- Like many people, we have not seen our granddaughters together since Thanksgiving.
- Thanksgiving 2019.
- This past Thanksgiving was supposed to break the drought, but my son’s family couldn’t travel from where they live in Utah to where we were going to be in southern California at my bother-and-sister-in-law’s house, so it was yet another FaceTime call.
- We recycled our plans for Christmas.
- Booked the Delta flights (DCA – MSN – PSP and back). Booked the hotel. Booked the car. Booked the dialysis clinic (about which more, later). Remembered what I had packed for Thanksgiving that I didn’t wear and so put those things aside. Went to the ATM for tip money.
- Ready to head west on Tuesday the 21st.
- As you may remember, there was some doubt – serious doubt – last January that I was going to make it to next Tuesday, but here I am.
- I am Jewish, so where to go for Christmas has always been a question of where my wife wants to go for Christmas. I know how much Christmas means to her (and you), but for me it’s just a day to get to the airport (or get in the car) so the Mullings Director of Standards and Practices can be with the set of relatives (read “granddaughters”) she wants.
- I not a Scrooge about it. I enjoy the conviviality and warmth of being with family, so planning this second trip to California was far from a chore.
- We talked about COVID on the flights up and back over Thanksgiving, but as we are both boosted and as being masked is not a hardship in our household, we decided to buy some home test kits from CVS and board the planes.
- Then came Omicron. Delta spread faster than the original strains of COVID. Omicron is spreading faster than Delta. .
- I know that the early returns are that Omicron appears to be less deadly – at least to those of us who have gotten the original two jabs plus a booster – than Delta but not only is next Tuesday departure day. It is also my birthday.
- My 75th birthday.
- If I were Jack LaLane at 75, I would be in the high-risk category for Omicron. But – and I’m not sure if I’ve shared this with you – last January when I was briefly deceased due to a cardiac arrest, my heart came back to life unscathed, but my kidneys took early retirement.
- I have been going for dialysis treatments three days a week – Monday, Wednesda, and Friday – since.
- Dialysis sounds worse than it is. It doesn’t hurt. It’s not even uncomfortable. I bring my iPad loaded with movies, documentaries, and streaming miniseries to help me pass the time. The clinic staff are professional, friendly, and when making travel arrangements, very helpful.
- Those who are responsible for making it are closing in on a decision as to whether I qualify for a kidney transplant. So, if there isn’t exactly a light at the end of the tunnel, at least I think I may have found the tunnel.
- A lot of people put up with a lot more, so I do not, and will not, bemoan my fate. As has been said in many forms, by many people: You can’t control the hand you are dealt, but you can absolutely control how you play that hand.
- All that means, when I travel, I have to find a dialysis clinic at my destination that will allow me to sit in for the three-and-a-half hours on days I need treatment.
- The folks in Palm Desert have been very accommodating, and I didn’t want to hold a chair I wasn’t going to be using, so I canceled it and freed it up for someone else as soon as we decided to stay home.
- Omicron has me frightened. To the point that the concept of six airports and four airplanes (round trip) didn’t sound like good odds.
- So, we’ve canceled our flights (Delta did a full refund), the car, the hotel, and the dialysis clinic. We will have to wait a little longer to see our granddaughters.
- Drat.
- See you next week.
