Pickup your feet Dad

When I started this blog it became important to me to share with the readers aspects of my life that might not be pleasant.  l shuffle my feet as I stride along and occasionally hit the pavement.  This was the case on December 22nd out walking Harry.  As I laid on the ground next to him, he was looking at me as to say WTF are you doing here Dad.  I caught a piece of uneven sidewalk with my shuffling gait and blam that was it.  This looks much worse than it is. On this occasion,  Judy was busy making candy for the holiday when I whisked past without a word running into the bathroom to clean up myself as much as possible before I presented myself. She again acted as Nurse Judy and applied ice to my face.   Friends have said "you should have seen the other guy" for a proper retort.  

This lovely young woman is Maria Peller (Kocsis) of Victoria, Australia.  Out of the blue, she contacted my via Facebook to announce that she believed she was my cousin.  Her Great Grandfather Janos and my Grandfather Joseph were brothers. My relation sailed from the port of Antwerp to Ellis Island on June 10, 1912 to begin his new life with Lydia, grandmother.  

Her mother Maria is my cousin, slightly older than me is still in Hungary.  She relocated to Australia with new husband Zoltan and teaches Hungarian to adults in her adopted country. There are many  2nd generation Hungarians in Australia that long to learn the language of their parents.  We do have some language barriers in that she is not real proficient in English.  We started messaging and sending family pictures like crazy people from about 6am till 730am with no breaks.  When I told her I needed to make my breakfast, she told me she had to go to bed because it was nearly midnight, 7:30 am here.  She told me that her mother Maria couldn't sleep learning about her family in the US.  Maria (in Hungary) and I exchanged Christmas greetings.  Finding these family members that I never knew existed has been my gift this year.

I remember when we were kids my father and his siblings would pull out the Hungarian to discuss the black sheep of the family and they did not want the kids to hear.  There are curses in the language that my father took to his grave never wanting to reveal them to me.  

45 has been rewarding all his pals and confidants with pardons before he exits the premises, no surprise here.  He has basically slammed the door shut on the Coronavirus stimulus package with his demand for more money so he could exit looking like Robin Hood. He know the Senate will not go for it.  600 bucks would have been nice.  But I think the prospect is in the wind now.

all for now

Merry Christmas

stay safe