Thursday...All Day!

Woody is back to going upstairs each morning. Yesterday was the first time that he ventured up this way since his surgery. He prints off his crossword puzzles of the day and checks email and several sites that have to do with baseball and others of interest to him. He also often just sits up here in the office chair whie working his crosswords so he can check on clues that stump him. The incisions on his arm are healing nicely. Late morning we headed off to Fresenius Kidney Care Center for his monthly check-in with the nurse for bloodwork and for iron infusions, or whatever is in his orders for the visit. The nurse said that he was really pleased with how Woody's iron counts are coming up. Hope that still proves to be the case with today's labs. He did get an iron infusion this morning. Then the nurse changed the extension on the PD catheter...that is changed every six months...so that gave us a touch point as to how long he has been on dialysis. Woody said that he felt it had just been a couple of months rather than six! The nurse appointment is usually a rather short appointment and today's proved to follow that pattern...we were in and out quite quickly. After the appointment, Woody made the rounds of his deacon family members who are shut-ins and delivered church literature to them. In the process we were in the vicinity of two of the five houses that we have lived in during our 50 years in Tullahoma. Our first home was an apartment over a garage...that no longer exists...just an empty place on the lot now. The other house that we drove by was the third house we lived in...the one we lived in just before relocating to California for two years before coming back. That house now has siding and a metal roof...but it is still there at least! Of course, we also saw the fifth house that we have lived in as we live here presently1. The other two that we live in, I pass quite frequently as I head either to Walmart or Kroger. I think by going by these two today, I can say that I have seen all five of our Tullahoma abodes in the last week or. perhaps week and a half. I can reach each of these homes in less than ten minutes from where we presently live...Tullahoma just isn't that big! Two of our residences were on the "other side of the tracks" and the other three "this side of the tracks!". I decided that I was going to bake a pumpkin pie...why? Because when I was putting things in the freezer after shopping yesterday I saw all the frozen pumpkin that we have and also that we had Cool Whip...decided to get two things out of the freezer. I ate warm pumpkin pie for supper tonight...figured that would count as a veggie! It is pretty good...at least the pumpkin part...it was another questionable crust...conditions weren't right...or something. The recipe I used is my tried and true recipe that I have used the entire time of our marriage...the one that Woody would say was the best crust in the world...well...in the last few years something has changed and I no longer take credit for the best crust in the world...more fails than successes! But in the last year they were starting to turn out the way they used to...so now when I think about making a pie I don't dread making the crust. So today I got everything out and got to work...but I knew from the moment that I started cutting the shortening and flour together that something wasn't right...it started acting like there was already water in it and started clumping together rather than staying separate till I added ice cold water. I probably should have stopped there and started all over...but just didn't feel like it...so after refrigerating it the way I do and started rolling it out, I could tell. In the end I just sort of patted it into the pie plate and then added the pumpkin filling and popped it into the oven. I had a feeling that the fluted edges weren't going to withstand the heat in the oven so to keep from having the crust all over the oven, I put a cookie sheet below the pie...glad I did! With in a few minutes almost all the fluted edge had fallen below! Oh, well, the pumpkin filling is good and it still cuts like a pie. We will enjoy it...but I do miss the flaky fluted edge of the pie crust! I believe that conditions were too humid and/or the flour or shortening had extra moisture in them...at least that is how I will end this story! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! And, tomorrow we will be part of covid statistics...we will have gotten our first Covid vaccine. It is good to start hearing that local friends are getting the vaccine...tomorrow two couples that we know well are also getting theirs, too.