bill_schubert | Mostly ducking Christmas (Reply)

My wife is sick with a virus and can't attend Christmas family gatherings (2 of them, both her family) so I get to miss one and mostly miss the second. We promised to deliver some food to the second one so I have to make an appearance tomorrow anyway. But for that I'd slide past the entire thing with little notice.

I opened a trading account for TD Ameritrade for my grandchildren and am now content to give them something of value for all occasions from now on which fixes the pressure of having to come up with something every year. They might not thank me for 15 or so years until they get access but they will appreciate it a lot more then.

My wife's brother is also sick again. He acquired Gillain-Barre syndrome a few years ago and at a year older and 150 pounds heavier than me will never recover. He fell a couple of weeks ago and was on the floor for half a day until someone found him and so is back in a recovery facility from which he will likely go to a residential home of some kind. His wife is 'tired of dealing with it' and ill equipped emotionally to so. His adopted daughter to whom I've seen him devote a lot of energy, money, and time has pretty much abandoned him as have his friends. The whole thing is weird to me. The only one who spends time with him, visits him, talks to him, takes him soda, seems to care about him at all now is the sister, my wife, who he's always denigrated and belittled.

My contribution to the world might just be keeping my wife well and available to care for him and her other dying friend. She's good at it. She's cleaned him up after he soiled his sheets and sat with him for hours talking about their family.

It does remind me how charmed is my life and family.