Quizzical Sojourns 2: December 2023

Sunday, December 31, 2023

Buon Anno

December 31, 2023, at home

Buon Anno 2024

(Happy New Year 2024 in Italian)

PHOTO: Pfänder mountain in western Austria, where I proposed marriage to my wonderful wife on April 10, 2005 ... I took this photo of the exact spot where I proposed a few minutes after I proposed. Four countries can be seen from that location: Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Germany.

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I thought that I would tell you about a New Year's Eve/Day tradition my father created in the early 1980s.

In the early 1980s, my father and I took a trip to western Austria to visit many of our Austrian cousins, including Hans and his wife Rita. On that trip, we spent New Year's Eve at Hans and Rita's house. When we returned home, my dad started a new tradition where Dad would call Hans on the phone from Dad's house on Long Island, New York, every Dec. 31 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time/U.S., which was 12 a.m./Midnight Austrian Time/Central European Time on Jan. 1. My father wanted to be one of the first people to wish Hans and Rita a Happy New Year.

When my dad sadly passed away in February 1997, I continued the tradition. I have been calling from my various homes in southeastern Florida since I moved south from New Jersey in May 1998. Sadly, Hans passed away in November 2013, so since then I have been calling Rita directly. Today, I was able to leave a New Year's greeting for Rita in English and in German on her home answering machine after many attempts.

Since the early 1980s, I have visited my cousins across Austria seven times and have gone skiing in the Austrian Alps with several of them on many of those trips. My father and I once celebrated New Year's Eve at Hans and Rita's house in the early 1980s. On that trip, we were in Austria from December 27 to January 8. Hans and Rita lived on the side of a mountain ~ Rita still lives there ~ in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg, overlooking a small city. I remember the wonderfully subdued feeling as we gently raised our Champagne-filled glasses and quietly spoke the words "Zum Wohl" and "Prost" as the clock struck midnight in their living room. We then went outside onto their patio to watch the fireworks explode below us in arrays of colors. It is my most memorable New Year's Eve celebration.

I call Rita at 6:15 p.m. so that I am not calling during the fireworks. Actually, the last several years, she has not been celebrating at home, so I have had to leave one voice message and then try during the beginning of January so that I can speak with her directly. This year, I once again left a message.

On April 10, 2005, my wife and I shared Champagne with Hans and Rita in their house with two more Austrian cousins (Blanka, Hans' sister, and Blanka's son Markus) to celebrate our wedding engagement. I had just proposed marriage to my wife on a nearby snowy mountaintop with Hans and Rita just several yards from us.

My wife and I wed in southeastern Florida on February 4, 2006, and we are still married.

Prosit Neujahr !!!

December 31, 2023, 6 p.m., at home

My many Austrian cousins in Austria are now celebrating the new year at midnight. Austria (Central European Time) is six hours later than Florida (Eastern Time). I always celebrate twice. In the early 1980s, I celebrated the New Year's Eve and Day in the early 1980s at my cousins' home in western Austria. (I have visited my Austrian cousins seven times; several times I went skiing in the Austrian Alps with them.)

The picture below (in German) translates to: "Happy New Year and a good slide into the new year." "Rutsch" (slide) is a traditional word used to describe how one enters a new year.

Mo, Continue To R.I.P.

December 31, 2023, at home

On December 30, 1994, Maureen Starkey Tigrett, also known as Mo Starkey, also known as Maureen Cox, died at the age of 48. I was heartbroken when I read the news of her passing. She was Ringo Starr's ex-wife. On The Beatles album "Let It Be," you can hear a Beatle (probably Paul McCartney) say, "Thanks, Mo." That's her. Trivia: The red jacket that Ringo wears during the rooftop concert belonged to Maureen. Continue to R.I.P.

Almond Cookies

December 31, 2023, at home

This morning, my wonderful wife made homemade almond cookies. They are quite delicious.

Today is ...

December 31, 2023, at home

I prefer Prosecco.

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Beef Stew

December 30, 2023, at home

Today, my wonderful wife made beef stew: beef, onions, potatoes, carrots, peas, and corn.

A Life Do-Over

December 30, 2023, at home

I would not change anything, unless I could do my life over as a good-looking man. That would be a blast. I don't mean Brad Pitt-looking, just your basic good-looking guy with a little bit of the Vinnie Barbarino-cool.

If I could avoid the five surgeries in the past two years, that would be great.

Today Is ...

December 30, 2023, at home

From 1992 to 1996, I was a writer, editor, and researcher for an international weekly magazine on the financial and technical aspects of the chemical industry. We were based in the financial district of New York City, quite close to Wall Street.

In 1993, I was sent on a business trip to the town of Rifle in northwestern Colorado, near the border with Wyoming, to cover the opening of a sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) solution mine. Hot water is pumped into the ground to dissolve the bicarb, and then the solution is extracted through another hole in the ground. The solution is then dehydrated, leaving only the powdered bicarb. The factory produced six grades of baking soda for various industrial and home uses.

I remember making the mistake of wearing black patent leather shoes in the factory. When I emerged, they were covered in white powder.

Friday, December 29, 2023

Hot Car

December 29, 2023, at home

Been There, Done That: black Mustang GT 5.0 in the 1980s, and the car wasn't even running. Firemen arrived to blast my engine with white foam. The supermarket store manager informed me of smoke wafting from the front of my car. I popped my hood and calmly uttered the famous words, "It looks like my car is on fire."

Today Is ...

December 29, 2023, at home

Thursday, December 28, 2023

Today Is ...

December 28, 2023, at home

Holy Innocents Day, observed annually on Dec. 28 (sometimes 29), commemorates the execution of the innocent, male children in Bethlehem as told in Matthew dtheay it is custom to give the youngest so2:16. On this n in household the power to rule the day. From what to eat, where to go, and what to do, the youngest son is in charge. In Mexico, it is a day for children to play practical jokes and pranks on their elders.

December 28, 2023, at home

My favorite chocolate-related candies are chocolate-covered marzipan and chocolate-covered candied orange peels.

December 28, 2023, at home

My preferred card game is Hearts.

December 28, 2023, at home

In the mid-1980s, while studying at Villanova University, I wrote and created an eight-minute movie for my film-production course. A few of my friends were in my film which was somewhat of an Alfred Hitchcock-type thriller. I also took courses in film analysis, television production, theater production, and print journalism. That was after two-and-a-half years, when I changed my major from pre-med to communications with a minor in the French language.

December 28, 2023, at home

Back in the 1960s, when I was a young kid, at school, we would face the flag in our classroom and recite The Pledge every school-day morning.

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Fruitcake Day

December 27, 2023, at home

Today is National Fruitcake Day. We actually have THREE types of fruitcake in our home now: regular; panettone (Italian); and stollen (German/Austrian). I love them all. I always give my mother a panettone imported from Italy every Christmas. My wife and I also always buy one for ourselves. We also gave one to my wife's sister. She hasn't purchased a stollen for us in many years. Here is a piece of the regular fruitcake I at on Christmas Eve.

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Today Is ...

December 26, 2023, Boxing Day at home

Monday, December 25, 2023

Shrimp Scampi With Capelli

December 25, 2023, Christmas Day at home

My terrific mother and my wonderful wife combined to make shrimp scampi with capelli d'angelo (angel hair pasta) for Christmas Day dinner.

Winter Memories: Long Island

December 25, 2023, Christmas Day at home (in southeastern Florida)

Winter Memories On Long Island, New York

I have listened to "Holiday Sing Along With Mitch," which is Mitch Miller and the Gang's Christmas album, every Christmas season since its release in 1961, the year of my birth.

Nowadays, while I live in southeastern Florida, listening to it produces memories of the snowy winters of my youth on Long Island, New York, in the 1960s and 1970s, and even into the 1980s:

Christmas Eve dinner and opening presents around the tree slightly before midnight at our home with my father's side of the family; we spent Christmas Day with my mother's side of the family at my grandparents' home ... snowball fights at Bayview Elementary School ... sledding ... spearfishing for eels with a thick, ten-foot-long wooden pole on a frozen Willetts Creek, which was only about 50 feet from my house; we would chop a small hole in the ice with a hatchet, catch the eels, and then have Dad's friend with the smokehouse smoke them for us: delicious ... "skitching" with my friends: grabbing onto the bumper of a slow-moving car that was passing by and sliding down the snowy road on our feet, trying not to fall and definitely trying to avoid the car's exhaust pipe in our faces ... and skating and playing hockey with Cousin Scott after hiking through the woods to a half-frozen Southards Pond, sometimes skating until 10 p.m. by the light of the moon, with our long, thick rope nearby in case someone fell in; this was often followed by Indian food take-out, beer in coffee mugs, classical music (WQXR-FM from New York City) on the radio, and discussions of Nietzschean philosophy at Scott's apartment. ... truly halcyon days.

"Sleigh Ride" is my favorite song from this album and is the reason why I always eat pumpkin pie on Christmas Day, sometimes on Christmas Eve, but never, ever on Thanksgiving Day, as per my longstanding personal tradition. I must eat it at Christmas. Why? Because pumpkin pie is mentioned in the song "Sleigh Ride," which I considered to be a Christmas song since my age was in single digits in the 1960s. As an adult, I realized that in reality it really isn't a Christmas song, but a winter-seasonal song. Anyway, now at age 62, I continue to follow my childhood tradition. Of course, I listened to it several times today. I also ate a piece of pumpkin pie today.

https://youtu.be/TWVSS-Fy6dc?si=1ndW4zxMO5S_amEr

A Christmas Miracle !!!

December 25, 2023, Christmas Day at home

A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE !!!

I received my Christmas Miracle !!! This morning, I was discharged by my home nurse because the almost-14-inch-long incision in my back due to two recent spinal surgeries is HEALED. She was coming to our home regularly to change my bandage. She also had been administering intravenous antibiotic infusions every day, which ended several weeks ago.

PHOTO: the healed wound in my back (if Facebook blurred this photo, tap/click on "Learn more," and then tap/click on "See photo" to see it. Facebook probably won't blur it because it is no longer gory.)

In addition, I have gained enough strength to be able to pull myself from a lying position in bed to a seated position at the side edge of the bed and then get into my wheelchair. I can even take a few steps without support, but for now, I require a little physical support from my wife and my mother, my frame walker, or by hanging on to furniture and door jams.

Recently, I wasn't even able to stand without severe pain and support. My mother gave me a sturdy railing for the bed for Christmas, which I have been using for a few weeks. It has helped me immensely. Thanks, Mom !!!

My physical therapist comes here twice per week to guide me through new leg exercises. On the other days, I fend for myself. The peripheral neuropathy in both of my feet due to diabetes has been a challenge for me with its numbness and its pain. I have been steadily regaining feeling in both of my thighs that were severely numb following my second of two spinal surgery this year.

Many thanks go to my wonderful wife and my terrific mother for their support, both physical and non-physical, and their patience with me. Many thanks also go to God and to you for your prayers and well-wishes.

Buon Natale

December 25, 2023, Christmas Day at home

Buon Natale !!! Happy Christmas !!!

A Decades-long Tradition

December 25, 2023, Christmas Day at home

Today is National Pumpkin Pie Day, so I shall be eating pumpkin pie today. Since the late 1960s, when I was 7 or 8 years old, my personal tradition forbids me from eating pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day. I must eat it on Christmas Day or close to it. Why? Pumpkin pie is mentioned in the song "Sleigh Ride," which I considered to be a Christmas song since my age was in single digits. As an adult, I realized that in reality, it really isn't a Christmas song. Anyway, now at age 62, I continue to follow my childhood tradition. I only recently discovered that today is National Pumpkin Pie Day, so my personal tradition has been in line with general tradition for decades.