Considering that I was in the hospital for 31 hours, from Friday, December 23, 7 AM until December 24, 2 PM Saturday, with nothing to eat or drink for 40 hours, with cumadin poisoning that could have, almost did,  kill me, I was gratful to be at the following celebration. I will elaborate on the former in a blog tomorrow along with my bad lungs, C.O.P.D. arterial fibrillation, P.E.D., etc., and other things I could moan and groan about and ask for sympathy for from my 'friends' but don't! LOL Coumadin is a lethal drug but I have had to take it for 12 years but now must
stop and so I guess I could start crying wolf each time I cough but I
guess I won't! Aren't you glad YOU are MY friend and not someone else's?

Now on to the Christmas Day at Gateway celebration!

Most evenings at sunset we have a 'meeting of the mindless' on the breezeway at Gateway. John, an original member and possible chairman of the board, and hos twin, Jim, an honorary (?) member decided that for Christmas Day they would buy some pizzas for the group and we would get together around 3:30 PM. Jim would pick up the pizzas from Big Louie's--he was a little late LOL. Poochie (that's her name!!!) volunteered to bring the drinks, mainly wine,
which she did. We had a big problem the night before--a main water pipe
busted and Fort Lauderdale didn't have water and when we did get it we had to boil it before using
it so though she had the bottle in water and ice we couldn't use any of
it. She did have a bottle of non-alcoholic wine---really grape juice.

I bought the table settings---all in red--my favorite color and apropos for the holiday--red tablecloth (I should have gotten two), cups,
plates, napkins and forks, spoons and knives. I, also, provided cherry
candy canes and white chocolate covered mints. Someday I will have to
get John to write his story about how the original candy canes came
about.

The
guys got 4 large pizzas as we thought if anyone came by we would offer
them a slice or two plus we all had asked people to stop by. As it was,
except for our new security guard, no one else stopped by. (Would you
like to guess who took all the extra slices home? RIGHT!) Along with
John, Jim, Poochie and myself there was Irene, Roosevelt, a new resident, Dot and Larry.

A good time was had by all and here are a few of the pictures:

BEFORE                                                    AFTER

FROM LEFT: JOHN, ROOSEVELT, LARRY, DOT AND POOCHIE

FROM RIGHT: JIM, JOHN, IRENE, ROOSEVELT, LARRY, DOT,POOCHIE

It was a beautiful Christmas Day--around 80 degrees, sunny, a slight breeze--good pizzas but, more important, good people!

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"A man is what he thinks about

all day long."

Ralph Waldo Emerson  1803-1882  American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher

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Going to see Wednesday

Going to see Tuesday