Every Day Is Special

This week has been cold and dark in more ways than one. This morning the skies are gray as a gun barrel; it is chilly and windy, but the afternoon is to be warm and sunny. The weather jumps around like my deteriorating body, good and bad mixed like a bracing cocktail. This is also the Maple Leaf Parade Day and it looks to be big crowd as cars are lining my street bumper to bumper finding parking, and this is three blocks from the end of the parade! The mailman has run his route about three hours early to try and beat some of the congestion on this autumn Saturday.

The mailman has brought me a load of birthday cards for two days. Thank you all who have sent them! Today is my birthday which often falls on Maple Leaf weekend so it has been hard to celebrate when the town celebrates first. Of course this year I can’t do the parade and that is okay. I sent DH on to son’s house to continue siding. They work hard trying to beat winter with this project and to work between chemo chaos.

On Thursday we called it my birthday early and worked hard to make it some kind of different day. We so miss our countryside jaunts and tours. The rainy weather dampened our plans but we worked in a short ride to Arkansas border on a cold but dry day between rains. Biscuit rode along and we went to Crystal Bridges to see the Bachman-Wilson house built by Frank Lloyd Wright. We have longed to it for months. It was a hard press and we did not do other art, only the house. We have seen other FLW houses but this one was smallest. Moved from New Jersey and set in an Ozark hollow packed with oaks and walnuts, the setting is beautiful.

We have always thought the man’s designs both beautiful and uncomfortable looking. This small home was typical of his concrete, wood, and glass designs. The house used rich, dark mahogany; the wall of glass made you feel like you were sitting among the trees from the inside.

Then we went to lunch in a tea room where we were disappointed. Now you will know me for the tea snob I am! Years ago we went to lovely tea room in downtown Rogers, Arkansas. They opened a branch in Bentonville and eventually moved the main tea room to a strip mall out near a big shopping center. They lost their ambiance. We had never been to Bentonville one so we gave it a shot. It too lacked ambiance.

Ordering at a cash register, getting your own tea in a plastic glass, silverware, and small paper napkin does not speak tea room language. The food was decent but not extraordinary. However, the tea room has lasted and they had a decent business. Once known for outstanding and special orange rolls that were light and airy, they still have them on the menu. But alas, they are not the same. These rolls were heavy, had no orange taste, and now used some kind of crystallized sugar instead of the orangey glaze that once made them scrumptious.

We were back home in the early afternoon and as tired as if we had taken a longer trip. We got quilts, found a good western and called the day special anyway.

I return to chemo on Tuesday again so will probably be quiet for a while. I have anti-nausea meds on counter and convenience foods stocked up. Hopefully, there will be more special days to work in after the worst is over!