Spring Or Else!

You know it was a bad winter when you feel like you have been let out of jail. Finally our weather broke, and we have had a string of decent days that could actually be called "spring-like", even though the official arrival of spring was not until this weekend. Only last weekend was that horrible storm--which could have been so much worse, had we had lower temperatures. Somehow, we escaped without any water in our basement, and we didn't get involved in the power outages that so many households suffered. I guess we did our time that once, and it was bad, since we were an isolated incident on our street, and of course, they got to us last. Our sympathies to all those families who had to wait it out this week.

My mini-daffs are in bloom, and the regulars are budded, and ready to go. The snow drops appeared last week, and were most welcome, and the crocus have popped the last day or two. How pretty is the color purple, after a long winter of brown!


I bought two batches of tulips and put them in a vase. The yellow ones were bigger, and I picked out some red with yellow edges, for pretty contrast in the vase. The yellows stayed the same, but the reds kept growing, and look how they ended up! A little odd, I thought.





Our niece was coming for the weekend, and I looked at my "Attitude Vase" and thought "too bad I didn't pick up some flowers". CarolA came in and she had brought the absolutely perfect cut Gerberas for that vase, and I just had to take a picture of it. I'm still enjoying them--those elbows just say it all, as far as I'm concerned! And happy spring to Y'all!

Wild Weekend

Sometimes the fun never quits. We started with a big storm that promised to hang out over several days. We always get at least one dramatic weather incident in the month of March, even though I try to convince myself that spring is in the air. For heavens sake, there are robins outside--in flocks, no less, picking away at whatever is in the lawn, and the little pokey things are coming up through the dirt--some are even budded. The temperatures are sticking solidly to the high 40's, and the air feels soft, not bitey, so at least it won't be snow.

Friday isn't great, with gloom and rain, but the weather men are offering up Saturday for the big show. We didn't have much to do, except get some appetizers ready and spruce up our fiddle/piano duo for a little entertainment at Garden Fairy's St. Patty's party.

Saturday WAS a big show. The rain came down, the gales blew, taking out trees and power lines all over Long Island, and plenty of other places as well. Our power flicked a couple of times, but never actually went out, so the food got prepared, and we had a fine time at the party. Cycle in "Spring Forward" on the old clock, and all is well. Choir in the morning, so don't hang out too late. We came in at 12:30, plus our one hour time loss, so call it 1:30.

Our clock radio does it's thing at 7:30, and at 7:38 there is a phone call from our church organist that he and his wife and baby are all sick, and can I play the morning worship services (first service 9 am). Well. That wasn't how I was expecting to begin my morning...

We had concert tickets for this afternoon in Manhattan, and the trains on our line were running, so we got there only a little late--missed the first piece. At least all that was required was to sit in a seat and do my best to stay awake. We caught some dinner in a restaurant next to the concert hall, and were back home by 7 pm--or is it 8 pm--or 6 pm? I guess it will take me a day to get it all straight in my head--which is still whirling a bit...

Wednesday Night Routine

Every year now, for many years I have played the mid-week Lenten service at the church founded back in the 1920's by my grandparents. I do not attend this church, but I have family ties there, so I go there whenever I can, and it gives me great pleasure to be able to play services for them, even though they have a miserable organ. The stained glass windows are nice...

I now attend Weight Watcher meetings on Wednesdays, and it works out that I go from there to the church service, and eat a late dinner when I get home. The pastor has made his sermons into a series each year for the weeks of Lent, which number six. The themes have varied from year to year--and this year he is preaching on the Seven Last Words of Christ. My attention sometimes varies, depending on how hungry I am, and what is going on in my life at the time, but I have been able to tune in this year pretty well.

At the end of the service the pastor announced that next week they would be serving corned beef and cabbage in honor of St. Patrick's Day downstairs in the church hall, and that his sermon would be based on the sixth word "I thirst!" On my way out, I confess that I couldn't resist asking him if there was any coincidence with the sermon topic and the date, and I did get a hearty laugh. I'm wondering what he'll do with the sermon....

Getting Implants!

Yeah, well it's not what you think...

Last spring, I was given the bad news from my dentist that I had to have a tooth pulled. It was a six-year molar, and I was mortified. I have good teeth. No way anything like that was going to happen to my good teeth. I sought a second opinion, with exactly the same verdict--it has to come out. Despair...Well, they weren't taking off a toe, or a hand--just a tooth. "We can do a bridge--since the two teeth beside the offender have fillings." Not on your life! Don't touch my two teeth. Do an implant.

So. Three months to heal, more time for the implant. More time to heal. Then the cap. $$$$$. July for the extraction. September for the implant. December for the cap. Extra time for the lab for the cap for the remake, since the first one didn't fit. Cap finally goes on Feb. 25th. Feb. 26th six-year molar on the other side breaks off well below the gum line. Yeah, I know the drill. Just take the thing out, and get the process started all over again. What the heck was I doing when I was six, and those teeth were supposed to be in formation for the rest of my life?

Well, you wouldn't want me to be unbalanced with an implant only on one side, would you? Think about it--how that would look?