Overboard. I think that’s what you call it when your home remodeling project extends into the fifth month and way over budget. Yes, we settled on Country Club Drive in April and it was now August. We still weren’t finished with construction and the school year was now approaching. This would be a logistical nightmare at this point. With Nick having to travel to Bensalem and Joe to Doylestown, our mornings would be awful. We were fortunate to have the temporary home in Fort Washington but we were also pushing that invitation. It was time to get it in high gear and get the house done!
Our contractors worked overtime, really my friends, and got us to the point of moving in by early September. Our good friend Vladik, who also lived on the Emlen House estate, agreed to drive Nick to school so I could take Joey to his school for the first few weeks. This was a real help. The move in to our new home would take place in mid September. So much work again but it went well and the finished and furnished house was beautiful. It took a lot of great friends and associates to make this happen and a great job was done by all. We were finally in! A new era for our family and a great accomplishment for Lori and I. It was now thirteen years from my original CML diagnosis and nine years since I started taking Gleevec. A huge life setback overcome. Other than my annual trip to Hanahmen Hospital for bloodwork and visiting Dr. Dave, the usual chemo pill side effects were all that were left of my journey. Let’s hope it stays that way, I can handle that.
Like I mentioned in my last post, Joe would move on and up a level with the Little Flyers. He was more than capable of playing at the next age level and welcomed by his new coach, Jimmy Watson. Jim was a former Philadelphia Flyer and Stanley Cup winner. He and his brother Joe were All Star Defenseman for the Flyers and helped win Philly the Cup two years in a row in the 1970’s. He was a gruff, no nonsense kind of guy and coach. No frills, no BS and no coddling. That was good for Joe. He would have older teammates and less drama. Joe and Jim had an interesting relationship but got along well. Hopefully, the season would work out well and Coach Watson would elevate Joe’s game. We shall see.
Meanwhile, the store was still busy buying gold. An essential piece of our business now since the US economy was tanking more every day. Inflation was rampant and the Stock market was still way down in the dumps. So many investors lost a ton of money. My sales were way down too and the holiday season was looking pretty grim. We would have to weather the storm and hope for better days. As long as the gold rush continued though, we would continue to survive and pay the bills. As far as the home front through the end of the year, all was quiet and we were enjoying the new digs. There was not much to report but an interesting email would come across my desk after the holidays. A proposition of sorts that would require a great amount of thought, discussion, investigation and guts on my part to accept. “Dear Jeff”… it began.
Next up: The Proposition