{"id":56286,"date":"2023-12-07T13:33:58","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T13:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=56286"},"modified":"2023-12-07T13:33:58","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T13:33:58","slug":"getting-ready-for-a-burning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=56286","title":{"rendered":"Getting ready for a burning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>I have concluded that the only way I should bid farewell to the most horrible year of my life is to light a fire.<\/p>\n<p>The idea comes, in fact, from a friend in Beaumont, Texas. I am going to heed his advice.<\/p>\n<p>I intend to gather up every paper 2023 calendar I have in my Princeton, Texas, home. I then will place them in a fire pit I have in my back yard.<\/p>\n<p>Then I am going to light them on fire. Burn them into ashes and embers. I want zero evidence of their presence in my home.<\/p>\n<p>The year 2023 will be known in my house as the Year of the Broken Heart. It shattered into a million pieces on Feb. 3 when my dear bride, Kathy Anne, passed away from the savage effects of glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.<\/p>\n<p>It took some time to find my way out of the darkness, but I am essentially free of that pain. <em>Most of the time.<\/em> It still hurts on occasion, such as yesterday when I got weepy with my son talking about his Mom.<\/p>\n<p>Then came the loss of Toby the Puppy on Dec. 1. He suffered cancer in various organs. He got too weak to continue the chemotherapy treatments. He had become a valued companion and buddy. We grieved together. My sons and I let him go and my heart broke all over again.<\/p>\n<p>So &#8230; I now await the new year. 2024 will be a year of continuing recovery, but the journey is a lot brighter than when it began earlier in this most miserable year of my life.<\/p>\n<p>And to my friend, Dan, who prompted me with this notion I offer a heartfelt thank you.<\/p>\n<p><em>Fire in the hole!<\/em><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have concluded that the only way I should bid farewell to the most horrible year of my life is to light a fire. The idea comes, in fact, from a friend in Beaumont, Texas. I am going to heed his advice. I intend to gather up every paper 2023 calendar I have in my &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=56286\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Getting ready for a burning<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[7474,10124,6016],"class_list":["post-56286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","category-medical-news","tag-glioblastoma","tag-kathy-anne","tag-toby-the-puppy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56287,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56286\/revisions\/56287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}