Friday, April 23, 2010

the day just required a photo heavy post

My day started on the other side of the bay in Marin County, the town of San Anselmo, to be exact. I had an appointment with a therapist who works out of a home office. Driving out of her neighborhood as I was leaving, I spot THIS out of the corner of my eye:


OhMyGosh, wow. I parked and slowly eeked my way down the driveway hoping this was some sort of open studio and not some party I was crashing.

Open Studio, it was....although from gauging her familiarity with the other people coming and going, it sounded like she had only advertised this by notifying friends or former customers. Guess that still makes me a bit of a party crasher, but whatever.


So it turns out that this lady with the open studio travels regularly to Zambia, and is helping some women in a village get all set up to do production work. They hand dye and paint the fabric. It becomes tablecloths, runners, napkins, and totes and bags of various sizes. She is now just starting to teach them how to quilt, too. She was neat.

***Spoiler alert if you are Michelle (which I highly doubt because she absolutely refuses to read my blog...but her husband sometimes pops in now and again to see what's up here ..so if you are reading this, HubbyOfMyFriend, mums the word).

So it's Michelle's 50th birthday party tomorrow and she asked me to bring a tablecloth for the potluck buffet table, because she doesn't have any. I was glad to do that of course, but when I saw these linens, well...they are just so her, I had to get her one. I had another gift in mind, but this is just too perfectly fitting. The one I picked out for her is pretty much like the one on the far right in the top photo, except that the base fabric is eggplant in color. It's beautiful. Turns out they are very easy to care for, too. Normal wash & dry. The lady selling them showed me some of hers that have been laundered and they are actually even more lovely now that they are worn in.


Okay, so my next appointment today was in the north end of Napa, and my GPS said the fastest route from Marin to Napa was through Sonoma. Besides this being one gorgeous country road, this took me right past one of my favorite places ever, The Fremont Diner (if you want to see some really great pics, do click on that link and then click on the pictures to see an album. This joint is VERY charming and photogenic). Here's proof:






That last one cracks me up. "Praise The Lard."
HA.

Lunch was amazing. The best Shrimp Po'Boy I have ever eaten, with a green salad on the side. I knew TheMIG would have a wild case of the envies that I had been there without him, so I brought him home a mini Straberry Rhubarb pie. They bake them all folded up like a Hostess Pie, if you know what I mean. So cute.

After lunch I drove on to the appointment in Napa. It was with TheNewLegMan (which I will have to call him for now, until I can think of something better. When I call him a "prosthetist", which is what he is, y'all think I am saying "prostitute", which he is not.)


Here's my new set up, under construction.

What you are seeing is test-socket number three. Every week I go in and I am a different size. I tried to tell him this would happen, because it is what always happens, and he did not believe me....but he does now. You'd think that getting me into a new prosthesis would be a piece of cake because all they really need to do is make a socket (the upper plastic part). I already had all the hardware (the lower part of the leg, the mechanical bits). TheNewLegMan originally estimated a 3 weeks from start to finish to get me out the door.
We started this process in February.
(FAIL)
Oh, well. No biggey. I expected it. The newly projected date is that I should be walking out of his office with it in 2 weeks. We shall see. I'm not trying to be negative. In fact, I am quite positive about this whole thing. I just know how I tick is all, and well....when it comes to "fitting in" to anything, I'm just downright quirky.

3 comments:

~Donna~ said...

That pink Chuck is waiting!!!! :)

jana said...

I have that very same changing size issue. My last prosth acted as though it was my fault & kinda went ballistic on me after realizing that I can change 10 lbs up or down on any given week (not to mention the issue of my stump volume changing from morning to night).

I found a new prosthetist who's a bit more patient with me--he's never yet berated me for changing sizes. We just keep trying to get the fit right. :)

Hannah said...

The painted fabric is beautiful! And I love the prostitute man.

It is so nice to be back in touch. I've sort of fallen out of the world lately. Thanks for reaching out.