If you are reading this Tuesday morning, know that I am currently unconscious and a surgeon is doing noisy and unsettling things to my right knee. Which makes me glad to be unaware of his activities. He’ll be finished soon, and I will wake up and be encouraged to stand and even take a few steps on the new joint. There is an old Kingston Trio song that has the line, “We’re worried now, but we won’t be worried long.” That about describes my state of mind this late Monday afternoon. I am hoping this new adventure in medicine will also at last break the log-jam that my literary brain is trapped in, and I will find myself back in writing mode as the knee heals. I can see where the story needs to go next, and then the plot turnings after that . . .

I did not finish stitching the Christmas stocking. On the other hand, I will have the time to get it done and will have it “finished” (turned into a proper stocking) in time, perhaps, for New Year’s Eve. It’s so pretty, I will hang it up even unto Easter, just because it’s a lovely artifact. Take a look (imagine the top portion done entirely in the color of the red line):