Part XVIII
MY LIFE STORY
A BUSY RETIREMENT
(continued)
(2020 - 2022)
Covid – 19 becomes a pandemic! -
In January more and more information
was being reported about a deadly virus in China located
primarily in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
A novel coronavirus was eventually identified.
On January 1, the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in
Wuhan was closed because of concerns of a SARS repeat of 2002.
Additionally, China promoted the theory that the virus
originated in bats that were sold in this Market.
On January 4, the
World Health Organization (WHO) reported via social media
that there was a group of pneumonia cases in Wuhan
- with no deaths.
The next day the WHO reported Disease Outbreak News about
the new virus which contained information provided by China
about the outbreak and a risk assessment.
Five days later the WHO
promulgated information on detection, testing and managing such
cases based on the handling of the SARS and MERS viruses that
the world coped with decades earlier.
The virus was subsequently called Covid-19.
The U.S. Center For Disease Control (CDC) initiated Covid
screening of all airline passengers arriving in the U.S. from
Wuhan. The CDC
reported the first U.S. case of Covid in Washington State.
The 11 million people in Wuhan were placed in lock down
because of Covid. Late in January, the CDC advised all travelers
to avoid non-essential travel to China.
The Department of Homeland Security directed that all
planes from China and all passengers who had traveled to China
within the prior 14
days were to be screened for Covid and for possible quarantine
at one of 11 U.S. airports.
The Covid outbreak was escalating very quickly.
Francine and I celebrated her birthday with a quiet
dinner with our good friends the Hourihans at her
favorite local restaurant.
Later in the month we and the Hourihans were
hosted at the Waste Management (WM) Pro-Am by WM and Jeff
Martin.
Jim, Francine, Debbie And Gary Hourihan
Despite the Covid outbreak, a presidential campaign was taking
shape. President
Trump had announced that he would be running for re-election
immediately after taking office in 2017 and was the presumptive
republican nominee. Some
27 Democrats contested for the opportunity to be the democratic
nominee. The Democratic field included Vice-President Biden,
Senators Sanders (VT), Warren (MA), Bennet (CO), Brooker (NJ),
Gravel (AK), Gillibrand (NY), Harris (CA) and Klobuchar (MN) as
well as several past governors, mayors and others.
Accommodating all of the candidates for numerous debates
was a particular challenge. In the end the field narrowed to
Vice-President Biden and Senator Sanders an avowed Socialist, as
a number of other
finalists all dropped out and many of them endorsed
Vice-President Biden.
The delegates knew that Senator Sanders could not be
elected.
Vice-President Biden with all his weaknesses was nominated at
the Democratic National Convention on August 20th,
which had been delayed about a month because of Covid.
President Trump was nominated at the Republican National
Convention on August 24th however, he had sufficient
pledged delegates by March 17th.
The second week in February our immediate family gathered in San
Francisco, CA to meet Francine and my newest great grandchild,
Kevin and Mandy’s Eva.
It was a delight to hold our six week old great
granddaughter.
We spent several days enjoying our family, meeting some of Jill
Zimmerman’s (Brian’s wife) San Francisco relatives for an
authentic Chinese dinner, walking the city and enjoying a
relaxing day at collection of take-out restaurants on the water
front. Family
discussions centered around Eva and Covid.
Francine and Jim With Six Weeks Old Eva
The city of San Francisco had increasingly become a city with
significant homeless, and an increasingly large
population of drug users. The streets were blocked with the
homeless and downtrodden.
All of which also led to much more crime in the city.
These conditions had increased significantly in San Francisco
and, indeed in nearly all of California and other major liberal
cities and states around the country. Legalizing some drugs and
failure to prosecute those who were flaunting the law were two
of the major reasons driving these increases.
It is so disappointing to us that some of our most
beautiful cities, particularly San Francisco, had fallen into
such a sad state.
(Although, San Francisco, finally in 2022 recalled its very
liberal prosecutor and replaced him with a “law and order”
prosecutor. At this
time, it is too soon to know if this will significantly improve
that very difficult environment.)
I continued to serve on the board of COGS.
Two years previously I was elected treasurer of COGS with
the auxiliary responsibility for membership, which continues to
be a challenge despite a fairly large following of our COGS
newsletter with its timely information on city activities,
including elections, real
estate development and city council actions which affect our
Scottsdale life style.
The reported cases of Covid-19 worldwide and in the U.S. was
increasing rapidly. An
over- whelming percentage of them occurring in China.
On March 11th, the WHO declared that the Covid
virus was assessed as a pandemic as the worldwide cases exceeded
100,000 and resulted in 4300 deaths.
The older population and those with certain health
issues, suffered significantly more with higher hospitalization
and death rates. Children and young adults without comorbidity
issues were not significantly affected by Covid.
President Trump’s administration declared a national
emergency and barred non-U.S. citizens traveling form 26
European countries from entering the U.S.
Hospitals in the
U.S. and indeed worldwide were overwhelmed, personal protective
equipment (PPE) for the healthcare workers was in very short
supply, breathing ventilators required by the patients with more
severe cases were not available for all patients who needed
them, nursing homes
were not prepared to deal with the needs of their patients,
testing kits were being developed and distributed to the general
population however the supply was not sufficient, on and on.
Our healthcare system was overly stressed.
Vice-President Mike Pence was assigned by President Trump
to head the U.S. Covid-19 response.
On March 13, President Trump declared a national emergency.
Three days later he announced “social distancing
guidelines”. In
rapid action, the President signed an Executive Order
authorizing the use of the National Defense Act for procurement
of needed breathing ventilators, PPE, etc. By the end of March
some 10 million workers in the U.S. had filed for unemployment.
Some states began shutting down businesses, schools and
other venues to prevent the spread of Covid. The first of what
would prove to be many government assistance programs was
enacted granting $1200 per adult and expanded benefits for
children, along with expanded unemployment benefits, small
business loans, loans to some major industries, including the
air-line industry as well as expanded aid to the states and
local governments.
This legislation was called the CARES Act.
It was estimated to cost $2 trillion.
We cancelled our planned March AZ ISU Acacia reunion because of
Covid. On March 23
we celebrated Allan’s 83rd
birthday at Eddie
Merlot’s restaurant.
Allan, Beverly, Francine and Jim
The U.S. response to Covid-19 was a combination of federal,
state and local reactions.
Each level of government set policies for their
respective responsibilities.
The states responses varied significantly in adopting
shutdown policies with those states having higher residential
densities adopting more shutdowns and other restrictions than
the less densely occupied states.
The states of New York and New Jersey were experiencing
severe rates of death in their nursing homes.
The various national health authorities messaging was
mixed, contradictory and almost constantly changing on the
wearing of masks, social distancing, gathering of individuals at
meetings, etc.
Francine and I began wearing masks when out with other people in
April. Mayo
“furloughed” their volunteers until further notice.
Arizona was not shut down to the extent of many states,
particularly the higher density states.
However, thorough out the Southwest, including, Arizona
the Native American populations were hit hard by Covid.
In addition to the medical supplies shortages, many other
household items were in short supply and purchases were limited
to typically a small quantity of the product, e.g., paper
products including toilet tissue and paper towels, and cleaning
compounds, particularly sanitizers and other disinfectants.
Even with the lockdowns persons in need of these products
were required to venture out to the various retail stores to
purchase these products, if they could even find them.
In mid-April, President Trump temporarily halted all funding to
the WHO pending an investigation into how the organization
handled the investigation into the source of the Covid.
The Chinese government promoted the theory that the
source was “infected bats” which were sold in the
Hunan Market which China shut down.
The WHO
accepted that theory without a rigorous investigation.
Indeed, a number of U.S. scientists and health care
bureaucrats also accepted this theory.
The other potential source was a
Chinese military research
laboratory also located in Wuhan.
This laboratory reportedly conducted research on viruses
and there was a major contentious discussion amongst the U.S.
experts as to whether or not “gain of function research” was
conducted on viruses in this laboratory.
Many health experts argued that such research was
conducted in this laboratory and that Covid might have been
produced in and accidently escaped from this laboratory.
The Chinese of course denied that this happened, but the
WHO did no investigation and the Chinese government would not
permit any non-Chinese personnel to participate in any
investigation within China on the source of Covid.
The WHO merely accepted the Chinese position that it did
not come from their laboratory.
(As of this writing in September of 2023 this has never
been resolved, however, increasingly the various U.S. agencies
are coming down on the side of a laboratory leak. Additionally,
our nation’s deaths attributable to Covid-19 as at least a
primary or a “co-morbidity” cause exceeded one million.)
Jim And Francine In Our Designer Masks
Shortly, thereafter President Trump announced guidelines for
opening up the country from the major lockdowns.
President Trump also banned all immigration into the U.S.
for sixty days. In late April it was disclosed that the Trump
Administration was working on a program – called Operation Warp
Speed – to accelerate the development and commercialization of
vaccines to address Covid.
Financed by the U.S. government, the program included
drug companies, government agencies and the military all with
the objective of “fast tracking” vaccine development.
A number of healthcare “experts” claimed that it would
still take up to eighteen months to have the vaccine, instead it
was available
initially in limited quantities seven months later in December
2020. Despite shutdowns, the wearing of masks, the implementing
of social distancing and other cautionary actions, Covid
infections and deaths continued to increase.
There was much confusion as to what procedures and
practices were effective in coping with, preventing and treating
the Covid virus.
Tedy James Holub joins our growing cadre of
great-grandchildren -
On June 27th our fourth great grandchild, Tedy James
Holub was born to Nicole and Bradley.
I am
pleased that my name has been generously adopted as a middle
name for many of my off-spring.
Tedy weighed 6 pounds and
12 ounces at birth.
He and mother, both did well and Tedy was welcomed into
the growing Davis family.
Our new Acacia Chapter House was completed and we had an
Occupancy Permit to have
our brothers in the house as of August 1.
However, with Covid the university, as were many other
universities, were severely restricted as to what activities
could take place on campus and in its Greek system.
Many of the classes were taught via Zoom or a similar
technology. Acacia
only had a dozen men residing in the Chapter House at the
beginning of the term in mid-August.
This
very low occupancy level caused our
alumni organization
of which I continued
to serve as vice-of the board, considerable financial pain.
It was very difficult to recruit new members and
particularly to have them reside in the chapter house because of
Covid and the various university restrictions with respect to
the Greek Community.
The New Iowa State Acacia Chapter House
My 85th birthday celebration -
On August 6th, I celebrated my 85th
birthday. Francine
had a full but private celebration planned. It started with
lunch at The Estancia Club.
While getting settled in for lunch, Jackson and Kim
suddenly appeared.
They had flown to Scottsdale from Pittsburgh to help me
celebrate. Francine
of course was fully aware of Kim’s plans and kept their planned
visit secret. It was
a wonderful surprise.
Kim, Francine, Jackson And Jim
In August, the final phase of the presidential election was on.
Vice-President Biden and Vice-President candidate Senator
(CA) Kamala Harris were attempting to unseat President Trump and
Vice-President Pence.
President Trump and Vice-President Pence were very active
campaigners conversely Vice-President Biden who was 77 years
old, seldom ventured out of his Delaware house and instead
relied on Zoom appearances and surrogates – ostensibly because
of Covid. The Trump
administration was from the beginning
in 2017, chaotic with
numerous changes/firings of various government officials, with
President Trump’s bombastic, confrontational and disruptive
management style and with his administration’s failure to
present a unified, coherent position with respect to many of his
administration’s actions.
The administration was dogged by investigations by the
FBI and congress, impeachments by the House of Representatives,
which was controlled by the Democrats and negative accusations
by members of the federal bureaucracy.
Additionally, many of the employees in the federal
bureaucracy and Congress despised President Trump and continued
to believe he was unfairly elected.
This contributed to many
“leaks” from various government officials to, at a minimum,
tarnish President Trump’s administration.
All of this was promoted by the media who had nearly all
believed that Ms. Clinton would be and should have been elected
in 2016. Despite all
of this, at the end of President Trump’s first term the nation’s
economy was in the best shape in a very long time as
U.S. employment
was robust with 3.5%
unemployment and minority unemployment at possibly an all-time
low, real wages increasing, inflation at a very low 1.4%
annually, national defense strengthened and the U.S. energy
independent. The
later was, thanks particularly to a very significant increase in
the use of fracking technology.
Natural gas replaced use of the “dirtier” coal and crude
oil resulting in a lessening of the U.S. air pollution. However,
those opposing President Trump who were strongly supported by
the national media, worked hard to oppose nearly every one of
President Trump’s actions.
The 2020 presidential campaign was conducted in this very
unhealthy environment for President Trump.
The Democrats would campaign hard against him based in
significant part on his chaotic management style and the
supposed mismanagement of the U.S. response to Covid.
The management of the U.S. government’s response to Covid-19 was
also very chaotic, as there were a wide variety of medical
opinions amongst the medical community as to how to cope with
the myriad of health challenges and there was no accepted
“playbook” as to how to best deal
with a Covid pandemic.
The media feasted on promoting opinions differing from
the administration and emphasized disagreements amongst the
various administration bureaucrats.
Consequently, this background fed by the national media,
was the major election issues in the 2020 presidential
campaigns.
Additionally, because of Covid, a number of states adopted
voting practices and procedures supposedly to increase voting
turnout during the pandemic, which included more and lengthened
mail balloting options, some
of which had less monitoring or verification requirements.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and major owner of Facebook gave
two non-profits, whose mission did not include political
activities, almost $500 million to focus on electioneering,
i.e., getting out the voters and ballot harvesting in heavily
democratic portions of several swing states which could have
very easily resulted in some of the swing states going for
Biden.
Maggie Rose, a six-week old female Cavapoo joins our family -
In July, Francine committed to purchasing a female Cavapoo puppy
which was one of six puppies in the litter born on July 15th
to a miniature red Poodle named “Franny” and sired by a French
Caviler dog.
Francine knew the puppy was meant to be hers.
Francine had decided that she would name the puppy
“Maggie Rose”.
Maggie was the name her mother (Margaret) used most.
Francine and I visited Maggie Rose when she was a couple
of weeks old and we brought her home at age eight weeks.
We purchased a “kennel” which was about the size of a
child’s playpen for Maggie and placed it in our kitchen.
It is still her home whenever we are both away from home
for a few hours.
Maggie has a bed in the kennel and several times during the day,
we will find her napping in that bed, however, she prefers being
with the two of us where ever we are in the house.
When we are in separate rooms she will migrated from one
room to the other to make sure she knows where we both are.
Maggie was spayed at age six months and during her
recovery when she first returned home from the veterinarian,
Francine cuddled with her in our bed that first night.
Francine was confident that Maggie would not remember
that night in our bed and would continue to sleep in her kennel.
Wrong! Maggie has continually slept with us
since.
Maggie is a constant joy and a very loving companion.
Maggie Rose At Three Weeks
Maggie Rose Introduced To Her New Home At Eight Weeks
Covid and the various responses to Covid continued.
Basically, red states were coping with Covid while trying
to keep their state’s economy, schools and health care
operations open or opening, while the blue states by and large
focused on a conservative shutdown strategy of their state’s
economy and schools.
After the pandemic most analyses determined that the blue states
actions damaged their economy and schools considerably more than
the red state’s actions without significantly hurting their
respective adverse Covid
affects. These
lockdowns came with huge costs: job
losses, increased crime, stunted learning, delayed medical
treatments, violent protests, government spending blowouts,
supply-chain disruptions,
mental-health issues most of which were avoided or at
least significantly lessened by the red states policies and
procedures.
The National Education Association (NEA) which was the largest
teacher’s union took an active role in closing and keeping
schools closed throughout the country.
This forced many students to be home schooled.
It also opened many parent’s eyes as to what their
children were being taught and not taught in the schools.
The NEA is a liberal leaning organization which pushed
some social issues not popular with the parents.
The one good result from a mainly adverse experience for
the children is that parents became more active in their local
school boards and what the teachers were teaching their children
in addition to or in lieu of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Our new ISU Acacia chapter house opened with the fall semester
beginning in August with a disappointing twelve occupants.
We had about 20 chapter members however, the other eight
opted to live in off-campus apartments as apartment owners were
offering rental “deals” which made it impossible for our and
other chapters to compete on the cost of rent.
An unfortunate trend that continues to the time of this
writing.
Longtime Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on
September 26th.
She was a solid liberal vote on The Court.
A battle ensued between the democrats and the republicans
as to who should appoint her successor.
The republicans controlled the White House and the Senate
and they decided that they would install Justice Ginsburg’s
replacement.
President Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett, 48 year old
conservative woman for the position and the Senate promptly
confirmed her appointment thereby tipping the court decidedly
conservative.
On September 22, the CDC reported
that the U.S. death toll from Covid was 200,000.
Dr. Fauci, one of the administration’s spokes persons
about Covid,
discussed the
need to understand the “long COVID” symptoms like persistent
fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle aches, sporadic fevers and
concentration issues, that as many as one-third of patients
experience for weeks or months after contracting COVID-19.
On November 4th, the CDC reported 100,000 new
cases of Covid in one day.
The campaigns for the U.S. presidency as well as governors,
senators and representatives ground on with Vice-President Biden
campaigning primarily from his home and President Trump very
actively campaigning throughout the country.
However, the Trump campaign was not as active as it
should have been in opposing some states very significant
actions relaxing election rules mentioned earlier. As the
election results were tabulated on election night, it became
apparent that there was very heavy election turnout particularly
in the very liberal areas of several key “swing” states, e.g.,
Atlanta in Georgia, Madison in Wisconsin, Philadelphia in
Pennsylvania and Phoenix in Arizona.
The result was record voter turnout for both parties.
Vice-President Biden won the election with very narrow
winning margins in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
President Trump vigorously disputed the election results,
claiming that the election was stolen.
His very committed and vocal supporters bought into
Trump’s claims however numerous law suits disputing the election
results were basically dismissed as lacking substantial proof of
illegal activities. Two
senate races, both in Georgia, were not decided on election day
as the state requires the winner to have a majority of the votes
cast, so both races were scheduled for a run-off between the two
top vote getters in each race.
The run-off election was held on January 5, 2021.
Trump’s actions and his vociferous claims about the election
being stolen were a significant detraction
in the Georgia senate run-off election, as it is generally
considered that his actions depressed the turnout of republican
voters in the Georgia election run-off.
Some 470,000 fewer
Republicans voted in the Georgia “run-off election than in the
General Election. The
result was a win for each of the two democratic candidates which
gave the Democrats in the Senate 50 senators the same as the
Republicans. With
the election of Vice-President Biden and Senator Harris as
President and Vice-President of the U.S. that gave the Democrats
control of the senate.
The Democrats also won control of the House of
Representatives. The
Democrats therefore controlled the government for the 2021-2022
terms. It is
generally accepted that President Trump’s shameful behavior lost
at least one of the two Georgia senate seats and therefore
control of the Senate.
Moreover, President Trump held a rally in Washington, D.C. on
January 6th in which President Trump strongly voiced
his opinion that the election had been stolen.
He advocated that Vice-President Pence should not certify
the election results of several swing states and instead give
those delegates from those states to President Trump, thereby
reversing the generally accepted result of the election.
After the rally at the White House, President Trump
endorsed the movement of those attending the rally
to the capital building and protest.
The crowd broke into the capital building, threatened law
makers, severely damaged the capital building and caused much
mayhem. Moreover,
President Trump, despite the pleas from a number of his family
and administration, watched the capital assault on television
for some three hours without taking action to call off his rabid
supporters. It
clearly was a low point in our national history.
Francine and I both contract Covid, but have mild symptoms
(although Francine may have had some long-Covid symptoms -
fatigue, muscle soreness) -
Our grandson, Adam and his good friend, roommate, fellow factory
supervisor and golfing partner, TJ, visited Francine and me on
November 6th and 7th to play golf.
He and TJ were both working in a plastics molding factory
which had rigorous Covid operating rules and procedures.
Adam’s father, Brian being particularly knowledgeable
about the Covid disease and the various procedures in working
with and around Covid, insisted that both Adam and TJ be tested
prior to leaving Boston for Phoenix.
Both tested negative.
Francine and I were both tested and were negative.
Adam and TJ arrived in Phoenix late on a Thursday night.
We picked them up at the airport.
Francine and I went into the airport.
Adam and TJ stayed in our casita those nights until they
left early Sunday AM to drive to Sedona. Adam wanted
TJ to see the infamous red rocks.
The four of us played golf on Friday and Saturday, had
dinner Friday and Saturday together and generally spent time
together until they left Sunday AM.
They flew back to Boston on the Sunday night “red-eye”
and went directly to
work on Monday morning.
They were tested for Covid using the rapid test upon
reporting for work and they both tested negative.
However, their company required them to retest on
Wednesday using the PCR (a more accurate test, but one that
typically required longer to get the result).
Both were tested on
Wednesday AM. TJ
learned his results the following Monday and Adam a day later.
On that following Monday (a week after Adam and TJ left), I was
having blood drawn for my annual physical at Mayo.
Of course, the staff asked me if I had any Covid symptoms
or had been with anyone who had Covid.
I replied “no”.
As I was waiting my turn for the blood draw, I received a
text from Adam saying that TJ had just gotten his Covid re-test
results and he had Covid!
I called Francine and advised her.
She immediately came to Mayo and the two of us were
tested for Covid.
Later that afternoon we had the answers from Mayo.
We both tested positive! Adam received his result the
next day and he too was positive.
Both of them were required by their employer to
quarantine. Mayo
advised us to quarantine for five days from the Monday we
received our Covid test results.
Upon reflection, I then recalled that on the previous Wednesday,
mid-day, I suddenly felt a bit “drained” and had a very minor
sore throat.
However, by the next morning I felt perfectly normal and totally
forgot about the mild symptoms that I had the previous day.
Francine had no noticeable symptoms up until we received
our Covid test results.
Subsequently, she has had symptoms of “long Covid” a
diagnosis of lingering unexplained symptoms which are thought to
be related to having Covid.
To this day she is modestly afflicted with these
symptoms. I have
been very fortunate as I have not experienced any Covid after
effects. TJ had a
bit of a rough time with his Covid while Adam did not experience
the same degree of difficulty.
On November 16th and 18th
respectively, it was announced that the Moderna and Pizer
vaccines were found to be 95% effective in preventing Covid.
On the 20th the Covid
cases in the U.S. passed eleven million causing the CDC
to recommend that Americans stay at home this Thanksgiving.
Shortly thereafter the authorities
recommended that
healthcare professionals and older people living in long-term
care facilities be offered a vaccine first in the initial phases
of the COVID-19 vaccination program. CDC also noted that people
ages 70 years and older who live in multi-generational
households should be given priority as soon as more vaccine
doses were available.
On December 11th and 18th
respectively the Pizer and Moderna vaccines were approved for
“emergency use”. On
December 14th a nurse in New York
City was the first U.S. person to be vaccinated against
Covid. On December
14th the U.S. recorded its 300,000th death from Covid.
The CDC recommended that vaccine allocations be prioritized for
use in the following populations: (1) healthcare workers and
residents of long-term care facilities, (2) essential workers
and all persons ages 75 and older, (3) all persons
ages 65-74 with a medical condition that increased their
risk of severe disease from Covid and (4) all persons ages 16
and older.
Because of Covid, Lindsey and Lewis did
not join us at Thanksgiving.
Francine and I had a quiet Thanksgiving Dinner.
Beverly and Allan joined Francine and me for Christmas as
our family decided that because of Covid we would not gather in
New Hampshire. Covid
was playing havoc
with our entire world including our little part of it.
We also had a quiet New Years celebration at home
watching the New Year celebrations, such as they were on
television. Our 2020
was in the books and hopefully 2021 would be much better.
The CDC data reported 385,443 deaths attributed to Covid
-19 in 2020, which included an undetermined number of deaths
from possibly co-morbid diseases but since the deceased also had
Covid it was included in the death count.
Beverly, Jim, Maggie And Allan
Francine, Maggie and I celebrated a wonderful New Year Day 2021
lunch at one of our favorite restaurants.
Maggie loves attention and she usually gets a
considerable amount of attention wherever she goes.
Francine, Maggie And
Jim
In January, our brother-in-law, Allan continued to experience
declining health.
Their son, Mike and daughter, Jolinda came to Scottsdale and
worked with their mother, Beverly to find an appropriate
assisted living home where Allan could get the required 24/7
care that he needed and to give Beverly a bit of relief from the
24/7 care that she had so capably provided.
Allan was confined to a hospital for several days for
treatment of a blood chemistry disorder.
Upon release from the hospital, he was admitted into a
wonderful assisted living home reasonably close to Beverly’s
residence. We
celebrated Francine’s birthday with a quiet celebration on
January 16th..
President Biden was inaugurated on
January 21, with the promise of “reuniting the U.S.”.
The administration announced a
National
Strategy for the COVID-19 Response, an outline of 7 goals to
restore trust, vaccinate, test, and treat COVID-19 while
protecting schools, businesses, and workers in addition to
advancing health equity and building the nation’s preparedness
for future pandemics, calling it “a wartime undertaking.”
The administration reversed President Trump’s withdrawal
from the WHO. In his
very first day President Biden also reversed the approval of the
XL pipeline, a major crude oil pipeline, a portion of which was
already completed, which was to enable the transport of 800,000
barrels of Canadian crude oil to the U.S. gulf coast refineries.
This in combination with other pronouncements such as
restricting exploration for and production of crude oil and
natural gas on National Lands and tightening and “slow walking”
approvals necessary for fossil fuel exploration and production,
began the new administration’s war on fossil fuels.
The Covid pandemic continued, which complicated everyone’s life,
including the assisted living home where Allan was now residing.
New variants of Covid were evolving from the extremely
contagious and virulent Covid disease causing evolving,
sometimes conflicting and confusing reactions and directions
with respect to the U.S. managing the Covid pandemic.
On January 25th we
experienced another of our relatively rare snow storms in
Estancia. The
scenery is so spectacular after our snow.
A View From Our Home’s Front Deck
Maggie continued to be the love of our life.
She loves to ride in the car and has her own “child’s
seat” in Francine’s car.
Francine and I received our first Covid shots on March
10, 2021. A month
later to the day we received our second Covid shots.
We received the Moderna vaccine at Mayo and had few to no
after effects from the vaccinations other than slightly sore
arms. We also
received our first Covid booster shot the following May and the
fourth booster shot in the fall of 2022.
Maggie Rose Ready To Accompany Francine On A Drive
Brother Dick and his wife Judy visited us in March as they were
in Arizona to visit
Judy’s family in Mesa.
Dick, Francine, Judy And Maggie
We again cancelled our annual Arizona ISU Acacian reunion,
because of Covid.
Also, we were attempting to schedule the dedication of our new
chapter house in Ames, IA as we had been unable to schedule it
in the midst of all of the Covid uncertainty.
Moreover, because of Covid the Iowa State University
discontinued all in person classes opting instead for on-line
classes. Some of
the chapter members opted to stay in the chapter house
while observing all of the Covid protocols and attend on-line
classes from there, while the majority of the students returned
to their homes and attended classes remotely.
Francine’s grandson, Benjamin was one of those who
returned home.
Unfortunately, although he was originally scheduled to receive
his B.S. in Software Engineering the following May, the Covid
restrictions prevented him from completing his studies in time
which caused Francine considerable pain as she had planned a
wonderful graduation party for him and his family at Iowa State
University. All of
this had to be cancelled.
He received his degree in December, but there was no
graduation party again because of Covid.
In late March, Kim, Dave, Kyle, Veronica, Jackson, Emerson,
Brett and Judy all gathered in Scottsdale with Francine and me.
The six of them from Pittsburgh needed to find
sun and warmth from their winter weather.
They opted to stay at the Princess Fairmont Resort where
the young ones spent as much time as possible in the swimming
pools. It was a great week, but as usual we ate too much.
Emerson, Jackson, Francine And Jim
On Sunday May 23, Allan peacefully and quietly passed away after
attending a Sunday afternoon performance at the assisted living
facility where he resided. Beverly, was notified by his
caretakers. She came
to our house to have us help her in dealing with the myriad of
details that suddenly confronted her.
We talked to both Mike and Jolinda who made immediate
plans to come to Arizona to help their mother.
It was a difficult time for all of us however, Beverly,
Jolinda and Mike handled the loss and their responsibilities
well.
In July, Francine, Maggie Rose and I traveled to the East Coast
to see our families who resided there.
We were able to gather all of Brian’s family at his
wonderful ski home in Lincoln, NH.
We also visited Kevin, Mandy and Eva at their home before
driving to NH. We had plans
to visit both Adam and Brad & family, at their homes after the
visit to Loon. After
the very nice days in Loon, Francine, Maggie Rose and I returned
to our hotel in Boston. The rest of the family members returned
to their respective homes.
The next day, Jill was to pick Francine, Maggie Rose and
me up and drive us to both Brad and Adam’s homes.
However, the next morning I was feeling quite nauseous.
Upon checking with Jill, we learned that she and Brian
were also not feeling well.
We called Brad to cancel our planned visit and we learned
that his family was also not well.
Upon surveying all of the family who were at Loon, nearly
everyone had food poisoning or similar symptoms.
We therefore cancelled all of our planned visits for the
remainder of our stay in Boston.
L to R, F to B: Jim,
Francine & Maggie, Kevin & Eva Ruth, Mandy, Nicole
& Tedy, Brad, Rachel (Jill’s Daughter), Brian, Jill, Courtney,
Andrew & Adam
Later in the week, Francine,
Maggie Rose and I traveled to New York City, to visit Lindsey
and Lewis. We
visited them in their rental house in Statin Island.
It was the first time we had seen this home, which was a
very nice three story house with a very small front yard which
they had landscaped beautifully, with many flowers.
They had converted a relatively small (about 20’ by 40’)
backyard into an extensive garden where they planted a large
variety of vegetables, many of which were ready for harvest.
Lindsey cooked dinner which featured many vegetables from
their garden. Back
in Scottsdale, on August 6th, Francine treated me
royally to dinner and presents for my 86th birthday.
No family joined us although Beverly joined us for a dinner
later.
President Biden and his administration
continued its war on United States fossil fuel production, with
the control of both the congress and the senate, the
administration passed excessive spending plans all in the name
of coping with Covid. Covid lingered throughout the country, but
at a much subdued level compared to the conditions throughout
the pandemic. The
very large increase if federal spending added considerable
federal debt and ignited an intense inflation which would become
evident a year later.
All of this was compounded by a disastrous withdrawal of
all U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Our U.S. troops had been
deployed to Afghanistan in 2001 in response to the
September 11th Taliban attack on the U.S., with
the airliner crashes into The World Trade Center and The
Pentagon. In
its last few months, the Trump administration had negotiated a
reduction and possible withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Afghanistan, providing the Taliban satisfied a number of
pre-conditions. The
Biden administration, basically implemented the Trump withdrawal
without insuring that the Taliban were full-filling its
obligations. Biden
announced the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Afghanistan by August 30th to insure that the troops
were withdrawn before the 20th anniversary of
September 11, 2001.
He assured the country that Afghanistan would be able to control
the Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal.
The withdrawal was a complete debacle.
The administration did not coordinate with the U.S.
partners who also had troops in Afghanistan before making the
announcement, did not insure that the U.S. civilians residing in
Afghanistan nor the multitude of Afghanistan personnel who
worked with the U.S. troops during that 20 years were evacuated,
walked away from the only secure air base in Afghanistan in
favor of a very difficult one to defend in Kabul from which to
make the evacuation flights, abandoned over a billion dollars of
military equipment and supplies, which fell into the Taliban
hands, enabled the Taliban to take control of the country before
the withdrawal was complete which aided a terrorist attack that
resulted in the death of thirteen U.S. service members and some
70 Afghanistan citizens and then
President Biden had the hutzpah to report to the U.S.
residents that the withdrawal was a complete success!
In mid-September, Kraig’s daughter, Lauren was married.
Many of our family travelled to Phoenix to attend the big
event. Dick and Judy
came from Iowa, as did all of Kraig’s immediate family.
Janie came from Washington State.
It was a very nice partial family gathering.
We four surviving siblings posed for one more picture.
Dick (79 years), Janie (75 years), Beverly (83 years) And Jim
(86 years)
Levi Davis Holub joins our
great-grandchildren ranks, now totaling 5 –
On September 27th,
Levi Davis Holub was born to Mandy and Kevin Holub.
He weighed 8 pounds and 4 ounces.
He
was our
fifth great grandchild.
Mother and son were doing beautifully.
Mandy, Levi And Kevin Holub
In October Francine and I travelled to Minnesota to visit her
family and to catch up with some other friends.
Her grandson, Benjamin was enjoying his work as a
software engineer.
Emily was working in a retail store as she was trying to find
herself. It was a
good trip. We
particularly enjoyed visiting with our good friends Jay and
Connie Thompson who were until a few years ago our neighbors in
Estancia, however they had moved back to Minneapolis and no
longer spent the winters in Arizona.
Jim, Francine, Connie And Jay Thompson
Lindsey and Lewis came to Arizona for Thanksgiving week.
We again went to several of Lindsey and our favorite
restaurants.
Francine and I planned to travel to Boston and Lincoln, NH for
Christmas. We had
purchased our tickets several months prior.
However, as Christmas drew near and Covid infections
increased with a new variant of the original disease, we began
to be increasingly concerned about travelling in that
environment.
Additionally, the airlines were increasingly changing and
cancelling flights.
We decided the night prior to our scheduled travel to cancel our
trip. It was a
disappointing decision as we were so looking forward to meeting
our newest great grandchild, Levi, and to seeing again the rest
of the family, including the other four great grandchildren.
We purchased a Facebook Portal System for our tv and
connected it to the large screen TV in our media room.
Brian had a similar device on his large TV in the great
room of his ski home in Loon.
The wide angle camera mounted on the top of the tv and
the speakers did a wonderful job of capturing both the video and
audio of the entire room.
It was nice to be able to join them via this Portal, but
of course not as nice as being with them.
We used the Portal system several times throughout the
Christmas holidays to join our family in Loon.
Our good friends Dean and Carol Spatz, joined us in our
home for a home cooked Christmas Dinner.
Jim, Maggie
And Francine, Christmas 2021
Francine and I had a quiet week between
Christmas and New Year Day.
The momentous year of 2021 was concluded. There
were 446,197 U.S. deaths attributed
to COVID-19 on death certificates in 2021.
In early 2022 we would record a total of over 1 million
deaths attributable to Covid, although an unknown number of
the deaths were related to co-morbidity with other
pulmonary, cardiac, diabetes, obesity and related maladies.
We
celebrated Francine’s birthday with a quiet dinner at her
favorite Scottsdale restaurant on January 13th.
Celebrating Francine’s 79th Birthday
On February 24th, Vladimir Putin’s Russian army
invaded Ukraine, attempting to quickly overtake the key cities,
targeting particularly Ukraine’s capital of Kiev. A few weeks
earlier, Putin had attended the winter Olympics in China and
gained agreement from China’s President Xi
Jinping to support his
invasion of Ukraine. Tensions had been building for weeks as
Putin had witnessed the disastrous
U.S. abandonment of Afghanistan and sensed that the U.S. and
NATO would not come to Ukraine’s rescue.
However, Putin seriously under estimated Ukraine’s will
to fight and defend their country.
The Russian offensive was fairly successful in the
eastern portion of Ukraine where there was a significant portion
of the population that was somewhat friendly to Russia.
In defending Kiev, the Ukrainians held off the Russian
advance and eventually Russia pulled back its Kiev offensive.
A year later as this is being written, the Ukrainians
with considerable supply of weaponry and supplies, plus
intelligence help from the NATO members has held Putin to pretty
much of a stand-off.
Ukraine has pushed back the Russian forces on Ukraine’s eastern
front recapturing a significant part of what Russia had
accomplished initially.
The status as of August 2023 is that Ukraine has been
significantly strengthened with additional longer range weapons
with the promise of more to come.
Ukraine has launched a major effort to retake the eastern
part of Ukraine which Russia had captured in the initial months
of the war. However,
Russia had spent the past several months reinforcing their
defenses of this territory with bunkers, trenches and mines.
Which has challenged Ukraine’s ability to recapture this
portion of their country.
ISU Acacia celebrates the long delayed dedication of its new
chapter house -
In the middle of March, I flew to Ames, IA to meet several of
our brother officers of ISU Acacia as we were finally dedicating
our new chapter house.
Francine joined me a couple days later.
I continued to serve as the vice-president of the alumni
board. It had been a busy several months of sending out
invitations, planning the program, preparing the chapter house
for the Friday evening and Saturday open houses and the Saturday
afternoon ribbon-cutting.
Our alumni president was the Master of Ceremonies for the
Saturday evening banquet.
I chaired the Saturday luncheon which was sponsored by
our Iowa State Acacia Chapter Foundation, a 501(c)3 organized to
provide scholarships to our chapter members of which I served as
president. The
dedication was well attended, the weather was a bit ugly on
Friday evening when the first of several open houses were held.
A casual dinner of Bar-B-Que and related dishes was
served in our chapter dining room.
However, the Saturday events, particularly the afternoon
ribbon-cutting,
benefitted from a
positively beautiful day, which contributed to wonderful photos
of the event.
The Acacia Chapter House Ribbon-Cutting, With Francine On The
Left, Brandon McClain, The
Chapter President, Jim and Harold Zarr, The Board President
Jim And Francine At ISU Acacia Dedication Gala
Dick and Judy drove over to Ames to join several of our family
living in Nevada and me for a family dinner prior to the
dedication activities.
L to R: Keith, Judy,
Denise, Kyla, Kindra, Barry, Jim And Dick
We enjoy Brian and Jill’s visit to Scottsdale -
In the middle of April, Brian and Jill visited us in Scottsdale
for a week. Brian
and Jill spent several hours each of four days taking golf
lessons. We also
managed to play a couple of rounds of golf at Estancia.
At our home the Giant Argentina Cactus was in full bloom.
These blossoms are only open about 24 hours.
Interestingly,
the blossoms all seem to open on the same day.
Jill was particularly impressed with these unique cactus
flowers.
Giant Argentina Cactus Blossoms Along Our Driveway
The four of us travelled to Sedona to enjoy the Red Rocks and to
relax at the
Enchantment Resort.
The resort is a beautiful facility nestled along a creek running
at the base of some magnificent Red Rocks.
It was a fun week
The Sedona Red Rock Background For The Enchantment Swimming Pool
Jim, Fran, Jill And Brian, Enchantment Resort
We enjoy our 55th HBS reunion -
In June, Francine and I traveled to the East Coast to attend my
two year Covid delayed 55th HBS class reunion and to
visit our families.
Our reunion was not well attended however we were able to
reconnect with a number of class- and section-mates.
We had an enjoyable Section C and a HBS Class of 1965
dinner with our wives. From our Section dinner we have the
following photo.
L to R: Section C-mates: Bill Chorske, Ben Shapiro, Bob Kraft,
Roger Lipton, Jim, Herb Kaplan And Joel Goldhar.
We have 52 members of our section living as of this writing out
of 93 in our section in 1965.
The programs presented during the delayed reunion were
quite interesting and informative.
In addition to the HBS reunion, we were able to gather all of
Brian’s family at his wonderful ski home in Lincoln, NH.
We were also able to visit both Adam and Brad & family in
their homes for the first time.
Both of them were nicely
launched in their careers and home ownership.
Francine attended a baby shower for Courtney in their
home in Portland, ME.
Brian and I were given a tour of Portland by Andrew and
the three of us enjoyed a wonderful lunch before returning to
Andrew and Courtney’s home where the baby shower was winding
down. We were then
able to explore Andrew and Courtney’s home and wonderful lot.
Veronica Holmberg, Veronica Mattson, Kim, Courtney, Nicole,
Mandy And Jill At Courtney’s Baby Shower
We met Levi for the first time and were able to visit with Eva,
Mandy and Kevin in their home.
It was a wonderful trip.
Jill, Eva, Jim, Francine And Levi
Our extended family reunion in Branston, MO -
DAVIS FAMILY REUNION 2022
L to R, F to B: Tatum Davis, Emerson Holmberg, Kindra Jones,
Judy Davis, Kim Holmberg, Brad, Tedy & Nicole Holub, Jackson
Holmberg, Jax Davis, Cody & Jackson McLemore, Morgan, Grace &
Kolin Davis, Denise Davis, Beverly Everist, Ashley Jones, Beckey
Lauren Titchenal, Judy Holmberg, Veronica Mattson, David
Holmberg, Kraig Davis, Elise Pickering, Jill Pickering, Kyla
Davis, Lori McLemore, Jolinda Cohavi, David Robbie, Brett
Holmberg, Jill Holub, Brian Holub, Richard Davis, Danny and Nora
Pickering, Janie Davis Aiken, Nicholas Davis, Melissa McLemore,
Jaden Cohavi, Keith Davis, Jim Davis, Francine Hitchcock, Jamie
Eslinger, Colin McLemore, Shaun McLemore, Kyle Holmberg,
Veronica Holmberg, Dick Davis, Ryan, Zach and Logan Davis, Adam
Holub, Lizette Everist, Austin Davis, Mike Everist, Jason
Titchenal, Ryan Helgeland, Barry Jones
In July, our extended family, some 65 strong gathered in
Branston, MO for a family reunion.
Our niece, Kyla Davis had organized the reunion including
finding a neat venue of two large side-by-side quite modern
houses which were built for groups such as ours.
We continued our family tradition of each of we six
siblings and our families providing the meals for one day of the
one week stay. Some
us were able to attend all week while others were able to attend
for only a portion of the week.
Andrew and Courtney and Kevin and Mandy were unable to
attend as both Courtney and Mandy were expecting in a few weeks.
Nephew Keith Davis owned a cabin on the very large lake
which was somewhat nearby the two large houses we rented.
His family stayed with him and he hosted numerous boat
rides and water skiing for many of our family members.
It was a wonderful reunion and enabled us to get
reacquainted with many of our family. Our nephew, Richard Davis
brought his drone and took several family pictures, including
the one above – which is an original picture but includes
several members of the family which were photoshopped into this
picture as they were not in the original picture.
Notice great-grandson Tedy in the front row is pointing
to the drone!
In August our Acacia chapter house was occupied by only 13
members, the third year in a row with only about 33 per cent
occupancy. The Iowa
State enrollment had declined from 37,000
in 2018 to just under 30,000 in 2022. Moreover, the
student housing both on- and off-campus was presenting a serious
surplus with owners scrambling to fill every room that they
could, thereby placing significant downward pressure on the
rental rates in Ames. This under occupancy and rental rate
competition put significant pressure on chapter’s ability to
perform financially.
On August 4th, Evander Michael Holub was born to
Courtney and Andrew.
He weighed 8 pounds
8 ounces.
Both Evander and Courtney were doing well. On September 5th,
Astrid Marie Holub was born to Nicole and Brad.
She weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces.
Both Astrid and Nicole were doing well.
We now have seven great grandchildren.
We will see Evander and Astrid for the first time as our
family gathers in Loon, NH for our 2022 Christmas celebration.
The November elections resulted in the Republicans taking modest
control of the US House of Representatives, while the Democrats
increased their hold on the Senate with a net increase of one.
The results were a huge disappointment for the
Republicans as they were seemingly favored to win the House with
a double digit margin and to pick up a few seats in the Senate.
Regardless, capturing the house will enable the
Republicans to block at least some of the current
administration’s spending plans and to engage in meaningful
oversight of the administration’s failed policies.
Lindsey and Lewis again joined us Thanksgiving week in
Scottsdale. It
is always a delight to host them as they both are so
appreciative of particularly Francine’s generosity.
We also celebrated Lindsey’s birthday as it falls on
Christmas Day.
China has for most of the time since the
outbreak of Covid employed a “zero Covid policy” which involved
community/city lockdowns to combat the spread of Covid.
China developed its own Covid vaccine, which has been
less effective than the vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna,
as well as several other US and European vaccines.
China agreed to purchase Moderna vaccines providing that
Moderna would share its technology with China which Moderna
declined to do. With
less effective vaccines and a much less effective and extensive
healthcare system, China relied on its “zero Covid policy” to
combat the malady which was mainly quarantines and lockdowns,
however, late in the year many Chinese citizens began revolting
against this severe policy.
Indeed, entire industries, e.g., auto assembly and
electronics manufacturing factories were shut down at times as
were entire cities. In mid-December, the Chinese government
abandoned this policy and began opening up the country,
including opening its borders to travelers.
However, abandoning of the zero Covid policy, initiated a
significant increase in the number of Covid cases, and possibly
will overwhelm the Chinese healthcare system leading to a very
significant number of deaths.
Consequently, those countries who have travelers from/to
China are beginning to apply restrictions to those travelers
from/to China, e.g., the U.S. began requiring a negative Covid
test prior to permitting anyone who originated in or traveled
through China and arrived in the U.S. As of late December, the
Chinese Covid situation is very fluid and China is not revealing
the extent of its infections and the status of the country’s
healthcare system. (Now some three months later, China continues
to open up its
economy and there is not a reported substantial increase in
Covid deaths as a result of this policy shift.)
(As a post edit – in mid
2023 – the congressional deadline for the administration to
un-classify all Covid-19 records was not complied with however
more documents were now available and newly released information
provided included that (1) U.S. funds were used
in research by the Wuhan laboratory – a Chinese military
venue - suspected as the origin of Covid and (2) the first three
fatality victims of Covid were researchers in the Wuhan
laboratory, thereby cinching the conclusion of many in the
medical research fields that the origin of Covid was Chinese
researchers in the Wuhan laboratory at least partially funded by
U.S. funds, most or all of which was controlled by Dr. Fauci!)
The week of December 18, the U.S. experienced a severe Artic
blast of weather from off shore Washington State through the
upper tier of US states all the way to New York State from where
the storm tracked north-easternly through the western portion of
New England and into Canada.
Francine and I flew to Boston on December 23 to join our
Davis families for our annual Christmas celebration.
Kim’s family flew to Boston from Pittsburgh the day
before to avoid the severe storm in Pittsburgh.
Our flight was delayed a bit but otherwise unaffected by
the very severe storm, described as a Bomb Cyclone, which is a
description given to a storm in which a very severe drop in
atmospheric pressure causes severe winds in conjunction with the
severe drop in temperature.
As a result of the storm, Buffalo, NY and its surrounding
area for the second time this winter received over 40 inches of
snow accompanied by severe winter temperatures.
One of many tragic results of the storm was the death of
at least 30 persons who died from the storm and its after
effects. It took over a week to get parts of the affected area
cleared for access by service providers.
Our family gathered at Brian’s ski home in Lincoln, NH on
Christmas Day and the days thereafter, with most of us staying
for the week.
Fortunately, all 27 of our immediate family were successful in
making this years Christmas festivities.
Brian and Jill were their usual terrific hosts, with
their meals, gifts, house decorations, et al.
Every one of us had tested the day prior and the day of
arrival for Covid.
All of us were negative. I had ordered six dozen Maid-Rites
shipped to Brian’s house which arrived a few days previously-
all of which were devoured by the time the last of
us left the house for the
week. We all
gathered for the usual family pictures on Tuesday morning.
L to R, F to B: Brian, Jill, Adam (with Henry), Veronica
(Adam’s), Veronica (Kyle’s) Judy
(Brett’s
fiancé ), Courtney, Nicole, Tedy, Brad, Francine, Evander, Jim,
Astrid, Kyle, Emerson,
Jackson, Brett, Andrew, Mandy, Eva, Kevin, Levi, Adam and Rachel
(Jill’s children), Kim and David
Brian’s ski house was very well decorated for our Christmas
celebrations, with stockings for all 27 of us hung from the
fireplace mantel and surrounding beams.
A very special treat was Francine and me meeting for the first
time our two newest great grandchildren, Evander and Astrid.
After several tries and with a bit of editing we were
able to get a picture of Francine and me with our seven
great-grandchildren.
L to R: Tedy, Levi,
Emerson, Francine, Evander, Jim, Astrid, Eva and Jackson
Christmas Day was the last day of Hanukkah which we celebrated
with the lighting
the candles in eight Menorahs that Brian and Jill had collected.
Just part of the crew was able to be in the picture below
of those who celebrated the observance of this year’s last day
of Hanukkah..
Francine, Brian, Jill, Kim, Jackson, Brett, David, Emerson,
Kyle, Mandy, Levi, Eva and Kevin
On December 27th, Kim and Judy (Brett’s fiancée)
preoccupied Francine away from the main level of the house by
talking about Brett and Judy’s wedding.
While this was going on Jill unleashed a flurry of
activities involving nearly all of the rest of us in preparing
the room to celebrate Francine’s upcoming 80th
birthday. When
Francine, Kim and Judy returned to join us we surprised Francine
with the celebration.
I had alerted my family that we wanted to celebrate
Francine’s 80th birthday while the entire family was
there. It was a
wonderful celebration and Francine was most appreciative.
Kim and Francine, Celebrating Francine’s 80th
Birthday Early
On December 30th, the last of us departed the ski
house and drove back to Boston to celebrate Eva’s 3rd
birthday at Kevin and Mandy’s home.
Mandy’s parents Steve and Cindy LaPorta and her two
brothers both joined the celebration as did Jill, Brian, Jill’s
children Rachel and Adam, Nicole, Brad, Tedy and Astrid,
Veronica and Adam Holub.
Eva very much enjoyed her big birthday party.
Francine and I came down with serious head colds, including sore
throats, sneezing and coughing the next day.
We were intending to join Brian and Jill’s traditional
New Year Eve party the next day however, we were not feeling
well enough to attend and additionally, did not want to infect
the others attending the festivities.
We stayed in the hotel that evening, had a modest room
service dinner prior to watching the New Year’s celebrations on
TV and began packing for our flight back to Phoenix the next
day.
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Part XIX
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