I started a new book this morning - the first in the China Bayles series. Having decided a prestigious Houston law practice, money and power weren’t enough, she gave it up and moved to a small town where she opened the Thyme and Seasons herb shop. I got a laugh out of the very first sentence in the book: “If I’d known how the week was going to turn out I would have sent it back first thing Monday and ask for a refund.” I dare say there’s not a soul on the planet who hasn’t felt that way more than once!
Bill didn’t surface until almost ten this morning. I called Silvia at nine and told her I wouldn’t be at church with the quince we picked for her the other day. I had no idea what shape Bill would be in when he got up – better or worse? As he reached for his daily vitamin, I told him he can’t keep just drinking water and taking pills since there is no nutrition in water! He said he thought about that last night and so he asked me to cook him a scrambled egg. He ate it all so hopefully things will look up from here.
By 10:15 I was cogitating on what to do with the day. I finished hat # 230 (28 in the Madrona series) – a gray and black double-ridged rib. Then I started one from “Hip Knit Hats” that Barbara ordered for me from the library. These all start at the top which is a bit of a challenge with the double point needles. By time I got to Round 2, I was thoroughly confused since it said to *k1, m1,* repeat around. I learned M1 as picking up the bar between two stitches and knitting it off. That would mean adding 12 stitches instead of the 6 the pattern called for. I went to the front of the book and looked up the abbreviations – yeah, yeah…. When all else fails, read the instructions! Anyway, the author’s M1 is to knit into the back of the next stitch and then into the front of the same stitch. I also looked on her website and she has another pattern where she tells you to M1 by knitting into the front and then the back of the next stitch. Nothing like consistency, eh? And the designer claims her M1 doesn’t make a hole but it makes a bigger hole than the M1 as I learned it! Using her method resulted in tinking (unknitting) three rows to revert to my way.
11:07 rolled around and Bill padded down the hallway and back to bed. Hmmm…. As noon approached and I gave thought to lunch, an order for a purse pattern came through so I took care of that first. Then, per Bill’s request earlier this morning, I put on a batch of bran muffins to bake and fixed my exciting lunch – a turkey sandwich, kalamata olives and applesauce. I wonder how long it will take me to get tired of turkey! I plunged into the China Bayles book – “Thyme of Death.” It was approaching one o’clock by time I was done with lunch and the smell of bran muffins filled the kitchen. Thank goodness I don’t like them since one of the kind Bills gets at the grocery store is 11 points, half my daily allowance ! It looks like the ones from the Sun-Maid Honey Raisin Bran Muffin Mix might only be 5 points, but I’m still not a bran muffin fan.
One o’clock came and went and no sign of Bill. It was a beautiful sunny 60° day as I resumed knitting on the hat but judging from the weather report we have a long, soggy week ahead. I was back to where I stopped to tink. By three I was ready for a snack so I pulled out the celery and Laughing Cow. I finished with one teaspoon of chunky peanut butter. Two tablespoons are 5 points so I whittled down to 1 point. Bill finally came out again just before four. He mentioned again about being so weak. I told him not eating wasn’t helping so he asked for some of the bran muffin. I make it in one big dish instead of individual muffins. He asked for some juice so I poured him a cup of Raspberry Peach Blossom juice. Next thing I knew he was in the kitchen spitting it out in the sink. He forgot to tell me he put the mushroom nectar in that bottle the other day. Oops!
Six glasses of water was all I could stomach so I switched to Talking Rain. Love that stuff. I had heard that one can get headaches if they don’t drink enough water but I read today than backaches are also caused by lack of water. Interesting. And by five I finally got the crown done on the hat, put it on a circular needle and started the body of the hat. Then I found a mistake. I went online and found THREE pages of errata for this book! I printed them out and stuck them in the front cover.
I had my leftover steak and mushrooms for dinner. I got Bill to eat a little Jell-O cup. He is drinking lots of juice. But his temp spiked again so I called Marie and told her what was going on. She said you don’t get temps over 99.7 or so with dehydration which means something else is going on. So we have to bide our time until Bill can talk to Eileen tomorrow.
Aside from that, Marie is getting out of the Air Force Reserves in December. She just can’t do that with her job of teaching. Way too much with all the driving she has to do. She will be here in December and we’ll do our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrating before she heads off to France for Christmas. Her cat never returned after the neighbor reported seeing it in a fight. But overall, Marie seems to be doing fine for now.
When we come to the end of life, the question will be, “How much have you given?” not “how much have you gotten” - George Sweeting
Hi Diane. Was finally able to get out cyberwalking again and wanted to check on you and see what you were up to ... 
Hi Carol, I get a "lump in my chest" reading your thoughts that you share .. thanks for reminding us how life is a 
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