Hello Friends and Fam!

Hope ’25 was a good year for you. Ours started kind of shitty.

Wallie, our cat of 17 years, passed in January. She passed of kidney failure – which was pretty tough to experience. It has multiple phases and that latter ones happened very quickly – over the course of a few days, right after the new year.

In February, Lucy got stricken with ‘Old Dog Vestibular Disease” (she’s still with us!). Just happened so quick – won’t soon forget. Was walking in from the casita and saw Lucy stumbling outside on the other side of the house in the east patio. Tina was nearby looking out and said that Lucy had just collapsed but wanted to go out (to potty). She was mess. She looked like a drunk out there and kept falling down. It was so sudden. We picked her up and drove to the emergency vet (where we had just lost Wallie). We spent about 4 hours that night with Lucy at the clinic. I guess there’s no cure, we were just given some prescriptions for her to help her recover from the immediate impact.

Now she just lays around, pees/poops, but is always near us. She may not be spry or coordinated any longer, but she just wants to be near us. Is she suffering? We don’t think so. Her tail still wags – she is just quiet, calm, and ‘chill’; albeit, clumsy. When she is no longer those things, that’s when we ‘make the call’ – ugh, we dread that – silently, we don’t discuss it - but we all know. Told Lucy (last week) – hang in there, at least (selfish, I know) through Christmas? But I don’t think she can hear me – think she’s deaf at this point. Sucks. Still, though, will pull her up on the bed at night. That makes her so happy (and us, frankly). And she farts a lot.
Beyond the rough start to the year with pets, we adopted a kitten we named Lois in July. She’s a handful, but has helped everyone’s spirits so far.

Elyce Graduated in the Spring with her BS in Sociology – on time! She continues her work at the UNM Health & Sciences Center– where she’s been for over a year now. She says she wants a ‘gap year’ to see what is next in terms of getting her Masters, etc. Work has been keeping her busy. She is fortunate in that she remote works for about half of the week from home. Over these holidays, I am taking about 10 days off to help her move from the main house into the casita. Currently, I ‘office’ from the casita, but figured she would appreciate having this space.

Gavin at the lift in Santa Fe	Elyce's Graduation	Charging the new electric
Lois	Caught a Trout	Our seats at the Penn St vs Oregon Game
Troy - camping Pecos, NM	Climbing the Manitou Incline in Colorado Springs	Penn State White Out

Gavin is in his Sophomore year at UNM, Computer Science. He is doing well – taking courses I could never imagine doing well in – Calculus, etc. Sounds fun. We were only able to go snowboarding once this past year - went to Ski Santa Fe. I tried to limit a long journey in our SUV, as we were looking to trade it in in April with under 100k miles (made it by 240 miles). Should be able to make up for it this year.

Speaking of cars, bought our first electric in August. Taking some getting used to, but love it. My old Lexus was given to Gavin - it has over 250k miles on it from all of my work travel, but is in great shape.

I mean, work is good. Started the year in the throws of helping 2 other areas of the country: Utah and CO - at the same time. VP I worked under left at the start of the year – so I have a new VP. A little shocking. I’ve realized this year that I’m now an old-timer with PetSmart. Been 9 years now!

Troy and Terry came out for camping. This year, we camped in Pecos, NM– epic, as always. Although, Terry arrived with some bites on his leg that eventually led to us taking him to a local clinic for treatment - he developed a fever. It is fortunate that our spot wasn't too remote as in years past, so we were able to get him help fairly quickly. Ended up being okay, but it side-tracked their traditional route home (had to high tale it back home to Houston).

The annual “The Game” tradition continues with Gavin and I. This year, we flew to State College PA to watch the Oregon Ducks take on the Penn State Nittany Lions: Number 5 vs Number 2. It was an epic game. For those who don’t follow College Football, this was looking to be one of the best games of the year – and didn’t disappoint. It was a “White Out” – a tradition at Penn State where everyone wears white. And went to double OT with the Ducks taking the win.

Tina is well - still at home and reading a lot! Not sure were the next few years will take us, as it still is about the kids. Meaning, not sure if Tina is getting bored now that they're older and I'm not sure when 'retirement' will be scheduled. Soon, though.

Regardless - hope you're well and drop a line if you're bored!