Yikes! What a scare!

Yesterday, one of our neighbors posted a request for computer help in our community message forum. I responded and asked him to call me. He did. We arranged to meet at his house this morning. Anne planned to go help Greg at his house, so I just walked over to the neighbor's house, which was about a mile away.

Yeah, I was feeling good. I was out walking and the day was wonderful. I was wearing a pair of running shoes and not even walking fast. My shoulder felt good. I smiled.

One of the houses had a concrete drive with a small cobblestone surface. I did not think anything about it. It looked like the sidewalk in front of our house. A thin invisible dew film clung to those cobblestones. As I stepped on to it, it felt like I had just stepped into the middle of a patch of ice in downtown Minneapolis. I actually did that one time and I remember the totally helpless feeling as my feet went out from under me and I hit the ground.

That is what happened. I fell toward my left side and forward. Instinctively, my hands reached out to break the fall, but a little voice told me to protect my shoulder. Most of my weight came down on my left hand, but my right palm hit the driveway, causing pain to shoot through my injured right shoulder. I was sick and the words came hurtling through my mind "THIS WASN'T MY FAULT!"

I called my good friend from Church to take me to the doctor. They performed a full examination and did an X-ray. Dr. Bryan declared my shoulder is fine and looks good. He told me to come back in six weeks. He said now is the "boring period" of just letting my shoulder heal and being careful.

Tears of relief.

Bob

Awesome gift

I really enjoyed the white elephant gifting yesterday. We have some savvy shoppers. I hope Jeff enjoys the tools which he stole from me.

To whoever put together the Treebeard’s cookbook with the non-slip surfaced knives, I wanted you to know this is awesome. The bright orange Santuku knife has now assumed the position of official cheese slicer in my arsenal. It slices hard cheeses better than anything else I own. The non-slip coating is the secret.

Ah, the cookbook -- I have decided to exercise my latent desire to play a head chef role for some of our meals. I usually just play salad chef and dish washer. My first recipe will be Treebeard’s chicken breasts with mushroom cream sauce. If it goes well, I might host a family dinner. Isn’t that radical? I begin by actually seeking and laying hands on the ingredients in our kitchen. I am sure many of have experienced the sinking feeling of being half way through cooking a new recipe and discovering that you thought you had garlic powder in the pantry, but do not. That is how homemade mayonnaise gets made with olive oil instead of salad oil (Yuch!). I must admit that my career as a manager and planner will spill over to an attempt at cooking. I will probably drive Anne crazy. I am inspired by watching the movie Julie and Julia. Maybe I will write a short story called Bob and Treebeard.

Happy new year, everyone!

Making Coffee with Sarah and Jessica

Tonight, we had a sleepover at our house for granddaughters, Sarah and Jessica (now 2 years, 3 mo old). After their dinner, I began assembling coffee for tomorrow morning. Sarah came over to me and said "big chair" while pointing to one of the chairs in the breakfast room. I knew immediately that she wanted a chair to stand on, so she could see what I was doing. I grabbed a chair with my good arm (still recuperating from shoulder surgery) and dragged it up to the counter. She managed to get into the chair by herself and stood up beside me.

I measured a half spoon of coffee grounds and held over the basket, as she stood on her toes to see what I was doing.

"Do you want to dump it in, Sarah?"

"Yeah!" she said gleefully, as she reached over and twisted the spoon, while I held it firmly to be sure it all went in the basket. Sarah was delighted.

"Do you want to smell it, Sarah?"

"Yeah!"

I held up the coffee bag for her and she stuck her face into the bag to get a good whiff.

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah!"

"Would you like to touch it?"

"Yeah!" she said and stuck her little forefinger into the coffee basket gingerly. Then she withdrew her finger with grounds stuck to it and stared with total intrigue, turning her finger around to see different views. I showed her how to flick her fingers back and forth to get the coffee off and she did it obediently.

Along came Jessica and she wanted to get in on the action. She climbed up in the chair with Sarah and I made sure they both were stable, then proceeded to show her what was going on. We repeated the scenario, with Jessica answering "Yes!" in her own sweet way to each of the see-smell-touch questions.

Anne showed up behind Jessica. I don't know exactly how it all happened, but very quickly, Jessica, Sarah, and Anne had coffee on their faces and there was delighted giggling taking place.

I guess this did not last more than 10 minutes. It was one of the most wonderful experiences I have had with these little girls. I loved seeing their natural curiosity and intellect seek new knowledge with their grandparents.

I will cherish the memory.