They say that in order to keep your mind useful as you age it is important to try new things, play games and cause your brain to work. This year Allison and Jason really put us to task fighting off aging. It is not easy to learn electronic stuff at our age. Me: Grandma Shirley aka Greatmama age 75 and Sweetie: Grandpa Don age 79. You really did it to us! It has taken me an hour to find the blog. Thanks to Jason for spending time "trying" to pound it into my brain. But, the thing I DID remember was my password. Surprising, but wonderful.
We began our Christmas trip to California by taking gifts to our grandkids in Las Vegas. We were there in time for dinner and then went to Makayla's choir concert. Just as we sat down to dinner my cell phone rang. It was Elena calling with sad and shocking news. Jim Stafford had passed away a couple hours earlier. Jim is Elena's brother-in-law and a precious member of our family. He had gone to the hospital in Lake Havasu on Tuesday December 18th for hernia surgery. When we told him goodbye the day before he had his color back and looked good. He passed away on Thursday the 20th of a Pulmonary Embolism. We were so stunned and didn't know whether or not to hurry back home or go on. Elena called later and said that Zana told her not to ruin Christmas for Dane and Drew. The memorial service was planned for Friday the 28th. After a good nights sleep at Shayne and Frank's we left for Deborah's.
I was very ill before we even got to the California border. Every one of my bones hurt and I had all signs of influenza. I spent most of the time we were with Deb's family in bed with blankets piled on me. Oh, I was sick. I rarely get ill at all and this time I missed most of our Christmas vacation. We loved seeing our kids, grandkids and baby Ian, however.
We left for Lake Havasu the morning after Christmas. Bakersfield is half-way home usually, but this time it took us an hour to get a mere 10 miles east of Bakersfield where all traffic was turned back by the police because of NO visibility over Tehachapi. We were forced to go back to Bakersfield to I-5 and over the grapevine to LA. That alone added 3 hours to our trip. The Holiday traffic around the area by way of the Foothill Freeway was creeping along from 5 to 8 miles an hour which added hours more to the trip home. Elena called about the time we got to the LA area and said that she and Zana (and Dane) thought we should stop for the night. It took a while to convince Don. He generally pushes himself too hard and just wanted to go on home. Before we got to Barstow there was more delay caused by a 7-car accident. It was nearly 10pm when we got to Barstow and Don stopped at a motel. Even he couldn't go on. We had a terrible meal at Denney's Restaurant. They didn't even have soup available. I ordered a scrambled egg and couldn't eat it because I was so ill. We spent the night at the Hampton Inn. The room was already heated to 75 degrees and it was so clean and the bed was very comfortable. The temperature was 37 degrees outside.
Jim's funeral service was beautiful. First was the military honor guard and remembrances. The minister was a kind and thoughtful man who gave words of comfort. Don was asked to give the benediction. We stopped at the store to pick up some items for lunch at Zana's and then Don dropped me at the Urgent Care Clinic to see a doctor. He went to Zana's for a couple hours and then came back to find me still in the waiting room. It took 4 hours for me to see the doctor. She ordered a swab to determine whether or not I had flu. The good news was that I had a bacterial infection and it could be treated with antibiotics and cough medicine. The next morning I felt a lot better for a while before I backslid until my next dose of meds.
By New Years Eve I felt up to going to Zana's where we had pizza and desserts, watched a movie and then saw the New Year in. Right after we all told each other Happy New Year Elena handed me her cell phone and told me to say Happy New Year. I thought she was making a recording of all our voices to send to Douglas who is in Egypt with the U.S.Navy. I was so surprised to hear Doug's voice telling me Happy New Year. What a wonderful way to ring in the year.
