Tennessee during the Great Depression. She worked as a nurse and watched her husband go off to Europe for World War II. He was, she's told me, not the best husband ever.

After he passed she remarried, but eventually he passed away, too. Nannie had to go through the deaths of all her children, a grandson, and two great-grandchildren. Eventually she had to leave her home and move into a nursing home. I can tell you everyone was great there, but just the same, she was reduced to having half of a room to herself, after being independent for so long.

After all that, she made it to age 99. Her obituary is here:

https://tributearchive.com/obituaries/33226387/nannie-bricker/albion/indiana/harper-funeral-homes

I was not a good grandson. I didn't go to see her nearly as often as I should have, although thankfully Emily and I did have a nice visit with her a few weeks ago. The last time we stopped in, just a few days before her death, she was sleeping so soundly we couldn't bear to wake her. Now we wish we had. Emily and I were hatching a plan to take her to my daughter's baby shower, but considering the logistical challenges and how much she'd fallen in recent years, maybe it was for the best.

And yet when we'd show she was unfailingly chipper and happy to see us. Her mind was sharp right to the end.

 

It was a call I'd expected for some time, and I handled the news more badly than I'd thought I would, more badly than I should have. You see, Grandma Nannie was ready to go. You can have your own opinions about religion, but arguing with her about it would have been a very bad idea. She knew where she was going when she died, with complete confidence. If you knew her, you wouldn't doubt it. She was ushered through the Pearly Gates into the open arms of God, and right now she's hanging out with all the loved ones who went before her.

We can grieve, but we can't be unhappy for her. Her pain is gone. Her body is no longer frail. Her medical issues are in the past. She is loved.

A Visit From Watson

 We dogsat--um, sitted?--for a friend's canine last week, and enjoyed it very much. As many of you know, our own dog, Beowulf, passed away last July. 

 Watson resembled Beowulf quite a bit, actually. Watson has had a hair cut, but I saw photos from before and it really was uncanny. Both are rescues, and came from further south of us, so I suppose some relation is possible.

Watson is more solid, though, for want of another word. One thing in common: So darned cute.

He wouldn't get up on furniture unless invited, and even after he'd been on the couch and bed he still wouldn't climb up again without an invitation. A very well behaved dog.

I was surprised that at ten years old Watson still likes to play hard. He tired me out pretty quickly.

He also loves to snuggle. Yes, I did call him Beowulf several times, but he didn't seem to mind.

• Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
• Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"
• Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter
• Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/
• Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter
• Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter
• Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

 

Remember: Pets love books; they can snuggle with the reader.