A New Year

All of my friends are writing profound and pithy thoughts on the coming new year.  I had the time this year to think a little about the year ahead because we haven't gone anywhere and had much company.  Composing here I am reminded again why I didn't have time to think about the new year in 2011.  I am reminded rather strikingly, actually, since we had a startling and unhappy ending to the old year.

It all started with a lovely plan to meet up with my brother and his family to go skiing during Christmas break.  We met at a nice small sort of ski resort in Salida, Colorado, and prepared to have fun.

Pizza and Cousin time in the Motel.

Instead it turned out to be disappointing and upsetting.  The first day, before noon one of the boys along for the trip hit his head and was acting so strangely, someone took him down to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with a concussion and had an MRI to make sure nothing serious was wrong.  That evening, one of the moms that was along, felt like she was having problems with her heart and went to the ER, and stayed over night. The next afternoon, as I was staying back at the motel with the rest of the party that didn't go because of injuries, illness and lack of desire, I got a phone call that Nathan (my son) broke his arm.  At first I thought someone was being funny, but we soon realized it wasn't, and also, that this was no fracture.  His arm was broken, just above the wrist.  As we discovered, in an ER at a hospital near a ski slope, patients are taken in according to the seriousness of their injuries, therefore, the one with the potential head and back injury, jumped to the head of the line, and the one with the sprained knee was near the bottom.  We were somewhere near the middle.  The orthopedic surgeon was at the hospital that day, so the surgery was done late afternoon with three pins put in.

Even in ER Nathan is on his phone.

My brother and the people they brought with them, went home that afternoon.  We missed supper because of the surgery. We bought a nice steak supper for Lynette and Nathan, and I think we ate some leftovers in our motel room.  We stayed another night, with Nathan's arm propped on pillows, and plenty of pain medication to help him feel better.

Ready for the night.

So, there you have it folks, the end of last year.  This was the 30th of December.  We drove all the way home on New Year's Eve, stopping once to take the kids over the Royal Gorge, which was another thing, I probably shouldn't have done, since it was a ridiculously large amount of money for 15 minutes of walking over a very high bridge with butterflies the size of bullfrogs in my stomach.  

And one other thing, Jim says, the next time we go skiing, it will be after the first of the year, so if something does happen, it will be in one medical insurance year, not two.

Cheers!!  Whatever last year was like for you, may the next one be better as someone said on facebook, or something like this, and when I went back to quote exactly, it was gone!!, (or I couldn't find it.) 

And if you want to know what pithy means, look it up, dictionary.com is a good source.