One Thing Leads to Another

...is the Fixx earworm I've had all morning.  I remember when it came out -- I was in college, and we'd dance to it at parties in Building 22.  Most of the music at the getties was The Ramones...

So I thought about the office yesterday, but didn't quite make it in.  I got a hold of one of my partners, on his way there at the crack of one pm, and we handled some stuff.

Wifey had made plans to meet her cousin Mark and his wife Susan for lunch.  They're staying in Plantation, and asked for a half way meet, so I picked Dragonfly in Doral.  I've always liked Mark and Susan -- Mark is my father in law's brother Lou's son.  He was born in Miami to his Holocaust Survivor parents, but moved to Brooklyn at a very young age.  He has a four year younger brother Sandy, who lives in Weston.  We hoped Sandy would join us, but he couldn't make it.

We caught up nicely on our lives.  They have three sons -- one married last year and lives in Queens.  Another boy lives in the Lower East Side, and the third moved to LA.  Susan, like Wifey, very much wants to move out of their large Syosset, LI house.  Mark, like me, is dragging his feet.  He's a musician and just taught himself the pedal steel guitar, and worries about neighbors in a condo.

Mark's parents Sally and Lou are aging in place in their Broward condo. Lou is 94, and still mostly intact, but he never wants to leave his apartment.  Sally is 84 and stuck with her forever husband.  Sandy, the local son, gets most of the burden -- Mark comes just twice per year.  It always seems to go that way -- unequal responsibility for the aging folks.  But Mark and Sandy seem to make it work.

Our landscaper told us she'd start our huge cleanup job on October 10, so our yard will remain the set of "Jumangi" for awhile longer.  Wifey asked me if there was a reason I hadn't yet removed the non accordion panels which darken our breakfast "knock," as my mother in law calls it.  I told her there was -- my laziness.  I'll get to them sooner than later.

I DID start organizing my garage.  D1 and S1 got a bunch of wedding gifts.  Many will be returned, and some kept for when they move to a house.  They're smart -- they avoid clutter.  So I have the boxes stacked in two large piles -- still room for a vehicle.  If we do get a flooding storm, though, there'll be some wet Waterford and other tchokes...

Today I WILL return to the office -- some strategy meetings with partner John.  It'd be nice to earn a few shekels to make up for storm losses.  All told, I figure the thing will cost me $15-20K, between the long hotel stays, trip to Atlanta, A/C and roof repair, replacement of pond fish, and of course the huge landscape cleanup.

Still, I take the long view.  Wifey and I learned that our marriage can survive about 1.5 hours without air conditioning...so if we stayed even one night in our electric-less house, the dissolution of marriage that would have resulted would have cost far more than that.

Luckily, that was one thing that didn't lead to another.