The prompt for  Friday Writings #54 (at Poets and Storytellers United ) is a letter to a stranger. Four days later, I offer mine.   Dear Future Artificial Left Knee, Today it has become real that our surgery will be happening. The insurance company has approved the procedure and primary Doctor B has said I’m good to go. And, Dr. G, the surgeon who shall wield the tools to hack out the bad tissues and replace them with titanium, plastic, and other non-natural materials, gulp, has given me my pre-op pep talk.  I am confident you and I will like each other. It’ll be slow going at first as we get to know each other and what we can do. Ah, the fun we’ll have when we get into step. Then, once our future artificial right knee joins us, oh my, we’ll truly be ready to rumble, dance the rumba, climb mountains, jump over the moon, and so forth and so on. The pain I shall be feeling will be worth it. Yi-haw!  Don’t get me wrong, I‘m not taking this lightly. I am scared. But, hey, we must find li

1) Four glorious days and nights of rain, off and on, enough to soak the ground, but not to get it ookey-muddy that I sink. Wish it did though. 2) We've been in a drought since 2011, not including the one year that the governor and experts said it was over. Really, though, we ought to go back to 2007. The experts said it was over in 2010. Ha!  Poor plants. 3) The experts predict that our part of the world should experience another exceptionally dry winter. I hope not. 4) From four days of collecting rain water and a couple of buckets of grey water from the kitchen, we have filled up a 30-gallon garbage can and a vintage metal milk churn (also called a milk can). Hurrah! 5) Yesterday, I got in a panic that the insurance company hadn't approved my upcoming knee surgery. Usually, it sends me a copy of any authorization it makes for me. Not seeing anything in my online account, I called the orthopedic center. The gatekeeper put me on hold to ask the nurse, returning to say the nurs

(1) Let’s see, today, for our main meal the Husband and I ate a melange of five left over dishes from the last two days, or three. Or, four. Garbanzo butternut soup, couscous with chimichurri sauce, sauteed onion and squash, ground turkey   burgers, and roasted red and green peppers. The flavors blended quite well together, surprisingly and with great relief. We ate our portions all up. No leftovers, hurrah! (2) To go along with our meal I concocted an ooh-la-la drink. Passion fruit juice with a jigger of rum. Ooh la la! (3) The Husband and I toasted to the last day of our 25th year of marriage. Tomorrow: Hello 26th!  Clink, clink.   (4) Maybe next year we will be dancing with our friends and family to celebrate our 27th anniversary. I also would like us to throw a party for the septuagenarians among us. We shall see. (5) The last two weeks I’ve been working on my entries for the county fair. That’s some of the craft entries in the photo above.  (6) Yep, that’s a juicer. Good friend L.

Nine pounds. That’s how much I’ve gained in three months. So said the doctor’s scale this morning. Bummer. I knew I was putting on weight, after all, I’ve been eating fudge, potato chips, and other yummy fattening snacks regularly the last month or so, but I didn’t think it would be that much. Maybe 5 pounds, I thought. It’s a good thing I had a doctor’s appointment today. The good news is that Doc was fine with my blood pressure, and he saw nothing problematic in my electrogram. Hurrah!  The nine pounds? Time to sweat.

  1. This morning I went all the way down the stairs on my feet, without a gasp or flinch from my knee. Yay! I had been making my way down on my butt. Thump. Thump. Thump.  2. The first morning I bumped down the stairs, Missy Molly the pinky-nosed (wilde) Cat tried to help me at one point. She actually got behind me and pushed on my back. Such a sweetie!  3. The Husband has been carrying and fetching stuff for me. He also reminds me to stop doing things I ought not to be doing.  I'm still not used to be taken care of. You'd think after three surgeries in the last four years, I would be.   4. Between the Husband and me, we have had six surgeries since Mama died in 2016. The Husband got a pacemaker, I had my reproductive system removed, and we both had cataract surgeries for our eyes.  5. Molly says don't forget me. "I was the first one to have surgery, miao, miao." Poor baby. She had dental surgery, a month after Mama's Spirit moved onward and upward.  Molly sp

March, march, march to my own drum. A congo drum, please. It's a gorgeous California no-rain-in-sight early Spring (late Winter, if you prefer) day. I would be playing outdoors in the dirt right now if I hadn't wrenched my good knee on Friday. Maybe wrenched isn't the correct word, but the pain certainly matches the word.   I stepped sideways on uneven ground in the front yard to show the Husband something when my left knee buckled. A chicken leg being snapped at its joint flashed through my head.  I am very glad to report that my sense of decorum and appropriate behavior are still intact: I did not scream out in pain nor utter a curse word for the whole street to hear. Indoors, another story. Before that all happened, I was playing in the yard, deadheading, raking, trimming, planting, and doing all kinds of fun things. At one point, a robin flew into the ornamental pear tree and we had a pleasant time hanging out. The robin even let the Husband join us. We wondered whethe

Hurrah! I got my blood pressure down sufficiently that the doc said he'll see me in three months. And, I went home without having to be prescribed medication. Another hurrah!  I know I'm not in the clear. I'm simply happy that my top number is back to borderline rather than over it. It does help to count potato chips and to eat a banana more often, so I think.  Have a wonderful weekend, One and All!

1. We went into a mandatory Stay-Home-People! on March 18, under the order of the county public health head honcho. The next day, Governor Newsom decreed it for all of California. 2. Does shelter-in-place work? 3. California's population is nearly 40 million. The total of COVID-19 cases as of April 1, 2020, were 8,155 with 171 deaths. The count for our county was 23 confirmed cases, ten recoveries, hurrah! Alas, one death. 4. I'm glad we have pro-active leaders at the local and state levels. 5. A neighbor sneezed loudly and profusely in his backyard. Could his droplets make its way up and through our hallway window upstairs? I hope he's healthy. 6. While working in the front yard yesterday morning, I felt a very tiny drop fall on my face. It wasn't raining nor was it foggy. Hopefully that liquid was only morning dew. 7. I've been experimenting a lot in the kitchen. That's a good thing. 8. The other day I made flour tortillas, using smushed lentils and sesam

1. Aren't those avocados gorgeous? Handsome? Ooh-la-la? 2. The middle one in the front was picked about two weeks ago. It didn't seem right to take a photo without it. They are from the same tree, after all. 3. This morning, the Husband and I went out to the avocado tree expecting to pick the last one of the season. The tree graced us with four HUGE fruits. Thank you, tree. 4. "They're as big as the ones that grow in Hawaii," said the Husband. Not really, but we can dream. 5. We saw another avocado hanging way up in the tree. Perhaps that's the last one of the season. 6. A couple days ago, our county public health officer called for a shelter-in-place until April 7. We're required to stay home unless we work for stores, companies, services, and government agencies that are necessary to stay open for the community. We can leave our houses to shop for food, see doctors, pick up prescriptions, and do other essential things. We can also go out

I forgot what I thought I wanted to write about. That's what happens when too much time passes between Ah-ha-I've-something-to write and turning on the computer, which may only be a matter of climbing the stairs to the office. Obviously it wasn't anything worth saying out loud. Ever wonder if you've said or written something that was quoted by others? Wouldn't that be cool? Yesterday our governor (in California) urged all of us, senior citizens, to stay put in our homes so that we won't risk contracting the coronavirus. The Husband and I pretty much hunker down most of the time, so this suggested decree is not a burden. Although I did panic for a moment when I thought we might not pay our property tax bill on time because the bank and the tax office may suddenly close. Then it came to me that we can use a credit car to pay online or over the phone. I'd rather not, so I may suggest to the Husband that we go out in the world sooner rather than l

1. Been working in the yard, I have, I have. It's so much fun, especially when the Husband and Molly the (wild) Cat are hanging out there with me, doing whatever they do. (By the way, the Husband took my photo.) 2. "How did you get out there?" asked the Husband when he saw Molly sitting on the front steps through the screen door.  "Did you climb the fence?" 3. Oh, oh. I forgot that Molly came out the front door with me earlier today.  I get easily distracted, which means I need to come up with a system to remind me that Molly is still wandering around the front yard. 4. Thankfully, Missy Girl forgave me. So I think. She laid on my lap for a while. 5. Good medical news #1 that I got on Monday: Doctor Eye has me down in mid-May to remove the cataract in my other eye. Whoooo-hoooo! 6. Good medical news #2 that I got this afternoon: The result of my routine mammogram is normal. Yippieeee! 7. The Husband and I voted yesterday by mail-in ballots.  Yaa

1. Pop! went the left lens of my eyeglasses. So much lighter with just one lens. And, when I perch the frame on my nose just so, and hold my head just so, everything straight ahead is clear and in focus. 2. It was one week ago that steady-handed Dr. Eye made that slit in my eyeball, extracted the cataract, and implanted a brand new artificial lens. Hmmmm. What if the science fiction stories about implanting chips into unknowing people were true?  Shudder. 3.  Purrrrrrrrrr. "It's only your imagination," says Molly the (wild) Cat. 4. Yesterday, the Husband drove me to the library. I don't want to drive until I have full vision in both eyes again. That may be May. Was that a sigh I heard? 5. "I'll take that." The Husband carried my bag of books from the house to the car, then from the car to the library counter, and vice-versa.  I'm not supposed to handle anything over 10 pounds for a while. Jiggity-jig. 6. I'm not allowed to bend,

Colors, Oh my! Vibrant and deep. Shades of color, So many Subtleties.  3D! My gosh,  Everything has depth.  -- Su-sieee! Mac This, I tell you, is what I've been experiencing since Friday afternoon when the eye patch was removed from my left eye. Oh my gosh! What will it be like when the cataract is removed from my other eye and a corrected lens inserted. Oh me, oh my!  And, now I can add my pirate photo to that of the Husband's and our dads. Daddy's cataract was removed in the late 1960s, way before the procedure of inserting an intraocular lens was a thing. No doubt, he would've loved having his sight fully back in his left eye.  Arrrrr, mateys!  Come check out one, two, or all three of these memes with me:  All Seasons , Mosaic Monday , and Say Cheese . Many thanks to the hosts, Jesh,  Angie, and Jenna.

"Knock on wood, said Dr. Eye, who then knocked on the side of a medical supply cabinet. I turned to my left. Nothing but eye examination machines. All metal. I looked back at the cabinet. "About the closest to wood," Dr. Eye said, somehow knowing what I was thinking. "Maybe this," I said, leaning over to tap a small box, probably made of balsa, on the cabinet. "It probably does have the most wood in this room," Dr. Eye said, tapping the box. Someone asked me if I felt confident about Dr. Eye taking out my lens and inserting an artificial one with my current prescription. Totally. Four more days.  :-)   Linking with All Seasons at The Jesh Studio.

Good Golly, Missy Molly! That's the Girl from the other morning. After a few minutes of hanging in the chilly outdoors, she zipped into the house and went straight to her new bed, which is one of her favorite pillows covered with Mama's jacket. The (wild) Cat must've felt pretty proud of herself this evening when she wandered around the living room without walking on the floor. She jumped about two feet from her table to a counter on which she tiptoed around obstacles, then hopped down onto the long couch on which the Husband and I sat. She paused for a long second to stretch herself before springing to the hassock and daintily stepping over my feet to a low table, upon which she carefully sniffed its expanse. When she was satisfied, Molly leaped to the small couch on the other side of the room. After a whole lot of sniffing and nuzzling of the couch, the hearth, and the back of the TV, Molly walked back over the low and wide table to settle herself into a snooze be

1. We went to see the Husband's doctor for his quarterly visit. Mostly good news, hurrah! According to the doctor's scale, the Husband and I lost 4 to 5 pounds since we last stood on that scale. Me, a month ago. Him, I don't know when. The doctor was impressed that the Husband lost 13 pounds in three months, something like that. I may have lost about 10 pounds. Pretty good for us not trying. 2. We want and need to lose weight. Him, maybe 10 more and me, far more. We aren't making a big deal about eating more of this, less of that, and none of the happy yummy stuff. We eat what we want, including potato chips and ice cream, and, as one doctor said to me long ago, be mindful about how much we consume in a sitting. 3. Years ago, friends in their 60s told us that they find themselves eating less as they aged. Their appetites were great and they enjoyed food, willing to try different cuisines. (They were foodies way before foodies came into fashion.)  So, I guess that

Oh-oh, it's the 20th. I wrote December 19 on all the forms this morning at my Hello, Welcome to your Medicare Advantage Plan appointment, as well as later at the laboratory. On the lab forms, I caught myself writing 2019. Hahaha, I wonder if I did that on the doctor's forms as well. The appointment was my official introduction to senior citizen health questions. Very different types of questions. This particular Medicare Advantage plan wanted to make sure I'm not feeling alone and lonely, nor chronically sad or depressed. They also asked questions to determine if I have my mental faculties, including asking me to write in the digits on a faceless clock and draw hands to show 11:10. I had no problem with the questions, but, I wonder if they'll take points off because I wrote the wrong date. hee-heee. I'm actually feeling quite euphoric because of my positive experience. 1. All the healthcare practitioners and support staff I met were friendly and helpful i

1. The Husband made pancakes. They were the big Y, a.k.a YummY! 2. Molly the Cat kept the Husband company while he cooked. They were so darn cute. 3. Instead of strictly following the instructions on the box, the Husband used 1 cup of water instead of half-a-cup. He liked that the pancakes were less dense. I added, "And more!" 4.  Whenever we talk about his functional cooking skills, The Husband likes to say that he can make tasty scrambled eggs. I'm still waiting after 23 years. In the meanwhile, I'm very happy with his pancakes. Mmmm. 5. I cut several big branches off the Messy Tree, formerly known as the Miracle Tree. Long story short, I was afraid certain branches might fall on the roof should the wind pick up. 6. We've been having a steady rain the last 24 hours or so, from sweet and gentle plops to fast and furious patter. I love it all! 7. What shall I do after I publish this post? Bring in all the boxes marked XMAS Decorations in t