Monday Miscellany

Monday Monday, can't trust that day… You just never know what a Monday is going to look like until you’re in the middle of it. And since I’m writing this on Sunday night it’s a bit of a mystery right now. We’ll see how it goes. For now, let’s talk miscellany.

·         Upon the advice of a few people I went without ibuprofen today. I just took vicodin. Being a drama queen I didn’t go to church just in case I was too pitiful. But really it wasn’t that bad. I wouldn’t want to have to walk too far, but I think I could have occupied a pew. 

·         This week I’ll have some testing done to explain a few unexpected results on my blood test – checking out my kidneys. Of course I ran straight to the internet for a diagnosis & decided that my prolonged use of ibuprofen has caused me to have Stage 1 kidney disease. [Note prior mention of “drama queen.”] Of course I’ll keep you guys posted.

·         We had dinner last night with one of Dr. M’s colleagues & his wife. They have a beautiful home – a farm about an hour and a half north of us. We had a great time – talked about everything under the sun. I spent a little bit of time being obsessed with their stereogram collection – even if I was a little bit cross-eyed at the end. Go here to read about stereograms. (Hint – it’s the 1800s version of Magic Eye.)

·         I’m in the middle of reading Still Life with Crows by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. It’s the fourth book in the Special Agent Pendergast series, about a serial killer in a small Kansas town. It’s pretty graphic (think: the surgery channel), but I’m just fascinated by the way Pendergast’s mind works.

OK, I’m hijacking my own post to include a couple of Wordzzles. I was supposed to post them yesterday, but I ended up posting my P365 late so I decided to just sneak them in here. In case you’re wondering, a Wordzzle is a story using the words that Raven at Views from Raven’s Nest gives us each week. After you’ve read mine you should check hers out here.

Words for the mini: fingers, flashlight, fanciful, daughter, music

As soon as the music started, the flashlight slipped through Alex’s fingers. This was not unusual – she was easily startled and dropped things all the time. But the music was unexpected. “Love Me Do” blasted from a supposedly empty house in the middle of the night.  What in the world was going on here? Impromptu Beatles fan club meeting? Ooh – maybe it was a Beatles ghost fan club! Now that was the kind of fanciful thing her mother would dream up. Like mother, like daughter. Then Alex looked down at her feet in suspicion. Yep, it was a Beatle’s welcome mat. She’d stood on it so long that it was segueing into “Hard Day’s Night.” She had a feeling that her brother had sent her to his house on an “urgent” errand just to play this little joke. Ah well, she could probably come up with some sort of wicked payback, just as soon as she got the silly mat to shut up.

Words for the 10-word challenge: Sunday, think the rain'll hurt the rhubarb?, sleeveless shirt, house for sale, out and about, spark, Oh, to be in England, angry, forgetfulness, in-coming

“Incoming!” Mark was bellowing again. Sheila decided then & there to put a “House for Sale” sign in the front yard. She was tired of all the golf balls littering her yard every Saturday and Sunday. For some reason those were the days that the worst duffers were out and about.

She was mostly kidding. She would hate to leave her garden. Or, rather, Mark’s garden. She asked him, “do you think the rain’ll hurt the rhubarb? I’m looking forward to putting up some strawberry-rhubarb preserves.” Mark looked up, an unaccustomed spark in his eyes. Why, he was angry! He was never angry. His sleeveless shirt was drenched with sweat. “Sheila,” he said, “I am losing patience with your forgetfulness! We decided to not plant rhubarb this year, remember? You wanted zucchini instead.”

Mortified and confused, Sheila just looked at him for a few minutes. She hadn’t remembered. There seemed to a great deal of forgetting these days. Sighing, she started reciting “Oh, to be in England” which she had memorized as a child, finding comfort in one thing remembered. She didn’t notice Mark’s look of sadness as she turned away.