That January Lull - A Return to Normalcy

The holiday season - from Halloween through New Year's Day, and including two grandkid birthdays - is so busy. And then all of the hubbub just STOPS. January has not been a blog-worthy month. We have just been settling back into our normal routine and our normal diet, after all of the holiday festivities and feasts.

I'm back to my art classes, my ESL tutoring, my ladies' Bible classes, my Bible Bees preparation and teaching. Dan is back to cooking us breakfast every morning, taking care of car maintenance, and playing on-line games with Chris and Clara.

It's been a month for replacing things. First came our stationary recumbent bicycle. We both used it a lot, and we just wore it out, I guess. The pedal mechanism failed. It was going to cost almost as much to get the replacement part as it would be to replace it. So we got a new one. We both like the new one better, but would rather not have had to buy it.

The other big purchase was a new dishwasher. Our old one was still working. At least it was working as well as it ever had . . . which was poorly. We got fed up with having to re-wash things as they came out of the dishwasher. And tired of having to run the dishwasher only when we went to bed, because it was sooooooo noisy that we couldn't carry on a decent conversation or watch TV. It was the dishwasher installed by the house-builder, and it was bottom-of-the-line in quality. So we stepped it up several notches and got a beautiful new Bosch dishwasher. It's so quiet that we don't even know that it's running! And every dish, every pot and pan, and all the flatware are coming out sparkling clean.

And speaking of replacing things, I called the orthopedic surgeon's office yesterday to get an appointment to see about getting my left knee replacement surgery scheduled. I wanted to get this done as early in the year as possible, so as not to ruin another summer with rehab. Sadly, I waited a little long, since I can't even get an appointment to see him until March. I'm sure that April will be the earliest I'll be able to schedule the surgery, which will mean I'll still be hobbling until June or July. That will make the third summer that we have been dealing with recovering knees. I had my right knee done in June of 2013. Dan had both of his knees done in the spring and summer of 2014. Oh well. We only have four knees between us, so this means we will be DONE!

Yesterday I had lunch with two good friends - Wynn, who has moved away and is now living in Huntsville (she had to come to Temple to take care of some personal business), and Susan, who is so busy we seldom get together. Since it was close to my birthday, they made it a birthday lunch. Wynn gave me a wind chime, with a brass turtle at the top - she loves turtles. She instructed me to hang it out on my back patio and to think of her every time I hear the bells tinkling. I'm eager to get it hung.

I'll also be having lunch out today, with my art class buddies. There is a fun little lady in our class, who is turning 94 this week. (You'd NEVER guess her to be that old!) So we are going out to celebrate her birthday.

Like I said - not many blog-worthy events this month. Kind of sad when a new exercise bicycle makes it to my list of highlights.