Danita and I both saw the doctor. Apparently, we’re both still alive. For some reason I don’t quite understand, the doctor has to rate my mental status. (Or maybe there is a reason I’m not quite aware of?) He asked me what I thought he should write. I said “hopeless”.

The fireplace works. The extra table is gone. We went to a neighborhood lunchen talk.

The most interesting thing we did was to visit the National Aquarium animal rescue center, which is across the inlet from their main building. They started offering these tours to members on weekends recently. They allow up to 12 on a tour. Our tour had 4. Besides Danita and me, there was Nolan and his mom. One must be at least 8 years old to take this tour. Today is Nolan’s 8th birthday. It turns out the aquarium doesn’t rescue all that many animals. Most of the animals in this facility are being quarantined before being placed in the main exhibit, or recovering from a sickness, or taking a time-out for being ill-behaved. One of the interesting tanks we saw had 3 rock fish which were too large for the exhibit. I would be severely tempted to cook them. Apparently, the aquarium plans to keep them in their tank for as long as they live.

One of the more fun moments was near the beginning of the tour. The guide asked us his first question: “How do you think we transport fish?” I piped up and suggested “In a plastic bag of water.” I was 100% correct! Unfortunately, I didn’t keep my mouth shut after that. It was the only guess I got right.

We had a good time. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Norman Stifler died. His funeral was at Oakcrest Thursday. Norman was Danita’s uncle, married to Bud’s sister Catherine. Norman was a body builder, Marine, and a Lieutenant in the Baltimore City Fire Department. Catherine was a nurse who earned her PhD. It’s an unlikely combination of backgrounds for a successful marriage, but there’s no doubt they loved each other. When Catherine was suffering from Alzheimer’s, Norman was with her constantly. RIP Norman.

I have a couple of small projects coming up this week. Our fireplace doesn’t turn all the way off. A small flame burns all the time. A fireplace expert will be in Wednesday. Now that we have a nice new table and chair set, we have more tables and chairs than we need. The Habitat for Humanity ReStore will pick up our excess Friday. I had to disassemble the table to get it downstairs. I’m going to have to move it upstairs and assemble it. Assembly is likely to be more difficult than disassembly (matching up screws to holes in the table top).

We’re having lunch with the Chaprnkas Monday. Tony and I usually have lunch the first Tuesday of the month. Since this is the holiday season and Monday is a holiday, we decided the four of us should have lunch this month.

We’ve been planning trips and reserving hotel rooms, both for our Texas Tour and our trip to Italy. We still aren’t done, but we’re getting close. Our great bargain is in Baton Rouge. For less than $500, we are getting 3 days in a suite with a real separate bedroom (door and all), made-to-order hot breakfast, manager’s reception in the afternoon (with wine), indoor pool, plus normal amenities such as parking and WiFi. Queue “Blue Bayou” in the background.

The big news this week — I got my first Social Security check. Money in the bank. Every month. Woo-hoo!

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We’re having our first snow of the year. Original forecasts were for the snow to stop early this morning with 1 – 3″ accumulation. We’ve had at least 4″ so far, and it looks like it will snow most of the day. They say we could get 8″ total. It’s certainly enough that Danita and I stayed home today. We missed our Bob Evans breakfast, but we might don our boots this afternoon and walk to a Long Horn dinner, thanks to Mom’s gift card. It’s plenty good enough and an easy walk.

I feel pleased with myself. I was able to repair my Sony STR-VX22 stereo. It was no big deal, but I was happy to get it working. This vintage unit is circa 1982. This was the second repair. The first was around 1985 or so. It still sounds great. Way to go Sony. https://classicreceivers.com/sony-str-vx22

We spent a lot of time planning the details of our Italy trip in August-September. The only thing we had in place was the air tickets over and back and the cruise. We’re flying over early and staying late to visit Florence, Vienna, Pisa, and get a couple more days in Rome. We found our first choice hotel in Vienna was full and some other hotels are selling their rooms at a good pace. The cruise is now totally full. We’ve planned Florence, Pisa, and Venice. Danita is nailing down the last details of our extra days in Rome and looking at what we want to do when we dock at the other cities. I’ll reserve hotel rooms today.

We had a neighborhood party yesterday and won’t have another one until Saturday. It’s a tough life, but somebody has to live it.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Greetings from West Palm Beach. Mom had a plumbing leak in her master bath. By the time it was discovered, there was a good amount of mold in the bath and part of the bedroom. Mom was distraught. Gayle came down to help out. Progress was minimal because of the holiday season. Just as Gayle was leaving, Mom had a second unrelated leak at the kitchen sink. Mom and Gayle dried it up and rinsed with a Clorox solution and thought everything in the kitchen was OK. I came down Wednesday to meet with the contractor, sign a contract, and get stuff out of her bedroom. Just as the contractor was leaving, he noticed the kitchen has mold. Mom took the second mold infestation pretty hard.

Things are made more difficult because Mom’s insurance company is slow to pay. Mom has to front the money for mold remediation. After the insurance company reimburses that cost, Mom will use part of the money to start the reconstruction. The whole thing is quite a mess. It will be months before everything is put back together. We don’t even know how much the contractor will have to remove from the kitchen to get all the mold.

We spent  most of the weekend out of the house, visiting farmer markets and such. Spectacular weather made it easy to be outside.

I am flying home tomorrow. I can talk with the contractor from Baltimore. The insurance company has a letter from Mom giving me permission to talk on her behalf. It meets their stated requirements, we’ll see how well it works. The contractor will remove mold in the master bedroom next week. Hopefully Mom won’t have too hard of a time next week.