Merry Christmas Friends! I just love leap years, though the fact that they fall during election years takes some of the fun out of having that extra day. I needed it though. It was a busy year. 
For starters, I spent a lot of time at medical appointments. I hope you like hearing about health problems because they took up so much of my year that I don’t have much else to report in this holiday letter.   
My first health crisis started when the president of a club I belong to told me he was resigning and he wanted me to take over. Mind you, this is one of those clubs where people don’t run for office. They run from office. Electing officers in our club involves begging, arm-twisting and occasionally signing up someone who’s not there to defend themselves.
I blame the now former club president for what happened next. I felt faint and my heart started pounding. To be fair, this isn’t the first time that’s happened so it’s not his fault, but I still blame him.
According to my Fitbit, my heart was going 170 beats per minute. It was like exercising without getting off the sofa and wouldn’t that be handy? Still it didn’t seem right, so after an hour of it, I went to the emergency room.
To make a long story not quite so long, many doctor visits, a procedure for something called atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia, and a stack of medical bills later, I was back to having to get off the couch to exercise. Fortunately I have insurance and I was confident that I’d have my portion of the bills paid off by 2037.
Then, like a hurricane leaving destruction in its wake, a summer cold left behind serious damage. One evening, my left ear seemed to plug up. Suddenly I felt like I was hearing underwater or with my ear pressed against the door listening in on someone’s conversation. Not that I have.  
I yawned. I chewed gum. I took piles of over-the-counter medicines. Then I went to the doctor many times and took piles of prescription medicines. Nothing helped. Not only was my hearing worse, I couldn’t tell which direction sounds were coming from. My husband would say, “come here,” and I’d go to the wrong room. He thought I was just being more contrary than usual.
Eventually I was referred to a specialist and a few unpleasant treatments later I’m somewhat better. At least I can tell where my husband is when he calls me. Unfortunately now I don’t anticipate getting my medical bills paid off until 2050.
Along with going to medical appointments, I did do some traveling this year. For starters, I attended the hundred-year reunion of my school. Too bad I wasn’t in the original class. I’d be on Medicare by now. 
I also went to the state fair where I ate many things on sticks. And I attended a writers’ conference in Dayton, Ohio. As luck would have it, it was the perfect time and place to see the total eclipse. But as my luck would have it, I’d made my hotel and airline reservations long before I knew it would be.
So yes, I missed the eclipse but I hit a buffalo. Those are not related. I just like the way they sound together. And I didn’t actually hit the buffalo. The buffalo hit me. I’m not making that up.
My sister and I were traveling in South Dakota’s Custer State Park. There was a steep hill beside the road and between the road and the hill was a buffalo. Maybe he was tired of cars passing him because he headbutted my rear passenger door as I went by. Naturally I stopped the car and got right out to check for damage. Not really. I can’t afford any more medical bills.