Month: January 2023

My, how our world has changed. Needless to say, the aftermath of our world with Covid is markedly different from what was… to what is. Huge changes in the workplace are those that are most noticeable to me. Empty offices across our cities are the norm. Employees forced to work from home have taken to this trend and prefer to continue on like this. Many workers have just left their jobs altogether. Now, I am not one to pass judgement either way but I too became somewhat spoiled. Being closed for four months during the lockdown and then deciding to only open three days a week for the remainder of 2020 and throughout 2021 really turned out to be a game changer for me. My business numbers were excellent! My customers got used to our new hours and Thursday, Friday and Saturdays were constantly busy. Every normal full five day business week condensed into three days. Sure, some people found the hours inconvenient, but we made it work.

I started working in the retail industry when I was 18 years old. I graduated from several labor jobs and a decent stint as a grill cook at Roy Rogers(I made fabulous Roast Beef sandwiches) to a counter position at the Pep Boys Auto store across the street. How great was that! I loved cars and got discounts on parts for my 1975 Pontiac Firebird. Bottom line, I’ve worked retail hours for forty two years and for the first time in my life, my healthy life, I had four whole days a week to just chill. It was fabulous! No…Glorious! Christmas time was different. It was always seven days a week from Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve. Usually, twenty seven days in a row. Longer days, hard work, super stressful. It was very tough going straight from a three day to a seven day work week. This 2021 Christmas was another extremely successful season. A very successful year. One month of crazy I can handle.

During this time, the boys were thriving too. Nick had a tremendous year that would land his handsome face on a full page bio in Philadelphia Magazine as one of the top 80 Real Estate Producers in Philly! An amazing feat for such a young guy, as he was noted to be one of the youngest of the top producers. Very proud! Joe was also moving forward. Covid proved to be a big factor in his decision to hang up his skates and pursue other ventures. For many years he worked summers detailing cars after his seasons around the hockey world. He became an expert in the detailing craft and often worked at shops in towns where he was playing hockey for extra cash. In 2021, Joe decided to move to Ohio full time and live there with his girlfriend Kara while she finished her Batchelors degree. He would take a management and hands on position at a new detail center there. Things were moving along well for him. Lor was back to her status quo as the Library Chair in her school district and working her butt off in a new world as the education game had changed in stride with everything else. I was feeling a bit guilty with all of this action going on. Starting in 2022, I would start opening four days a week!

Dr. Luger was happy to see me for my January appointment. It was officially three years, almost to the day, that we first met. My situation was a bit dire then. Now, we were riding a wave of success that only a Cancer survivor can appreciate. Especially me. I’ve ridden too many of those waves. My lab reports were again, consistent and completely normal. I told her that I was increasing my work week by twenty five percent to four days a week. Boy was she impressed! Lol! I have to say, I have had the best collection of Oncologists over the last twenty five years that anyone could ever ask for. I owe them my life. Dr. Luger is one of them. Let’s hope that my current situation lasts for a long time to come and she doesnt retire too soon. Now, I need to handle this four day work week. I am not complaining, but after twenty one years of taking Chemotherapy medication everyday…it has taken a toll on me. Having four days off a week was nice. Oh well…LFG.

Next up: Big Changes

The Christmas season flew by and anointed Belaggio Jewelers with a sustainable amount of capital, leaving my vendors flush as well. Always a pleasant situation to find yourself in at the end of the year. I would enter the new year, 2020, with renewed optimism for my business, my family, and my health. Coming up was my first extended in office visit at Penn. Dr. Luger would be requesting new composite bloodwork, running the gamut of tests to work up a complete picture to assess my current situation. As I waited for the new results, Dr. Luger felt that I was going to be able to remain on the lowest dose of Tasigna and remain in a long term remission. She was right on. My results came back fantastic! Fingers crossed, this next portion of my life would be cancer free. For how long…no one knows. Side effects, who cares. For now, I was somewhat at ease, my cancer at bay.

As the winter started to rear its ugly head, I worked and waited for the weekends to watch Joey’s hockey games on TV. We didn’t have to venture out, just order pizza and watch hockey. It was fun and sometimes scary seeing Joe fly around the ice frequently getting hammered while running his mouth. Oh well, that was his job! Lori and I were getting ready to watch one of his games where the team had traveled to Colombus, Georgia to play but he wasn’t in the lineup. We called him to see what happened and when he finally picked up the phone, he sounded awful. He was told to stay home by the team trainer after a trip to the Urgent Care. He was very sick! A high fever, bad headache, horrible cough and just felt all around awful. It was the middle of February and with what was about to transpire, he probably had Covid. No tests were available or thought about yet for his illness. We assumed that he had a bad Flu. Misdiagnosed at the beginning of this debacle, the tip of the spear. He took mucinex, drank hot tea, needed prescribed antibiotics and took over two weeks off from games and practice. Ohio, where Joe was living, would soon be found to be a hotbed for the beginning of covid in the US. Joe was infected in its infancy. Literally two weeks later, the FHL, along with most pro sports leagues, ceased operations due to this strange outbreak of what would come to be called Covid-19. Joe packed up his things and along with his girlfriend Kara, made his way back home to Pa.

We all know the story…the next four months were spent on lockdown. Our country in a state of horrible disarray. People were dying. Our population, prisoners in our own homes or wherever we were stuck. My business, like most, was completely shut down for those four months. No income and the bills didn’t stop. The boredom was terrible and the TV got a lot action all hours of the day and night. Joe and Kara decided to pull up their stakes in May, at the height of the shutdown, and take a trip across the country for four months! They visited 48 national parks in all, driving Joes red Jetta. A trip of a lifetime. Lori and I were both worried and jealous. Nicky was living in town and trying his best to sell homes under the auspices of the covid police. He was managing very well though and staying safe. We missed not being able to see him.

During this ordeal, I had to sacrifice getting my bloodwork repeated because it was deemed a non emergency situation. That being said, in the middle of it all, my Dad had been diagnosed with bladder cancer. A very scary situation thrown at him and our family. After a hospital stay and initial operation to remove some small tumors inside the bladder, Dad needed to remain diligent and complete several procedures involving chemotherapy after a few setbacks along the way. He did great though. Cancer wasn’t going to slow him down. I was very proud of how he handled it and had it beat after a some additional treatments. It wasn’t easy, but he handled it like a champ.

While the schools were all shut down, Lori was working from home and teaching through zoom. What a trip that was! I enjoyed listening to the interactions between her and the kids. Pretty funny! I myself would sometimes venture out to the Neshaminy creek, searching out the elusive rainbow trout. The parks were empty as were the banks of the creek. A peaceful respite in nature. Alone in the woods, perusing the running waters, casting my fly into the frothy water and dreaming of that big Rainbow Trout taking my line and racing down the rapids. It was surreal and a little dangerous. Anyway, we never got sick, luckily, and I went back to work in August when the quarantine was lifted. I only opened three days a week, full masking, hand sanitizing, and” Extreme Caution” being the modus operandi . Meanwhile, even with all the Covid bad news, sad stories and unfortunate circumstances I encountered concerning so many of my customers…. business exploded! Pent up buyers went crazy purchasing for their loved ones. Engagement ring sales were through the roof! Business the rest of the year and holiday season was fantastic! It was a pleasure, in my own small way, to help to make people happy again.

Beginning in 2021, I was finally allowed to go to U of P’s satellite offices in Newtown to get a blood draw and have a zoom visit afterwards with a PA to review my progress. It had been a year since my last testing and I was quite anxious. It was all good. The results came back excellent. Tasigna was holding its own…my remission sustained.

What a wild year. Unprecedented in most peoples lifetimes. The saga continued throughout 2021 while we trudged on with the drastic changes forced upon us. So many members of our populace dealing with what I refer to as Covid PTSD. Many scarred by the death and misery caused by this awful disease. Many living in constant fear, afraid to leave their homes and live their lives. My heart fully goes out to all affected by this maniacal anomaly of a virus, our lives forever changed.

Next Up: The Aftermath