December 31, 2017
6:06 p.m.

Last year I posted an end of the year memorial for the people we lost in 2016 in my hometown. I had lost a dear friend and wanted to say goodbye one more time.

I decided to do it again this year, especially because I felt compelled to remember a few families I've known since childhood who were particulary hard hit this year. Those lifelong friends and mentors can never be replaced and deserve another mention as I close out my year.

I also wanted to remember the loss of one-year-old child and her grandmother, who were killed in a tragic freak accident.

The following will be sorely missed and fondly remembered:

Dorothy Deichmuller                                Lawrence Erdman 
Alonzo "Lunk" Jarvie                               Henry "Ernie" Clark
Julia Terry *                                              Rose Gardea *
Michael A Reyes                                      Lela M Gosar
Debra DeVries                                          Stella Jean Doak
Hal Hardy                                                 Frances Oaks *
William Nihart                                          Mont Mecham
Bill Valdez                                                Helen Gomez *
Brenda Jo Kempton Barney                     David Gillespie *
Lucille Maldonado *                                Mary Jane Gamble
Rex Barney                                               Janette Meese  *
Glenn Hill                                                 Danny Sudbrack *
Gary Littrell                                              Jerry Santillanes
Bob Facinelli                                            Cory Burton *
Robert Jewkes *                                        Jessica Flores *
Mildred Emerson                                      Kathie Grooms *
Donald Irwin                                             Ruby Lake
Joann Mosley *                                         Dick Hodges
Tina Rael *                                                Donna Kalivas
Bruce King

I would be delighted of the list this year was empty. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way.

It was at least gratifying to see so many long lives, those who were blessed to be able to love spouses, children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

It was disheartening to see so many gone far too soon. (I know, they're all too soon. We're never ready.)

To family and friends of those we're now missing, I send my love and well-wishes. Your loves are remembered and will be missed.

Like last year, I will provide a link to 2017's celebrity losses. I have a few comments, but they'll be brief.

http://ew.com/news/celebrity-deaths-2017/earle-hyman

It was really, really disheartening to see how many young people gave up this year. Was it a testament to the times? What can be done to decrease these incidents?

I can't remark upon every famous person who left this year, but the following hit me personally in the feels:

Mary Tyler Moore, the actress who taught us well that we could do whatever we set our minds to, female or not, with the iconic character Mary Richards, who did NOT need a man to fulfill her, support her or get her out of tricky predicaments. She came along just as my generation were coming of age, and she was a role model we needed. Hell, we still need her.

Jerry Lewis, hero of my childhood. He died on my mother's birthday, and I don't believe I said much about his passing at the time, other than a couple of sad posts on Facebook. Which is crazy neglectful of me considering how much I loved that guy. It wasn't just that he was funny. It was that he was a caring and compassionate man who took a great deal of personal time to give back and raise funds to help children. I loved to watch his movies, with or without Dean Martin, and I loved to stay up with him during the annual MDA telethons. I will always miss this man.

Don Rickles. I was pretty young the first time I saw him on television. He called someone a "hockey puck". It was several more years before I realized that it wasn't just a mild insult, but an actual object used in a sport! At that point, all I could do was ask my mother, "Why would anyone call somebody a 'hockey puck'?" My answer: a pretty dramatic Mom eye-roll. Well! How was I to know? I was not exposed to hockey at an early age! Ha!

Rose Marie. That hair bow! She was so cute! And she kept quite busy right up to the end. She very recently released the documentary of her life, "Wait For Your Laugh", which will air on Showtime. http://rosemariemovie.com/  What an inspirational woman. 94 years old, and 90 of those years spent performing. Pretty impressive.

Adam West. Bada bada bada bada Batman! Need I say more? No, I thought not. No matter who plays the role, for me, Adam West is the ONLY real Batman. Ever.

Doggone you, 2017!!
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7:14 p.m.

What did I do in 2017? The GOOD stuff:

I saw a lot of movies with my good friend. We should probably revisit the list and see which one was best.

I spent an incredibly cold winter with my parents in Wyoming. Brr! I went through a ton of old photographs and scanned them onto my dad's computer. I'd like to compile them all into a family album soon.

I took a few trips to the casino with my sisters and we had a wonderful time together. It has been years since we have done anything like that, and I can't wait to do it again.

I came back to Colorado because...

My son got married! It was an interesting ceremony, which my daughter-in-law's mother was able to attend. That made it even more special. Later, I helped everyone arrange a reception and all my children were here together for that. My parents, brother and sister came. It was delightful. We held the gathering at our good friends' home, and it was a chilly evening, but a great time was had by all and we were all so gratified by the great turnout.

I got another year older. How did that happen? Yikes!

I took three of my grandchildren to Comic-Con. We had a great time together. We met people and saw panels and ate junk food. It was awesome. We took lots of pictures--some with celebrities!--and bought a lot of stuff we probably didn't need. It was a great three days.

I met my parents in Trinidad for a Shablo family reunion. Bus trip from Denver was quiet and comfortable, which is not always the case on Greyhound. Great hotel accommodations, lots of room for visiting, good attendance.

We then traveled to Idaho for an Aulbach family reunion. We took a short break in Wyoming, did some laundry, and off we went. We stopped in the town of my birth and went by the first home I remember living in. It hasn't changed much. Then we spent several days with my aunt and uncle, who made us feel so welcome. Great attendance for this reunion as well.

(A few words about reunions--they should happen as frequently as possible. It is so wonderful to be with all the members of your family. Well, as many of them as you can gather together at one time in one place, anyway. Seeing cousins, second cousins, third cousins--what a gift! Aunts and Uncles, siblings, you name it--do it as often as you can. It's such a precious thing. And priceless.)

My parents celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary. All we Shablo kids were there, and we shared some good food and a lot of laughs over a couple of days about two weeks before the actual date of the anniversary, because those were the dates that worked. We also tossed in Mom's birthday celebration. Why not? 80 years is cause to celebrate.

There was a total eclipse of the sun. We weren't in the path of full coverage, but it was still very, very cool. My sister and brother were closer, and they spent a minute or so in total darkness.

My beautiful niece got married. Two of my daughters were able to make the trip to Wyoming and got to spend time with their aunts, uncles and cousins who are rarely all in the same place, so that was another little family reunion.

Dad celebrated his 82nd birthday.

Can I just say how lucky we are? We are so lucky.

I published my book, Emma: Ancestors' Tales. The tale borrows a lot from my real life family and home town, but is fiction. Sadly, no one has come to tell me any good stories about my ancestors. If I want to know, I have to study the history. But, you know what? We've got some fascinating REAL family history. And some of it might just be in the book.

I came back to Colorado in time to do Thanksgiving. It's quite a change, after the quiet at my parents' home! Busy, busy! Prepared a really good meal, and we feasted. Yum.

Somehow, the kids convinced my daughter to come for Christmas, and then my son convinced everyone to get together at JC Penney's to take pictures. I will have photos of myself with all nine grandchildren. How priceless is that?

All four of my children were here for Christmas! I can't remember the last time that happened. This is the first time ever that all nine grandchildren were opening presents under the tree in my home. What a joyous day!!

Also noisy.

We spent the afternoon/evening with friends at their home and ate too much good food. It was a wonderful day.

My daughter gathered up kiddos and went back to Oklahoma this week and suddenly the house was quiet--and not in a good way. Missing those babies already, although there were a few times when I wished it was summer so they could all be sent outside to play!

Now it's just my regular household, which, with eight people, is not small. We are watching movies and kind of freezing our tushies, because it is cold tonight. The super moon is beaming down from a clear sky, and we're counting down to midnight.

We have a while to go yet.
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8:32 p.m.

Oh, dear. Hahahaha! I posted a bunch of 2017 photos on Facebook that kind of go along with my "What I did in 2017" post above. My mother's sister has a Facebook page, and the two of them look enough alike that the photos of my mother all got tagged with her name. So....I'm going to have to go fix that, I guess. How funny.
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10:16 p.m.

It would seem I'm not as edit sauvy as I would like to think. That took me quite a while. I'm thinking I might make it to midnight now. My staying power has been in question since I have been sick for the past three days.

Yesterday I spent the day shut up in my room, sparing my family from potentially lethal germs. All I really wanted to do was sleep, but I am me, so that wasn't happening. I considered getting up, but lifting my head seemed like too much effort.

So I started streaming a show on Netflix from 2006 called "Jericho".

This was probably mildly scary in 2006. It's a little more scary now, in the present world atmosphere. Denver has been obliterated by some sort of bomb. (Denver! Oh, great.) Soon enough there's enough information to know that Atlanta was also bombed. Power goes out. Radiation fall-out is an issue that is too quickly and easily resolved to be believable. There's soon a shortage of everything.

Except candles.

The bar is the busiest place in town, and lit with tons of candles. Every family seems to have plenty of candles to conduct their nightly rituals.

Where the heck did they get all the candles?

If we have a power outage, I have enough candles to get through a couple of hours for possibly two nights. Say four to six hours. Then I'm out of candles.

This is Kansas, supposedly. I suppose a third of the people might have fireplaces or wood stoves, but sooner or later, it's going to get really cold. I think of losing power here, say tonight, and we are freezing in the dark. I have an electric fireplace. And four to six hours worth of candles. Maybe. It's six degrees out there. We're dead meat.

I'm thinking "Jericho" might not be a good show for me to be watching. But I'm twelve episodes in, and if you think I'm stopping now, forget it. I'm hooked.

But I expect to catch a lot of silly stuff like over-abundant supplies of candles, because that's what I do.
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10:30 p.m.

Oh, I guess I have to print some pictures. To be continued.
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January 1, 2018
12:03 a.m.

While attempting to edit photos I lost track of time. 2017 is OVER!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Nothing printed....

Not a good sign...

*sigh*