Tuesday, December 27, 2011
An Odd Christmas...
12/27/2011
My 68th Christmas was truly a tad odd, certainly not the typical holiday it has always been for the first 67 years of my utterly fantastic life, but I might have to add this definitely was The Best Christmas Ever.
Early last week I received a call from The Nancy’s dad telling me her mother had fallen and broken the femur in her right leg. Thus began our Christmas odyssey. We came to Bridgeport, WV on Thursday where Nancy has spent most of her waking hours the past five days in a hospital room with her mother. I put in more than a few hours myself, at least six on Christmas Eve, and I hate hospitals.
Christmas Day I dropped The Nancy off at the hospital and drove to Richmond, VA to share a little Christmas with two of our three daughters and two of our six grandchildren. So far we have been away from home for five nights…yuck!
The good news is that today The Mother-in-law will be discharged and moved to a rehab facility close to her home. The second part of the good news bubble is we, too, will be heading home. I know our cat is missing us after being cooped up in the house all this time.
The Mother-in-law had a rough time of it the first few days. Older people can get a little confused in hospital surroundings. This particular old person was way off her nut for a while, but has bounced back to being her old ornery self – a welcomed sight, for sure. Had someone told me the woman we saw last Thursday as we first entered this hospital is the same one I just saw, I would have doubted it top to bottom. Amazing transformation! Who says drugs are bad?
I have not had the “pleasure” of being in a hospital for an overnight stay in a long, long time. This place is just a year old and very state-of-the-art. They have a room on this floor where someone sits and monitors all the beeps and blips coming from patients’ rooms. Technology has taken over hospitals as it has everything else. The nurses all carry a little gizmo that turns a light on outside the room they are in to alert others a nurse is in attendance. The Nancy and I guessed the beds in this place must have cost several thousand each. It is quite the place I sincerely hope I never have to spend a night in. The only thing I can think of about the place that reminds me of hospitals of old is the food. It still sucks.
The M-I-L is to be released in just a few minutes. Once we get her settled in a new room in a new place we are off to our habitual abode in good old Downtown Berkeley Springs, WV, population 711. It will be good to get home to my own bed, my own bathroom (I hate using public ones) and my own beer supply.
This, too, is The Best Day Ever.
And that is all I have to say about that…
Saturday, December 24, 2011
A Holly Jolly Christmas...
12/24/2011
What exactly is a “Holly Jolly Christmas? What is a “Holly Jolly” anything, for that matter?
I know the record of a “Holly Jolly Christmas was recorded in 1965. The song, which makes little sense, since there I no definition of what a Holly Jolly Christmas, get stuck in my head at this time of the year. The song was written by a Jewish guy named Johnny Marks, the same guy that wrote the lyrics for “Rudolph the Red-Nosed,” “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and that classic Christmas song everyone knows and loves (?), “Run, Rudolph, Run.” All kidding aside, they do add to the joy of the season.
That said, The Nancy and I have spent the last couple of days with The Nancy’s mother in a hospital room. My favorite mother-in-law of 2011 took a bad fall and broke her right femur and is on the mend, albeit, not without a little confusion of her part. We are pleased, given the severity of the break, and even with the confusion she is encountering, she does not seem to be in a lot of pain and appears to be content.
We hate for The Nancy’s mom to be in this state at this particular time of the year, but such is a part of life, and this too will pass. Even with this going on we got to spend this morning with the grandchildren as they had their Christmas today since their nurse mother has to work tomorrow.
Life goes on, life is good and we are looking for this to be The Best Day Ever, The Best Christmas Ever.
Still, the question at hand goes unanswered. It is one of life’s little mysteries. What the hell is a Holly Jolly Christmas?
And that is all I have to say about that…
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
How do you Spell Relief...
12/20/2011
I am overwhelmed this morning with a sense of relief as I have never felt in my entire life. In words I never heard my father use, I feel fucking wonderful!!!
Yesterday I received a notice from Social Security letting me know my monthly stipend is to be increased by 3+ percent or something. The Nancy had opened it as she opened the other mail and handed it to me. The first paragraph outlined the increase. The first was followed by the second paragraph, and what I read caused me to nearly toss my dinner.
When I begin junior high school back in February 1956 I was placed in a remedial reading program. Reading was not my thing, and I always thought I hated reading, but now know why. My reading comprehension level was very low then, and still is. I recognized early on I am a visual learner and a lazy reader. I tend to skip over words and even complete sentences. Very often I when reading I have to re-read sentences to understand what was said. Very frankly, it’s a pain in the ass. This held true last night.
As I read the second paragraph of this notice I began to choke up. What I read led me to believe I was going to have to give back to Social Security every nickel it paid to me over the last two years, bringing on a pounding heart and instant nausea. My evening was ruined as these thoughts ruminated over and over in my simple mind. I couldn’t hardly get excited as the 49’ers whooped up on a team I love to see lose, the Pittsburgh Steelers, on Monday Night Football.
This morning I picked up the notice with the intent of reading every word of it one more time. I read the first paragraph. A-Okay! I began to read the second paragraph where it explained what I thought I read last night. There is a limit on the amount one can earn in the year the individual reaches full-retirement age. What I read last night pertained to someone reaching that age in 2011, and that ain’t me. I am safe. I reached that age almost two years ago. “R-e-l-i-e-f!” Yippee, on being old enough to fart dust. I cannot put into words the relief I feel this morning.
Now I can get back into the Christmas spirit.
And that is all I have to say about that…
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Driving Miss Nancy...
12/14/2011
The title reflects about all I really have to do these days. Well, that is, except for breathing, eating, brushing my teeth, bathing and occasionally slipping into the bathroom for a needed personal relief moment. My life has surely changed, but I have to say, unequivocally, I love it.
As for driving Miss Nancy, aka The Nancy, I really don’t do that much any longer especially since the gas money is coming out of my pocket and not that of my former employer. It is funny how quickly I began paying attention to the price of gasoline once the cost of it was to be borne by yours truly. In fact, now that I have joined the ever growing ranks of aging Americans subsisting on a limited income I find myself looking at the cost of a lot of items, but just looking. I still spend like a drunken sailor, hoping I might just spark a turnaround with this economy by spending my children’s inheritance. At the very least I am making a valiant stab at it, much to the chagrin of my wife.
Notwithstanding what I said earlier I have found myself to be rather busy these days. As retirement approached I was very concerned with how I might fill my daily dance card, I have found it simply isn’t that hard to do. I am not a list maker, but I do choose to keep a short running list of possible projects securely anchored within my ever rapidly atrophying cerebellum. This way should I forget something I know it will one day pop again in my conscious thoughts and I will think of it as a brilliant, albeit, new idea. This is aging at its finest.
Speaking of my “To Do List,” this week I made a trip to the local landfill and dumped off all the old company files and crap I could not part with while I was employed but now view as merely superfluous clutter, this was the first item on my list. I also plan on, at some point, no hurry, to clean out my 1/3 of our walk-in master closet (The Nancy took the rest for her stuff).
There are suits and sports jackets hanging the closet I have not worn in years and ties so old and wide you could land a bi-plane on them. Much of what is on my side of the closet will make someone else very happy, I hope. These are gently worn, good quality clothes, just not worn any longer. Actually I probably won’t have need of most of what is in there. Five or six suits, five or six sports jackets, slacks, dress shirts and many pairs of shoes, all adding up to way too much stuff I won’t ever wear again, and have no need to wear again. One of the last suits I purchased is (very) jokingly referred to as my “burial suit,” though don’t anyone get your hopes up, I am here to stay. I need to be a burden on my children. So you can see I do have things to do, right?
At this very moment I am sitting in the parking lot of a hotel in Charles Town, West Virginia waiting on “Miss Nancy” to get out of a meeting so I can drive her back to our home some fifty miles west. This is the only item on my dance card for today, well, that is, except for my nap.
And that is all I have to say about that…