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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Mishmash

As the title implies, this post is going to be kind of a mixture of unrelated things.

Great-nephew, Cooper, age 8, has taken up competitive swimming. We attended one of his swim meets last Saturday. I haven't quite mastered the art of photography at an indoor swimming pool, but here are a couple of images that give a feel for the event.

Here, Cooper is showing the adult helpers his arm, on which each of his events is written in magic marker.

Cooper, between events

Monday night, as Doug and I were enjoying "America's Funniest Videos" reruns, our doorbell rang. There on our doorstep, and spilling over into the yard, were 25 or 30 Christmas carolers. They burst into song as soon as I opened the door; and, my goodness, what beautiful singers they were! Our hearts were so blessed as they sang four or five beloved Christmas carols and then prayed for us before they left. And our tummies were blessed by the plate of homemade cookies they presented to us.

With the crazily warm weather that we've had thus far in December, our grass is green and could stand being mowed. And we found dandelions blooming in our yard on Tuesday. I didn't get a picture of the dandelions, but I did get this rather unusual picture for December in Indiana:

A Robin in the Crab Apple Tree

Tuesday afternoon, I had an appointment with my dentist, to have Tooth #25 extracted. Afterward, the dentist told me that, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst, my extraction was a 2. Well, easy for him to say. For the one sitting in the chair, it was a 12!


An implant wasn't possible to replace the tooth, making a bridge necessary. But there is reason to fear that a bridge attached to the adjacent teeth might damage them. So we may have to do a bridge that extends over several teeth. Meanwhile, we decided to let the extraction site heal before doing anything further. So I'm walking around with a missing tooth at the moment. May the hillbillies of the world forgive me, but I look like the stereotypical hillbilly.

That reminds me of a joke: Do you know how we know that the toothbrush was invented by a redneck? If anyone else had invented it, it would have been called a "teethbrush."

Are you all familiar with Groupon? They offer some pretty neat deals from time to time. Well, about a month ago, we ordered a soundbar to use with our television, hoping that the sound it produced would be a better quality than the sound that comes from the television speakers. There was a delay in shipping, so the soundbar wasn't delivered until December 7th. Since then, we've driven ourselves crazy, trying to get the thing connected. Finally, today, we called the company's customer service department and got a guy who not only spoke English but who was persistent in resolving our problems. It took the better part of today and two trips to town to buy different cables, but we're up and running. Thank you, Zach! You are one of the best customer service representatives I've ever encountered.

I've done a few posts about the horses that I owned a number of years ago. This week, a woman was led to this post on my blog when she typed the name of her horse, Sera Diamond, into the search engine. Sera Diamond was one of those foals produced by my beloved Half-Arabian mare.

We exchanged emails, and here is what she wrote: "Sera Diamond, Sammy to me, was my horse in the 80's. We showed the Arabian circuit and took many wonderful trail rides. He was amazing! We loved to play tag in the field and he always loved a good carrot! He made the 'teen years' much easier."

Thank you, Melanie. You made my day.





10 comments:

  1. Cooper looks like a future Olympian to me. Clear a shelf for those trophies.

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  2. What an interesting post, Linda.... Sorry about the tooth extraction... Dental work is never fun... Hope you make the right decision about a bridge... I have one --which is kinda like a retainer (that you take out and in) --but I cannot use it at all when I eat. SO --I seldom wear it at all... I say: Take me or leave me!!!!! ha

    I know you are proud of Cooper... AND--that was a neat horse story...

    Cold here tonight --and we are having some flurries.. Don't think we'll get much --but at least, winter is here...

    Spent today with G's Daddy --celebrating Christmas with him. Took him to Applebee's and that little man ate fried chicken, onion rings, slaw---- and he also woofed down a big brownie with ice cream on it... I guess when you are 100, you can eat anything you wish... ha

    Merry Christmas.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  3. Oh that's so sweet to hear about Sera Diamond. What a kick to make that connection.

    Ouch, that extraction couldn't have been fun. Too bad they couldn't save the tooth. I hope they'll be able to fill the gap before too long. I'll bet you can whistle really well now!

    I love the robin in the tree. It seems that for the past few years, we've been seeing robins as late as early January and then again as early as early March. There only seems to be a two month period when they disappear. And this seems to be the new normal. That's a wonderful photo.

    The carolers are always fun to hear.. almost. Back when Jeffrey was very little (around 4), his hearing seemed to be more sensitive than most kids.. finding sounds to be louder to his ears than I would ever expect. Some wonderful carolers came to our door, one evening. Within a few seconds, he had them all giggling because he stood there smiling at them all, rocking from foot to foot with his hands clapped over his ears.

    Cooper.. you have much to be proud about. Including your indoor photography.

    Well, that all happened backwards, didn't it?

    !samtsirhC yrreM

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  4. I love your story about the carolers, Linda, it must have been wonderful. What was expected of you? To give them sweets? Or money?

    The Robin looks nice. We had lots of snow here a week ago but it has thawed recently. It is quite common here that Christmas aren't white although everyone hopes for it.

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  5. your hillbilly joke was cute. yowch on the extraction, though! your great-nephew is so cute. i hope he enjoys swimming. and the carolers must have been a wonderful gift! the horse connection after all these years was a gift, too.

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  6. We finally got a few flurries last night, but you wouldn't know it now. It is, however, very cold. I think I'm ready for Spring (don't tell Betsy!). I think it's neat that the owner of the horse was able to track you down. As a Tennessean I forgive your hillbilly joke.

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  7. Hope you heal well, thanks for your concern. Been a bit unhealthy here. I saw those soundbars. I have a huge 1000 watt home theater that still sits in the box a few years later. They are nice for movies, but i may have to read directions.LOL Have a techie friend coming for the holidays that I may suggest what fun this could be.

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  8. Ah, Stephen. If that boy goes to the Olympics, we'll definitely find a place for those trophies! :)

    Oh my, Betsy. I hope that's not the kind of bridge my dentist is considering. What good would it be if you couldn't wear it when eating...which is most of the time for me. Maybe Dad Adams and I have that in common. :) It was cold and blustery here today, with some snow, but not enough to really talk about.

    Hilary - I still can't whistle, but I have a fetching little lisp. It seems as if our robins disappear around late summer or early fall, then show up again in February. December is an odd time to see one around here. My great-nephew, Carson, went through that sound-sensitivity issue, so I can understand Jeffrey's reaction to the carolers. At least, he didn't scream and have a meltdown over it. Yes, you did kind of do everything backwards in your comment, including your Christmas greeting. Only you...

    Petra - I'm not sure if anything was expected of us or not when the carolers came. I did invite them in, but they protested that there were too many of them. And they gave US sweets, so it would have seemed awkward to have offered them sweets in return. So we just enjoyed the experience and wished each other a Merry Christmas.

    Theresa - I'm glad you enjoyed the joke. The tooth extraction was not fun. My mouth is still very tender, after three days. Cooper does seem to love swimming. His family lives on a lake, so he has lots of opportunities to swim in the summertime. Yes, the horse connection was great. I sold most of those foals when they were young and wasn't able to keep up with them afterward. So it was really neat to hear from Melanie about some of her experiences with Sera Diamond.

    George - Sorry about the joke...couldn't resist. We had some snow today, but most of it's gone now. The wind is still blowing pretty hard, though.

    Steve - Sorry to hear about your health issues. Hope you're on the mend now. Love your idea of convincing your friend that hooking up your sound system will be a fun holiday activity. :)

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  9. Thank you for the laughs, Linda. Sorry you are toothless for the holidays, but hopefully they'll find a suitable fix soon. I have another redneck joke for ya: Know why redneck murders are so difficult to solve? All the DNA matches and there are no dental records. Hee! Cooper looks like a fine swimmer and he's very photogenic. You did great with your camera. Can't believe you already saw a robin. What a treat!

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    1. Gail - I'm always glad when I can give someone a chuckle. Ah, yes. I'd heard your joke before but forgot it. Too funny. Cooper is doing very well with his swimming, and he seems to enjoy it. That's the main thing. If that robin is still around, it may be sorry tomorrow. We're expecting several inches of snow. Worms will be scarce.

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