My daughter and her husband are visiting me from Illinois this weekend, starting tomorrow and leaving Tuesday. I will probably not have as much time for posting as I usually do, so if this blog goes blank for a while, all is well. Will be back soon!

   
                           HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

   
                           BEST WISHES TO ALL!!

   Some of you may have noticed that my son Jonathan hasn’t been writing movie reviews for the blog the way he used to. Unfortunately, for the past six months, he’s been battling some severe physical health problems. After a visit to the ER in July, he has been suffering from numerous health issues and tentatively diagnosed with at least one immune dysfunction problem. It’s been a battle for both of us, but it’s been made especially worse because he was looking forward to a “return to normal” after the pandemic lockdown.

   Luckily he’s living in the Los Angeles area, where there are doctors who know about such disorders and who are experts in both diagnosing and treating them. This does take up time for both him and me, though, and the appropriate treatments may prove to be expensive. Sadly he can’t work right now, so I’m trying to sell off a good portion of my book collection to help out.

   For now I’m planning on keeping the blog going, but only at the current reduced rate of a post a day. The days of two or even three posts a day are long over!

I’m leaving within the hour for a long holiday weekend in Michigan, where my sister lives. Joining us will be my brother, plus husbands wives children and various grandchildren (only one, not mine). It will be a full house! Back in this chair on Tuesday.

   I’ve been in the hospital the last few days, totally unexpectedly. Seems as though I misdiagnosed what I thought was heartburn for far too long. Turns out it wasn’t. One stent later the guys in the operating room proved it to me. All numbers back to normal now, and I feel good, but if I’d delayed any later, maybe not.

For some strange reason, as yet unfathomed by me, I can receive email, but I can’t send any out. I’m going to need the help of a computer guru who knows a lot more than I. Nothing that affects the blog, though, that I know of.

      Have a great day, everyone!

   
   I had a great time with my brother, sister and spouses in Michigan this past weekend, but my advice is, if you ever make an airplane reservation at any time in the future, make sure I’m not going to be on the same flight. I won’t name the airline (not SW), but I ran into all kinds of trouble.

   Going to Michigan, I had a 35 minute layover in Detroit, which is a lot tighter than I’d prefer, but I’ve done it before with no difficulty. Problem was, there was no wheelchair waiting for me, as I’d requested. Well, there were wheelchairs, but no one to push them. Another fellow and I were abandoned at the first gate for ten minutes before I decided I’d better hoof it. And hoof it I did. Down a two story escalator, through a 100 yard underground tunnel (with moving walkway), then up an escalator the same height as the first. My next gate was three down from there, and I made it with five minutes to spare, huffing and puffing the whole way.

   Coming home Sunday night, I had a three hour layover time. No problem, I thought. Came the first gate, after a 2½ wait for a radio to be fixed, the flight was cancelled. Called my sister, she came to get me. They gave me a new flight for Tuesday. A 30 minute layover time, but the gates were in the same concourse, so that wasn’t a problem. We boarded and waited for takeoff, but not so fast. The A/C wasn’t working and they couldn’t fix it. We all trooped off and went over to wait while they got the airplane next door ready to fly. Made it home 2½ hours later than scheduled.

   The good news was that in both of these last two instances, both those of mechanical problems, all of the passengers took them relatively calmly and lined up when asked, with no pushing and shoving and with no fistfights breaking out. Everyone was orderly, and the staff was continually apologetic.

   But I’m obviously a jinx, so as I said up above, don’t book yourself on the same flight if you know I’m going be on it. Luckily for you, I don’t plan on flying anywhere again this year. There’s something to be said about having too much fun.