2024
Events:
Year in Review:
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Prosperous New Year!!!
We started off 2024 with fond memories of Christmas 2023 in Raleigh, NC. We
spent time with friends and family such as Angela and Bobby Lee at Girabaldi's
Italian Restaurant in Fuquay-Varina, NC on Dec 23, 2023. It was wonderful to
catch up after a few years of not seeing them.
We then met up with Wes and Marguerite also to catch up after a few years
absence.
Dinner at Rey's Restaurant was memorable as always. Just like old times!
Finally Christmas dinner with Carol's brother Stan, his wife Sandi, Carol's
daughter-in-law Ashley, and Carol's son Brian. We met at Stan/Sandi's house for
fun times before proceeding to have dinner at Saltgrass Restaurant in
Knightdale, NC on Christmas Eve 2023. Like no time had passed at all. So good to
spend time together.
In February we made our annual trip to Arizona to visit the Grangers. We spent a
couple of days just chatting and eating too much. After which we hopped over to
LA to enjoy a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise.
Middle of April we took aquick trip to Duke Eye center so Lou could visit his
favorite eye doctor, Dr. Sharon Fekrat. Dr. Fekrat had told Lou to arrange the
appointment for the last one of the day so there would be plenty of time to chat
about Lou's blindness. Since 2019 Lou has been suffering from gradual loss of
vision in his only remaining functioning eye. By February 2021 Lou's vision has
been reduced to bright lights like to sun and nothing else. After years of
bleeding in the eye, injections, surgeries, and after an hour of discussion, Dr.
Fekrat suggested that Lou do nothing else to the eye. That is, no injections or
surgeries in order to preserve the eye until a later date. Not great news but at
least the eye is stable now.
In April we cruised the eastern/southern Caribbean yet again. This time with
George, Liz, GT, and Elaine. It was a fun 10-day trip with lots of time in the
sun enjoying the company of good friends and a few beverages.
During the cruise, we noticed that Carol was having breathing issues with stairs
and the hot/humid weather. After several tests onboard the ship and back home,
it was decided that she was seriously dehydrated. She was prescribed 10 IV
treatments. This seemed to help at the time.
In June our 2009 Lexus RX-350 had a transmission failure. To rebuild the
transmission would have cost $6,000 and taken at least 3 weeks so all of the
parts could be obtained from around the country. We had recently spend about
$10,000 on the car between a new front axle, brakes, and tires. The engine was
perfectly fine and was estimated to be only half way through its expected life.
However, we decided to part ways with Jane (the car) and purchase a new car. The
Lexus was such a wonderful car that after shopping around for a while and
considering other brands, we ended up buying a 2024 Lexus RX-350. Cool ride
man!!!!
We started to receive weekly offers from Celebrity cruises for a free cruise!
The cruises would be for 3, 4, 6, or 7 days. Mostly in the Caribbean.
Accomodations were for inside, ocean view, or even veranda staterooms. No charge
for the cruise other than port fees and taxes. You could even upgrade say from
inside cabin to veranda for an up charge. So we took our first cruise in June -
a 4-day Key West and Bimini cruise onboard the Celebrity Reflections. We enjoyed
visiting Key West as it is one of our favorite stops. Bimini was nothing to
write home about and I would skip it unless it is another free cruise. We have a
free 6-day cruise already booked for December 2024.
In August we had a visit from tropical storm Debbie. Fortunately it was nothing
to worry about. Unfortunately, it was a sign of things to come.
In September we had hurricane Helene give us a drive-by. Although it was about
180 miles off shore, it was strong enough to give Punta Gorda a decent storm
surge due to the storm itself combined with high tide. We had no damage and all
was well when we went to bed at 11 pm. In the morning I went outside to find my
neighbors surveying the area. Turned out that the water from the harbor and
canals came inland around 2 am flooding the golf course and streets. Our street
was still flooded and the water came up about 1/3 of the way up our driveway and
deposited mulch from meighbor's yards on our driveway and lawn.
Two weeks later in October, Hurricane Milton paid us an unwelcomed visit.
Landfall was north of us around Sarasota. However, we definitely felt the strong
winds of over 124 mph and again Punta Gorda was flooded due to a 9-foot storm
surge. Our house was once again saved although the water came up about 2/3 of
the way up the driveway this time. The house is built to withstand at least 160
mph so we were not worried about the winds. Carol was concerned about the surge
so we spent the night at our awesome friend Liz's house that is at 25 feet above
sea level compared to us which is 11 feet. It was a sleepness night but we all
survived without damage. We came home the next morning to find lots of
devastation and power outages throughout Punta Gorda. We had to traverse some
flooding on our street before we could reach the house.
A few days after Milton we lost our precious Golden Retriever Bailey. She was
nearly 14-years old and was doing perfectly fine until 4 days after the storm.
We have no idea what happened, but she suddenly stopped eating and was unable to
focus. We took her to the emergency vet where they kept her overnight to run
additional tests. We picked her up the next day and she seemed a little better
although very drugged up. By Tuesday she could no longer walk and so that was
the end of that. We have decided NOT to adopt another dog because we have both
have lost 5 adoring dogs and just can't bear to do it again.
We decided to get away from it all, so we booked a last minute 7-day cruise
onboard the new Sun Princess. The cruise went to the eastern Caribbean, but we
didn't care where it went.
In November we noticed that Carol's breathing issues first diagnosed in May were
not resolved. Her general doctor was not helpful. We got a referral to a
cardiologist from our wonderful friend Candice across the street. After many
more tests, Carol has been deemed to have a problem with her diastolic pressure.
She is now on medication that could take 3 to 6 weeks to remedy the situation.
Because of this we had to cancel that free cruise in December mentioned earlier.
We hope health issues and natural disasters are behind us and look forward to
2026. We plan to travel substantially in 2025 and 2026. We have 3 free Celebrity
cruises planned in 2025, a trip to Australia in December 2025, a trip to Europe
in April 2026, and a west coast trip in May 2026.
Eastern Caribbean on Sun Princes
Key West and Bimini
New 2024 Lexus RX-350
2024 Caribbean
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