2006 was my Year of Not Much Fun. Briefly:

1. The radiant heating system in my house began to leak in March, manifesting itself as a waterfall in the ceiling of my guest room. The good news is that the rubber piping used in the system was defective, so in 1994 a class action lawsuit was filed against the manufacturer (Goodyear), and I got enough money from the settlement to replace the system and repair the damages. The bad news is that the repair work is hideously disruptive, and it’s nowhere near complete (see 2).

2. In late April I began to have attacks of debilitating stomach pain. At first I thought that my ulcers had returned, but the problem was eventually identified as my gall bladder. So I had surgery in August to remove it. Usually this is a simple operation, but for me it wasn’t: I had a 4-month series of hospital stays and endoscopic procedures, including 2 trips to the emergency room in an ambulance, and culminating in a visit to the University of Colorado hospital in Denver in mid-Dec. I’m fine now, but I had little time or energy for supervising my home repairs, so to date the new heating system is only half installed.

3. My mother’s health was declining. She was living with my sister and brother-in-law in Calif., and I went out there 3 times last year to take care of her while they were away. Her attitude was good, and she still went to Mass every morning, but she was growing physically more fragile and mentally more confused. Finally, on Dec. 20, she fainted and went into the hospital, and she passed away early in the morning of Dec. 22 (as I was driving out to Calif.). She had 97.5 good years and a peaceful end, but we’re all still rather stunned.

It wasn’t entirely grim: I took some weekend trips, went to my college class’ 40-year reunion in Sept., and was able to spend some time in Dec. with my grandnephew, who is 1.5 years old and incredibly cute (biased? Moi??). I kept up some of my volunteering activities, although I had to drop out of a Continental Divide Trail project at the end of April because I was ill. And I won a writing award from a local arts center for a chapter of a book (family history) that I’m working on: go to http://www.recursos.org/wrs.html, and scroll to the bottom of the page. But my other travel plans fell through, and I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to do in 2007. (Note to the Toronto contingent, however: I’m planning to visit Ontario in May.)

Paula Lozar

Still hanging in here in Santa Fe, NM, USA