The Blackburn Digest

Confucius say “Never celebrate success of journey until destination is reached”. (He probably didn’t, but . . . . . .)

Poor DH got a 4 am wake-up call - - - well, more of a wake-up whimper, actually. The story began at 1 am; I’d been courting sleep for over an hour and gave it up as a futile enterprise. There were just too many unhappy joints sending pain messages*, and my brain insisted on a detailed & repetitive review of the many steps remaining on my current miniature project. (*Although the renewed Enbrel therapy does seem to be making a difference, we’ve had unstable weather & bouncing air pressure for several days. Happily, it has brought a bit of welcome rain along with the discomfort!)

I took one of my favorite T-shirts out of the closet a few days ago, looked at it, and then put it back on its hanger. The shirt is black, with white lettering proclaiming “I’m Blogging This”. I haven’t written a blog entry since late-March, and need to re-earn that T-shirt! (So much for “Blog 365″!)

A passing glance at what has been happening in my world since the last post:

- I have *started the ball rolling* on the hideously expensive dental surgery which will (I hope!) end my on-going war with my upper dentures! Oh, it fits fine - it’s just that the palate plate and my over-developed gag reflex (coupled with the ever-present Texas allergens) are making making me miserable:( This will be a long-term project, since it involves consultations, scans, impressions, more scans, evaluations and more consultations before the actual surgery.

DS is flying back from El Paso early this evening. The end of the not-so merry go-round is, at last, within sight; unfortunately, he has a few more rotations to complete before he tuck the over-worked suitcase into a corner. (I’m sure he’s getting dizzy - I know I am!)

Since I haven’t done a proper two-week shopping in mumbletoolongmumble, I made a midday dash to the market for something which would cook quickly when we returned from the airport. Passed DD’s sleek & pretty Ford Escape Hybrid just after leaving the Casa. . . O.K., make that lasagna & green salad for four!

DS’s plane was delayed, but he still got some time to visit with his Sis and play with his Niece.

Sara’s first birthday was celebrated at a park near her home, with both sets of grandparents, lots of aunts & uncles and a host of cousins. We all had a great time (especially Sara, when she was allowed to grab a handful of her birthday cake! LOL!)

The weather was clear and sunny, with enough of a breeze to keep us cool. That breeze is the reason Sara & I are both sporting the “wind-swept look” in hairdos;)

Alternate title: “Right time, right place, wrong day!”  Sigh!!

Great news: a much-liked, much-missed and very talented ex-member of my miniatures club is moving back to San Antonio within a few months. She is already making 400 mile shuttle runs to her new house with the sort of cherished breakables you do not want a moving company transporting (Ouch! For a miniaturist, that list can get pretty long!).

One of the club officers sent an e-mail out recently, announcing that Sheila would be here in town for a few days and inviting all of us to meet for lunch at a local bar-b-que. I speed-read through the message, noted the date & details in my calendar and zipped on to the next messages awaiting my attention. Not good!

Just my own personal opinion. . . .4 AM is not “morning”!  4 AM is one of those unfriendly hours I dislike seeing displayed on the clock when I am having difficulty sleeping, not an hour at which I wish to arise.  However, the travel-planning department of DS’s company seems incapable of recognizing that a 7:30 AM flight requires a 5:30 AM arrival at the airport; they are also (of course) unaware that it takes this chauffeur/mom 30-60 minutes to get alert, flexible and dressed. (Once upon a time - before RA - I could have been up, dressed & gone inside 15 minutes. Alert? Hehe - Not so much!).

No one slept at all well last night, including the cats! DH was under doctor’s orders to avoid sleeping on the pressure bandage/surgical site; orders I knew he would carefully obey when awake. Asleep, however, was a different matter - the incision is on his preferred sleeping side! He was wakeful because he was uncomfortable - I was wakeful because I was trying to keep an eye on him - the cats couldn’t get comfortable because we kept moving around. I think the total sleep time was 1.5 hours for each of us. 

Come morning, the lack of sleep presented no problem. . . . .for the cats! They simply retired to their favorite daytime nests and caught up! Different story for the humans in the house: 7 AM signaled the start of another day. DH took the pressure bandage off; the predicted swelling and bruising around the surgical site was present, but mild. The incision is longer than we expected, but will subside gracefully into one of his “character lines” when it is fully healed.