And now.....

Nearly half a month later, I am back at the computer. We have been on a marvelous trip to my beloved St. Teresa. Dad and I stayed at Old St. Teresa at night in a mega comfortable place, but spent our days with our family. Unfortunately, after only two days there, I managed to splat myself all over the bathroom floor, damaging my knee and my left hand. More unfortunately, I managed to cause Dad to also go splat as he tried to get me up. I hadn't realized how much I had grown to depend on the grab bars we have out here in our bathrooms. They really are indispensable for me. Also, I had taken two hydrocodones, but 3 hours apart. That probably had something to do with me falling. At any rate, we went to town that day, and I determinedly went to a luncheon with some of my old friends from Leon High. '09 is the 60th anniversary of our high school graduation and I had a great time, once Dad got me in the door and seated. After lunch we went to the emergency room and spent 5 gruesome hours. It was full of people moaning and wailing and making every other noise you can imagine. It turns out to be a good thing that the knee I fell on had already been replaced or I would have shattered it. It's hard to shatter titanium. The damage to the surrounding tissue however is extensive, and in addition I managed to sprain my left hand - no knitting for the next several weeks. This injury will probably cut this post short as my forefinger is still sore. Anyway, I was given oxycodone and spent the next few days vegging out on the couch, reading and sleeping. Now I am down to one of these tablets at night, which is helpful as I call them my 'stupid pills'. I did get back out to the beach to sit and look at the shells the kids brought in. I was really pleased to see the shells. They were there when I was growing up and then just disappeared. This is the first year I have seen them come back. Too bad we couldn't get out to the sandspit - the best ones are there. The grands are beginning to build a grand collection of shells. Since I am ready to begin to disperse some of my smaller ones, we have a date to pass some of them on their generation. Our vacation was mostly courtesy of our family and I do thank them most sincerely for such a great trip. I especially thank Nancy and Scooter and family for their expert nursing care and love.

We stayed with MB both coming and going and I an totally hooked on her work on the ancestry.com site. We took my maternal grandmother's line way, way back - amazing when I thought I knew so little about her, but it turns out I knew more than I thought. And - are you ready for this? - I am descended from both Charlemagne and Chaucer. Wow! Who knows who else will turn up? We found an error in the immigration info from Baltimore on my grandad's line. It will stop with his parents I fear, as my great grandmamma immigrated from Munich and my great grandad from Portugal. His name was even changed at immigration - anglicized actually. Maybe we can find those immigration records and look even farther. I'm so glad MB is doing this. It really is addicting.

More later when this sprained hand works with more efficiency. Blessings to all,......
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