This is our Christmas Newsletter. The past year, and almost two, have been somewhat crazy. Jim, who previously only had to endure two cataract/ detached-retina eye surgeries, has now had right shoulder rotator cuff surgery and is now facing the same thing on his left shoulder. After trying an infrared heating pad and doing light therapy for several months to avoid surgery we’ve decided that’s not working. As it turns out we now know he will have surgery on his left shoulder on December 30, 2020. Jim had to have two skin cancers removed in 2019 as well… one from his right forearm and one from his lower left back. Hopefully, those are the last.
As you all have experienced, most everything came to a screeching halt on March 13, 202o, when everyone was asked to shelter in place to avoid the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). This was to be a 4-6 week effort which has now turned into 9 months. Things were getting better but we’ve seen a spike in cases and deaths in the U.S. And during this time we participated in the most important Presidential election of our lifetime and the jury is still out. Although the media has declared Joe Biden the winner, 7 States are still involved in recounts and lawsuits and the election may not be legally decided for several more weeks. The main steam media influenced the daylights out of it with their extremely biased reporting. Social media giants (Facebook, Twitter, and Google/YouTube) are just as bad and have given us a taste of what censorship is like (welcome to Communism). I read that those three companies actually communicated and coordinated their censorship. The Democrats have done everything in their power to rig (steal) the election. This after 4 years of never accepting the 2016 election. And, of course, the Democrats have tried numerous tricks/lies to prevent President Trump from getting anything done. Despite this, he has done more in 47 months than Joe Biden has done in 47 years in politics. Carol and I aren’t enamored with Trump’s personality but he has been very effective trying to drain the swamp, enable tax cuts, fix Obamacare, fix the foreign trade deficit, and effect peace agreements in the Middle East. We, desperately, need congressional term limits at both the Federal and State level. No one should be allowed to become a career politician. They become too susceptible to corruption the longer they are there.
Some things have changed over the past several months starting in July. We are now allowed to attend church in limited numbers (in Texas), Jim is cantoring at mass about every two weeks, Carol has started helping at My Friends House on a limited basis, and we go to the grocery store a little more frequently. We still don’t like face masks but we wear them as a precaution and because it is a Texas State requirement.
Son Bob has been working more from home during this time and he tells me that business at Dallas Million Air is picking up. His wife, Megan, is still working at the library but, as you can imagine, it’s not business as usual just yet. We had planned on Thanksgiving at Megan’s sister’s house with her husband Michael, her parents, and son Jim and the two youngest granddaughters. With the spike in viruses we decided against that. Especially with Megan’s Gran planning to visit. We just don’t want to risk causing her to get this virus.
Son Jim has had a rough 3-4 months. As a truck driver delivering food to local Kroger grocery stores he was kept very busy during the beginning of this pandemic. Toward the end of July his back, which has been bad ever since he worked at Pets Mart after H.S., gave him more and more fits. It got so bad he was walking stooped over like an old man and had to stop working on August 8, had 2 ruptured discs repaired on September 11, and started back to work on November 8. He knows first hand how hard it is to try and live on $190/week income all the time he was out of work. His daughters continue to grow into beautiful young ladies. Kendall started her freshman year at Texas Tech in August and Cassidy is a Sophomore in H.S. I know we’re aging because this just doesn’t seem possible.
We’re hoping that we get to see and visit with more family at Christmas but who knows? We need to be around family but don’t want to take a chance on getting or spreading the virus. We plan on hosting Christmas dinner for Jim and our two granddaughters, Bob and Megan, and ourselves. We just hope and pray for the best for all.
Jim will have left rotator cuff surgery on 12-30-2020. He will cantor both Christmas day and Sunday, 12-27-2020.
Jim — updated 12-21-2020