in the green

Happy new year, all! I finished off 2025 watching a terrific Sugar Bowl game in which the underdog Ole Miss Rebels squeaked past highly touted Georgia. The Rebels will now move on in a playoff system that is finally equitable. They’re the closest SEC team geographically to my beloved LSU Tigers that is still in contention. The Tigers finished a disappointing 7-6 season with a minor bowl loss after having to face seven nationally ranked teams.

But I digress. Jude and I gladly welcomed in 2026 after an eventful December. Our main event was my surgery on the 9th at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Founded in 1890, the hospital has grown into a sprawling 500-bed facility. It’s so busy that the parking structure across the street from the main entrance is always full during the day. Jude learned that the trick is to keep driving through it until you spot somebody backing out.

The official name of my surgery is talc pleurodesis. Sterile, medical grade talcum powder is sprayed into the space between the lung and chest wall to cause inflammation. This causes the lung to stick to the chest wall to prevent recurrent fluid build-up and lung collapse. One of the last things on the surgeons’ check list was to ask me “What is your understanding of the procedure we’re about to perform?”

With the last shred of bravado that I had at the moment, I said “You guys are going to glue my lungs to my ribs.” That must have satisfied them, because I was unconscious before I could wish them “happy holidays and good luck”.

I was in the hospital two nights, with wonderful nursing care, edible food and a roommate who agreed with me that Trump is an asshole. On the way home, we stopped at a Popeye’s Chicken, probably for the last time because the franchise has really gone downhill. I’m taking it easy, walking a little further each day and able to help Jude with splitting firewood. We have an electric splitter, so all I have to do is put the small pieces in a wheelbarrow and take them to our nearby laundry room, where I put them on a tray that opens out right next to the woodstove.

We had been having trouble with our micro-hydro system before we went to surgery. We weren’t getting enough water in the catchment barrel to adequately feed the system. Our electronic readout, based on a traffic light pattern, showed our batteries down to yellow (60 to 80 percent) and moving downward to red. Even though we have a back-up generator, it was worrisome. But Christmas day I felt strong enough to climb the hill to the barrel and unclog one of the feeder pipes. So we’re back in the green.

Shortly after we got back, Good Neighbour Paul let us know that he was having a bonfire to celebrate the winter solstice, the Return of the Light. I got a premium seat and got to talk to other Granite Bay denizens that I hadn’t seen in ages. It’s great to be home.