WINTER SHOWED UP

Yep, 21 days until spring and winter decided to

make an appearance. Yesterday was 55 degrees,

warmer if you were standing in the sun according

to my deck thermometer.

Toady we have rained mixed with big, fat

snowflakes. Hopefully it won't stick around

much. The herring are making their way here

and there always has to be snow before the

herring lay their eggs. My dad told me that

is an old wive's tale, but it seems to be true.

So the tsunami petered out by the time it

reached Alaska, which is just fine by me.

Lots of people lined up down at the beach

around 3:30 when it was supposed to be

here, but the only thing I saw were some

funny tidal lines that were swirling round

and round out there. The salmon fishermen

didn't come in, so they must not have been

too worried about the whole thing.

My mom ended up going into surgery on

Sunday the 28th. They knew she had some

sort of blockage and tried to let it pass

naturally, but she was getting sicker and

sicker so they made a decision to open

her up and see what was going on and

deal with it. It was scar tissue around the

surgery site and it wasn't going anywhere

without somebody removing it.

The surgeon set aside 4 hours for the

surgery and it ended up taking less than

30 minutes! He was pleasantly surprised,

but if he only knew how many people were

praying for her he shouldn't have been

surprised at all.

I called her last night and my uncle picked

up the phone and wouldn't let me talk to

her because she was in a lot of pain. So I

called her back this morning and nobody

answered her bedside phone. Hmmm.

Where the heck is my mom?

I called later that hour and she answered

and told me the nurse knocked the phone

over and didn't realize the mute button was

pushed on. It sounds like they are thinking

about sending her home in the next couple

of days if she can eat solid food and walk

a bit more. Let's hope that is the last of

the problems and she is on the road to

a full recovery!

Have I ever mentioned how much we like

and use our library system? We always

have stacks of books checked out and the

occasional movie too.

Our library has display cabinets along one

wall as you walk in and they encourage the

community to fill them monthly with things

of interest, collections, art, etc. So I

offered to display some of my lady head

vases. My husband and I went down on

the 1st and set them up:

I didn't bring any super expensive ones down;

the Jackie Kennedy is probably worth the most

at about $300. The library has insurance, but

it only kicks in after $100,000 damage, so I

figured I'd leave the upper-end ladies safe

here at home.

I displayed some magazines, reference books

and newsletters and wrote a bit of information

about the heads and where people could look

for more information if they were so inclined.

As we were setting up we had one of the librarians

remark that now that she had seen them in person

she remembered her grandma having one when

she was growing up. That's what everybody

says when they see them!

How about you--did your grandma have one

of these lovelies on a shelf in her home when

you were a kid?