Before I begin, I have to acknowledge today’s date is April 16, 2023, yet my wife’s birthday is April 15! So apologies are in order for being a tad late, though there have been many valid reasons and I actually have been working on this for awhile now. I’ve tried to do some unique things, or give unique gifts, etc., to make Gretchen’s birthday a little cooler than my health has permitted most of the year. One thing I’ve often done in the past was make her birthday cards, but this time I decided to make a slide show that I hope will both mean something and will represent moments in time that have been special for her or us, etc., since we first met some time ago. Bearing in mind I have over 50,000 digital photos and I wanted to keep this slide show to maybe 20, THAT has been the time-consuming aspect of the project (though fun). As I’m unable to go through that many photos, I feel pretty good about what I’ve compiled, and I hope Gretchen appreciates seeing these moments again. Not only some good memories for her/us, but also possibly a couple of interesting surprises for anyone who may see this.

I could write endlessly about Gretchen, but that’s the problem — once I’d start, I might not resurface for a week, so aside from this intro — and what we’ve exchanged, said and done at home — I’m just going to launch into this slide show, meant to be in her honor.