Fair season

I started last week with a root canal procedure on Monday, and things only got worse.

I voted on Tuesday with high hopes of my presidential candidate winning, but we all know how that ended.

On Wednesday I had my annual physical, confessed to two episodes of a "tightness in my chest in the middle of the night," and now face wearing a Holter one day this coming week and also having a stress test. I told my doctor I wish I'd kept my mouth shut. He said he knew that's how I was feeling.

(I suspect my heart is fine, but since my father and one brother died of heart attacks, I know I should err on the side of caution.)




Thursday and Friday I was still grieving the outcome of the elections, but otherwise, those days were fine. Wait a minute: No they weren't! My mouth was still recovering from the root canal. Having a dentist's fist in your mouth, along with various dental equipment, for 1 1/2 hours, leaves a mouth feeling quite assaulted for several days afterwards.

Then came Saturday: Church holiday fair season!

I enjoy attending the fair at St. Anne's Catholic Church in Gorham.

Two of my exercise friends, Ed and Kathy, belong to that church, and Ed assembles and furnishes a doll house for a raffle at the fair each year.

Ed outdid  himself this year. The Victorian doll house was a sight to behold. I bought a raffle ticket, thinking if I won, I'd give the doll house to my friend Lynn for her three grandchildren.

I didn't win.

I did manage to bring home some chocolate fudge for Ken and me, however. Sort of ironic, considering my need for dental work this past week, now that I think about it.



My mouth has recuperated from the root canal.

I'm still working on accepting the election outcome. Accepting, but not supporting.

A check-off on my bucket list

Ken asked me last Tuesday evening what I'd like for my birthday. (My birthday was the next day, and Ken is not one to plan too far ahead.)

I told him the honest truth: I wanted a pair of LL Bean boots. The signature LL Bean boots, the ones developed by LL himself over 100 years ago.

I've seen Ken wear LL Bean boots since the beginning of our marriage. I've seen many Mainers wear LL Bean boots, both men and women.

Now that I'm 71 years old, I figured it was time I, too, wore LL bean boots.

So we went up to Freeport on my birthday and looked for a pair of LL Bean woman's boots.

We began, and ended, our search in the LL Bean Outlet store, across the main street from the flagship store.

(One should always start their LL Bean shopping at one of their outlet stores if one is at all interested in saving money. I'm always interested in saving money. I'm a Yankee and Scottish, for crying out loud. I can't help myself.)

There, near the back of the outlet, beckoning to me, were my very own LL Bean boots, regularly $119, but with a $105 outlet price. But that day the LL Bean boots in the outlet store were an additional 20% off, so I'm now the proud owner of a pair of LL Bean woman's boots for a mere $80.

I haven't worn them yet. I'm waiting for colder weather, maybe some snow as icing on the cake. Then I'll don my brand spanking new LL Bean boots, after donning a pair of my hand knit socks, and take Sage out for a nice walk. And when Violet visits in February during school vacation, I'll put on my LL Bean boots, attach my LL Bean snowshoes to them, and walk in the deep snow (I hope it's deep) as Violet slides down our hillside. Between these two occasions I'll wear my LL Bean boots anywhere I damn well please. Because I'm 71 now, and I'm a Mainer.

To say we're an LL Bean family is an understatement. (By the way, I am not being compensated for extolling the many virtues of LL Bean products. This is an entirely unsolicited endorsement.)

The quality is always top-notch, their service is excellent, their return policy can't be matched.

Since  our credit card is through LL Bean, I collect LL Bean coupons at the end of each month and redeem them toward purchases throughout the year.

Early each morning, year round, as I sit down to my morning coffee and a browse on the internet, one of the first sites I visit is www.llbean.com/llb/shop/504987?page=sale-daily-markdown

At 6:00 a.m. I check out that morning's daily markdown item, and after 2:00 p.m. I check it again. I've found some excellent bargains that way. Just yesterday I ordered Ken, who loves vests in the winter, a handsome lambswool sweater vest at the Daily Markdown site: regularly $129, marked down to $69.99 for 8 hours only, but with $40 of my charge card coupons tossed into the mix, with a final price of $33. And it'll be shipped to me for free; and it'll arrive by this Tuesday. And best of all: It's machine washable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The cardigan photo positioned sideways above? A lovely birthday gift last evening from our good friends Jim and Lynn.

The black pants above? Pants I absolutely could not live with on exercise days at the town's community building. They're the LL Bean Perfect Fit pant. I bet I own a dozen pairs.

Here's an LL Bean jacket.

More LL Bean jackets.

An LL Bean pink and white blouse. It says "wrinkle resistant" on the neckline label, and boy, is that the truth.


My LL Bean winter walking shows from Santa last year.

My LL Bean chocolate Lab slippers. I've loved these slippers almost to death, as you can see.

And these shoes? They were an outlet purchase many, many years ago. They're as ugly as sin, I fear, but I don't care. They're comfortable, they have a rubberized, all-weather sole, and I'm 71.

Autumn colors

I wish I'd taken my phone with me when I went to exercise class one morning over a week ago. On that morning the sky was clear blue, the sun was shining, and these trees looked spectacular.

I had to settle for taking my phone along on the next exercise day, when the sky was overcast and it had rained during the night.

The colors of the leaves were still quite bold and beautiful, though.

Now the leaves have fallen. I checked out this tree two days ago, and it's as naked as a jaybird.

Wild Turkeys

I take a walk pretty much every day. By "walk," I mean at least a couple of miles, usually more.

Frequently on my walk (with Sage) I spot wild turkeys, the Meleagris gallopavo silvestris. (That term I just found by googling "wild turkey." I didn't want you to think I'm a connoisseur of wild turkeys.) This area has several flocks of them.

For awhile recently, a flock of twenty was residing in the trees behind/beside our house. In the mornings we'd see them swoop down to earth after spending the night in the trees, away from predators. Once back on the ground, they began their daily ritual of roaming the neighborhood. This fall them seemed to enjoy eating seeds from the wild grasses beside the roads.

One time I wasn't aware a flock of wild turkeys was sauntering across our front lawn. I was standing at the kitchen sink, looking out, when a turkey, visible only from the neck up, went past the window. That sight gave me a start for a moment. Turkeys will never be accused of being beautiful.

This summer I got into the habit of picking up any turkey feathers I'd find while walking along the roadside.

When I got back home, I'd stick the latest feather in with the others in the flower pot of Swedish ivy and geraniums beside our kitchen door.

The Swedish ivy and geraniums will soon be history. This morning's temperature was in the mid-30's.

And the turkeys, I suppose, are about to seek their winter habitat deep in the woods. Turkey hunting season in Maine is in May and early June, so they have plenty of time to fatten up. I don't know a soul who hunts wild turkeys, though.

Sisters

Yesterday was a beautiful autumn day with a clear blue sky and warm temperatures.

I left my house at 8:15, drove up to Topsham to pick up sister #1, then drove on to Boothbay to pick up sister #2.

I don't know when was the last time the three of us sisters spent time together, just the three of us.

We wanted lobster rolls for lunch, so first we looked around Boothbay Harbor for a likely place. We didn't find what we were looking for, so we then drove out to East Boothbay.

Bingo! We stopped at the East Boothbay General Store and, as you can see from their menu above, found lobster rolls.

Here's mine: 1/3 pound of delicious, fresh lobster meat nestled in the tasty roll.

After lunch, we then headed onward to Ocean Point.

I parked my car, and we walked along the pebbly beach for quite awhile.

After our pockets were weighted with sea glass and a few interesting rocks, we called it a day.

My two sisters and my thumb pose for a photo. 

I'm the "baby" of the family of six. Two of my brothers have died, so that leaves my two sisters, one brother, and me.

Here I am with my older sister. A kinder person you'd never find.

So it was a good day. I'm glad we were able to spend some time together.

"Cake" hats

It seems that everyone on Knitting Paradise is talking about the new Caron Cakes yarn. I decided I'd better join the fray.

I went to Michael's a couple of weeks ago, my 40% off coupon on my iPhone, and selected this cake.

It's 80% acrylic, 20% wool, with 383 yards of worsted weight yarn.

The regular price is $7.99, but with my 50% off coupon that day, I paid roughly $4.

Then I had to decide what to knit with my Caron Cakes yarn.

I settled on more hats to donate to various organizations which collect winter hats for those who need them.

I wasn't sure how attractive the hats would be, due to the long color changes. But I soldiered on.

After a couple of weeks of knitting, the Cake was almost gone, and I had five hats off the needles.


Here, my new knitting partner, Sage, helped me knit one of the hats. "Help" might be a strong word here. "Got in the way of" might be better.

My favorite pattern for knitting these hats was the Barley Hat. It's a free, well-written, and easy pattern.

I like the quality of this yarn. It reminds me a great deal of Plymouth's Encore yarn, which is my go-to yarn for knitting washable children's items.

Here are the five finished hats. Also here lies the little bit of leftover yarn. Five winter hats for a little over $4. Not bad.

A thief among us

I hate to admit it, but we're living with a thief.

Yesterday I decided to fix myself a broiled cheese/tomato open sandwich.

I assembled the sandwich and left it on the kitchen counter.

Then, as the oven broiler was heating, I decided to step into the bathroom for a quick second to see if there might be some Tylenol in the medicine cabinet. (Sinus infection. Fun.)



I was gone 30 seconds at most. I grabbed the Tylenol (hallelujah!) and returned to the kitchen.

And I found this (below). I stared at it for a second or two, wondering if this was how I'd left the sandwich, or if something had happened to it during my quick trip into the bathroom.

Then I noticed Sage, our nine-month-old puppy, lying on a kitchen scatter rug and licking her chops.

(See header photo for mug shot.)

How she managed to grab two slices of tomato and the cheese slices UNDER the tomato slices, without disturbing the bread or the other two tomato slices is beyond me.

We live in perilous times, for sure.