Max 9 and Us

Home and a gas fire

Last week there was a terrible scare with a Max 9 aircraft when a door fell off in the air.  No one was lost but it was very frightening.  So all Max 9 aircraft needed to be inspected.  That meant our flight for today was cancelled.  I spent a lot of time yesterday rescheduling for tomorrow--time on my United app and on the phone. 

 We woke up this morning to another text message saying our flight for tomorrow was cancelled too.  Jim got on the phone this time working with someone who was trying for different airlines.  Their connection got cut off!  He tried again and now we are scheduled for Saturday afternoon arriving in Tampa in the evening.  

So we lose two days in Florida.  That is not so bad.  If that flight gets cancelled again, I may have to see if the travel insurance I bought covers the condo fees.  At some point, we would give up and get our money back on the flight at least.  

It is a direct flight--out of Newark--so that is good.  We are familiar with the area around the condo so we can figure out food when we arrive.  And drinks!  

I am stressed but am grateful to be home and not in an airport.  But now I am convinced this needs to be our last Florida trip! 

Getting Ready to Travel

 Last year, I said it was our last trip to St. Pete Beach.   I pulled my suitcase through Newark Airport on our return home thinking it was my last time of air travel.  But I thought differently as the year went along and we made reservations for Sunrise Resort again.  And United Airlines reservations again.  It can't be as bad as last year--I hope--when they were opening a new terminal and were not prepared.  The weather is not good today or tomorrow but looks better for Thursday morning.  We plan to get an Uber to the Newark Hilton tomorrow evening so it will be an easy shuttle ride to the terminal the next morning.

So today it is a long list of things to do and people to contact.  Jim just got cash for the trip.  I contacted Sunrise Resort who said they had sent us the access codes but we have not received them.  So they are trying again.  One year we had a problem opening a lock box--but they don't use them any more.  But where is the errant email?  I asked them to send it again to Jim's email and my alternate gmail account. (update--we have the codes--hooray!)  Along the same lines,  my UHC health card had to be reiussued and was still in the mail.  Jim found a way to access it online and print it up.  But my laptop has yet to be connected to our printer.  I found a way to make a pdf and sent it to Jim who printed it up.  Now, we hope we won't need it but we are ready!  For our offspring and their offspring, this may all seem easy--but to us old-timers, we are very glad when technology works!

I am doing loads of laundry but will not start to pack until tomorrow.  I have downloaded books to read although that can be done at any time and from any place.  I have contacted our downstairs neighbor to let him know we will be gone.  I have canceled the weekend NYT.  We have both made sure we have enough  meds and eye drops.  I will distribute mine tonight so that I don't have to pack seven bottles of pills--ah, far too many but they do keep me in good health!  We are trying to use up the food in the refrigerator--and I've checked to see that eggs can keep for weeks so they don't have to be thrown out or eaten.  

We plan to bring our plants to Jeff and Susan's for watering while we are gone. 

United Airlines has recalled Max 9 planes to be inspected after a horrendous incident a few days ago when a door fell off a plane.  Supposedly they found loose screws on a few they inspected.   I am telling myself we are safer now than before the incident because they have checked for problems.  Even still, I try to put that image of the opening in the aircraft out of my mind.  And I don't know if we are flying a Max 9 plane or not.

We are renting the same condo (#512) as last year and it was lovely.  The bay view is wonderful at sunrise, all day long, at dusk and after nightfall.   Looking the other way, we can see the sunset across the busy boulevard between the hotels on the Gulf but it is the Bay that is most beautiful.  I am remembering Publix's Key Lime Pie and margaritas enjoyed with views of the Gulf or Bay and crab cake sandwiches. I hope I can post soon with an account of an easy and safe arrival.

----------uptdate on January 10  Because of the Max9 incident, our flight was canceled for tomorrow.  I jsut spent a lot of time on my app and on the phone and think I have successfully changed our flight to Friday.  Too many confirmation numbers and passwords!  But I did talk to two live people and they were helpful.  Alternatives were flying stand-by at 6 am or transferring in Houston or Cleveland--not exactly on the way to Florida.  

2023--What did I Miss?

 Yesterday I looked over my blog posts for 2023 in preparation for my annual Blog2Print book.  I realized that there were some events, national, international, and personal, that did not get included. 

I pray every night for peace--in Gaza and in Ukraine.  But I had not posted about Putin's escalation of the war in Ukraine last February.  At least there have been no nuclear accidents as we feared at times or really any push beyond Ukraine.  But it has been months of fighting and destruction without any progress for peace.  There is so much destruction and death in Ukraine and many Russian soldiers have been sacrificed for Putin's cause.

And then there are the 91 indictments of our former president Donald Trump.  NYT asks if I want to be kept informed by a daily newsletter and I do not want to have my news feed focus on him any more than it already is.  It is confusing.  There will be trials in Florida, Georgia, Washington DC, and there were already trials in NYC.  With his appeals, it could go on forever.  He hopes it goes on until he gets re-elected and then he can pardon himself and his co-conspirators.  I pray for justice, for wisdom on the part of the judges and juries, but also lately for a change of heart for Trump. Enough of his ugly pronouncements insulting the judges and President Biden!  

I wrote about Jim's crisis with high blood pressure but not about mine in late November.  It is always high when I go to the gynocologist so I took it at home to reassure them that it was lower there.  Well, it was a bit high at home too but at their office it was scary high.  They immediately called Montgomery Internal Medicine and sent me over there to see Nurse Patel.  It was still high there but not enough to send me to the ER thank goodness!  She prescribed an additional drug and it worked!  My bp was pretty normal at my follow-up appointment last week.  

Jim is very faithful about walking every day.  I am not.  My back and hip ache and it makes walking unpleasant.  Which brings me to my next update.  We have begun inquiring into Stonebridge, a senior living community.  We went to a very nice lunch this fall which was informative even if overwhelming with the decisions that would need to be made--various price points and many floor plans.  I am ready for someone to take over our meal planning but we are not really ready to give up our lovely appartment here at Barclay Square.  At least we have no house to sell and have down-sized once already. 

But one cannot postpone a decision to move until one really needs it!  You have to pass their medical checks to live independently--as well as their financial checks.  So if we are going to make such a move, it needs to be done while we are still "independent."  We had a second appointment for a brunch at Stonebridge with a smaller group but we were both sick with colds and had to cancel.  I am wondering what 2024 will bring in that regard. 

Christmas 2023

 

It's Christmas Day.  We can still look forward to a dinner at Jeff and Susan's home with all of our grandchildren plus a boyfriend plus a boyfriend's parents.  Is this a step in a relationship when it is time to meet the grandparents?

Saturday was our family party at the Conway's home with 17 of us.  I had settled on quilted vests from Land's End for everyone aged 12 and up and was very pleased to see that many of the group donned their vests immediately.  The chocolate letters are a tradition that always seems appreciated. Michael and Laura had a great dinner for us with beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and green beans.  Dan and Alex made a spinach salad and cookies.  And how happy we are that Susan is always willing to make her wonderful rolls!  H helped me put together a snow man brownie.  A highlight for me was our all joining in singing Christmas carols--from sacred ones to a vigorous The 12 Days of Christmas with Susan helping us all keep track of where we were.  Even little H could join in on Jingle Bells.  I took a video but I will joyfully keep the vision and sound in my memory.

Sunday was Christmas Eve.  We could have gone to church four times.   We settled on three livestream services. We did the Nassau Church 10 am service from home and then were happy we could do the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church nativity pageant from home too.  R and A were readers and did their readings so well.  H was an adorble sheep peering over the rail overlooking the pulpit area. We saved our church's 9 pm Lessons and Carols for this morning while making banket.

Banket!  Two years ago I said never again, but for some reason I decided to try once more.  Now I say again no more!  Next year I order from VanderVeen's Dutch Store--ready-made, not pounds of almond paste. Rolling out the pastry, removing it from the parchment paper, sticky hands from the almond filling--what a mess!  I will give some to our neighbors downstairs and bring some along to the Princeton VKs and maybe one for Alonso, our former maintenance man who once asked me if I could make some for Halloween too!

I hope and pray that we have many more Christmases to celebrate together with our families.  I feel very thankful for this one!

Why We Moved to Princeton

 

Jeff and Susan live ten minutes away from our apartment.  Laura and Michael and their family live about an hour away.  Dan and Alexandra are about 2 1/2 hours north of us.  This means that holiday get-togethers are possible without a 700 mile trip east on I-80.  But it also means that we can participate in other family events.

In the last month or so we have gone to Katie's Princeton University Ballet show.  We have seen Susan's photos in a photography exhibit.  And last night we went to the Harriton High School Winter Concert in which Jasper sang in the large concert choir, the select and auditioned Vocal Ensemble and the acapella group Pitch Please.  When the large choir opened with "Festival Gloria" -a gloria in excelsis deo--I just closed my eyes and let the beautiful sound enter my soul.  

I'm so glad we can support our grandchildren in their musical endeavors.  Adding to these events, we livestreamed Michael's George Washington Jazz Orchestra Holiday Concert and Lessons and Carols from Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church--in which Laura and Jasper sang and Jasper read a lesson.  It was good to be able to do those events from home because traffic along the eastern corridor is often very heavy--as it was last night. We were home safely by 10 pm.  

I'm Happy Because I Sing

A few years ago our church choir director quoted an aged choir member who said, "I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing."  Singing does bring joy!  

This fall Jim and I began singing with the Grace Notes Singers, a group of older folks who meet twice a month at a nearby senior citizen community.  The director is the music director at our church, Nassau Presbyterian Church, and is a wonderful musician who also has the gift of being a great teacher and a person who accepts less than perfection!  The music he chooses has been challenging  and really beautiful.

Today our group led an Advent Communion Service for the residents of the community.  Next week we will do the same service at another nearby senior community.  

It has been a joy to make music with others again--and to do it with Jim.  He encouraged me to join and I encouraged him to drive me there and give it a try.  

A Voice from the Past

 On Wednesday morning I woke up to a message on Facebook from a 5th grade student in 1968 wondering if I was the Mrs. Vanderkam who was the "beautiful woman" who was his teacher.  He said he saw my name through one mutual friend and if I didn't want to respond that was OK but if I did, he had "more to say."  

I remembered him--but have to say one memory was when he jumped out an open window when we had a fire drill.  The principal came on the intercom and said, "Mrs. VanderKam, tell your students to leave by the door, not the window."   I was not happy!  But I did not think I would remind him of that incident!

I sent him my email making it easier to communicate because I don't often use FB messenger.  He wrote me a long email.  And of all things, he said he wanted "to issue an apology for jumping out of the window of your classroom during a fire drill and inspiring xxxx to follow me.  Hope you didn't get in trouble for that."

I was so tickled that after 53 years, this was still on his mind!  It seems amusing now, but it was not funny at the time!  I was angry and embarrassed.  And as I was rarely angry at those students, it must have made an impression that lasted! 

He also remembered my doing a mock election and exactly what the numbers were--one for Humphrey, one for Wallace, and all the rest for Nixon--including his which he said would no longer be true.  He remembered my bringing in a TV for the World Series--and he found a note I wrote to his parents telling them that he was a good writer.  All good memories!

I was also amused that others at his recent 9th grade reunion remembered a class trip in which I did a very unteacher like thing--and wore a bathing suit!  He was not in that class he said or he would have remembered!    I laughed out loud reading that and hoped it was not the Italian bikini I had purchased the previous summer!  I still have a photo of Jim and me on a Mediterranean beach from that summer but I will not post it!  Maybe I can find a less revealing photo of those mini-skirted, long-haired days.

What a lovely thing to get his affirmations and thanks from so many years ago.  Those were three good years of teaching 5th grade and then 6th grade.