Poor Danita. She finally got the ruling from GPO about Bud’s death benefit. She was so excited. Then she found out that she has weeks of more bureaucracy to deal with from the register of wills. Or is it the probate court? Whatever. She visited the lawyer last week and will visit again tomorrow. But she still doesn’t now when the estate will finally be settled. We’ll be happy if it happens this year.

We visited Tony and Donna Sochurek (friends from Marriage Encounter) at Oak Crest last week. Tony is in assisted living. He has been in and out of the hospital, but he’s out for now. His attitude is marvelous considering all he’s gone through medically. He’s one of the very few people who leaves assisted living to eat at the regular restaurants. His doctors recommend it, to let hem talk and interact with other people to keep is mind sharp. Donna is adjusting to living in independent living. Their good news was that their house is sold. They got an excellent price. The buyer offered a cash purchase and wanted access to the house quickly. The sale couldn’t have gone better.

We’re going to have a very small Thanksgiving this year. Danita and I will have dinner with Mom at Charlestown.

We’ve been talking about it. Now it looks like we will actually do it. We’re taking a 3-month cruise. The Holland America ship leaves from and returns to San Diego and cruises through the South Pacific. Highlights are a circumnavigation of Australia, several ports in New Zeeland, and of course many tropical islands. We’ll fly to San Diego on New Year’s day. At the end of the cruise, we’ll take a detour to Fort Worth to watch the total eclipse of the sun before coming home April 8. We have the visas. We have the shots. We have a packing list and a to-do list. Here’s hoping everything happens to plan. Whatever happens, it’s all part of the adventure.

As always, I hope this finds everybody doing well. Happy Thanksgiving!

We’ve been having an unusually rich and long fall foliage season. It will soon come to an and. But for now, Danita and I are enjoying the season’s last hurrah.

In the last week or two, we’ve had vaccines for Hep A, Hep B, flue, and Covid. Plus we will have one more Hep shot in the spring. Is that enough shots? Of course not. We both got the new RSV vaccine this week. We went to the CVS and jumped to the head of the line. That’s the advantage of making an appointment and following the check-in instructions. Yea.

Tuesday, Ed & Lynne and Rick & Suzy joined us for a sour beef dinner. Danita did her normal wonderful job of cooking. We enjoyed an evening of relaxed conversation. Plus Danita & I get an additional two sour beef dinners from the leftovers. One of the nice side effects of sour beef is having leftover ginger snaps. We always get some port wine cheese to have some very tasty snacks. Snacking is on hold because the ginger snaps were gone before the port wine cheese. We’ll solve that little problem by getting more ginger snaps.

Wednesday, we had a food truck dinner with the Jonses. Saturday Danita went to a neighborhood Veteran’s Day lunch while I was riding my bike. Somewhere between all of the above and the bike rides, I was able to clean the garage in wonderful 70 degree weather.

Every 4th Sunday, I go to our church as the 9:00 service is ending to help count the donations. I usually get home between Noon and 1. This time the bishop was talking during the 9:00, so the service got out late. Plus the Thanksgiving food boxes were due. That’s important because every box includes a $25.00 check, and we have to look up the parish registry number for each one of those checks. It’s a tedious job. I said I would be happy to do it. 30 seconds later I said, “Did you notice how effectively I lied?” That was good for a chuckle. At the end of the count, we were off by one $25 check. We look for but couldn’t find the error. At the end of the count, we were leaving after 2. We were all a little stressed.

That’s it for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

It was a week of many appointments, from doctors to car maintenance. We have two more doctor’s appointments next week. After that, things should slow down a bit.

The big activity was a concert with snacks, deserts, and wine. A pianist played favorites from Broadway. It’s not my favorite music, but many people were having a really great time. It’s contagious.

Danita is still getting nothing from OPM. It’s frustrating that she can’t close Bud’s estate. She finally contacted Senator Sarbanes’s office to see if they could shake the tree. Unfortunately, she contacted the office just about the same time he announced he will not run for reelection. Even Danita is getting impatient.

We’ve had some wonderful weather. I’m taking advantage of the easy riding. Early this week I took a mostly-trail ride. There were so many leaves down that there were places where I had to guess where the trail goes. In one spot the leaves were so high that pieces got caught up in my chain. I reached an open area where the trail was clear, only to have the wind pick up while I was there. I was “treated” to a shower of leaves and pine needles. It’s all part of the adventure.

That’s it for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.