Taking Some BIG STEPS with Cha Cha Today?

Not as much fun to smoke as they were a just days ago

Pope Francis continues to amaze me. Did anybody think that the United States and Cuba would ever patch-up their ridiculous differences? Since all of the problems have been bad in the Middle East for so long the tag team of Fidel and Raul Castro and Cuba have not really been discussed as much as they used to be talked about here. We have worse enemies. I am Catholic by marriage so I think I can speak on this MATTer with some expertise. I had to take some classes to get married in their church so I am a Catholic-in-law or something. Now I won't have to sneak Cohibas across the Canadian border. That will take a lot of the fun out of going north of the border. I always have codeine to fall back on though. And, wash that down with some Cuban rum. The best part with that is that, when I fall back, I won't feel it. Somehow people will have a problem with us being friends with Cuba again and it will all be President Obama's fault. I do not watch the news because I try to remain positive and news is rarely positive. I see an interesting feed on the internet and I read that - that is my news. Cha Cha watches the news - she is my barometer on the world.

Jill dressed very nicely for the hospital didn't she?

When Cha Cha was in her third fourth room in Northwestern Memorial Hospital (on the 12th floor right after she got moved from her corner suite on 13 after one of her surgeries) she was doing pretty poorly. Out of her window directly to the south were two other hospitals across the street. One day I asked one of the orderlies or technicians or whatever he was what those two hospitals were across the street? We had guessed that one was the womens' hospital and one was the children hospital. We were correct but we had thought the children hospital was the women's and visa versa. When Jill was in the nice room up on 13 I brought in a pair of binoculars because of the great Chicago view. She had noticed that there were lots and lots of stuffed animals and balloons on the ledges by the windows in the one so we guessed that one was the kids' hospital. We later figured, when we found out that was they women's hospital, that maybe those were there because of births of babies? You have lots and lots of time to kill (pun slightly intended) and the binoculars helped. When she first asked me to bring then in she asked, "what if this turns into a Rear Window thing?" I said, "at least you are in the right place if it does."

Tomorrow is my younger brother's 50th birthday. We have all of his Christmas and birthday stuff ready and, as usual, I have not gotten it to the post office yet. That is one of my many many tasks today. Of course, there is: the laundry, grocery gettin', cleaning the kitchen as usual... Today I am finishing our Christmas shopping and getting that box in the mail. Maybe, so it gets to Honolulu in time, I should get on a plane and fly it on over. Cha Cha is still banned from driving by her team of physicians but Fabio is still here to be her chauffeur. Also, I am off work to "care for her" so I guess I will stay here and the package will just have to arrive late. I think if it were on time it would stop my brother's heart. He lives in paradise; I think he will be okay for a few extra days.

Cha Cha just said that she thinks she wants to try and go shopping with me. There were a lot of "thinks" and tries" in that sentence. I feel that is a great idea. The shopping will be done inside where it is warm and we need her to start building her endurance. She always slows me down when we are shopping anyway but, I have nothing to be in a hurry for right now. I am always going 50 different directions at one time and it is probably slowly killing me; I NEED to slow down a little more. I am at least half-way done with this life; who am I trying to impress?

We have been watching a lot of Netflix over the past few weeks. What else do you do when you're on bed rest? Or a personal valet of someone on bed rest? If we ever record another Dirty Laundry Podcast we have LOTS AND LOTS to talk about. The last show we recorded was posted November 3rd - wow. We have been watching History of the Eagles in pieces over the last couple of days. If you're into music, even a little bit, and are MIDDLEaged or beyond you will love this rockumentary. That is not fair - anybody can like The Eagles - young or old. It is three hours long but it is broken into two parts; they cleverly entitled them Part One and Part Two. We watched a thing about George Harrison last week that I had DVR'd which kind of got us into this music mood I think. Music has always been a huge part of my life; I think that is true for most people one way or another. iTunes makes lots and lots of money on us liking music. There are lots of messages that mirror all of our lives in History of the Eagles. Their journey together really makes me wax poetic but I have always been a sentimental sappy soul.


I heard that Ringo Starr will finally be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is the last Beatle to get into the HOF as a solo artist. Joan Jett is getting in too I am not sure of the criteria to get in but I am sure it is political somewhere. We saw Jett in concert right here in town at Corn Fest; luckily they got her then. I bet her price will be going up now. They have had lots of big bands here for that yearly festival. I saw that there is only one performer who is in the R&R HOF three times. Eric Clapton is in for: Cream, The Yardbirds and his solo stuff. On a side note from this Eagles movie Bob Seger looks like Philp Seymour Hoffman (when he was alive).

I have started reading the Stephen King book that I had gotten half-way through about a year ago. I could get lots of that read on the flight to Hawaii; I am still trying to convince myself that I need to make that trip. I have resumed working on my novel again. I know I have made comparisons to this situation and It's a Wonderful Life times and me refocusing things and not sweating the stupid stuff is the same thing George Bailey discovered - most of the things that we place so much importance are not important at all. That is because it sincerely is like It's a Wonderful Life for me.

Wow, I had a lot on my mind today. I am not sure if today's blog flowed or if it is even able to be understood but I feel better somehow and I thank you for that. I believe there may be something in there you can appreciate. I sincerely thank you for continuing to stop-by even if it is just so I you can keep-up on Cha Cha's condition. Don't worry I won;t be like that mother in The Sixth Sense and keep her sick. I know that is sort of a spoiler from a 1999 film but you should have seen it by now! The eight-year-old star is 26-years-old now. Okay, I am really gonna end now. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!