November 12, 2026

November is almost halfway over, and Thanksgiving is approaching rapidly! Time to summarize and reflect on our 2026 activities.

For almost four years now we’ve been living in Glen Ellen, California, in an ADU (the little house on the left, below) owned by our older daughter, Ellen, and her husband Rick.

Summary

At the end of 2025 I (Anna) reached the “extremely elderly” (AKA “oldest-old”) age category (85+) and Dick is not far behind! It’s been a wild year, health-wise, but we’re lucky to have added to the mix a number of family events, a couple of trips, and some interesting and rewarding personal and professional projects.  We are grateful for the love and support of our nearest and dearest, including the “Livengood lot,” “Blomquist bunch,” and others.

Health

1. Cardiology (Anna)
2. Dermatology (mostly Dick)

My most challenging health issue is my life-long (but only diagnosed in 2017) HOCM (obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy). My open-heart surgery in 2022 helped a lot at first, but things worsened more recently, and this year I was threatened with severe bradycardia (heart rate in the 30s). I was in the hospital several times early in the year. With a fixed range of 75-125 beats per minute, my new pacemaker (installed in April) is helping me “outrun” my heart irregularities. I also take 7 different heart-related medications every day.

Dick has been suffering since about 1984 from his long-ago over-exposure to the sun. At Kaiser Dermatology they call him a “frequent-flyer” patient. Pretty much all the time he’s being either checked, or treated, or both.

On the positive side, we’ve both learned to take each day as it comes.

Family Events

1. Wedding
2. Graduations

Significant family events this year included Miranda and Hrayr’s wedding and receptions in October, and Helena and Malaysia’s high school graduations in June.

Trips

1. Minnesota
2. New Orleans / Mississippi

Of course, the graduation ceremonies in June involved a trip to Minnesota, a place we always love to visit.

In addition, we and the “elder” Blomquists and Livengoods did a Viking cruise up the Mississippi River in March. Just hanging out with family and sightseeing along the river were special.

One interesting sidelight in New Orleans was seeing a hopper dredge celebrating its maiden voyage. My brother Bill was on a hopper dredge in World War II!

Projects

1. High-tech/AI collaborative programming and information projects
2. Projects focused on language learning
3. Project implementation using pomodoros (time management techniques that split tasks into short segments divided by breaks).

Examples include WebHelp Responsive sites built around topics like community history, family history and genealogy, language learning, and Dick’s astrophotography images. Many of these are can be linked from our newsfromnan.com website.

Entertainment

1. Walks, housework, gardening
2. Videos: For example, police procedurals like Unforgotten, cooking/cultural-themed programs like PatiJinich’s Mexican Table, and language-oriented content like Easy German and foreign movies
3. Audios: For example, newly discovered individual musicians like Berta Rojas and groups like Tuba Skinny

We’re also applying pomodoro techniques to some of these. Shorter segments and sessions allow us to both maintain interest and conserve energy.