The Denouement of the Mystery of the Missing Aide

But first, here's the shelvy stuff in the kitchen in its final, I think, appearance, now that I've played at great length with putting stuff in and taking it out, like having a dollhouse.



The rest of the kitchen is a lot better now that all the electrical gear with cords is stowed on that top shelf out of sight but easy to reach, behind my cookbooks which I can now look at without catching a cascade of other things off the shelf they were on before. And I have empty shelves near the window for my houseplants, mainly the vital aloe vera, since I burn my fingers almost daily in the course of using the oven.

AND I had a wonderful freecycle haul of yarn, great stuff.



The cones are fine cotton, and the other stuff is thick-and-thin, loads of it, very soft, haven't decided what to do with it yet. But there was a little packet of a red and white fine cord, which is now a tiny purse! used every inch of it, not a scrap left, but it's a nice little purse. I think my purse frenzy is winding down, but my shopping bag frenzy will outlast the available brill colored yarns.

My next door neighbor's athletic daughter was visiting yesterday, and they came over to say, right, that branch that's been banging on your gutter and you couldn't get high enough to prune it, hand over the pruning saw, and J. will CLIMB the tree and do the pruning! whereupon father handed up the tools, daughter shinned up like a cat and removed the branch that's been worrying me for months in case it ripped off the guttering or the shingles. I did give her a tiny purse, her choice, as a thank you.

No pictures of this, since I couldn't stand to watch! but a few minutes after they went home her father came rushing over to ask could I give him a hand with spiders in the kitchen at their house, since his daughter has such a phobia about them she couldn't deal with them at all. So I guess one person's anxiety is another person's piece of cake.

HP had a bad day yesterday, possible small strokes, total inability to stay up in his chair, confusion, but his nurse came this morning, approved the stuff I did to cope, including boosting the medication, and things are looking better.

And finally, the Saga of the Missing Aide. Her boss called me this morning from Jamaica where she's trying to be on vacation, and was hugely apologetic about the whole thing. Nobody can reach the aide, but she sent another staff person over to investigate and found her apartment had been burned out.

Desperate attempts to locate her and her baby have not yet yielded any information, but it seems clear that everything in the apartment was lost, including any records and contact info she had there. So now the concern shifts to where can she be, and is she okay. The boss has left messages wherever she can think of. Meanwhile, I sent my best to the aide when she is located, all is understood now that we know it really was a disaster that kept her away, and we'll manage until Helen herself gets back next week and we can resume. But I have a lot of worry about G. the missing aide.

I tell you, there's never a dull moment around here. Another day I'll tell you about the sedated cat and the leaking roof...