5 January 2026

I told Barb the story of not being able to send my Christmas letter to my Community Watch friend because I thought he might take offense at my comments on the situation in the US. Barb said, "Why don’t you just edit the letter?" How did I not think of that myself? So tonight, I deleted the problem sentences.

I also looked up Dad Jokes online and found a website with 301 of them, and they were hilarious, but just too many. I sent those to the Community Watch friend and to Laura and Julia. Barb didn’t think they were funny, which made me laugh even harder.

Talk about the simple pleasures of life. Barb got me to vacuum the house with her new battery-powered vacuum cleaner, which has a clear plastic dirt collection container. I vacuumed, and then we looked through the clear plastic and saw so much dirt. Then we emptied the container into the garbage, and Barb said that it was the most she had ever seen, and I must have done a good job. It felt so good.

Barb wanted me to power-wash the mould off the back patio before the people came to put up my screens. I got to wear my new bathing suit for the first time while I power-washed. I had to move my chairs around to do the job, and I moved my broom. When I looked closely at the broom, I saw a little brown frog sitting on the handle. So, I moved it very carefully so as not to disturb him.

Every day I wear compression socks for my diabetes. They are always falling, and I have to pull them up. Also, I have to put on my socks before my jeans because I have to pull up my pants' legs to get the socks all the way up. And if I put my jeans on first and then put my socks on, the socks will fall when I pull my pants' legs down. Sometimes I forget to put on my socks first and then put on my jeans. Then I remember my socks, and I have to take my jeans off again and put my socks on first.

Barb bought a couple of big slices of pizza for dinner at Sam’s deli. They were just pepperoni, but they were so greasy that I got grease all over my hands. After dinner, I was waiting for Barb to wash her hands, and I tried to crush my Diet Coke can before I threw it in the garbage. Because my hand was greasy, the can shot out of my hand when I squeezed it, and it flew across the kitchen.

Barb picked up another girl when she went to pickleball tonight. On the way home, the lady asked Barb how old she was, and Barb said 67. The lady said WHAT? You look great. Do you get Botox?