Aging Capriciously

Dear Friends and Relatives,    

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

John:  This year if you are reading our annual Holiday Letter, please be advised that you will be billed $6.00 for an Opportunity Charge.  If you are a frequent reader of my blog at agingcapriciously.com, I am also billing six dollars to read each weekly blog.  I have decided that if Elon Musk can charge six dollars for Tweeting on Twitter, I should be able to follow his lead.  For this small charge, I promise to provide the same fine insights into the world, great ideas on improving your life, and musings on happenings in the political sphere that you have come to expect.  (I stole this last line from NPR.)  With the financial bit out of the way, I will now turn to the good news from the Persicos. 

Best of all, we are still alive, quite healthy and manage to get out of bed most days.  At our annual medical visit, our doctor was quite complimentary.  After taking our blood pressure and vitals, he said that neither Karen nor I looked a day over 80.  When we informed him that Karen was 78 and I was 76, he apologized and said that he must have picked up some old persons’ charts. 

Moving on from the medical stuff, we sold our Wisconsin house.  We are now year-round residents in the state where my brother-in-law said, “People go to die.”  Can you guess where this is?  Hint, it is not Florida, although it would be a close second.  Karen and I were not offended by his claim since we have known many people who seemed to die around here.  Last year, we started a Holiday Tradition of remembering departed friends and relatives on New Year’s Eve while singing “Old Auld Lang Syne” and talking about what we missed or did not miss about each of them.  We hope they were listening to the good points that Karen mentioned and not their weak points that I am more prone to point out. 

Now for the bad news. We know that you will be disappointed, but I have decided to skip all the shots, boosters, more boosters, aches, and pains that we had this year as it would take up too much of this letter.  Sadly, another year passed, and we still have not been invited to any State dinners or High Society affairs.  We are hoping that in two years when Biden kicks Trumps butt again, we will get invited to his Inaugural Ball.  That is assuming Biden and Trump do not become part of our New Year’s Holiday Tradition.  Well, that’s all the bad news for now.  If you want more, turn on the daily news or pick up your local newspaper.  Time to go back to my Tequila and let Karen finish this letter.  She likes to provide the family updates.  She posed with Santa earlier this year at a Home Depot Store.  

Karen:  I am thankful for many things this year.  We remain healthy (and vaccinated and boosted) and still able to do our exercise regimes.  John runs trails in the Casa Grande mountains and I get to the Casa Grande Community Center 4 times a week for Senior Fit and Zumba.  It was a relief to have the home in Frederic sold.  Maintaining two homes cost too much money and too much work.  It was fun when we were younger and had more income.   

We could not leave Frederic entirely as we have made many friends there over the years.  We will go back to Frederic for the summer (for fewer months than before).  We already have an RV site reserved in Clam Falls.  We have been busy updating this house, getting our stuff from Frederic integrated, getting a new AC unit and new flooring.  So far, we have found room for the things we brought here.  Unfortunately, there are still a bunch of boxes in WI in a storage unit, so more will need to come back next year.  My weeks are full of uke group, Tucson Dulcimer Ensemble, church choir and starting my first quilt.  I am using a pattern with John’s old ties which he cheerfully donated to me. 

Megan (Youngest Daughter) caravanned back to MN this year with us, and is settled in a lovely apartment one half mile from the White Bear house she grew up in.  Her little min-pin, Bambi, is quite confused about this white stuff outside, but Megan is very happy to be back in MN and connecting with her siblings and cousins while working remotely as a real estate software trainer.  Kevin (Son) moved to his WI vacation home during COVID and is still there, working remotely with LinkedIn and remodeling his home.  Susan (Second Oldest Daughter) works remotely with Premier, a large medical purchasing organization.  Her boys are no longer home, and her rescue dog, Bart, keeps her company.  She and her youngest, Sam, just returned from a trip to Korea to visit her birth mom and family.  Juli (Oldest Child) has weathered a second brain surgery for tumors resulting from her childhood leukemia treatment.  Rob (Juli Spouse) manages all her follow up appointments along with continuing to teach in Prescott.  Juli has been able to resume some of her sewing projects despite failing vision in her left eye.  Our grandchildren (Six in total) are all in their 20s and one turned 30 this year.  Where did the time go?  No great grandchildren yet, which is OK as our young folks take their time to find themselves in this challenging world. 

Wishing you all peace, health, and happiness in the upcoming year.

Karen and John  karen.persico@gmail.com     612-384-6120        persico.john@gmail.com    612-310-3803