Well, speaking of coming late to the party, here I am at last to say "THANK YOU ONE AND ALL..."
I believe this thread began in 2019, just before all hell broke loose. At that time I was pretty well
off line, my house was for sale, I was busy with all the prep for that as well as my duties as care
giver for my lady love, Cindy.
I had sold everything anybody would buy, I had given away anything anybody would take, and
I had thrown away everything nobody wanted... I had packed up all the things Cindy wanted to keep
and all the things I needed to keep with me. I had cleared my house out and got the floors refinished
and some painting done, so by my birthday it was staged for showing. Like Harry Potter, I had lots
of help. Of course.
The object of the game was to sell the house quickly. Cindy wanted to get to Tucson so she could see
her new grandson before she got really bad with the tumor. My job was to facilitate that.
My realtor gave me a list of all the things I needed to do in order to snare a buyer quickly, and I
implemented all of them. It worked... the house sold in three weeks.
Cindy and I reached Tucson Arizona on 01 November, 2019. She was able to enjoy her family for a short
time until Covid showed up in early 2020. She was immune compromised, so we were already following
the guidlines of social distancing, taking preventative medicines, wiping down all touch points etc.
When the pandemic proved to be real, we were already self quarantined. Cindy fought hard for her life,
but lost the battle in June 2020. The tumor killed her, she never caught Covid. Nor did I.
I decided to stay there and hunker down until the pandemic passed. Little did I know...
Tucson seemed fairly safe in autumn 2020, compared to other places in the country.
So I rented a smaller apartment and settled down to ride it out, just trying to survive until
I could get my shots. That worked, because I'm here to tell you about it.
It's so weird to think that I spent two years in a town as cool as Tucson, and know practically
nothing about it. The pandemic shut down all the music venues, there wasn't even a drum circle.
Cindy was hoping to show me around, and see how I'd do in the excellent music scene that
Tucson had before. But all that disappeared like smoke, just as it did for all of us performers.
After I got my shots in March/April 2021, I felt moderately bullet-proof. I was so sick of being hunkered
down that I bought a trailer and a hitch for it, and embarked on some solo traveling. I needed to visit members
of my family that I was worried about. I transported a trailer load of my stuff North to my sister's house
in Michigan, and returned to Tucson with a load of antiques for some friends. They paid for half my
expenses, because they were so happy I could do this for them.
In the summer of 2021 I began going to doctors, just to see what condition my condition was in.
It was time to take care of me. Unfortunately, I got a PSA test (Prostate Cancer) and my numbers came
back scary. So after surviving the plague, I found that I had a tumor of my own. This has occupied a lot
of my focus in the last eight months. My brother has one too, it was finding out about him that spurred me
to get myself tested.
Maybe I found out just in time. I recently had my prostate removed, and the doctor is confident that he got
all of the tumor out. Now I'm recovering from that operation, which will take a long time. Lucky me, I have
a new lady who has stood by me through all of this, and is prepared to stand by me through all of the
recovery. We have moved to Oscoda, Michigan and are settling in to a house I bought that is very
affordable. The Lake Huron shoreline is about 250 meters from my door. On a windy night we can hear
the waves thumping on the beach.
Here I am on the shore in January this year, with ice out to the horizon.
When I left Tucson in September, it was like 104 degrees F... here it's like 4 degrees F.
A hundred degrees difference. In Centigrade it's from ~33 (Tucson) down to -16 (Oscoda). Pretty wild.
Thank you all so much for these good wishes... it means worlds to me.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
