Staying Close To Home

Great Grandfather to four-year old great granddaughter: “No a reindeer is not a horse with TV antenna”.

Love those great grandchildren! Seeing Lilly growing up is amazing!

Great Grandchildren
Our first Grandchild…All grown up and “doing it right”

If I hear one more person say “Happy Holidays” I am going to scream! Political correctness be DAMNED! It’s MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

The Christmas season has done me in so I decided I had better walk while awaiting the car to be serviced. Two laps should do it for this morning.

Lap #1 was around the dealerships
Lap #2 took me to the Cerritos Shopping Mall

The Auto Mall is pretty good size waking me about 35 minutes to walk around it…which included a littl bit of shopping as I progressed.

Dealer after dealer but really nice facilities!

On the second lap, I decided to go under the freeway and enter the Cerritos Shopping Center Mall and the first site was kinda sad…an empty Sears store. To think they ran retail for years but because of short-sighted management a small start up named Amazon took them over and crushed them!!

A mile of empty parking…Sears is gone!

Returning to the Auto Mall after crossing over the freeway, I saw a beautiful sight…the Ford deals was presenting the American Flag!

Love that sight!

On the way home I decided the Christmas Memory for today… “Stayin’ Close To Home”

Christmas Memory #21 – Close To Home

Sue had been having back issues are a long time and we finally made a decision to proceed with radial back surgery, or should we say “surgeries?”


So November 17th she returned home after two weeks in the hospital and a lot of that in intensive care.

November 3, 2003 – Entered hospital for 7 hours surgery called Anterior fusion.

November 4, 2003 – ICU with a lot of pain…. no big surprise!

November 5, 2003 – Remains in ICU, coherent but sleepy

November 6, 2003 – Moved from ICU to Room 127A

November 7-9, 2003 – Recovery, clear fluids only! Gets up every day for a short assisted walk!

November 10, 2003, Posterior fusion accomplished during an 11 hour operation!

November 11, 2003 – ICU all day, awake and alert. Sits on side of bed for 45 minutes

November 12, 2003 – Walks in ICU in the morning and moves to regular room in the afternoon. Walks a couple of hundred feet.

November 13, 2003 – Most of intravenous tubes removed.

November 17th – Sue returns gome!

We opted out of our traditional Christmas activitgies sending everyine to the Christmas Play with our kids acting as tghe hosts. However, we could NOT pass up Christmas Eve so we bundled up, wheelchair at the ready and headed for Disneyland. We stayed for the parade and headed back home. That was year 38 but we did not miss it!!!

It was an amazing Christmas as we huddled and cuddled our way through it!

The hospital bed was in our dining room for six months…it worked!
Chugging on down the avenue with a recovery specialist!
Paul was NOT far behind!

Now it is time to get cleaned up and head for Topper’s in Long Beach. We picked up Nancy and headed over arriving about 5:50 PM…perfect timing!

Although we did not dance, we had a ball!! Great friends and great music!

We returned home about 10:45 PM and that was it… After yeaterday getting up at 4:00 Am and today heading to the car dealer at 0’dark-thirty, the ol’ man was pooped. We hit the sack about 11:00 PM!

About Paul

Just an old retired guy trying to finish out my last years on this planet. I lost my best friend and wife in early 2020. I was blessed again by reconnecting with Dr. Mary Côté, a long-time friend. Mary and I got married July 28th, 2021, and are enjoying life together and plan to spend the rest of our lives being a blessing to our friends and family.
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