Life Changes In An Instant

Two days ago, I received a call from my Son-in-law asking me to check on my daughter. The alarm she wears to let people know she was in trouble went off, and he was notified. He was on the job in Chicago an hour away, and asked me to look in on her.

I dropped everything and drove fifteen minutes to their house. An emergency vehicle was parked at their home. As I retreated from my car, two paramedics were wheeling her out to the van. They told me where they were taking her, and I followed. I didn’t learn what had happened until I finally saw her settled in a bed in the ER. That morning, when she got out of bed and stood, she suddenly dropped to the floor and landed on her left hip. She could not get up by herself. She could not describe what or why she fell, but she knew to dial 911. Later, hospital tests revealed she suffered a stroke. and her hip showed signs of fracture.

She spent the remainder of the past two days being tested for more accurate diagnoses. Today, I learned that she will be going to surgery to repair her hip with screws. She is looking at an estimated 4-6 weeks before she returns home. Merry Christmas to our family. At least we know how to plan our celebration.

No More words Needed

Infused By Christmas Spirit

A few days ago I had the pleasure of attending a Christmas party hosted by my financial advisor. Much to everyone’s surprise Santa came to visit. As an adult, I don’t expect visits from Santa but when it does happen it is an enjoyable experience. Seeing Santa serves to enflame the Christmas sprit in all of us.

The very next day, I attended a Christmas party for OASIS for the Visually impaired. Santa did not participate in it, but one of his elves came to sing for us. His playlist was all Christmas songs. Again, it served to heat the fire of Christmas within us. I was so enthused that I finally decorated the house exterior with colorful mini lights. That extra spirit and fifty-degree weather with sunshine got me out of my chair to string lights. Usually, the Scrooge within prevents me from doing the job until Lovely gives me her evil eye and demands it.

I’ve decided to put up our Christmas tree tomorrow, which will complete my decoration tasks, but I still have Christmas cards to send and presents to buy before I am 100% stress-free.

I send a letter with my Christmas card every year, but this year (2023), I’ve decided to skip that tradition. I barely make it through a short post for GrumpaJoesPlace, much less a creative letter different from last year’s. All this writing is beginning to sound like work. We all know that work is a four-letter word, and I should avoid using it. I could write about how I spent nine months creating the wood sculpture I christened Libre, but nobody cares about Libre but me. I’ll have to use the trick my college professor taught me to make a list of possible topics, pick one, and begin writing about it.





















Driving in Circles

Today, I spent an hour and a half driving around looking for a place I’ve been to many times. Before I left, I checked Google Maps for the location to enter it into my GPS, but I needed to remember the address number. So, I entered the street number and the town my brain signaled it to be on. I have become so dependent on GPS that I no longer try to remember street numbers, names, or addresses. The problem is that I didn’t have that information programmed into my unit. Therefore, I used dead reckoning and GPS. I learned that doing so is not only dumb but dangerous. My top-notch brain is no longer as sharp as I remember. I remembered the place being on 147th Street. The problem is that 147th does not exist in that stretch of land, but the GPS kept taking me to nowhere, trying to find it. After driving a complete circle of a one-mile radius, I felt I was close, but as the old-timer I asked for directions told me once, “You can’t get there from here.”

Eventually, my memory kicked in after deducing that the previous recollection was wrong, and by accident, I remembered the street from which I could enter was 152nd; I finally located the place I wanted to go to. The upside of this escapade was seeing a portion of Orland Park that I never knew existed before. I don’t think the upside has enough value to warrant taking that route again.

PSA-231202-Saturday Funnies