Happy Holidays

You may be reading this either before or after the current holiday season, but I hope your celebrations were (will be) wonderful.  Hopefully you were able to work through the dynamics that have affected this year’s holiday season.  None of the items you hope for are stuck on one of the many container ships waiting to unload in Los Angeles, or stuck on those docks or in transit, either on their way to you, or from you as a gift to another.  You have found enough of the right foods on the sometimes sparse shelves to complete your holiday meal feasts.  And the new Covid Omicron variant has not limited your ability or willingness to gather and celebrate in a fashion you desire.  Every year has different dynamics associated with it.  These last two Christmas seasons have been truly unique as we wrestle with all the unexpected effects of a worldwide pandemic.  Hopefully we can find the new normal, which will again make the Holiday Season a bit more predictable.

When I last signed off a quarter ago, I was headed to the surgeon to have a rather large tumor removed.  I’m pleased to report that all went as planned and my recovery is progressing.  As many of you have also experienced, they will never tell you it’s gone for good, but I’m now in the watch and wait period to see if they got it all.  By the time we get to our age as retirees, everyone has enough medical issues to deal with, that it becomes one of our primary topics of discussion.  I’ll avoid the temptation to fill pages with the details that this engineer could provide.  Unless we have occasion to compare notes in person, I’ll leave it with, the future is in the Lord’s hands, and pray that His plan is wiser than mine.

I was able to get in a limited bit of deer hunting during the Wisconsin gun season.  I didn’t walk as far, or as fast as in the past, but just getting there was a successful completion of a goal I looked forward to following my surgery.  That was an important milestone on this recovery path.  While I didn’t bag one, my son-in-law got his first buck, so the hunt was a success, in more ways than one.

Again – Wishing you and yours a Happy and Blessed Holiday.

Gene