Into 2023 We Go...

 

Stephanie, who was visiting with Michael and Anna in Sacramento before Christmas, sent me a few pictures of Mom, Michael and baby Adeline.  Four Generations had I been there, but Michael's mother was there, just not in the picture...so there were Four Generations at the gathering, pictures I showed in my last blog.  This one picture, however, has Michael in it.

I think all of us know someone who was affected by the Southwest Airlines debunkle.  Stephanie had a hard time making it to Sacramento and back to Salt Lake City.  But she then, a few days later, flew to Little Rock to spend Christmas with her mother...and her flight was canceled heading back to Salt Lake City.  Michael finally got her on a flight with another airlines, and just before it was set to take off Southwest informed her that she was booked on another SWA flight (without even asking her if that was ok or not).  She flew on the other airlines and made it home.  In the meantime, Ryan and Kaelyn were flying to Sacramento so that they could spend a week in Yosemite.  They got stuck in Saint Louis for a night, and then got a flight to San Jose where Michael agreed to pick them up and drive them back to Sacramento.  They got to San Jose, their luggage did not.  Had to borrow clothes from Michael and Anna to be able to spend a week in Yosemite.  Not sure if they have made it home or the status of their luggage.  With PILES of luggage in Airports all over the nation, as shown in the above picture, chances are they may NEVER see their luggage again.

Evie and Ramona

          

Sam                                            Marcia and Alissa

The Friday before Christmas we were going to go over to Marcia's daughter Evie's, home.  Unfortunately the elevator to get to the upper floors had broke, so we were delayed by a week.  One good thing about that delay, Evie was able to get her children, Alissa and Sam to be there too.  Her youngest, Joey, who has autism, lives with her.  Unfortunately he fell asleep and I did not get a picture of him.  Alissa has two children, who were sick most of the week.  Lucky for us, Ramona was well enough to come with her.  All these extra people being there was a surprise to Marcia, but I knew since we were picking up lunch for everyone.  It was a wonderful 3 hour visit.

Indy had a VERY HARD night on New Year's Eve.  The fireworks started going off in the afternoon, and grew more and more as it came closer to midnight.  It was real heavy from 8 till well after midnight.  Poor Indy, who had no problems with fireworks last time, was very frightened this time.  She huddled up on me or next to me all night, shivering, and panting.  I tried taking her for a ride in the car, but that did not help because the bangs and the booms were just everywhere.  Well, we got through it, but it was hard.  The next day was the first of January, and fireworks went off again.  It was not nearly as much, but a few of them were very loud and Indy came snuggling up on or next to me again.  But she did not pant, and her shivering was very mild, and not hearing bangs and bombs after awhile, she would move over on the couch and sleep...just to have another BOOOOOM go off, and she crawled back to me.

I decided to take her to the Doggie Park on the first, and there were very few dogs there.  She did not want to interact very much with the other dogs because doing so meant she had to leave my side.  The picture above shows her looking out over the park, but just not showing interest in going over to play.  Took her back again today, and she was much more interactive.  Until one of the dogs jumped up on the bench next to me, and when she saw me petting him, she jumped up on the other side of me and tried to crawl into my lap.  I sent the little guy away, and she jumped down and played some more.

So our solution is to try and get her "high" with ThunderWunders Hemp Dog Calming Chews so that she will be more mellow.  It is recommended by Vets for Situational Anxiety, including Fireworks, Thunderstorms, Travel and separation anxiety.  Made with Hemp Seed, Thiamine, L-Tryptophan, Melatonin & Ginger, one 'chew' should last up to 12 hours.  Amazon delivered a container of 60 chews today.  I immediately took a quarter of a chew and gave it to her to see if she would eat it...she did.  Even this small amount had a small affect on Indy.  It took a good 90 minutes, but she got real sleepy.  Tomorrow I am going to give her the rest of the chew and see how she does.  A good test will be later this month when we (Marcia and I) have doctor appointments and she will be alone in the Condo for the first time since we got back in August. 

I would be amiss if I did not talk about our cold weather.  Yes, it did a little chilly...all the way down to 31 degrees twice for about two hours each morning.  The lowest the daily high was during this 5 day cool down period was around 42 degrees.

Above is bar graph of our electric usage from December 22nd to December 28th.  Duke Energy's website allows you to track a given day, a week, a billing cycle (but not current billing cycle) or a year.  Since their weeks end on a Saturday, I had to combine part of one week to a part of the following week to produce this graph.  We have all electric with no heating strip to go with our heat pump.  But we do have a DeLonghi Oil-Filled Radiator that we use in the motorhome, and with it being right next door to us, I went over and brought it to the condo.  Set it up next to where Marcia sits to use her computer all day, and it kept the area nice and warm, and lowered the use of our heat pump.  Christmas Eve and Christmas day that heater was cranked up as high as it could go, and our heat pump came on a few times each hour.  Other parts of the condo were cool, but not really cold.  This is the second time we have brought this heater into the condo...the last time was five or six years ago.  That folks, was our winter.  Our next cold streak is this Friday when they think it will be a 63/48 degree day.  Gotta love winter in Florida.

Four Generations, All My Children, and Mom with Aunt Mary and 2 Cousins

 

Four Generations.  My mother, in the car, at age 92.  Me, in my mid-60's.  My son Michael in his mid-30's.  And our new 'Baby A'.  (Again, the parents do not want baby's name or close-ups of the baby out on the net.)

Here is the proud father bringing Baby A out to meet Great-Grandma and Grandpa (that's me)!

They are a lovely little family, and Baby A will be well taken care of by Anna and Michael.

We then headed over to a nearby park and met my daughter Stephanie (sitting), son Ryan, and his wife Kaelyn.  This was the first time mom had the opportunity to meet Kaelyn.  They were out in Sacramento over Christmas, but one of them (Ryan/Kaelyn) tested positive and had to isolate the entire time they were here.  We all stayed at a nice social distance for outside, which is good because mom tested positive yesterday...and thank goodness she is doing ok so far.  Covid is going through the Assisted Living Facility like the fires are going through the forests here.  We are lucky this is her first case, and that the current Covid is not nearly as dangerous as it was two years ago.

A little over a week ago two of my cousins, Stephanie and Yvonne, both daughters of mom's youngest brother Paul who died a couple of months ago, came through town.  We all met down at our cousin Debby's house, where Aunt Mary lives.  Now you have to remember, Mom and Mary came from of family of 11 children, all born from the same parents.  Mary is # 8, mom is # 9, and they are the last of the 11 children.  I knew their mother very well, but their father died in 1942.  They had one brother, Jimmy, who died in the war (WW2).  I knew each and every one of their other brothers and sisters.  Cousin Stephanie is who I adored her name so much that I convinced Shelley, the mother of my children, to name our daughter 'Stephanie'.  Cousin Stephanie is a year younger than I, and Yvonne is nearly four years younger than I am.  I have not seen Yvonne since sometime in the 1970's.  I last saw Stephanie in 1980 at a family reunion in Santa Cruz, where just about everyone of my Uncles and Aunts were in attendance, except Uncle Jimmy, of course.  Grandma was there too!  I can remember about a half dozen of these type of reunions in my lifetime...that was the last one I know about...Grandma only lived a couple more years.

Stephanie took these pictures of the get-together, and thankfully gave me permission to use them.  This sequence of five pictures above with Mary and Mom interacting is very precious.

Since Stephanie was taking the pictures, I did not get into one with her and I, but above left is one of Mary, Mom, Yvonne and I.  The picture to the right is my cousin Debby.  She is fortunate to live next door to her daughter Tara, along with Tara's husband and two girls.  Good support for help with Aunt Mary, and Debby also helps with Tara's children as needed.

This week is retirement week for sister Sandy.  After Friday, she is officially retired, and Friday is a personal day off, so Thursday is her actually last day of working.  Today they (her work) took her and about 30 other staff members she worked with over the years out to a nice Mexican Restaurant.  Since many have worked from home since 2020, they have not seen each other in person very many times the past two years.  She really enjoyed the honor they gave her...along with the gifts of coffee liqueur, sparkling wine (California's version of Champaign), some chocolates and some flowers.  Sandy has always been a hard worker, and I know they are going to be very sorry to see her go.

Speaking of going...we hope to hit the road by the end of next week to start our trip home.  Just hoping that I don't come down the Covid, because if I do, then Marcia is sure to also.  So far I feel fine, and have tested negative the past three days.

Wedding Day - Kaelyn & Ryan

 

Bride (Kaelyn) Groom (Ryan) Dance

So, how does one write about a wedding in "COVID" times...is 'this' part of the new normal? (A term I have come to HATE about the second time I heard it!)  You get married, just the two of you and a person authorized to marry you, and a year later, on the same day, you have a wedding to celebrate your one-year anniversary.  As I mentioned the reason for us being in Cleveland to people, they all said, "Yep, I went to one of those." -or- "We are going to one of those too..." 

Now, when you are Irish, the one-year anniversary wedding is really a THREE DAY event.  Kinda puts into perspective the term, "Party, Party, Party".  So above, as the Groom (my son Ryan) and his bride (my daughter-in-law Kaelyn) share their first dance together as husband and wife with everyone just before the dinner, after pictures (taken before the wedding), the wedding (about 25 minutes long, no cameras allowed during service except by hired photographer) followed by the reception hors d'oeuvres hour, and after the above dance it was toasting time, dinner time, and then dance time for all (which is when we cut out and called it a day).  At 11:00, those who were still hanging in there, were invited to the bar at the wedding hotel across the street for more party time.  On Friday we were all invited over to Kaelyn's parents house for a pre-wedding dinner followed by a pre-wedding party.  Today it continues with a after wedding pool party BBQ (skipping that, we have a long drive facing us starting tomorrow!)  Yep, it is the wedding of a lifetime...so happy they were finally able to get it done.  Enough said, on to the pictures...

My kids with spouses and their mother and her husband.

Kaelyn (bride) arrives for pictures

Kaelyn with her mother Julie

Kaelyn and Ryan with his mother Shelley and Bryan

We arrived at 2:45 for pictures which started promptly by 3, and were finished by 3:45.  Kaelyn is a meticulous planner, and this part of it worried her the most since the ceremony was at 4:30, and she wanted to 'hide' after the pictures so that guest did not see her until she came down the isle.

The event was held at the Union Club in downtown Cleveland Ohio.  This building was built in the first fives years of the 1900's, dedicated in December 1905.  It is absolutely beautiful inside, which I hope you can see through some of my pictures.  I can't wait to see the professional pictures once they are released.  Kaelyn made it clear that she did not want any pictures of her walking down the isle, or of the ceremony itself, except those by their photographer.  Very understandable...after all, who wants professional pictures of the bride walking down the isle and all the guest have their cell phones out taking pictures ruining the shot?  

Hors d'oeuvres hour held in 3 connected rooms

So many people, don't know any of them...

At the far table is Michael, Anna, Stephanie, Shelley and Brian

Stephanie, Shelley and Michael (sorry Anna, only got your hair)

The hors d'oeuvres hour included open bar, with servers passing through the crowds with coconut chicken, crab cakes, lobster cheese toast bites, and who knows what else.  The servers working the crowd were wonderful...friendly and attentive.

20 round tables and one long bride/groom/family table

That is Marcia at the far left.

20 tables, 8 settings per table plus bridal table

One of 'our' concerns was the ability for Marcia to move around without much interference with what was going on around us.  We had her mobility GoGo and her trusty cane.  I made sure that we were ahead of the crowd for each event, got her seated, and hid her GoGo nearby.  During the hors d'oeuvres hour she remained in the GoGo, and it was the only time we had to transverse through crowds.  All worked out well.  Arriving 10 minutes before the dinner bell had sounded, I got the above pictures which included the band warming up.  What a nice, warm banquet hall this was.

Another shot of Bride-Groom dance

Kaelyn's Parents, Julie and Chris

Kaelyn and Ryan enjoying their Toasting

Before dinner they had a quick dance, and toast-greeting from the bride's parents, followed by a toast by the Maid of Honor and the Best Man.  Getting shots with those windows and not wanting to use a flash which could interrupt the professional photographers (man and woman team) was difficult.

Dinner at the head table

Shot of Michael and Anna with Stephanie and Bride/Groom in background.

Our heart-filled thanks go out to Kaelyn's parents, Julie and Chris, for throwing such a wonderful wedding for Ryan and Kaelyn.  All went off without a hitch, everyone was warm and gracious, and we had a wonderful time.  It was filled with wonderful tears (Kaelyn is a very emotional woman...and her warm tears caused the Pastor, the Maid of Honor, the Best Man, her Husband Ryan, and many in attendance to cry tears of joy with her.)  Love abound, and it was an occasion to be remembered. 

Wedding Delay ... Sort Of

Got a text from my youngest child Ryan yesterday...the wedding has to be delayed for another year.  However, he and Kaelyn are going to elope in July, and then have a formal wedding ceremony a year later.  This is how it is in these times of abnormal...

So Marcia and I are going to head right out to California, and save our northern route until after the wedding next year...or before the wedding next year, depending upon how we do things next year.

I thought I was going to share a map of our trip up to Cleveland, then over to Indiana, up through Michigan and across the top of the state, down through Montana into Wyoming, through Utah and across to Sacramento.  Instead, we are headed from Florida to Sacramento, part of the route being new to our RV travels as we cut through a smaller section of Texas.

Due to the hot weather, we will be staying in RV parks each night until we reach California.  Near Lone Pine we will either boondock in the Alabama Hills, or, if it is too hot, find a RV park to stay at near Lone Pine.  If all goes well...we will spend a few nights at one of our favorite National Forest Parks outside of Truckee before continuing on to the HOT Sacramento Area.

Not sure what day we will be leaving, but our plans are for next week, perhaps Tuesday or Wednesday.  Don't know who is happier...us (Marcia and Dave) or Bubba.  (Not bad for a going on 17 year old dog!)