This year I finished a book.

I went to a graduation in Davidson, North Carolina in the spring, and learned a little about the guy that Duke University is named for. He left a lot of money to Davidson College as well. Davidson College is near Lake Norman, the largest freshwater lake in North Carolina. It’s very beautiful and very desirable as a place to live. It was created by Duke Energy Company for the purposes of generating power from the dam in the 1950’s. A different lake was created many years earlier for power but demand increased.

“Buck” Duke was quite the industrialist and monopolist in his time. He had a tobacco empire and then a textile empire. His original power investments were used to drive the textile mills. According to the pamphlet on Lake Norman, when Duke had powered his mills, he still had extra energy and he spent time inventing ways to use it and persuading locals that he had a good idea. For example, said the booklet, electricity brought refrigeration to the dairy industry but then brought it out of the industry and into the house. Extra energy could be used for all sorts of small appliances in a house but first people had to be persuaded that they needed the extra toasters or lamps or ice boxes. Thought provoking. It would be interesting to do some more reading with a slightly less committed source.

I sewed a green vestment, stole, chalice veil, and burse. I’m really proud of the burse. The vestment is a good workhorse and in 2026 I need to make another, probably purple.

I watched the ordination of twelve men for the diocese of Arlington in June. It took three hours and was an incredible experience. I went to the First Mass of my son and cried my heart out.

We visited my husband’s relatives in Iowa, and he did a four mile ‘brat trot’ in the early morning so as to miss the heat of the day. Then he ate a bunch of breakfast brats which I consider penance but he considers luxury.

We visited the beach with children and grandchildren. I played Castle Panic. I also watched the two-year-old remove a plate from a counter over his head, bring it down to his own level, remove the apple slices on it, and replace the plate on the counter above his head, without breaking or spilling. An entirely remarkable operation.

I got a new hip at Halloween, after finding a new hip doctor. I exercised for months and am still exercising after the operation. I took my husband to the ER and discovered that he had broken his collarbone, ten days after my surgery. He was out in the woods cutting trees and met a widowmaker tree limb. Fortunately it hit his shoulder not his head.

I went to a wedding in Ann Arbor, Michigan with sixty of my closest relatives, or something like that. And a whole bunch of other people. We stayed in a house that had twelve bedrooms, divided into two parts. The parts were joined through the basement where there was a veritable playground: shuffleboard, foosball, billiards, two different places to watch videos (which no one used for anything except chatting in small groups), a bar with a huge box of Lincoln logs, other games, two arcades, and a small tent for small children. We had fifty-four people wandering around at one point. Pizza was delivered and then more pizza was delivered and yet, in the end, no one made a mess. All the children were taken away or sent to bed without screaming and the wedding took place two days later.

That wedding also featured twelve flower girls and more petals down the aisle than anyone has ever seen.