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I may be the world’s best at losing things. Kitchen ware. My cell phone. Earrings. You name it – I can lose it. When Larry lived, he was the best finder of lost things. Even when I didn’t know what the thing looked like, he could find it. Say it was a kitchen implement that had a specific shape. He’d look until he’d find it. So, losing stuff was not such a trouble for me. I’d just ask Larry for help.

I’m writing this blog on Monday, December 29, 2026. It is about three weeks, and I will be in surgery to have my left shoulder replaced. Some of what you will read here is speculation because I don’t really know much about the work that needs to be done. I have told my surgeon, DO NOT tell me what you are going to do. Tell me what you have done after the work is finished.

Be aware this like last week’s blog, this is also a rant. Fare warned …

Warning – this is a rant. Be prepared for one – don’t read further if you don’t want to read a rant!

I’ve been thinking about wishes. We’ve just been through a season where wishes are strongly placed. From children to parents. From spouses to each other. From children to Santa. What are wishes, exactly? Do they come true? What do we do when the wishes we “put out there” are not granted? What if they are granted?

The holidays are here again. We’ve celebrated Thanksgiving in the U.S. Now, the time for other holidays is here. So many are religious celebrations. Others are celebrations of culture. Some are celebrations of both.

If you’ve been reading my blog since its inception, you’ll know how much I enjoy getting and reading Chinese fortunate cookies and seeing if any of them apply to my life – or the life of anyone with whom I’m having the restaurant meal. And, of course, I save those little, white pieces of paper with “learning Chinese” on one side and the “fortune” on the other. When I collect a bunch, I go through them and pull the most meaningful. So, here’s the gleaning from the most recent fortunes.

Today, I had an appointment with my ophthalmologist, Mimi. I have AMD – at least that’s what I think it’s called. Anyway, I think of it as macular degeneration. And, mine has just become the wet kind, requiring an injection in one eye or the other every four-to-six weeks. Generally, I drive home with no difficulty; have done it many, many times.

Solstice. Do you know what the solstice is? Did you know there are two? Does anybody (other than astrophysicists) know what the solstice is? I didn’t. I’ve heard about it all of my life. Yes, I know, winter solstice is the shortest day of our year. December 21 or 22 of each year. Well, that is if we live in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, your shortest day is in June 20 or 21. It means – winter is here!

Once again, we have reached that day in the calendar when we celebrate Thanksgiving. Thomas Jefferson thought that the holiday that was first held in 1621 as a three-day harvest feast should not be declared a national holiday by the federal government – separation of church and state was his reason. It was okay for each state to have such a festival; just not the federal folks.

When I was a teacher at a nationally recognized hospital for patients with respiratory disease, we had an incredibly creative music teacher. One year, she decided that the entire hospital should celebrate Thanksgiving – patients and staff joining together for the event. At that time, the patients – children and adults lived for months at the hospital. There was no going home for the holidays.