Delayed gratification and why we haven’t had a party

We have been wanting to have a party for a long time and it just hasn’t happened, and I want to explain why.

But before I do, let me tell you it’s not as bad as it sounds.

I would say it started on Sept. 28 of last year, but in reality it was before then.

It started five years ago.

May 25, 2020, was the 25th anniversary of my ownership of The Community News. We thought it would be cool to have a party. We even planned for one.

As you may remember, world events in 2020 did not allow that plan to come to fruition.

That’s okay, we thought, we’ll do the 30th anniversary on May 25, 2025.

We’re patient.

In the mean time my left knee was becoming quite decrepit, so we planned a knee replacement surgery somewhere, I think, in 2023.

The first scheduled date was in February, but I caught COVID before the surgery, so we moved it back to late June, I wanted to make sure I could attend the Texas Press Association in June of that year before the surgery. I had not missed a TPA convention since I started going in 1995!

Well, I got bronchitis and not only had to miss the convention, but also had to once again postpone the knee replacement.

Well, in October I had a minor procedure done, and it was discovered there were cancer cells in my prostate. We would not know for three months, until the procedure healed, what the extent or prognosis was, so we postponed the knee replacement once again.

Once 2024 arrived, we found out that the cancer was not of major concern (except for the fact that it was there). It just needed to be monitored year to year.

First one thing, and then another, various circumstances kept pushing back the knee replacement.

Last summer arrived, and at that point, we didn’t want to schedule the surgery  before I was to attend the National Newspaper Association Foundation convention in late September, so we scheduled the knee replacement in October.

At that convention, I was honored to be elected president of the organization, and we thought “we ought to have a party.”

A couple of weeks later, the long-awaited and often-postponed knee replacement arrived. By then, the knee was in such bad shape that the recovery was pretty brutal, involving an additional procedure and about 10 weeks of pain killers.

I missed way more work than I had anticipated, but was fortunate to have a great staff that kept the wheels turning, and was wisely counseled not to write anything for the paper while I was under the influence.

But the national presidency party had to wait.

As the recovery lumbered along, we began to look to May 25 of this year — my 30th anniversary as owner of The Community News.

We thought, “we ought to have a party.”

As the physical therapy on my left knee was finally coming to a successful conclusion, my right hip started bothering me.

Since then, quite frankly, I have been in a lot of pain, so we now have a hip replacement scheduled for May. 20. We won’t have an anniversary party on the 25th for obvious reasons.

I inherited my mother’s joints. I would have much preferred to inherit money, but oh, well.

I had a shoulder replacement in 2018, the knee replacement in October of 2024, and now the right hip. I have commented that I am on the “new joint every six months plan,” hoping to get one free after four.

At this point, metal detectors run screaming when they see me coming.

And, with all the titanium in my body, I have seriously considered not donating my body to science when my time comes, but to donate it to Gillette instead.

But seriously, we’re going to plow forward, and the people here are going to do a great job in my absence.

As for the party, it looks like May 25, 2030. We’ll keep you posted.

Randy Keck has been owner and publisher of The Community News just a few days short of 30 years.