I was having a good week until Friday.  I had worked outside in my garden, managed some exercise.  Archeology magazine came and I plunged into it.  The Jan 6th hearing s were interesting.  The cats were getting along well with each other.  We’d had sufficient rain for a change.

Then Thursday, I went to Dr. Libby, my osteopath. He worked on my back and my knees.  Told me to put on ice when I got home.  Woody had brought n a big basket of green tomatoes. A couple of  years ago, Melenie and I made a great relish that I remembered as being named Amber Relish.  Before we went off the the doctor in Harwich, we cut up onions, cucumbers and green tomatoes.  When I got back, I put the rest of it together while woody was recording one of his programs for WOMR at his office.

I followed directions cooking everything in vinegar, adding sugar, and may spices.  They said to boil it for 20 minutes.  I put on ice and went to the couch upstairs.  Halfway through I went down and stirred it, went back up. I tassssssssted it and found it weird.  I didn’t resemble what we’d made before.E WEIRD.  I was sitting on the couch with ice when all hell broke loose.  Every smoked alarm in the house went off at deafening decibels and a loud voice screeching evacuate!  EVACUATE!  EVACUATE. 

I ran through the house to see if anything was on fire.  Then I went downstairs and found that it was burning and giving off an acrid stench, probably from burnt vinegar.  I ran through the house, my bad ankle quieted by my need for action. I opened every window. The screendoors are still on, so opened all three doors.  I went outside to call Woody but it stopped, finally.  Quiet returned.   We threw the mess out.

The cats had vanished.  Finally about an hour later, Schwartzie reappeaed,but shaman remained hidden till after we had supper.  Willow finally came out of her condo, where shaman had been hiding behind her. 

Then today, I’d done half my exericses, revised a poem and dealt with email problems when Woody came come from shopping for the week’s groceries.  I was putting vegetables away when I opened the refrigerator door and a whole shelf fell on my left foot.  I screamed.  It hurt terribly. At first, I thought I’d broken the bone.  We put ice on it for 20 minus on, 15 minutes off, for a couple of hours.  The swelling went down and the pain diminished.  I am still limping a bit but it’s much better. 

I was almost afraid to get out of bed this morning.  My foot is a bit sore but nothing like it was – the ice really helped.  On the positive side, I realized this morning that Shaman, who growsr every day, and our relatively reclusive Willow are behaving like a mated pair.  They have begun  to share the topmost crow’s nest on the biggest cat tree I the house and snuggling together.  He tries to mount her and she puts up with it until he gets too rough and she throws him off. He was dashing around in the bathtub as he likes to do. She put her paws up on the edge to see what he was doing. Somehow he indicated for her to join him, she did and they played in the narrow confines of the tub. Then she got up, ran and he chased her and they continued in the bedroom.