Merry Christmas from the Geiger house. December 2024
Another
year is almost in the books. I for one am glad it is over. I’m tired of all the
political crap, Biden this, Trump that, and nobody even paid Harris a second
thought until Joe dropped out of the race, and then…well, she lost. Now we will
wait and see.
Some
days it doesn’t pay to get out of bed. I thought this year I would be a true
Corvette owner and be like the rest of the pack. I will park my toy in the
garage and just save it for sunny days. We still have the Lincoln Town Car just
sitting in the driveway. Might as well get it fired up and running again. So I
had it towed to the local mechanic, figuring out a new battery, fresh gas, a
wash job and I would be good to go. Not my luck, battery, yes, but turns out
the fuel pump is toast. Wash job, hahaha, it is gonna require a trip to the
cleanup shop. Well, all said and done, it is going to cost me about 2 grand. So,
while it is in the shop guess what happened. One of my coworkers thought the
Corvette was leaking oil. So, the next morning I checked the oil, it was fine,
but not the damn thing won’t start. I get my little jumper box out and get it
started and drive straight to Chevrolet to see the “Corvette Guy.” Would you
know it; it needed a new battery and the oil leak(?) wasn’t oil, it was the
water pump. So, a new battery and water pump, total $1300, in addition to the
$1000 I spent 2 months ago for 2 new tires on the back end. It just might be
time to learn to ride a bicycle again. Let’s not forget the $800 to clean out
the garage to park it in there, and the $2500 for the new garage door. I may
have to set up a go-fund-me page at the rate things are going. Sometimes you
run into some money, which I did, unfortunately it was going out instead of
coming in.
Now
for the health report. Heart doctor figures I’ll last until May, well at least
that is my next appointment. I did have a small nickel size spot of skin cancer
removed. I thought it was going to be a simple “in the office” procedure, but
no, it was a full-on deal in an operating room under anesthesia, done by a
plastic surgeon. I saw the bill, and was glad I didn’t have to pay for it, $50,000.
For that kinda money I would think they could have removed every freckle on my
whole body. Had a couple other strange exams a few months ago. First was a
“stoop” exam. I did not request it, but somebody at the VA decided that I was
walking stooped over. Well, that’s simple, because if I was more than a few
hundred feet my back starts to hurt, and I stoop over. Anyway, I got checked
out and it is bad enough that the VA decided it was worth a 20% disability
rating. The other was a psych exam, again someone at the VA decided I needed
that too. Supposedly I’m not sleeping well. That was news to me, I thought I
was doing fine. So, I drove down to Indianapolis for the exam, and nobody asked
me about my sleeping. The doctor questioned me about my childhood, my parents, where
I worked before going in the service and where I worked after. Also, how many
children were in my family, you know the usual psychiatric stuff. Result: the
VA gave a 20% disability rating for insomnia syndrome; don’t you just know I’m
going to sleep better now that they told me that. Didn’t tell me what to do for
it, or give me meds, but officially it is a disability.
Cindy is still getting around with one new knee,
and the other one is giving her problems now. Her aches and pains of getting
older has not weakened her ability to holler “Hey, dumb ass, come here!” And
she’s still able to take care of the children (her dogs). Needy little buggers,
always wanting attention, thinking they are more important than anything else.
This
year marks our 54th Christmas together. Where has all the time gone.
We had good one’s and not so good ones. This year Santa is poor, blew all his
money on automobiles. If the kids are all lucky they can come by for a free meal,
we have plenty of food, if I can talk Mrs. Claus into cooking. I know in the
next few days we will be cranking up the mixer, and turning on the oven, it is
cooking baking time. I always enjoy that, they are so much better than store
bought. Might crank out some bread too. Mom always baked bread for Christmas
and gave it as gifts. The house always smelled so goooooood. Cindy and I did
that for a while and I think it is time to start again. We haven’t put up the
tree yet. Cindy bought a new one because the old one wasn’t looking good
anymore. We missed the put up date, usually December 15th (Gary’s
birthday), but he’s not with us this year and I forgot. Miss you Brother.
Anyway, Cindy bought the tree (in a box) and I brought it in the house. Two
hours later Davey (our big dog) had the box open, fortunately the lights still
work, damn dog.
With all
that said, from our family to yours, Merry Christmas 🎄 and a Happy New
Year !!!
Alan,
Cindy, Tracy & Brian Geiger email: alanlgeiger@gmail.com
