It Fits!

I know that this building doesn't look very impressive but this is my dentist's office.  Over the weekend I thought I figured out how to tell him to fix my partial.  I called this morning, went in at noon, and in two shakes he'd done what I asked and IT FITS.  It isn't perfect.  It's not as secure-feeling as it used to be but, hey, I'm going to live with it.  I have to go back in about 6 weeks to get the crown permanently cemented on so by then I should know if I can tolerate it the way it is or if it needs tweaking.  I was over the moon to come home to eat baby carrots with my lunch and not abuse my gums or make any teeth ache.  Ahhh.  Communication is the key.



Just before I left this morning look at what I saw--a Downy Woodpecker on the seed wreath.  It was enjoying pecking at the seeds and nuts.  I'm certain that some of them fell to the patio and am confident that the squirrel will be positioned under there tomorrow to scarf up any fallout.



At lunchtime I got a text from KW that she was thinking of going to the Y this afternoon to bake her bones in the sauna and I invited myself along (even though I planned to sew this afternoon).  I hate the sauna but got there early to walk the circuit for 15 or 20 minutes until she arrived, then while she went to sauna I went to spend 30 minutes on the stepper.  She was done before me so she walked a few laps around the circuit.  I felt like maybe I had forced myself on her but she said that she'd have skipped it if I hadn't been coming.  We agreed to a rematch on Wednesday afternoon.  After supper I got a call from the Y staffer who gave me a tour last week asking how I was liking the place.  Since she saw me just getting ready to step off to start walking today I told her that I liked it fine.  Tonight she signed me up as a member; that will let me keep going until the first of the year since my 2-week trial would be over this weekend.  She also told me that I can sign up for a free series of visits with a trainer to develop a program for rehabbing my ankle, that I am really excited about.  No sewing got done today.  Tomorrow.  Maybe.


Lala called this evening and I mentioned that I figured she'd want to do more hiking than I will in Yellowstone, that I figured we'd have two side-by-side vacations, not be in lockstep, and I could tell by her voice that she was relieved that I'd brought it up.  That's one reason why I was so willing to go with her.  When we were at TC together or spent a weekend writing neither of us felt like we had to do what the other one wanted to do.  We get together for meals and maybe a part of the day but are free to follow our own interests.  I'm looking forward to Yellowstone even more.



Do you what today is?  It's Party Mix day!  I realized if I want to have party mix to send along to a certain child of mine not living in Green Bay and if I plan to ship the (most of the) presents package tomorrow, I'd have to make the mix tonight.  So I did.  Man, that stuff makes the house smell great.  I might be nibbling on a bowl of it right now--just to make sure that the batch is up to snuff, you understand.



While the party mix baked I wrapped gifts and then crocheted another curly fry.  I was careful to work a little more loosely so it was a little easier on my hands.  Cotton yarn has no give so it can make your hands ache if you use it too much.



Today's toss is another donate.  I snagged the other box off the top the shelves thinking it was another box of living room knick-knacks.  Instead it was a box full of Durwood's old hats.  A zillion baseball-type caps, few of them he had ever actually worn.  They are now snuggled up in the back of my car with the knick-knack box and the light bar.  A trip to Goodwill seems imminent.

One other cool thing--I got an email from a high school friend asking if I'm going to the 50th reunion in July, saying that she and another friend were thinking of extending the weekend to include a few days in Door Co. and was I interested?  Yes, I'm going and YES, I could manage a couple days on the peninsula with them.  Oh goodie, goodie, goodie.


17 December--George Sheridan Knowles, Going to a Christmas Party.  The red velvet cape was her favorite.  Marianne would wear it every day if Mama would let her.  It was heavy so it felt important and it rippled around her calves when she walked.  If she twirled, and Marianne was a girl prone to twirling, it spread out around her in a wide red corona.  The cape was lined in white satin that was so shiny and soft to the touch.

And right then is when inspiration fled, my eyelids slammed shut, and that was all she wrote.  Literally.  I noticed this evening that part of the lights on the Christmas tree had gone out so I grabbed my trusty LightKeeper Pro, tugged out a bulb, plugged the socket into the LKP, clicked the trigger a few times and, VOILA!, lights came back on.  I'm thinking before I put this tree away I'll mark which bulbs are burned out because I have another tree just like this one in reserve and I can use the working bulbs on this one as a storehouse of replacements for the newer tree.  My mama didn't raise no dummies.  Oh, man, I just ate a Chex that got a triple dose of paprika.  Can you say wake-up call?
--Barbara