Yesterday I had a very nice surprise from Lenny our mailman. You know it has to be a good package when the postage is stamped by the Royal Mail. I opened it up to see this lovely group of goodies sent from Petulant Feminine of England. I love the colors! The teacup is called Midwinter and is made by a factory near her. She said that they were very popular in the 1950s and 60s. It's very sweet. And look how the little star pins and snowflakes coordinate. A very beautiful gift ... it really cheered me up.
Now I on the other hand have been remiss about sending my package to Prairie Mouse of New Zealand. I managed to get to the Post Office in the nick of time. Well, actually I arrived late but fortunately after a quick phone call to the hubby I found one that was open for another 1/2 hour. I keep forgetting that Saturday hours aren't the same as the weekday. I thought that they'd at least be open until 3pm, but it seems like 1pm is the magic hour. Hopefully the package will arrive within a week ... late, but I hope she likes it. Here's the quick packaging job that I did. I think that it turned out rather cheerful.
However, I've now learned a new technique for future packages. Just look at the clever use of thin ribbons and buttons that Petulant Feminine used to wrap my package ...
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In other news, my visit with my stepdad went very well. I think that he's up to fighting the cancer and it looks like he has lots of people who will be by his side every step of the way. He won't start the chemo until his body has a chance to recuperate from the surgery. He doesn't have insurance so this is all taken care of by Medicare (he's been disabled due to a shoulder injury when I was a very young girl.) They sent a home-care nurse to change his dressings and make sure that he's doing well. This nurse was a firecracker, she called the doctor right away when she found out that no pain medication was prescribed. How can they send someone home after that type of surgery without pain meds? She said that there would be a nurse to see him at home until he didn't need one. Wow! Isn't that great!
Now when my dad had his open-heart surgery he didn't get a home-care nurse. He also doesn't have insurance but since he was in the US Air Force during the Vietnam era he qualifies as a veteran. His medical needs are seen to by the VA (Dept. of Veteran Affairs) which is really good for him. I saw him last Monday night when I drove down to LA. It's a very long 5 hour drive and by the time I got there I felt that it was too late to drive the additional hour to get to Pomona to see my stepdad. My dad's feeling much better, but he still doesn't have complete functionality in his fingers. They have started doing physical therapy, but I have a bad feeling that this will take a long time to recuperate. We were told that this happens to about 5% of people during surgeries ... something to do with pinched nerves and how the anesthesiologist strapped down his arms.
All in all, it looks like both my dad and my stepdad have good doctors to take care of them. This makes everything much easier to deal with. Fingers crossed that things go well .... and thank you to everyone who's sent well wishes!