This will be the last post here. Nature is taking over. Cancer. According to the doctors, I have about two months left of living. Maybe.
Why the last post. I died on ........ In good health and all of sudden I am dead. It does happen. My life was a great journey. Born on July 30, 1940 at 4:30 p.m. in a Green Bay Wisconsin hospital.
Born to Earl and Irene (Treichel) Treichel. Yup. My mother's maiden name was Treichel. Mom and Dad were second cousins. Could explain some of the weirdness of this guy. My sister Lois was already at home when I was born. A couple of years later, Dennis arrived to complete the family of three children.
Lois Vohen survives this writing and lives in Two Rivers Wisconsin. Dennis was residing in Dallas Oregon when he died in 2010. Mom died in 2002 at the age of 84 and Dad died in 2006 at the age of 90. Sounds like good genes. Hopefully, my genes got me to something approximating those numbers.
I grew up on a dairy farm with all the jobs that go with that. That included some of the smellier jobs. After attending the Morrison Lutheran grade school, I graduated from DePere High School in 1958. Ahead of me after high school, I had to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my life. How to make the decision. There was no experience to make the decision. Dad always suggested a job or career something other than farming. His suggestion was engineering or accounting. I often wonder where I would have ended if he had thought that lawyer or doctor would be a good future.
Whatever my choice, I was going to have to pay for it. Between working part and full time at Morning Glory dairy in De Pere for the next five years I attended part or full time at the University of Wisconsin Extension center at Green Bay. The school was affectionately known as Cardboard Tech. Built as temporary classrooms for the returning WWII veterans, the building was still in use in 1960.
While living at home and attending Cardboard Tech, I continued to help out with farm chores and milking cows. In 1962 I left the farm and went to University of Wisconsin at Madison to finish my education graduating there in 1965.
While at Madison, I met Eileen Kriewaldt. We dated in college and upon my graduation, we married in the summer of 1965 before moving to Santa Rosa California where I had a trainee position with the Bank of America in their Santa Rosa branch. I was at the right place at the right time. The Bank determined that I would be a great computer programmer.
They were right. I enjoyed programming and recently wrote an Excel Visual Basic macro to solve Sudoku puzzles.
When California became too crowded for these farm kids, we moved to Denver in 1969 for a programming position I accepted with Samsonite Luggage.
Eileen and I had two children. Son TJ and Krista live in the Denver area. Daughter Vanita and Gabe live in San Diego. Without grand children, there are grand pets who survive me. Eileen and I divorced many years ago and she survives me at this writing.
For most of my working career I was in some area of Information Technology. I started as a computer programmer (it was called Data Processing in 1965) writing COBOL programs. When I retired in 2000, I was working in technical sales support for Storage Technology -- a computer peripherals manufacturer. The company no longer exists after it was bought by Sun Microsystems. Sun was in turn bought by Oracle.
When I retired in 2000, I bought a truck and fifth wheel trailer to travel around US and Canada.
Since my retirement in 2000, I haven't worked for a pay check. Having considered volunteering at a state or national park over the years, I always decided that I didn't want to make the commitment to be someplace on a day or time. I liked the life where I could do what I wanted at any time. Certainly was a selfish approach, but that is what it was.
After 13 years of travel I needed a change from the mobile life. I enjoyed the mobile and moving life where the scenery changed and there was something new to explore.
It was time for a change from the nomadic travel. In January of 2014, I purchased a park model in an RV resort in Tucson. From the list of four possible locations (the others: Fort Collins, CO, Prescott, AZ, San Diego) to settle I chose Tucson with its nine months of good weather. With lots of nearby hiking, it as an ideal location to try to stay fit as I age.
I've lived a good life and had the opportunity to enjoy a good retirement. At least I am able to write this without the obit which would say that I was employed at company X when I died.
There are no regrets. If there are any regrets, it is that I was unable to celebrate any more birthdays. It would have been great to celebrate 100 years. That would have been great if I was still walking and could form complete sentences.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Friday, March 20, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
Friday, March 6, 2015
Monday, March 2, 2015
Ambition is Back
The last chemo treatment was January 21st. It has been a long time since I had any ambition to do some thing beyond the basics of living. Yesterday I did a 4.2 mile hike without panting. Soon I will do a five mile hike. And eventually, I will do even longer hikes. Some wild flowers are blooming. The desert is green with the recent winter rains. It is a great time to get out and do some hiking.
The radiation treatments will begin next week -- or the following. The treatments will be every day for three weeks. I'm hoping to make that happen at the end of the day so I can go hiking in the morning. According to the radiologist, the most serious side effect might be some indigestion. I am used to that with the chemo treatments.
In addition to hiking every other day, with the return of ambition there is a "to do" list to be addressed. Mattress shopping. Carpet cleaning. House washing. And more.
It is a great feeling to want to do something once again. Ambition is back.
The radiation treatments will begin next week -- or the following. The treatments will be every day for three weeks. I'm hoping to make that happen at the end of the day so I can go hiking in the morning. According to the radiologist, the most serious side effect might be some indigestion. I am used to that with the chemo treatments.
In addition to hiking every other day, with the return of ambition there is a "to do" list to be addressed. Mattress shopping. Carpet cleaning. House washing. And more.
It is a great feeling to want to do something once again. Ambition is back.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Butterflies and Frogs
Vanita is in town for four days before heading back to San Diego. On her first full day in Tucson, we went to Sabino Canyon. There we took the tram ride followed by a short hike.
There is too much of Tucson to show Vanita in four days. For her short visit, I opted for the Tucson Botanical Gardens. The Gardens includes a butterfly exhibit building. With tropical butterflies, it is a very humid building.
Butterflies flit around and land on people and plants. One landed on my hat. Another landed on Vanita's hand. With the constant movement of the butterflies, it is difficult to get a good photo. This one sat still long enough for a photo.
This year there are also tropical frogs. On the ground and under plants, the frogs are harder to spot. Once a person finds a one of these small frogs (less than two inches), everyone tries to get a photo. Fortunately, they don't move like the butterflies.
Since I am still recovering from that last chemo treatment four weeks ago, today we took a short hike in nearby Saguaro National Park East.
On Vanita's future visits, I plan to share more of the Tucson that I enjoy.
There is too much of Tucson to show Vanita in four days. For her short visit, I opted for the Tucson Botanical Gardens. The Gardens includes a butterfly exhibit building. With tropical butterflies, it is a very humid building.
Butterflies flit around and land on people and plants. One landed on my hat. Another landed on Vanita's hand. With the constant movement of the butterflies, it is difficult to get a good photo. This one sat still long enough for a photo.
This year there are also tropical frogs. On the ground and under plants, the frogs are harder to spot. Once a person finds a one of these small frogs (less than two inches), everyone tries to get a photo. Fortunately, they don't move like the butterflies.
Since I am still recovering from that last chemo treatment four weeks ago, today we took a short hike in nearby Saguaro National Park East.
On Vanita's future visits, I plan to share more of the Tucson that I enjoy.
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