Christmas is a holiday I embrace. I love the music and the movies and start sampling them every year on Black Friday. As much as I enjoy the music and movies, I have never been over the top though as far as decorating goes. I take one day and get the tree and a scattering of christmas decorations up the weekend following Thanksgiving. And every year, after the gifts are exchanged, food and drink consumed and guests are long gone, I get blue. Not sure why, but every year that feeling shows up about 7-8:00 pm. after Lisa has retired for the evening. It’s kind of like planning and enjoying a great vacation-when its over, its over. I’ll listen to Christmas music the week between holidays if it’s on the radio but I won’t purposely play it. Same with movies. The spirit is gone, I’m done. This is true with the decorations too. I know this is because my birthday is on News Year’s Day and I do not want to mix the two. When guests arrive at our home for Stone Crab, Christmas is a memory only and all decorations are stowed away in the basement until next year. The exception. for the last several years has been our Condominium lobby. Lisa and I have decorated it, and although most people are comfortable with the decorations coming down the first week after New Year’s, December 28-30th is a little early for most people. This year will be different though. In the early hours of Christmas Eve, 3:18 am actually, thieves broke into our condo building and stole our Christmas tree. They took everything including the timer, cord, decorated tree and skirt. All that remained was a trail of ornaments leading to the lobby door and continuing outside, down the stairs and into the drive. These thieves had broken in minutes before on a lower floor and damaged several mailboxes. Our guess was because they found nothing of value they (there was two of them) decided to “show us” and steal our Christmas tree. How sadly pathetic, and besides, now I don’t have to take it down. Unintended bonus for me. Yes, our cameras provided a nice description of the vehicle make and model and the licence plate number.

I mentioned several months ago that I would be starting a non-negotiable exercise program soon. Well, in a world of delays and labor and shipping shortages the original starting date was in flux. Originally scheduled for September, then October, then November, the Board decided to wait until after the holidays rather than chance disrupting the residents holidays. Knowing that the process will take anywhere from 9-12 weeks, forcing residents to use the stairs the month of December and carry all the stuff associated with the holidays, the residents were very happy to wait. If the elevator went down, so be it, but to get through Christmas and New Year’s with it would be much appreciated. The last part on backorder was the elevator door of all things and it has finally arrived. After meeting with the elevator company and the supervisor managing the installation, the date was set. 1/16/23. I will be 68 on 1/1/23 and cannot keep delaying making an honest attempt at a healthy lifestyle. Attempt is the operative word here. Many of our neighbors have the luxury of relocating during this period. We do not, and realize this is our best shot of forced exercise compliance. We could still eat like shit, but if you are getting that type of cardio, why would we? I imagine after a couple of weeks of 8 flights of stairs multiple times a day and noticing how much better our clothes fit, a healthy mindset will be much easier to adhere to. Like most, I have ridden elevators most of my life. From a 2-story lift to the late Twin Towers and everything in-between but I never fully appreciated their complexity. That is until I peeked into the control room of our 60+ year old elevator. I think now of standing in that 4″x6″x8″ box with 2000 lbs of stuff and feel pretty damn lucky!