The New Normal

 Lordy, where to begin?  I knew retirement October 3, 2019, less than a year ago, would bring a new normal.  I just thought it would be somewhat incremental.  After all, I was only working three days each week, three long ten hour days that challenged an old guy, but it was something I liked to do and I like the people.  Each weekend was being spent at Napa caring for the affairs of my mother-in-law, 94 and still healthy although moving toward some kind of assisted living to be sure.

So, October 3 showed up and I celebrated my 70th birthday with my wife and financial adviser (don't ask) and looked forward to the trip to Yosemite for the big celebration the next week.  And, that evening, my mother-in-law had a heart attack!

We spent the next month rehabilitating her and relocating her to a board and care home near us.  That month was spent at her mobile in the midst of severe wildfires that trashed our air and cut our power eight of those days.

November 4, we have her situated and return home and that day my daughter experiences severe chest pain!  I take her to the emergency room and to a cardiologist and she is diagnosed by late that night with pericarditis.  We have been dealing with that since and many of you know, we have quite an uphill battle ongoing for the past almost seven years with her health.

Now I shorten the story as we head to the Covid-19 era early this year.  With my daughter's compromised health, we are even more extremely careful than we would be otherwise.  That meant a premature retirement for my wife from her dental office, working as a Dental Hygienist, ranked as the most dangerous profession in the era of Covid-19.  So, now we are looking at one another trying to figure out what to do next with our lives and most of it has been getting her retirement with all of its paperwork going, trying to sell my mother-in-law's mobile.

So, in this time, is it any wonder that the fires in California would start early this year and we would be locked down even more completely?  Well, in short, no, because the path of the chaotic lurch into the future is our new normal.  The weirdest part is that we are still pretty much intact and concentrating on wresting control of this country from one Donald J. Trump.  You might even say that we are happier than we have any sane right to be.  But, still, we notice just how weird it all is.

Lordy!

Please check out my other blog mates' takes on the same topic brought to us by Shackman at their blogs: Padmum, Raju, Ramana, Sanjana and Shackman!