A New Year

So here it is...my first post of the new year. I suppose that not blogging on January 1st is a bad omen for how well I will keep this updated. (Hasn't it been said that what you do on the first day of the year is what you will be doing the rest of the year?) Well, I wasn't blogging...in fact, we were celebrating a combination of Christmas and New Year's in Kansas City.
Our Kansas trip was a whirlwind of seeing friends and family, attending a basketball game, eating A LOT and fabulous weather. I was treated to a warm overcast morning on Saturday, which is my favorite. We took Pongo and Perdi along again, and they were great travellers. I think they are getting used to the road, even though we still had to use a mild sedative with Pongo. It was nice to have extra room with our new car to spread out. We even stopped in Manhattan on the way back on Sunday to have brunch with my family.
The whole trip was wonderful. It sounds like we will have a new slate of visitors this year, some of whom have already been here! It was sad to leave Kansas though, because I got to thinking about the next time we will see everyone again and how I don't even know when that is! I'm sure we will have to plan a weekend plane trip back sometime in February or March. But I am certain that I am sick of that drive for a while after doing it twice in a month's span.
I really have much more to say about our trip back, but I have a lot on my mind lately. Particularly, I was shocked to hear the news about the death of our long-time neighbor in Manhattan. Here is the short story from the Manhattan Mercury:


Local woman dies from accident injuries
Staff reports
A Manhattan resident who was injured in a two-vehicle accident on I-70 Dec. 19 has died.
Amy Gatschet, 71, died Sunday, Dec. 28 at Via-Christie/St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, from injuries she sustained in the collision. Her husband, Frank, 73, also was injured in the crash.
The Gatschets were struck in their 2004 Toyota SUV when William L. Speulda, 67, of California, lost control of his vehicle due to icy road conditions and slid across the median. Speulda was driving a 2003 Ford pickup that came to a rest on the north shoulder of the road and caught fire. Gatschet's vehicle came to a rest in the north ditch.

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Amy Gatschet was the best kind of citizen and neighbor anyone could ask for. The whole community of Manhattan and beyond will truly feel the loss of such a wonderful person. It is hard to think that she will not be there smiling and waving anymore when I visit Manhattan.
I have so many memories of Amy, ranging from Seven Dolors bell choir to orchestra trips. Her daughter Diana is close in age to me and is an amazing cellist, so naturally our families spent quite a bit of time together at concerts and orchestra trips.
Frank and Amy were always willing to take in local kids who needed a place to stay while finishing school, in most cases when their parents moved from Manhattan. It was really hard to hear about the tragic accident on I-70. It made me think about how fast things change and how easily it could have been my own family. (They made the same journey only 4 days later and in quite a snowstorm.)
My dad added quite a profound statement to one of his emails which really struck me: Life is unpredictable. Change is certain.

I get so caught up in the changes and stresses in my own life that I am shocked when the comfortable and familiar things from childhood are suddenly gone. Change is certain, whether we like it or not.