GREEN HAIR and HAMLOAF
Return to the North
When we first came back we stopped at the Philo Post Office to pick up our held mail on the way home.
"Well, I guess you had a fire, out your way yesterday," Sam, the postmaster said.
We became quite concerned.
"Oh, don't worry, none of your buildings were burned, it was just a brush fire," he explained.
We rushed home to find that actually the fire was on our neighbor's land and our driveway had served as a firebreak, but it was a sizeable fire, burning 6 to 8 acres. Because we live in the woods this kind of thing is worrisome but the volunteer fire department put it out after a couple of hours. The problem was the fire burned through a natural gas line and that fed the flames. Such is small town life that the next day when I was running errands a man said to me, "I heard that you had a fire out your way, I hope there was not much damage." I am looking at this guy thinking: who is this? When he said, "I'm Bill; you remember I helped Jamey (our very good neighbor –dt) clear his woods," my memory was jogged and I assured him that everything was OK and only some brush was burned. Actually they do controlled burns sometimes to clear the woods but this was more of an out-of-control burn.
We of course had a lot of mail to deal with. There was a problem with our forwarding but after a couple of weeks most of our mail caught up with us. A few magazines and journals disappeared into the void but Dan has asked for replacements. We did have a boatload of catalogs. Since I had been for 5 months without fat lady catalogs there were a few things I really needed to order. In fact Dan was browsing through one of my underwear catalogs (Don't ask!) and noted that with the bra sale they were cheaper than buying them at the store so I ordered a few of them. Quite thrifty aren't I.
This has been a month and a half of normal goings on interspersed with a few oddities. We got home and began turning everything back on and checking the filters etc. One odd thing is that evidently the water heater had decided that we were on vacation and turned itself off. Everyone denied doing this because the cleaning lady needed water for the monthly sprucing up. Don't let anyone tell you that artificial intelligence is a thing of the future. After a few cold showers --probably good for our morals - we got that squared away. (Thanks, Jamey –dt)
I started back swimming at the Fieldhouse (A local athletic center. – dt); so far I have gotten up to 1000 yards. One day after I dried my hair I looked in the mirror to arrange it and discovered my hair had turned a pale green. I went to the front desk to inquire about this. After considerable discussion and general admiration from the young staff, the manager was called. Jim was more concerned. He apologized profusely.
"Have you dyed your hair recently?" Jim inquired.
"No," I responded.
"Are you using a new shampoo or conditioner or anything?" He Asked.
"No," I answered.
Jim admitted he had done the chemicals in the pool that day but said they tested out as normal. I told him I had not smelled too much chlorine or anything. Jim asked that I go home and shampoo to see if it would wash out and call back to let him know. Fortunately it did. (Dan said later he wished I had left it in because he would have loved to see the faces on the ladies at church when I walked in with green hair, sigh!) So I called the Fieldhouse to let them know. Jim was not there so I talked to the young lady on duty.
"Well that's good!" she said enthusiastically, "although I did think you looked lovely with green hair!"
HMMM!!
In addition to swimming I have gotten back into glass blowing. There is a high school boy named Anthony the Intern who works at the studio instead of going to school. (Not quite correct; his internship is part of his senior service requirement, he still takes at least one class. – dt). Back when I rode a dinosaur to school barefoot uphill both ways we never had it so good. Nonetheless, Anthony the Intern has been helping me. He is very enthusiastic, if not too good, so we are a perfect match. As you are not supposed to pay interns I have been feeding him and giving him one thing we make every day; so far we have made mushrooms and paperweights. I also don't shout at him, which I suspect the other guys do. Of course they shout at each other too. I am planning to trade most of the things we make for more plants at two plant swaps I go to. Dan is not at all sure we need more plants, but we do.
Some of our family might remember that Aunt Winkie used to make hamloaf from meat she got at Lawsons. Well a local store here sells hamloaf and I love it as much as ever. The thing is, they sculpt the meat into the shape of a piggy with 2 olives for eyes; I suppose I am easily amused. (Yes indeed –dt) Well anyway it is good to be back home. Oh and we got 82 new evergreen trees planted, the trees were free but we had to pay a neighbor $1 a tree to plant them. Still a good deal I think.
No pictures with this episode. Perhaps next time we will have a picture of Mrs. T's green hair.
Best wishes to all. Keep in touch.
Dan and Rebecca
www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com
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