My friend's Christmas letter- subtitled by me: "A boomer in transition"

Every Christmas newsletter is interesting to me, because the authors write about the best of their experiences, which are appreciated. Nevertheless, one particular newsletter received from Norm, a Dundalk High School friend, captured my attention this year, because the narrative describes the situaton of being a baby boomer in transition. We read about how Norm and his wife were searching for how they would fit into a new community, in spite of the unexpected transitional challenges they faced while trying to accomplish their goal.  I titled this Let's Write Christmas essay as "A Boomer in Transition". 

I'm reasonably certain that my friend Norm did not mean for his Christmas letter to be an existential metaphor about baby boomers. Yet, for the purposes of this blog, in my opinion, he wrote in a personal way about how life's inevitable transitions can be confronted with optimism, regardless of the salient challenges we must eventually resolve, as time marches on.

Norm introduces the letter with a short preamble. "Once again the Christmas Season 2019, has again caught up and almost passed me.  I have lots of excuses but don't have time to list them all. Wishing you and yours the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years from Norm and Uni."

This seasonal clip art addition to Norm's letter is meaningftul, because one of the ornaments depicts an owl, our Dundalk High School mascot.

Dear Friends,
Wishing all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! You can see by the above address that we no longer live in Georgia and moved last April to Florida. 

It’s funny the way things happen. 

We had a lovely home in Georgia and some nice friends but missed being closer to family and considered moving back north to Virginia. We visited homes in the Fredericksburg area but after due consideration (too much crazy traffic) decided to remain in Georgia. Our closest friends in Georgia returned from a trip to Texas visiting family and told us they had decided to move closer to family there. At that point we decided we wanted to live closer to the ocean and started looking for homes in Florida. We visited Fernandina Beach, FL in northeast FL and really liked it. Found some lovely homes but there was always something that kept us from making an offer. We then decided to get our home in GA ready for sale. It wasn’t too hard since we maintained it well, but we did do some major changes, like hardwood floors on two carpeted rooms downstairs and putting in French doors to another downstairs room so there were 2 master suites on the first floor.

By this time, we had also found a home in Fernandina Beach that we knew would need some work, since it was built in 2007. Our offer was taken, and we were off to the selling and buying races. The day our home in GA went on the market, a full price offer was made and accepted, but something was not right. The wife loved the house, but the husband kept visiting the home looking to nitpick small things on a home that was 11 years old. A set of French doors leading from the second master suite to the deck needed replacing, which we did but in the process the installers broke the door handles. I won’t bore you with the trials and tribulations over that or other incidents, but the buyers canceled the contract the day before settlement, no matter we sold it a few weeks later. 

Unfortunately, the real problem in this move, I caused. 

While doing most of our packing I went to the attic over the garage, which was mostly covered with flooring except in a small area. There were some boxes that I wanted to use laying on sheetrock and as I bent over to pick them up my foot slipped off a beam and through the ceiling I came. Luckily, I was able to grab a beam instead of dropping 15ft down to the concrete garage. I crashed onto the floor and crushed my right heel, worst bones in the foot to break. Had I not grabbed a beam only God knows what would have happened. I became an invalid and Uni had to do everything herself. She was not happy with me and I don’t blame her. We moved in but shortly thereafter Uni visited her ailing mother in Korea. I’m still recovering but limping less each day. Since we moved in, we painted the house, redid the kitchen, landscaped, painted the garage inside, and many other necessary projects. Our home is on a cul de sac and fortunately for us we have great neighbors. 

A new home was being built on lot next to ours, so that was fun. If we ever move again, it will be to a condo or assisted living. So now you know what happened to Norm and Uni. 

Hopefully, by next Christmas, everything will be completely settled. Uni decorated the house for Christmas as I am of little real help. Everything looks great. The kitchen remodel was only to take a few days but took 2 weeks. That meant 2 weeks without a kitchen sink, fun fun, fun. 

But I digress, BEST WISHES FOR A HAPPY AND JOYFUL CHRISTMAS SEASON AND MAY THE NEW YEAR BRING YOU HEALTH AND HAPPINESS!!

Norm and Uni

Maine Writer "Let's Write" post script- Get Well Norm!