Times, They Are A Changing

     Now that I have reached my seventies I can reflect on some of the events of my past. I can first remember people saying "I Like Ike" , talking about President Eisenhower running for election. As I went through school I remember the inauguration of JFK and his assassination. I lived through the cold war with the USSR, the Vietnam war, and the civil rights movement. Two more assassinations , including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Bobby Kennedy.

 Then, there was Watergate where we had a sitting president resign in the face of scandal. Spent four years in the Air Force as the Vietnam war wound down. Constant wars in the Middle East kept the world on edge. The worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor, came 9/11 2001 with the attack on the World Trade Center. While George Bush was not my popular favorite the country came together against a common enemy. Wars escalated including one still going on today in Afghanistan.  I've seen three recessions  including the latest in 2008, climate change demonstrated throughout the world with major weather disasters. Last but not least, the election of a black man to the highest office in the land Barrack Obama, with the promise of change  and a better America.

 I watched politics torn apart by this and the death of political compromise. Then the soap opera drama that ended in the election of our current president Donald Trump. The greatest con of all time on the American public. A egomaniac who has never served anyone but himself, with no empathy for the plight of the common man, since he has no idea of that life, used America's fears and racism to secure the Presidency.

 I have survived several epidemic threats, including, Swine Flu, SARS, Ebola, H1N1, and others. However, the current pandemic the Coronavirus is the most serious of all, and will have catastrophic consequences on America and the world. More people will die in America alone, than in all the wars mentioned above combined. The King is naked and has shown his incompetence in the face of this emergency. He claims no accountability for our slow response and indecisiveness. It is the broken system that he inherited, it will miraculously end on it own, he says "he" is doing a great job as people die in the thousands. He says "who knew". Everyone knew, and was trying to be prepared except him. He disbanded the agency responsible for addressing just this type of crisis, and then said he didn't do it, and we would have to find out who did it in his administration. I recall seeing a movie called Outbreak that showed this same happening. The task to try to contain the spread and the projections of massive deaths if an antidot was not found. Only in the movie they do find the antidote to make a serum, and worldwide devastation is averted. I hope that our real life story can end as promising. 

Making a Move

     I haven't written anything for a year now, basically because I didn't want to continue to always show my disdain for our current president and the activities surrounding his presidency, including a lengthy impeachment hearing and so called trial.

During this time a lot have changed in my life. We spent  several months including Christmas 2018, opening our home to our middle daughter and her three children, after they were evicted form their home. The first half of 2019 was spent coordinating getting the children to school and looking out for

everyone. We were finally able to secure housing for them in May as the school year was ending. After that, my wife and I decided that we needed a change in "our" lives. 

We put our house up for sale and began looking to downsize to a retirement home in Tampa. We finally agreed on Tampa because of its location, for the next stage of our lives. I worked to get our finances in order, sold the house much faster than we anticipated, found a condo in Tampa, and completed the move by July 1st.

The move did not go smoothly. We were taken advantage of by some unscrupulous movers, who did not deliver our items as promised. Instead of moving directly to Tampa, they were taken to a warehouse on the southside of Chicago. After consistent phone calls and request, we eventually had to travel there and get our things, and had them shipped from there to Tampa. We reported this to the Department of Transportation and the local police, however nothing was ever really done and we were out several thousand dollars. Eventually we got our things and got settled in by the end of July.

It was a blazing hot summer but we have enjoyed our change of scenery and lifestyle. Particularly the fact that we could still go to festivals and beaches during the winter months. we did have a hurricane scare, but we were spared in the end, as it turned north up the coast and missed us completel

My youngest son remarried in October, and we traveled to the wedding in California. It was a wonderful trip and wedding. After that our oldest son and his wife visited in November on their way to a wedding in Miami. It was great getting out with them to restaurants and the beach. At Christmas our youngest daughter, her boyfriend and her three children came down to visit and stayed till New Years. We took the kids everywhere and they loved their trip to Legoland.

Now 2020 has come and along with it a pandemic which threatens us all. Right now we are living under a Stay Home order, with business coming to a halt, beaches, parks, and all gatherings shut down. We get out when we can, to walk around and get some exercise and sunshine, but the world has been turned upside down and the future is unknown. Fortunately my faith sustains me and still see that everyday is a blessing and we should rejoice in it. My wife is the best of companions and the love of my life, which makes going through these trying times tolerable. Stay safe and with plenty of time on my hands I guess I'll be writing more in the days to come.