Gordon: Just got the annual Happy Holidays card from my newspaper Delivery Guy, complete with self-addressed envelope to send the tip. I admire that forwardness, and we sorta have a relationship – he’s one of the few folks I see on a regular basis when I‘m doing my five AM walks. Once I even walked up to the car and he handed the papers to me directly. He probably appreciates that I still subscribe to three physical papers, so he has something to deliver, and I appreciate that he wraps the papers in plastic on wet days, so I can collect the sleeves and put them out on the trails for folks to use to pick up after their dogs.
Since there’s no snow in Echo Park we have to adjust how we know it’s the “season” – this year the advertising for Xmas started before Halloween, so the message got a little garbled. Ironically for a South Dakota native, one indicator that I need to think about buying presents is the first major rain of the season, and the realization that I’ve got to get out the lawn mower. Christmas has become the start of the lawn mowing season, which will last until about April, at which time the lawn goes back to brown. Still trying to wrap my SoDak mind around that.
As for the year, I’m still adjusting to being retired. The year was good from that standpoint, in that I had clients call and request my services, so the months of October, November, and early December were consumed with preparing huge reports and crunching data, and getting it to clients. Barb thinks it sounds like work, but it’s more interesting than crossword puzzles. I’m still doing lots of tours for the Los Angeles Conservancy, and some occasional work for a marketing firm that specializes in senior housing – right down my alley. The great thing about all this stuff is that there aren’t set times or dates, other than delivery deadlines, so I can work at the pace I want, and only for folks I like.
I’m kind of missing the conferences and other events that got me out of the house, but am discovering ways to get out independently. I hope to be doing some solo trips in the new year, giving Barb the chance to vegetate at home while I go exploring. She likes vacations but takes them so seriously that she needs to rest up when we get home. Hopefully I can give her the rest time without the headaches of preparation.
Speaking of which, I’ll let Barb talk about the big trip this year.
Barb: There doesn’t seem to be much to write about this year. I don’t remember doing anything memorable. We’re getting older and falling apart, there’s that. We both have joints that the docs think we should replace but we’re hesitating. Some of our friends have had successful surgeries and are pleased with their new joints. Others haven’t been so lucky and now they’re stuck, in more pain than they were before. We’re putting off anything drastic until the pain is really bad. That could be a while because Gordon’s knee only acts up when he twists it and my ankle works just fine until we hit the 3-mile point in our hikes. We’ll probably re-visit the situation when we turn 80 but the docs say we’ll probably be too decrepit to survive the surgery. Well, if we’re that decrepit we probably won’t be doing much walking anyway. It’s strange living with a ‘use-by’ date on my forehead. Other new developments: Gordon’s going deaf, which I blame on his rock & roll years, and I’m going blind according to the DMV. One eye doesn’t work with the other, never has, but the bureaucrats want me to use corrective lenses. I’ve got them but I can’t drive with them on, they’re readers, but if I ever get in an accident I better have them with me. My eye doctor is baffled by this, as am I, but whattaya gonna do? It’s the bureaucracy. Fortunately, my memory is going to hell, so I’m not really bothered. God is fair.
Our big trip was a Viking cruise of the British Isles. We flew to Bergen Norway and met our cruise buddies, Billy and Dawn Williams. We like to travel with them. We’re all very independent; sometimes we take the same tours, sometimes not. We usually meet for dinner and compare adventures. Gordon and I started with an ebike tour in Bergen which was doubly adventurous because it was raining—HARD! I got soaked and annoyed by another tourist who took it upon herself to comment loudly on most of the guide’s lectures; usually making an innocuous informative comment political. The guide seemed puzzled, but I was annoyed. Why can’t we do anything without some idiot spouting politics? She was so far Left she couldn’t make a right turn. She fell over in front of Gordon and almost took him out. We managed to get ahead of her and stay there so she couldn’t foul us. I don’t remember if she even finished the tour. I was glad when we bumped over the slick cobble stones in the fish market to end the ride. My tail bone paid for those cobble stones, but the rest of the cruise was pleasant. We toured small towns in Scotland, the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, a castle in Wales, the Beatles experience in Liverpool, WWII museums in Dover, and the Tower of London before we left the ship. We stayed at the Claremont Hotel, Charring Cross, and toured Churchill’s wartime bunker housed in the treasury building. All four of us went to a West-End restaurant and ate bangers and mash before going to the Shaftesbury Theater to see Just For One Day. It got tepid reviews, but it was the only show Gordon and I hadn’t seen. It’s about the Bob Geldorf concert to feed the starving people in Ethiopia. The dancing was energetic and the music was wonderful. I loved it. Don’tknowwhythe critics didn’t like it. Maybe because they didn’t crucify Margaret Thatcher. Liberals really hate Thatcher. I think she saved Britian’s economy, but that’s me. I’m no expert in British politics. I hope the show comes to the USA. Then I can blithely say, “Oh, I already saw it at the West End in London.” What else is travel for if you can’t be an insufferable jerk? If you want to read about our adventures in depth, go to my blog: www.barbaraschnell.com. If you want to subscribe, feel free. I think it’s free.
We flew home in a straight shot from Heathrow to LAX. Katy Kat seemed pleased to see us but Maggie went nuts, She came running when I called and jumped in my arms. She was so upset when we left she quit eating. She went through two cans of cat food and a handful of treats before she relaxed. She’s stayed close since. I guess we’ve never been gone over two weeks before and she thought she’d been abandoned. Poor little princess. How do you explain to a cat that you’re coming home? She’s back to fighting weight now, thank God.
Best Wishes from the two of us for you in the coming year.