A couple of weeks ago I talked about being busy on two fronts. We upped our game since then.

Mom decided to move to a CCRC in Baltimore. Mom, Danita, Dani, and I had a Zoom meeting with Charlestown. We discussed several options. Charleston is an Erickson community. They work with a relocation company that specializes in elderly moves across the US. A relocation consultant will be visiting Mom soon.

Repairs to Mom’s unit continue. The leak is fixed. A mold company found two area of mold. A remediation team will be working on that this week. After that, we should be able to start on repairs to the drywall.

Danita is visiting Riderwood every other day to clean out Bud’s old unit. It’s a lot of work to find a new home for everything. For example, Bud has 4 sets of china. They had significant financial value when purchased, but today people want dishwasher safe. Ed, Lynne, and I help; but Danita does most of the work. Danita and I were at Riderwood yesterday. It was fun watching all the flower delivery trucks and visitors carrying flowers.

I visited the audiologist this week. I learned that dropping the hearing aid into my shirt pocket wasn’t caused by wearing the aid incorrectly. They offered a small plastic wire that is supposed to help keep the hearing aids in place. Later that day, I took my bike to a shop to have some adjustments made. I was discussing the bike with an employee when my hearing aid fell off my ear. The plastic wire did its job. I just put it back behind my ear. I’m back to wearing the hearing aids most of the time. However, I’ve decided that hearing aids don’t mix with physical activity such as home projects and bike rides.

Danita and I are enjoying our COVID vaccinations. We’re back to going to Church. We eat out at restaurant one dinner a week plus breakfast on Sunday mornings. Thanks to the early 7:30 mass, we were even able to get into Panera this morning before the serious crowds started.

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

We snuck out of town and drove to Julia’s Friday. We drove down in one day, taking the I-95 route around DC, Richmond, Greensborough, and Durham. This is the shortest but most stressful route. All those driver aids proved to be a big help. The trip down was uneventful.

We had a few misses this weekend but also had a lot of fun. The weather was perfect.

We started our Saturday watching Bryon at fencing class. Even the warmup exercises were interesting. We learned a lot about fencing. This time the class was organized as a mini-tournament. Bryon came in second in his group. (There’s more pics in the website. Bryon has his back to us in the pic.) Elizabeth wanted to come along. She spent her time entertaining herself.

While visiting, we like to take grandkids on adventures. Saturday we wanted to take the kids to a really nice mini-golf course and then pick some strawberries on the way home. The afternoon was a complete bust. The drive to the mini-golf took closer to an hour than a half-hour. The mini-golf looked great, but it was completely packed. There were long lines of people everywhere. We decided it wouldn’t be fun and didn’t stay. I even had trouble getting out of the parking lot. On the way home, we stopped at the strawberry farm. In spite of their website, they did not have pick-your-own. They had some great looking strawberries, but the only had huge buckets — far more than we could use before they went bad.

After dinner we made a recovery of sorts. We made some comments comparing Bryon to Zorro, only to learn that neither Bryon nor Elizabeth knew anything at all about Zorro. Saturday evening, we watched the 1998 version of “The Mask of Zorro” with Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Everybody enjoyed the flick.

Sunday was better. We drove to a place called 40 acre rock. They have some very rare red plants that only grow in a few places around the world. Bryon got to show off his Boy Scout skills, identifying several types of plants and critters. He even sighted a dung beetle. It was the first time any of us had actually seen one.

We decided to break up the trip home. We’re in Burlington, NC tonight. We’ll make it home tomorrow.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

It’s been a very busy and stressful week, and it’s not getting better any time real soon. Mom had several recurrences of her leak. We thought we finally fixed the issue, but the leak came back yesterday. Because it started on the weekend, nothing will happen until tomorrow. Mom is understandably upset. In the mean time, Danita spent a lot of time at Riderwood preparing for Bud’s move. Ed and Lynne helped out a couple of days, and I helped out another. Bud got moved Saturday as planned. The move went well physically, but Bud is confused and upset. I could tell more detailed stories, but it’s the emotional issues that are hardest. By dinner time, we are generally both exhausted.

Danita and I took today off. We went to Church, had a nice breakfast, and spent the day resting. Danita will be back at Riderwood tomorrow, sorting through stuff. Tuesday is a family meeting at Riderwood to discuss what to do with the stuff that wasn’t moved. I’ll be staying close to a phone so I can talk with service people.

I had a humorous happening this week. I went to the audiologist to get fitted for my hearing aids. I was driving home, playing with the GPS, and noticing all the different sounds I was hearing with my hearing aids, when my phone rang. I was in our fancy new car with all its fancy features. I could answer the phone simply by pushing a button on the screen, which I did. The call was routed through the car’s sound system. It was Stew, the guy from the condo association. I wanted his advice on what the building’s responsibilities are. Unfortunately, the car continued to play the GPS instructions while I was on the phone. I couldn’t see how to turn the navigation off. So Stew and I talked, listening to the nav system tell me which way to turn, while I tried find the kill button for the nav, and also think through the implications of what Stew was telling me. And drive the car without hitting anybody. It was quite the technology tangle. It turns out there’s a big circle on the nav screen with an “x” in it. I don’t know why I didn’t see it.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

I visited Mom in West Palm Beach this week. We ate at restaurants and took care of “stuff”. Our biggest success was selling Mom’s car. Mom hasn’t driven since her accident. She desperately wanted to get rid of the car. This is a 2008 Honda Fit with 35,000 miles, a wrinkled quarter panel, and a wrap-around bumper that was flapping in the breeze. She was going to sell it to Carvana for $3K. She had a higher quote from CarMax, but CarMax is half an hour away. She definitely wasn’t going to drive to CarMax. The Carvana sale came to a halt when they wanted her to Email a picture of her odometer. She doesn’t even have a camera. While in WPB, I got a new quote from CarMax for $5300. I assumed that was an error, but we took the quote to CarMax. They offered us — $5300, flapping bumper and all. We were quite pleasantly surprised.

The other person in the accident is suing Mom. Mom was served a week or so ago. We’ve exchanged forms and information with the lawyer. The lawyer called while I was in WPB. She was very reassuring. She said that Mom was not at fault. She thinks it will take a year for the suit to be settled, due to pandemic delays and backlogs.

Our biggest disappointment was the air conditioner. The AC had condensation water leaking on the floor. Mom had several service people visit without fixing anything. We had a service person visit while I was there. It seemed to be successful. There was no water on the floor for the last 2 days of my visit. Unfortunately, the water returned after I left. This time the service person found a lot of water behind a wall with mold. So Mom is going to have to go through a semi-major repair.

On the home front, Danita, Ed, and Bud looked at two apartments in assisted living. They selected one with more closets and Danita signed the papers. Bud will move on April 24. Assisted living apartments are much smaller. Only a few of Bud’s items will be moved. We’ll be spending time at Riderwood selecting what will be moved and getting it ready. Riderwood generously allows us 60 days to empty the old apartment of all personal items. We’ll continue to be busy after Bud’s move.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

I had a colonoscopy Wednesday morning, which isn’t exactly great fun. (At least not for me.) But we more than compensated by enjoying a Bob Evans breakfast immediately afterwards. We actually went into the restaurant, sat a table, and had our food served to us. It was such great fun that Thursday we went to Outback Steak House for dinner. Today we had our second visit to Church in over a year followed by a very nice restaurant dinner at First Watch. We had forgotten how nice it is.

I needed new shoes and a few shirts for the summer. I actually went to a store, but didn’t see anything I liked. I couldn’t face up to going to multiple stores to find they didn’t have what I want in stock. I ended up ordering clothes online. Everything has been delivered. I like everything I ordered. Everything fit well. It turns out I didn’t have to wait for Covid to get my clothes.

I also visited an audiologist this week. I learned they can help me with my hearing. After several days of mulling, I contacted them with my hearing aid selection. This is a case where waiting for Covid was helpful. I select a hearing aid that was introduced just 4 months ago. I’m not sure when I will be fitted, but it won’t be before Monday the 19th because this week I’m flying to WPB to spend a few days with Mom. We have a long list of thigs to do, but I’m thinking we might find time for a couple of restaurant meals.

Danita is not joining me in WPB this year because Bud needs more support. Riderwood finally came out and said Bud is no longer safe in independent living and has to get more support. They had their professionals do an assessment last week. It’s an impressive array — PT, OT, speech therapy, and social workers. Danita expects to hear what level of care they recommend for Bud as early as today. For now, the only thing we know is that Bud will be moving to a new apartment. In the mean time, some of Bud’s furniture needs to be replaced. The couch is way too low for him. He needs a lift chair. He can’t take his electric cart. There are lots of decisions to make. Fortunately, the family agrees with what we know so far. Danita spent quite a bit if time looking at furniture.

As you can see there’s lots of activity in our house. It’s quite a change from our pre-immunity year. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We had a small, quiet Easter dinner at Bud’s today. End and Lynne joined us. We had ham, green beans, potato salad, and a chocolate covered pound cake that looked like a very large egg. It was a nice time.

I had a strange thing happen to my old bike recently. The gear shift cable separated from the shifter. I was forced into high gear. I was a couple of miles from home with no hills, so it was no trouble getting home. The cable itself looked great. I guess every 17,000 miles I should replace all the cables.

Now that we have full immunity to Covid, this week will be doctor week for me. I also want to get a real haircut and buy some clothes. I usually buy Rockport shoes, but I found all the Rockport stores are permanently closed. I’m trying an Amazon alternative. We’ll see how that goes. I can always send them back.

I hope everybody had a great Easter and is doing well.

We got our second Covid vaccination shots as scheduled on Tuesday. The second shot was a much different experience than the first. Three weeks ago, M&T Stadium was doing 500 shots a day. Last week, they were doing 5,000 a day. We spent two hours getting our shots, and that was with the check-in person giving us a short cut reserved for old folks. Most of the people in line were younger — teachers, essential workers, etc. We cleared the calendar Tuesday and Wednesday, but it turned out we didn’t need to. Neither of us had a serious reaction to the vaccine.

The highlight of the week was a visit to see JaMM. JiaJia and Mark have had their first vaccination shots. We’ve all followed the Covid protocols carefully. We decided it was safe enough to have an in-person visit. It was a beautiful day. Mark and Jiajia made a fantastic lunch — spicy ribs, couscous fruit salad and Australian pudding. After lunch, we went for a hike along the Susquehanna river. The weather and the view were both fabulous. And, of course, Mira was the star of the show. You can se a few more pictures if you visit the website.

This was the first real trip in our new car. The driving aids are more effective than I thought they would be. It takes a little while to understand the car’s behaviors. Once I did that, driving was amazingly easy. It will be somewhat less easy in the rain, since lane keeping turns off when the wipers turn on. But the other driving automation features still make driving considerably easier.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We’re trying to figure out how to use our new car. That is taking a while because we aren’t driving very much. The dealer was OK. We got a good price with little hassle. But picking the car up was painfully slow. After making an appointment at a time the salesman recommended, we spent hours sitting in the showroom waiting to actually take delivery. To add insult to injury, our salesman was deathly afraid we would ask a question about the car. The dealership has a little script the salesman is supposed to go through to introduce us to the features. Our salesman gave us a copy of the script buried in the other paperwork so we wouldn’t see it until after we left the dealership. Almost a week later, I finally figured out the car was delivered with many of the safety features turned off. The dealership sent us an Email invitation to write a review. I decided the dealership really didn’t want to see my review online.

Last week I was bemoaning the lack of a CD player. I was dreaming up all kinds of complicated and expensive solutions. But I received some excellent advice from a retired high school art teacher — convert the CDs to MP3 files. (Thanks, Duane). As soon as Duane said it, I knew it was the obvious solution. I already have a CD-ROM drive, so the only cost was my time. Thanks to some sloppy weather, I had plenty of that. I spent 3 days “ripping” CDs. I found I was working the CD-ROM drive too hard. After a while, it refused to rip disks and I had to give it a break. But I converted the music and loaded it onto my phone. Now I can play music anywhere. If I’m on the porch, I can connect my phone to our Bluetooth speaker to get a great sound. If I’m in the car, the phone plays music over the car’s radio. Technology is amazing.

We’re scheduled to get our second vaccination shot tomorrow. In two weeks, we will be free to move about the country. We’re super excited. We have our calendar cleared for two days in case we get a reaction. After that, the next several weeks are planned out. There are fancy deserts and restaurant meals in our future. I also have plenty of doctor visits.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We had big news this week. We bought a new car yesterday. Our old red Honda Accord was 10 years old with a little over 100,000 miles. We decided to replace it with a new red Honda Accord. We expect to pick the car up Wednesday.

Cars have changed a lot in the last decade. We like having a built-in GPS. Ten years ago we had to buy the top-trim level because putting a GPS in a car was an expensive proposition. It required a special design of the dash to accommodate the display. Lower trim levels didn’t always have a display. So the GPS was a big deal option. Today we had to buy the top-trim level to get a GPS because most people don’t need it. All trim levels have a display, but most people connect their smart phone to the display and navigate with their phone. We’re to cheap to get phones with data plans, so we “had” to get a car with all the fancy trimmings. (So sad!)

Our new car is a hybrid, getting over 40 MPG. It has a continuously variable transmission (no gear shifts). There is no shift lever. Instead, there are buttons on the center console for drive, reverse, and park. Even the parking brake is set with a button on the side panel.

The safety features are mind blowing. We barely got a chance to check them out on our test drive. I turned on the blinker when there was a car in my blind spot. I immediately got a pleasant chime warning. Whenever a car was passing us on the right, an icon of a car showed up in the mirror. There’s also lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, emergency automatic braking, and much, much more.

What the car doesn’t have is a CD player. What will I do with all those music CDs?

The internet has made car research a breeze. Before we visited the dealer, I knew which car, which color, which trim level and options, and what I should pay. The dealer gave us a good price on the new car, but not such a great deal on the trade in. So I sold the old Honda to Car Max. I had an electronic estimate from the internet. The dealer said they couldn’t match it. Car Max gave me the full amount without discussion. The only problem was how long I had to wait at Car Max. In fact buying the new car wasn’t very fast either. We spent 2 hours at Honda and another 4 hours at Car Max. We had an early lunch and a late dinner. But as it turned out, we had a neighborhood food truck to serve us festive tacos. The whole neighborhood got to help us celebrate the new car.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

I suspected the tires that came with my trike were cheap. But I decided not to replace anything until it demonstrated its deficiency. That didn’t take long. Not only was my tire flat, it was damaged by a small piece of wood. Fortunately, I had a spare inner tube and the appropriate tools for a roadside repair. Unfortunately, I purchased the wrong tube. My bike uses a smaller valve called “Presta”. I purchased a tube with a “Schrader” valve. This is like the valve on car tires. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit in a hole designed for a Presta valve. I knew better. I just didn’t read closely enough.

I was only two miles from home, so I picked up the front wheel of my trike, hiked home, ordered good tires, and the wrong inner tubes. Twice. I think I finally have the correct tubes on order. They should be in Monday.

The COVID positivity rate is below 4% in Howard County. And we should have some small amount of protection from our first vaccination shot. We decided I could bring home a Sunday breakfast. Bob Evans makes a fine breakfast.

That’s what passes for news around here these days. I hope this finds everybody doing well.