2019 Moments

Dear George, 

I planned to write a Christmas letter so I went to my daily diary and made notes on various happenings of major or minor significance.  I seem to have gotten lazy, so, rather than composing a real letter, I decided to just type out some of the listings.  A lot more happened in 2019, of course, but these items capture the flavor of our lives (a pretty good year).

Love,

Dave

SELECTED 2019 DIARY ENTRIES: 

1/5: Pianist Kiril Gerstein was the soloist at the symphony.  

1/7: My blood sugar was 99 today, the first time in the normal range for months. 

1/16: We went to the photography exhibition by Eugene Atget and Berenice Abbott at the Taft Museum.  

1/26: When Katja called me on my cell phone, I told her I was in suburban Finneytown, but actually I was upstairs.  

1/26:  At the doctor’s office the nurse asked Katja if I was her father.  

1/31: We were sad to watch the final Netflix episode of Riverdale, our nightly fix.  

2/3: The New England Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever. 

2/15: We toured the new Holocaust Center at Union Terminal with an OLLI class.

2/27: Our “Standing Up to Contemporary Poetry” teacher revealed that he had bladder cancer, much to everyone’s sorrow.   

3/4: Katja had successful hand surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome and her trigger finger.  

3/4: We went to an inspiring poetry reading by Mary Ruefle at UC. 

3/11: I tripped at the liquor store parking lot and, protecting the booze I was carrying in my arms, landed flat on my nose on the edge of the curb.  

3/13: I skipped my gym workout and my zumba class because of my banged-up bloody face.  

3/18:  Much to my annoyance, the insurance company said we had to have the oak tree trimmed over our front porch.  

3/23: The Art Museum’s “Paris in 1900” exhibition was wonderful.  

4/1: I went to my first meeting of my new Underground Writers group.  

4/8: Tiger Woods won the Masters.  

4/10: We were happy to visit Fiona at the zoo, all 1000 lbs. of her. 

4/20: On our New York City vacation at Ami and Bruce’s Katja attended the afternoon and evening performances of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ($200 per session) while I people-watched in Times Square.  

5/6: Donna, visiting from Nashville, stayed with us and attended the closing on her Covedale house. 

5/6: Star Motors paid us $500 for our Trailblazer SUV which Katja had bought for $38K in 2003 to transport our sheepdogs here and there.   

6/3: James Holzhauer’s Jeopardy winning streak came to an end after 32 consecutive victories and $2,462,216 in prize money.  

6/8: Visiting NOLA, I went with J, V, and L on an excursion to the Mississippi gulf coast, visited the Walter Anderson Museum in Ocean Springs, and swam in the gulf with little fish jumping all around us.  

6/24: My Advanced Poetry instructor encouraged me to try to be more poetic . 

7/14: Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer 7-6, 1-6, 7-6, 2-6, 13-12 in 4 hours and 57 minutes in the Wimbledon Finals.

7/15:  I had laser surgery to remove a film from my right eye.   

7/20: We were 20 minutes late to the Cincinnati Opera production of Porgy and Bess and had to sit in the back row initially, but it was still wonderful.  

7/22:  Our king-sized bed collapsed in the middle of the night but I successfully repaired it with cement blocks in the morning.

7/22:  Despite my opinion that we only needed one car, Katja went ahead and bought a new Honda CR-V.  

7/22:  Katja treated me to a birthday dinner at Seasons 52.  I had wild Alaska salmon (yum).  

7/25: We rode the Skyglide at the Ohio State Fair, then walked at least a mile, searching (successfully) for the Bloomin’ Onion booth.  

8/5: Visiting from NOLA, our son J and grandkids V and L took me along to go swimming at the immense Sunlite Pool at Coney Island.  

8/5:  Our granddaughter V rode on the most terrifying ride of all times at the Boone County Fair while the rest of us watched.   

8/12: Katja and I attended the funeral of her CABVI supervisor, colleague, and friend Kathy Roberts. 

8/12: Thanks to gifted tickets from Paula and Frank, we enjoyed watching Simona Halep and Stefanos Tsitsipas at the W&S Open Tennis Tournament in Mason.   

8/19: I accidentally call-blocked the phone numbers for Katja’s cell and her friend Eleanor’s landline.  

8/26: Katja and I enjoyed our 59th wedding anniversary at Jean-Robert’s Table. 

9/2: I went to the Brookville flea market in rural Indiana with Phyllis, saw lots of red “Keep America Great” hats, and bought a Sudoku book for $1.  

9/2:  We enjoyed a joint anniversary dinner outing with the Minkarah’s at Orchids.  

9/16: I went camping at Miami Whitewater Forest, got nervous when no one else was in the vicinity (except possible serial killers).  

10/13: I was surprised to discover in the Linton Chamber Music program that Katja and I are now patrons, having donated some unstated amount between $1500 and $4999.  

10/14: Jennifer and Brian’s dog Baxter, who was staying with us, escaped through the back door, and Katja had to chase him down the block despite her lower back pains.  

10/21: We thought that CCM’s production of 42nd Street was the best ever. 

10/24: I wore a black T-shirt to my Poetry Workshop so I could more dramatically read my newly written poem, “Black T’s”.  

11/7: Katja had shoulder replacement surgery which was complicated when the anesthesia damaged her right lung function and resulted in rehospitalization.   J had come up for the surgery and was a great help.  

11/21:  We reluctantly canceled our airline tickets to New Orleans for Thanksgiving because of Katja’s lung difficulties..  

12/2: I went with Katja to see the Met Opera cinema broadcast of Akhnaten at the Oakley Cinemax, enjoyed it.

12/9: Katja and I celebrated her birthday at Orchids at Palm Court (Katja, lamb; me, monkfish).  

12/13: The endocrinologist told Katja there was no sign of a recurrence of thyroid cancer.  

12/16:  Having relied on Donna’s hair styling for a long time, I got my first haircut at a barber shop in 15 years at SuperCuts ($10). 

12/17: My line dancing instructor posted a video of our class on Facebook, and I was the only one going in the wrong direction.  

12/18: The cardiologist said my heart was doing fine but that I’d put on a few pounds.  

12/18:  We watched off and on as the House of Representatives impeached Trump.  

12/22:  We went to “Treasures of the Spanish World” at the Art Museum for the third time. 

12/25: We had Xmas dinner with the Minkarah family at the Dupree House.  

12/29: The Bengals got their second win of the year, defeating Cleveland, 33-23.  A happy ending despite tying for the worst year in franchise history (2-14).  We will cheer for the Packers and the Saints in the playoffs.