A Day in the Country

Okay, I haven’t gotten around to an entry about Berlin because I have been too busy wallowing in self-pity because of my terrible teeth.  In the last week I have had two nasty old crowns jack-hammered off for replacement AND been told by a fancy oral surgeon how difficult and expensive it’s going to be to extract two of my f#$-ed up molars and replace them with implants.

At this point, I would like to thank my husband for the nice insurance and savings that will pay for all this awful soul-sucking dental work.  It will be bad, I will hate it, but at least I can pay for it.  He often makes the joke “If you were a horse, I wouldn’t have bought you.” Hmmmmm.

Yesterday we had a lovely day in the country.  We have friends who own a vineyard in Morgan Hill, and they invited us down to pick grapes and enjoy a barbecue lunch.  It was a great afternoon. 

(As an aside, it turns out that I don’t use my arm muscles that much on an ordinary day, and the stress of snipping grapes for a few hours yesterday has rendered my right arm fairly useless today.  I had some difficulty with my Bacado Omelet at Rick’s this morning, but reader, I persevered.)

In a fortuitous coincidence, yesterday evening we were also invited to a party in Morgan Hill at the home of Larry’s friend Julia from his Cisco days.

Between the two events, I told Larry we had to stop at the Morgan Hill Safeway so I could change my clothes.  This request was not motivated by vanity, of which I have almost none, but self-preservation, of which I have a healthy amount.

The last few years have revealed that I am allergic to basically all green plants.  If you want details, ask my family, they are all well acquainted (and thoroughly bored by) my plant allergies.

I took my change of clothes into the Morgan Hill Safeway restroom and proceeded to strip off my dusty clothes and bathe in the sink.  Luckily, no one came in while I was scrubbing myself with paper towels.  I felt a fleeting moment of kinship with people who have to bathe in sinks – an extremely fleeting moment, admittedly, but I try to have some empathy.

Refreshed and re-attired, I joined Larry and we went to Julia’s party. 

It turns out that Julia and her husband Dennis are groupies of the local band Moondance and had booked them to play a couple of sets at the party.

Moondance was great!! I think I am also a groupie now.  All the guys in the band are at least fifty (sixty?) years old, and they have been playing together for years, and they sound amazing.

It was so fun to dance under the stars to a great band with old friends.  It almost made me forget about my terrible teeth!  Almost…