Weblog 254
December 26, 2010~ 12:00 am
So the big holiday came and was celebrated, and snapshots are what we have left-- memories and photos that one day we'll look on with sweet nostalgia while remembering 'the good old days', as folks have done for decades.
Each year I seem to receive one card that sums up the magic and the innocence of Christmas. This year it was my friend Annette's. I love it.
Its glittery snowflakes and the snowglobe scene beneath that child's rosy cheeks... it says it all for me. I've had two days of visiting. Friday at Holly's, to pass out gifts and have a nice dinner out beforehand.
Here's Bill checking out the gift bag with head bent over, shoulders hunched in glee. LOL!!! (John Bananas is staring too. Holly's two poodles think everything that comes into that house is meant for them.)
Kay was sprightly and excited, once again donning her yellow elf hat, pixie-ing about and looking charming!
We had a lovely time, laughing quite a bit at Gary (who LOVES gadgets) as he tried programming the 'Moshi Talking Alarm Clock'. It's really neat. You just ask it the time and it announces it. You ask it to set to a certain hour, and it obeys... however trying to program it in the kitchen with all the ambient noise around him, the clock 'became confused.' All we could hear while sitting in the living room was Gary's voice, over and over, announcing loudly- with gusto- "HELLO, MOSHI"......"Hello. What is your command?" LOL!!! Reminded me so much of '2001: A Space Odyssey'.... "Hal. Open the pod bay doors, Hal." "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
I snapped this shot of Wayne and Holly together in the kitchen. They just look so darned happy- I love that shot.
Holly personalized a gray sweatshirt for Wayne by appliqueing a BIG MESSAGE on the front, "Think Like A Tick", with small black felt ticks cut out and sewn in place. (No one remembers the exact reference, but it was some silliness the two of them starting saying in the past--- and Wayne opened his mouth and HOWLED when he held it up and read it.) Personalized things are the best, aren't they?
Here's Holly and Kay (Holly with her 'twin Christmas tree' headband on) looking over the gifts being opened.
Yes, the eve of Christmas was magic, alright. Filled with laughter. Sparkling with just a dusting of- non-dangerous -definitely picturesque snow. Then Saturday, the day ITSELF, I picked mum up at assisted living and transported her to my sister's house, where her whole crew were gathering for dinner and gift exchange.
And my little stuffed T-Rex toys for the boys were BIG HITS. (Little did I know that young Jonathan has a REAL THING about T-Rex.) He and brother Jason carried those things around ALL DAY. (Ah, the Dollar Store. It never fails to produce some real winners. LOL!!) Here's Kathy's lovely bay window, shimmery with the bright light of the reflected snow outside.
The family room is always the site for gift opening. Even BARNEY, my nephew Michael's dog gets involved!
He's the cutest little guy.... built solid and low like a pot-bellied pig. Like a root beer barrel hard-candy with legs. LOL!! Calm as can be, loving and well-behaved. (I have a HUGE soft spot for Barney, whom they picked out from an animal shelter a few years back. He's a great family dog.) And here's the MATRIARCH of the clan.....
seated in the rocker, her walker stationed in front of her, grinning and grinning. (I don't know how to do 'dark foreground, BRIGHT background') - it's that snow again, seen through the French doors leading out onto the deck, but I think you can still make out the happiness on her 90 year old face. Here she is a bit closer (though still shimmered by the white light of reflecting, backyard snow.)
It was a lovely Christmas. My son Matt and wife Nicky sent me a terrific, bound book of family pictures taken since Asher's birth, and that got passed around at my sister's on Christmas, everyone ooo-ing and ah-ing over snapshots of the gang though every season, all the high points of this past year. Nicky assembled the book by using 'Shutterfly'- and it was a perfect present. Like a family year book. All the more appreciated when there is such a physical distance separating folks, and I'll treasure it.
So that's about it for Christmas 2010. New Year's coming up, but that will be just me and Wayne, and a nice dinner celebrating his birthday on the 30th. We're not party-goers, so quiet is all we really crave when Decembers winds down to its final hand sweep of the clock. It's been a GOOD year. It's been a doosey. Best wishes to all of you through this holiday week. Stay safe. Stay warm...... stay connected. No one's an island.
December 26, 2010~ 6:45 pm
That was me today. Reading, lounging about, or SLEEPING. (After being up for a couple of hours early this morning, I slept till 4:30.) My Christmas gift to myself.
I told mum when I took her home that I'd be staying put today instead of our usual Sunday meal together. She was pretty bushed herself, so I don't think she minded one bit. When I stopped for gas while taking her back, I tried to get a Sunday paper so she'd have the week's TV section, but they were sold out.
She fussed and fretted, even though I told her most of her programs do not change a jot in their broadcast times but old folks are set in there ways, so I'm sure she'll be grousing all week long. (Even though she studies that thing like the Periodic Table, she carps constantly about not understanding how to find her shows. LOL!)
Oh well, even though we're ready to start a new year, some things never change, and she (bless her heart) is one of 'em.
Back to work tomorrow. BLECH! Up I go for a bath and a shampoo. I hope all of you were able to just simply relax today, like me....... hope you weren't one of those NUTS rushing for the stores at the crack of dawn, hunting down bargains and returning stuff. ENOUGH MERCENARY CRAP! Relaaaaaaaax....enjoy the end of the tumult for a bit. Feel Christmas.
December 29, 2010~ 9:15 pm
FINALLY!! (This old dog is definitely indulging in a new trick.)
Dentures!
I'm getting DENTURES! lol (You may find it strange that a person could be so happy with this news, but then, you are not a person who has suffered through the rings of hell that this one has with her teeth ever since the first botched root canal when I was 16 years old.)
If you've followed this blog at all, you'll know that after a long ordeal of very expensive dental work in 2006, I broke off my front tooth at the gumline during a company Christmas party that year. Since then, I've been gluing the damn thing in with Superglue, glued to the two teeth beside it. Two years later another tooth broke off, and yep, I glue that one too. Then two root-canaled teeth broke off on the bottom - one, a crown- still on its post (oh, yes, this is all true) and those just had to stay 'gone'. They were not terribly noticable and to fix them would have required more multiple trips to a dentist and I'd vowed to wait until my next abcess, then I'd INSIST I have these damn things PULLED.
Maybe people with healthy, strong teeth wouldn't 'get' this, but the thought of dentures for many years now has seemed like heaven to me. I've been through the wringer with this mouth and enough is enough. Since the Monday after Christmas I've had an increasingly swollen cheek, and today it was so bad, I had to call off work and finally DO SOMETHING about it. (Yep. Another abcess- in an eyetooth this time) -and bless her heart, the young dentist took lots of X-rays, got a look in my mouth and said with great gravity, "I think it's time." I almost LEAPT out of the chair with joy! NO MORE TOOTHACHES!!!! No more eating ibuprophen like it's candy!
I'm on amoxicillin for a week and then have impressions made for the temporary immediate placement dentures after extraction. On January 14th... general anesthesia and out they go!
I'm ecstatic! (I was so afraid I'd get some kind of song and dance about the 'saving' this or that, having to make countless, fruitless trips back into the dental chair, money thrown away, terrible bouts of pain on and off, etc. ) No. Thank goodness this young dentist HEARD me when I told her "Nothing will be acceptable other than pulling these, and getting dentures"-- and I meant it. After she listened to my story (and saw the lengths I've gone to to avoid the dental chair for the last 4 years) she agreed that in my case, it's is the best possible course. YIPPEE!!! Somebody heard me. Odd as it sounds, I feel like I've just won the lottery.
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
So the big holiday came and was celebrated, and snapshots are what we have left-- memories and photos that one day we'll look on with sweet nostalgia while remembering 'the good old days', as folks have done for decades.
Each year I seem to receive one card that sums up the magic and the innocence of Christmas. This year it was my friend Annette's. I love it.
Its glittery snowflakes and the snowglobe scene beneath that child's rosy cheeks... it says it all for me. I've had two days of visiting. Friday at Holly's, to pass out gifts and have a nice dinner out beforehand.
Here's Bill checking out the gift bag with head bent over, shoulders hunched in glee. LOL!!! (John Bananas is staring too. Holly's two poodles think everything that comes into that house is meant for them.)
Kay was sprightly and excited, once again donning her yellow elf hat, pixie-ing about and looking charming!
We had a lovely time, laughing quite a bit at Gary (who LOVES gadgets) as he tried programming the 'Moshi Talking Alarm Clock'. It's really neat. You just ask it the time and it announces it. You ask it to set to a certain hour, and it obeys... however trying to program it in the kitchen with all the ambient noise around him, the clock 'became confused.' All we could hear while sitting in the living room was Gary's voice, over and over, announcing loudly- with gusto- "HELLO, MOSHI"......"Hello. What is your command?" LOL!!! Reminded me so much of '2001: A Space Odyssey'.... "Hal. Open the pod bay doors, Hal." "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
I snapped this shot of Wayne and Holly together in the kitchen. They just look so darned happy- I love that shot.
Holly personalized a gray sweatshirt for Wayne by appliqueing a BIG MESSAGE on the front, "Think Like A Tick", with small black felt ticks cut out and sewn in place. (No one remembers the exact reference, but it was some silliness the two of them starting saying in the past--- and Wayne opened his mouth and HOWLED when he held it up and read it.) Personalized things are the best, aren't they?
Here's Holly and Kay (Holly with her 'twin Christmas tree' headband on) looking over the gifts being opened.
Yes, the eve of Christmas was magic, alright. Filled with laughter. Sparkling with just a dusting of- non-dangerous -definitely picturesque snow. Then Saturday, the day ITSELF, I picked mum up at assisted living and transported her to my sister's house, where her whole crew were gathering for dinner and gift exchange.
And my little stuffed T-Rex toys for the boys were BIG HITS. (Little did I know that young Jonathan has a REAL THING about T-Rex.) He and brother Jason carried those things around ALL DAY. (Ah, the Dollar Store. It never fails to produce some real winners. LOL!!) Here's Kathy's lovely bay window, shimmery with the bright light of the reflected snow outside.
The family room is always the site for gift opening. Even BARNEY, my nephew Michael's dog gets involved!
He's the cutest little guy.... built solid and low like a pot-bellied pig. Like a root beer barrel hard-candy with legs. LOL!! Calm as can be, loving and well-behaved. (I have a HUGE soft spot for Barney, whom they picked out from an animal shelter a few years back. He's a great family dog.) And here's the MATRIARCH of the clan.....
seated in the rocker, her walker stationed in front of her, grinning and grinning. (I don't know how to do 'dark foreground, BRIGHT background') - it's that snow again, seen through the French doors leading out onto the deck, but I think you can still make out the happiness on her 90 year old face. Here she is a bit closer (though still shimmered by the white light of reflecting, backyard snow.)
It was a lovely Christmas. My son Matt and wife Nicky sent me a terrific, bound book of family pictures taken since Asher's birth, and that got passed around at my sister's on Christmas, everyone ooo-ing and ah-ing over snapshots of the gang though every season, all the high points of this past year. Nicky assembled the book by using 'Shutterfly'- and it was a perfect present. Like a family year book. All the more appreciated when there is such a physical distance separating folks, and I'll treasure it.
So that's about it for Christmas 2010. New Year's coming up, but that will be just me and Wayne, and a nice dinner celebrating his birthday on the 30th. We're not party-goers, so quiet is all we really crave when Decembers winds down to its final hand sweep of the clock. It's been a GOOD year. It's been a doosey. Best wishes to all of you through this holiday week. Stay safe. Stay warm...... stay connected. No one's an island.
December 26, 2010~ 6:45 pm
That was me today. Reading, lounging about, or SLEEPING. (After being up for a couple of hours early this morning, I slept till 4:30.) My Christmas gift to myself.
I told mum when I took her home that I'd be staying put today instead of our usual Sunday meal together. She was pretty bushed herself, so I don't think she minded one bit. When I stopped for gas while taking her back, I tried to get a Sunday paper so she'd have the week's TV section, but they were sold out.
She fussed and fretted, even though I told her most of her programs do not change a jot in their broadcast times but old folks are set in there ways, so I'm sure she'll be grousing all week long. (Even though she studies that thing like the Periodic Table, she carps constantly about not understanding how to find her shows. LOL!)
Oh well, even though we're ready to start a new year, some things never change, and she (bless her heart) is one of 'em.
Back to work tomorrow. BLECH! Up I go for a bath and a shampoo. I hope all of you were able to just simply relax today, like me....... hope you weren't one of those NUTS rushing for the stores at the crack of dawn, hunting down bargains and returning stuff. ENOUGH MERCENARY CRAP! Relaaaaaaaax....enjoy the end of the tumult for a bit. Feel Christmas.
December 29, 2010~ 9:15 pm
FINALLY!! (This old dog is definitely indulging in a new trick.)
Dentures!
I'm getting DENTURES! lol (You may find it strange that a person could be so happy with this news, but then, you are not a person who has suffered through the rings of hell that this one has with her teeth ever since the first botched root canal when I was 16 years old.)
If you've followed this blog at all, you'll know that after a long ordeal of very expensive dental work in 2006, I broke off my front tooth at the gumline during a company Christmas party that year. Since then, I've been gluing the damn thing in with Superglue, glued to the two teeth beside it. Two years later another tooth broke off, and yep, I glue that one too. Then two root-canaled teeth broke off on the bottom - one, a crown- still on its post (oh, yes, this is all true) and those just had to stay 'gone'. They were not terribly noticable and to fix them would have required more multiple trips to a dentist and I'd vowed to wait until my next abcess, then I'd INSIST I have these damn things PULLED.
Maybe people with healthy, strong teeth wouldn't 'get' this, but the thought of dentures for many years now has seemed like heaven to me. I've been through the wringer with this mouth and enough is enough. Since the Monday after Christmas I've had an increasingly swollen cheek, and today it was so bad, I had to call off work and finally DO SOMETHING about it. (Yep. Another abcess- in an eyetooth this time) -and bless her heart, the young dentist took lots of X-rays, got a look in my mouth and said with great gravity, "I think it's time." I almost LEAPT out of the chair with joy! NO MORE TOOTHACHES!!!! No more eating ibuprophen like it's candy!
I'm on amoxicillin for a week and then have impressions made for the temporary immediate placement dentures after extraction. On January 14th... general anesthesia and out they go!
I'm ecstatic! (I was so afraid I'd get some kind of song and dance about the 'saving' this or that, having to make countless, fruitless trips back into the dental chair, money thrown away, terrible bouts of pain on and off, etc. ) No. Thank goodness this young dentist HEARD me when I told her "Nothing will be acceptable other than pulling these, and getting dentures"-- and I meant it. After she listened to my story (and saw the lengths I've gone to to avoid the dental chair for the last 4 years) she agreed that in my case, it's is the best possible course. YIPPEE!!! Somebody heard me. Odd as it sounds, I feel like I've just won the lottery.
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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