Huber

Funeral Home & Cremation Services

952-474-9595

Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic.

Occupational Therapy.  Speech Therapy.

952-443-9888

Victoria’s Corner Bar.  Nightly Specials and Menus.  952-443-9944

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Call Nan Emmer.  612-702-2020

Weinzierl

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8 First Street in Waconia.  952-442-2885

Preschool and Childcare in Victoria. 

Call 952-443-2121.

MVT Excavating

No job is too small.  952-446-9341

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in the Victoria Gazette. 

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952-443-2808

Specialized assisted living for those

with memory challenges. 

Victoria.  952-908-2215
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The Victoria

GAZETTE

         The bell has been rung.  The New Year is here.  We can smile about it or we can cry about it.  Thank you, Addie, for giving me my opening line.

         I noticed at our recent New Year’s Eve gathering how the first couple of hours before dinner were taken up with talk of health issues -- versus funny stories or reminiscing of our many trips together.  John and Lloyd’s respective hip replacement and knee surgeries of 2010 didn’t even figure into the conversation nor did Jan’s broken wrist of 2010.  But now John has a blood clot in his lungs and was in the hospital a few days ago.  That reminded me of Louise Lehner’s recent blood clot that resulted in an emergency landing in Montreal. 

         Last week Ruthie Hilgers called and told me that Jerry is scheduled this week for surgery because of an abdominal aneurysm.  And you probably know that the whole community has been praying much of this past year for Kelly Hanson who is suffering a myriad of maladies.

         Only yesterday Curt Oakes called from St. Paul to tell me he was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea so was retrofitted with a sleep pack that gives him energy like he’s never had before.  Remember Curt?  He was the Victoria City Planner for about eight years in the 1980’s and early ‘90’s.

         Do you think some of these health issues are related to age?  Yes, partly.  Each of the people above is over age 60.  Age brings with it some deterioration that we might not experience in younger years.  It’s a fact we can’t avoid, that human bodies start to wear out over time, and since we’re all in the same predicament -- some more so than others -- it becomes a topic of conversation among us.

         I told our friends, then, about our little granddaughter Mia, which is, by the way, pronounced Mee-ah.  It goes perfectly with her middle name of Marie.  It’s easy to say:  “Mia Marie.”  Her baptismal name is Amelia, as in Amelia Santaniello or Amelia Bedelia.  Never thought I’d hear those three little letters for Mia mispronounced. 

         In any case, the little honey bunny, who is the baby daughter of our son Nick and his wife Jen, as well as baby sister to their little Sophia, age 2, was at Children’s Hospital here in St. Paul for six days in December.  Her heart surgery was also related to age -- at the other end of the spectrum, of course.  Mia was only born on Mother’s Day, 2010, but she wasn’t due until June and so her tiny little self didn’t have enough time to get entirely done.  Her heart valve didn’t close properly and it needed to be fixed.  The surgery was successful and the little trooper is doing well.  As I told Rosalie on New Year’s Eve, Mia smiles a lot and is not a complainer, which endears her even more to me.

         Brian Dixon told me that his mother who is 62 needs heart valve surgery.  And my mother, who turns 84 on January 16th, was informed in 2010 that she needs a heart valve replacement.  We sort of anticipated that surgery last fall but doctors at Rochester put it off and so Mom and Dad tooled on down to their winter home again.  Temperatures in Texas have been at the top of their thermometers and they don’t have snow in the ditches nor ice on the roads.

         Which reminds me of the second most popular topic of conversation at any given time of day:  weather.  We’ve had plenty of it here in Victoria, as you’ve noticed, unless you’re from another planet, and I don’t think other planets have weather.  How can you have weather without air?  But it doesn’t matter where on earth we go, we can’t avoid weather.  And who would want to avoid weather anyhow? 

         We need weather in order to use our snowplows and windshield wipers and four wheel drives.  We need weather to use our furnaces and air conditioners and thermostats.  We need weather to use our umbrellas and boots and hats and mittens and coats.  All such things would go to waste if we didn’t have weather. 

         Can you imagine waking up in the morning without weather?  When our kids were little that’s the first thing I did after getting out of bed -- look at the thermometer.  That’s how I knew how warm to dress them for school or if they should have a neck scarf wrapped around their little faces while they waited for the school bus.

         And so we talk about health and weather.  Good topics.  Safe topics.  Can’t get in too much trouble talking about health and weather.  Sounds like a New Year’s Resolution coming on.  I resolve to get into just enough trouble to make life interesting. 

         The bell has been rung.  The New Year is here.  We can smile about it or cry about it.   And now I’m done talking about it.

January 2011

From the Editor