Brrrr!

I am waiting for the bathroom to warm up before I take my shower, it is only 64 when I first went in there.  At those temps I could reasonably put the soft drinks outside and shut down the refrigerator.  Anyway, I thought I would get another post going here.

I have a good friend in SanFran that I worked with in the Olllddd days.  I last saw her in 2001 on her yacht/boat and her note this year says she is moving from Hawaii to a gated community in Sarasota, with all the mod cons.  I have to admit, I am a teeny bit envious, but that is life, some are poorer and some are richer.  She invited me down once she got settled.  However, there is the step/stair problem, so I figure I will have gray hair (check) and walk with a cane by then (I wish) before I make it there.

I knocked this computer off and it landed on edge on the squishy carpet, and seems OK now.  The cover was a little loose, but it popped back on and there isn't any problem I can see.  I also knocked over the can of Coke, but it fell directly into the trash basket upside down.  Small mess ensued.  I think I will adjourn for now and get that shower before another mishap.

The laundry is done (mostly by C) and put away.  There is still my gold silk shirt to tackle, unfortunately the stain is on the right side right in the center of the front.  Right now I could wear it under a jacket or sweater, whereas it will be hard to do even that if there is a big hole there.  I have a replacement that looks pretty much a duplicate, but it is made of polyester.  For me that means no dry cleaners; their price doubles the cost of the shirt after one or two trips there.  I just need to have a go at the stain, good or bad, get me off the fence.  It occurs to me we spend more time and effort on our clothes, even when they are cheap or designer made, and use them if they wear out pretty quickly.  My dry cleaners' items stay in their plastic shrouds, except when I need to find something "special".  I wish I could remember how this one got stained.  I have an Oscar de la Renta blouse that I glopped salad dressing on.  When It was cleaned, I warned them, but the result is a large slightly lighter color on the front.  It is completely invisible in low lighting.  At home I wear a cobbler's apron at dinner, or even change to an old t shirt to avoid messing up something dressy.  As if anyone would notice.

C is off to the vet to get the prescription food for the oldest cat.  She is too thin and this food is very appealing to her.  It is $100 for a large (10 pound) bag, so we have to isolate her when the other cats want to check out the new food.   They are very plump, even the one that looks thin until you pick her up, oof!  I counted how many cats we have had over the years, and it is 28, more or less.  You have to  realize this is over 45 years, and always multiple cats at the same time.  The amazing thing is that I can still remember their names;  Luckily I can't remember their vet bills.

All the plants look fine in the upstairs dining room.  They have all done well  without me, all but the Christmas cactus, which croaked.  Years ago when we moved to WV from CA (and never mind what you saw in Horse Whisperer) you can't leave a horse in a trailer for days and days so I arranged a transport with a company that does this all the time (and ignore the bite marks and the raw part of his tail).  So we put the cats in the biggest of carriers, and put the Husky in the trailer with them.  When we stopped for the night, all the beasts came into the motel with us.  Oh, but what I meant to say was I transported all my plants on the hay shelf at the front of the trailer.  Quite a few.  And when we stopped in NM, even though it was April, all the plants were frozen and black the next morning.  I still haven't found some of the types of plants, must be a West Coast biome thing.  Anyway, at that point in time plants were the least of my worries.  I  had R in the intensive neonatal ward in CA, weighing all of 2.5 pounds, another car back in CA that a drive away company would eventually get to us in WV,  our house had been loaded into a moving van, and I had to stay in M's house until they released R and we flew to FL, where mom lived.  I was so stressed, when we met in the AirPort I handed R to mom and said something along the line of "here".  The wonder is that I kept it all together for those incredible weeks.  So the loss of one Christmas cactus is a small matter.