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Remembering 2011
2011 was an interesting year for me.
The most important item on my year in review is that of Leah (my daughter) and her discovery and battle with breast cancer. The following three links are my online stories about my amazing girl and her determined fight. She has made all of us proud.
- My Daughter Has Breast Cancer
- Update on Leah Dowdy’s Breast Cancer Battle
- Rowdy Dowdy – My Daughter Interviewed About Breast Cancer
In a similar vein (no pun intended), my wife and I both spent time in a hospital bed this year. Reflecting on my medical emergency, I am thrilled to have made it to the end of the year. I had a series of 4 heart attacks over a period of about 4 days. The final one finally got me to the hospital.
I Had a Heart Attack
At about 2am last Saturday morning, I awoke to my chest and throat tightening in a very painful way. Since this was the fourth such episode in a few days, we drove about 100 yards to the hospital ER. In moments I was hooked up to all sorts of things.
The doctors and nurses got me stabilized until they could find out what was going on for sure. I saw 4 cardiologists and 2 other doctors who concurred that I had suffered a heart attack or series of heart attacks. They devised a plan of keeping me stable over the weekend and then going into my heart through an artery in my groin area.
100 Facts About Me
Currently Twitter is running a special thread of tweets with the title “100 Facts About Me.” I thought I would list my 100 facts here on the blog. Those of you who have known me for awhile may learn a thing or two about me. Those who are new to this site will probably learn quite a few things. So here we go.
No Fish in the Aquarium
As I sat contemplating a topic for writing this morning, my RSS feed showed a new post from John Saddington at tentblogger.com. John suggested finding something interesting in my current environment and writing a narrative about it.
Quickly I spotted my item – our aquarium or fish tank. Our EMPTY aquarium. Not really empty – it is filled with properly filtered water. It has colorful turquoise rocks on the bottom of the tank. The top of the water ripples from the plugged in filtering system. It is actually quite full. Just no fish. This tank sits in a prominent place in our apartment even though it is lacking the primary ingredient.
I have an aquarium because it relates to one of my favorite activities – snorkeling. When I see fish in an aquarium, I am reminded of seeing beautiful creatures along the bottom of the ocean. God’s handiwork is amazing. I have taught my wife to snorkel, and some of our best memories are of snorkeling together off of the coasts of Florida and Hawaii.
On TV
Frank & Suzie @ Red Bank Baptist Church
Due to being under the weather, I found myself at home this Sunday morning. It was disappointing to miss, especially since we just joined the church last Sunday. So at 11am, I turned our television on to Chattanooga channel 435 to watch the broadcast of Red Bank Baptist Church. The services are delayed a week. So it was a bit strange to be sitting on the sofa and see the Gantz family on the screen in front of us. See if you can spot us toward the middle of the picture. I’m in the short sleeved white shirt.
Frank Gantz Trail
Wow! I know my Gantz ancestors came from Pennsylvania, but I didn’t expect that they would name a trail after (before) me. Apparently this is a 3.2 mile trail that is designated as “difficult hiking.” It is located in northeastern Pennsylvania. At some point in life, I need to take a hike on this trail.
