- To: Noelle <http://dummy.us.eu.org/noelleg>
- From: Lizzie <http://www.sbcglobal.net/~l.>
- Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2024 17:34:18 -0500
Hey Noelle!
Happy Thanksgiving, and almost Happy Birthday! What do you mean
you’re celebrating at a New Orleans restaurant, does that mean
you’ll be in Louisiana?
Yes to Cuba. You must go. An Arts Festival! 5 UNESCO world heritage
sites! You’ll regret it if you don’t go. I realize you
may be thinking about your dad while traveling. Hopefully things will
settle in the next week or so and you will feel more comfortable about
making a decision.
I’m very sorry to hear about Dr.' health, but also about all
the miscommunication, or lack of communication with the various
facilities and professionals(!?!) during such a critical time. It
makes me think twice about setting ourselves up for a better life when
we’re older, but how to do that? It doesn’t really help
that I’ve just bought a 19th c. house with no shower on the
first floor, no bedrooms on the first floor! I’ll just have to
do more yoga.
You know I don’t cry, but after the election I couldn’t
keep it together. I painted all day (see Scout below, ever hopeful,
like a good doggie!) I’m not paying very much attention to
what’s happening in Washington. We were very recently renting
in a very Trumpy neighborhood (the sign on the fence of our rental
read “Trump, The Revenge Tour”) and I never felt
threatened, though there were second looks at our electric car with Ca
plates. The Trump signs disappeared the day after the election, not
sure if that’s a New York thing. I’m puzzled, puzzled as
to who this Trump voter is, especially since there are quite a few
around me! Is it just that the general population is becoming less
educated over time, and brainwashed by aspirational media? And by
aspirational, I don’t mean in a good way. Catskill itself is
pretty liberal, though the other day we were lectured, albeit
politely, by a narcissistic neighbor named Atilla, and yes,
he’s from Hungary, about Covid and the vaccine and how he
didn’t take it, and those who did etc. etc. etc. Nice man, not
at all confrontational, more excitedly conversational. He and his wife
brought us a bottle of wine to welcome us to the neighborhood. So
I’m not sure I want to write him off, since he’s a
neighbor. His house is one of the original four on our block, ours is
also one of the four.
On that note, I’m discovering more about the house and the
Village. We have uncovered some old burlap sacks from the 19th century
(between flooring) as well as some early 20th century cartoon drawings
in an attic. Also some 60’s wallpaper. We’re in a new
rental as of today, just down the street from the house. It has 3
bedrooms to accommodate Mary, Paul & Nuala over the
holidays. We’re not sure where we’ll be after that
because I don’t think we’ll move into the house before
the end of January or later. We decided just last week to see if we
can resuscitate the wide plank floors underneath the foyer and tv
room. Demo starts Monday. We’ll see what kind of condition
they’re in and probably have to make some decisions pretty
quickly.
You guys are great to host all your nieces and nephews, I totally get
it. Nuala was here for Thanksgiving, and we had our nephew Miles, a
junior at Columbia come up a few weeks ago. I’m really looking
forward to hosting them all in our new home, as well as you! I will
let you know when all is ready for guests.
Thanks for the email Noelle. I look forward to seeing you, and Robert!
sooner vs. later.
XO
Lizzie
> On Nov 29, 2024, at 8:29 PM, Noelle <http://dummy.us.eu.org/noelleg> wrote:
>
> Hi Lizzie-- I was wondering how you were settling in. Well sounds like you are still unsettled, but you have to get all the renovations done.
> I heard about a local group going on an arts festival tour of Cuba, with field trip to an organic farm and its farm-to-table restaurant, tour of 5 UNESCO world heritage sites, visit Ernest Hemingway house and vintage car tour of Havana. There is something calling me to go.(Also one great-great grandfather moved from Spain to Havana to learn the cigar trade in the 1860s then moved to San Francisco and had a cigar factory) It would be interesting to see how the Cubans live in a society which is so poor in material possessions, yet has a rich cultural life(subsidized by the commie government!). It will be Feb 15-22. Have to decide if I can go by Dec. 15.
> so on Saturday my dad fell out of his bed and broke his right hip! He went to Goleta Valley Hospital and he had the hip surgery upper femur repair. Then the orthopedic surgeon didn't return Gail's calls. They thought there was a foreign body but turns out it was just soft tissue there(so at least surgery to look for it wasn't needed in the end). Medical inpatient care is so complicated these days so they now have hospitalists to coordinate everything. No one mentioned this to Gail(and I forgot this would be part of this hospital stay)and the hospitalist was the doctor who could transfer him to rehab. Finally, they decided Thanksgiving day was when he would be transfered to the facility near Cottage Hospital. But this turned out to be a mistake since they were short staffed and dad fell again. And when this happened they called Gail's cellphone which was turned off(she was eating at friend's house). So I get this call from them about what happened(but I was busy so didn't pick up). I called back and they said they had sent him to Cottage ER. Then we went out to dinner with friend Heather and when we were finishing up, Gail had gotten home and heard my message on answering machine. Of course she was very upset. And then she found out he had some pneumonia and was put on antibiotics, then returned to rehab.Then this morning the occupational therapist called me. He called her cellphone which was off(again). I said I could not answer the questions he was asking me and he should talk to Gail. I had him call the landline. Don't know why the facility didn't call both numbers. Well at least he got through to her and I hope they will call landline instead of me(when there's a call from them I would feel like something extreme happened).Gail still does not have a smartphone so she isn't dependent on them like the majority of people these days.
> Anyway, who knows what will happen. You know when people break hips it can lead to worse outcomes so I have to prepare for the possibilities. But then again he could bounce back and maybe I could take the leap and go to Cuba.
> I already planned to be in SB and reserved the Best Western I always stay in 12/22-26. I may need to go earlier(rehab is supposed to be for 2 weeks). I wonder if dad will need to have attendants helping him at home, or if he will need to be in a skilled nursing facility. The problem with that is that they don't have enough money to afford that.
> Since Robert's layoff/rehiring he lost all the vacation time he had so he can't take time off for Xmas. He and Gary the cat will be hanging out I guess.
> And meanwhile, we've been planning for the 21 year old niece from VT. to visit us 1/6-13. She was vacationing in Arizona with friend for new years so we suggested she come here too. She has never been here(her brother stayed with us for 2 summers). Of course her dad is all freaked out when I mentioned she could take BART to visit her cousin in SF(we now have a BART station in SJ!). I guess the nephew told them of his experience with public transportation in SF one evening/morning at 2 AM and the sketchy characters there.(no I did not say I would do that to Holly!)Her mom(Robert's sister) is more of a yes you need to go do stuff on your own type of parent. And I don't want to be a constant chaperone. So it's now up to Holly to contact the cousin and arrange that. She is a senior psych major(minor in math) who doesn't know what she wants to do after graduation(gee I was like that too so I thought I could mentor her a bit--Robert's sister asked that me & Robert help her out...but we really don't know her so this trip I hope will create more rapport. we saw her at her college after we saw you guys but that was just a quick visit and a dinner)
> Wow, I didn't mean for this to get so long. We are still figuring out how to deal with the upcoming orange man administration. Unfortunately, it seems like those who bothered to vote chose to make things worse. I am not a member of the Dem or Repub parties but if the Dems don't change their approach it's not going to get better. Get rid of the insane campaign finance system.Both parties are compromised by different millionaire classes.
> Oh well! Let's hope the younger generation can save us.
> Noelle
> PS my birthday party is Sunday at a New Orleans restaurant that has live music. So far 10 RSVPed.
>
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