Wednesday, November 11

VETERAN'S DAY

The first thing Hubbie did this morning was hang the American flag on the well house, in remembrance of Veteran's Day.

I started my busy day with water aerobics, of course, where the pool was comfy warm. Twenty one of us showed up today, which was heartening. This is a comfortable number, giving everyone enough room to move during the workout without bumping into anyone else.

I became a little anxious, though, when I got ready to leave the gym and couldn't find my car keys in my swim bag. I called Hubbie to ask him to come and bring me the other set of keys, but as I was talking to him, I rummaged around my bag and finally turned up my own keys, thank goodness.

Back home, after I was ready for the day, I made a batch of bran muffins to have with Long Soup (a modified version of a Chinese soup recipe) for supper. Mother made the soup while I was at water aerobics. We wanted to have supper ready before lunch, because afterwards, we were scheduled to go to a Caring Hands Hospice event.

The event, called "Fondue and Photos," was held at the home medical office. It started with a refreshment table of cheese fondue for dipping ham and bread, and a chocolate fondue for dipping apples and cake.

Following refreshments, the Caring Hands coordinator presented the volunteers with pink logo t-shirts, which we donned for group photos.

The coordinator told us that part of the money raised from our various projects have recently gone to buy a wig for a hospice patient with cancer, and to purchase special silverware for a patient with arthritis. These are examples of items that are not covered by Medicare, and that the patients would have had difficulty obtaining without our help. We are, of course, pleased that our efforts make a small difference in other's lives.

After the group photos, we gathered around a table to make Christmas cards for hospice patients and their families. We worked for two hours, until 4 p.m., when the children of staff members arrived to make cards as an after-school project. Their session was to last until around 4:30.

Back home, we heated the soup and muffins for supper, after which Mother went home, and Hubbie and I settled in to watch TV. We watched, "Duplicity," starring Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. In this 2009 PG-13 movie, two corporate spies having an affair try to steal secrets that will make them fabulously wealthy. This was a complimentary pay-per-view movie from our cable company that I recorded on DVR.

We were amused today to find that the graham cracker Christmas cookie house workshop that we'll be conducting the first Saturday of December at the art gallery is listed in both of our town's newspapers as the event that will launch the Christmas season in our town, and on our state's tourism website as one of the "more interesting and unusual activities around the state," right up there with a caroling in the caverns program in one town, and living window displays in another town.