Regarding my recovery, I have been able to walk to the lake a few more times which I find is so incredibly enjoyable and serene (even though Mitch doesn't seem to have the patience to spend more than an hour there). Still, it's at least a 2 block walk and I'm grateful I'm able to do that without even having to stop because of pain!!! Hopefully I'll be able to carve out some time to go there not on Shabbat, when I can take a few photos!
Other than being able to lift my leg up high (which mostly is needed for climbing up stairs), I seem to be completely recovered. Thanksgiving is only 2 days away and I'm hoping, since Mitch is home and off work, maybe we can finally take a walk to the lake with our fishing rod; I've been craving to try my hand at fishing again (never caught anything--I'm lucky if I can cast off without getting the line tangled!--and I wouldn't know what to do with the catch anyway. But still, like playing the slot machines, it's fun to do).
Unfortunately, we face another issue for Mitch: his shoulder, which was broken over 20 years ago (he has 3 screws in it) has developed severe bone on bone arthritis and has been giving him pain lately. He saw an orthopedist who said that shots and physical therapy really wouldn't help at this point since the shoulder is too far gone and the only option is a shoulder replacement. Unfortunately, the insurance company has decided to deny this -- they want him to have more conservative therapy (shots and PT) first. We are in the process of appealing this but it can take up to 60 days for a result. We were really hoping to have this done before the end of the year while we still met our deductible, otherwise it's an additional $3K of full retail price to pay in addition to the 10% copays thereafter. And I'm still getting bills from the $125K surgery I had. We'd be living pretty well if it wasn't for the cost of medical insurance and medical bills, which is about 85% of our income! In my opinion, we need a national healthcare plan like Canada or Europe, but I'm confident it won't happen in our lifetimes. And we're not eligible for Medicare for another few years, although I'm not sure how much better that would be anyway. At least, thankfully, this isn't a life threatening situation.
Once again, I must always look for the silver lining and thank G-d for our blessings for which I am so grateful for: that we even have insurance and a livelihood to pay for the medical bills. Yes, it is very difficult and making us live paycheck to paycheck without the ability for discretionary funds (then again, with the plague, there's nowhere to go for fun anyway) but how many people are suffering even more than we are (after all, this is just inconvenient pain--elective surgery--not live threatening) and can't afford to even to to a doctor? After typing this, I'm feeling very bad for even bringing up the subject).
Our park is having a community pot-luck Thanksgiving dinner, but no one here seems concerned about COVID and thus there is no mask wearing or social distancing. We will not be attending. It's also sad that we cannot be with family as in previous years.
I do miss not spending Thanksgiving with the family. I fondly recall all of Mitch's siblings (Doris, Jane and Freddy via Ina--that was the year we met Twila!) hosting, as well as our daughter (Jessica). This year, the most we can hope for is to say hello via Zoom. I know I'm not alone.
In fact, it had been in the plans (and we've been on and off the fence for a few weeks) about visiting the kids mid-Dec since Mitch has 5 vacation days. We totally ruled out flying (even though it's only 1.5 hours) because the plague is worse now than it's ever been and we absolutely must avoid being in any public places. Even if people around us are wearing masks, we don't trust anything that's been touched by others or the air around them (they could have removed their masks for a while). Airports are way out of the question.
We considered driving, but the trip would be approx. 12 hours. Since Mitch's days off would be Sun-Fri and we won't travel on Fri or Sat, that means driving up on Sunday and driving home on Thursday. All of our driving in the last 7 years has been confined to no more than 250 miles a day (or 4-5 hours); this trip would be 650 miles. We would not be able to stop for lunch or dinner unless we went to a fast food drive thru and ate in the car. We realized this is really way too much for us; we're not as young as we used to be and believe this type of drive, twice in the same week, is really pushing beyond our limit. Still, it's extremely disappointing to have to had made this decision. Fortunately, there is a new upcoming government administration which has a great deal of promise on getting stuff done, including a vaccine (there are currently 3 companies that have promising results) so we can only pray that we'll be able to fly up there some time next year without worry about getting sick.
Yes, 2020 really sucks for everyone! I still count my blessings for all that we have: especially for our health and livelihood.
On a last note, I have a problem with celebrating Thanksgiving, per se. First, I think every day needs to be a day to think about what he have to be thankful for (see my Facebook posts for "Day xx/365 of Thanksgiving"); Sukkot is the Jewish festival for Thanksgiving, but most importantly for me (WARNING: political ideology, feel free to skip)..... I don't believe we've been taught all the facts in school. We learned (at least us Yankees) that the holiday celebrates how the Native Americans taught the newly arrived Europeans how to raise crops and hunt so that they could survive. In thanks, they held a community dinner. But what happened to the Native Americans thereafter? Were they appreciated? NO!!! They were killed or exiled to reservations (aka concentration camps) and considered to be the barbarians. Even to this day they do not have all the rights "Americans" have. They are the original Americans. That's why I have a real problem celebrating this holiday. Ok, off the soap box
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