Well, this has been a disappointing week

We've waited the requisite 10 days and the epidural has not “kicked in” and Mary's back pain remains. She has some tablets for the pain and they work.  Up to a point.   They take the edge off.  But she's still in pain most of the time.  The next visit with the doctor is this week and we'll discuss the next step.

Someone stole a couple of Mary's checks, washed out the payees, inserted a couple of aliases, and changed the amounts: one from $30 to $348 and one from $40 to $409.  An alert bank teller caught the $409 one before it could be cashed.  But the thief was successful with the $348 one.  It doesn't put us in the poor house but it is a bit of a nuisance.  We've had to spend a couple of hours at the bank closing the old account and opening a new one.  And then trying to deal – only occasionally successfully – with the outstanding checks and changing the direct deposits.  And there went a significant chunk of that week.  Not to mention missing band practice.

And then this morning one opens the internet to find that Hilary (the good one, not the evil one with double Ls, late of American politics) is bowing out of analyzing church and, sometimes, state.  I don't know how I'm going to find out what it is I think about things now.  Oh, all right.  I'm not quite that hopeless.  But she does have a wonderful way of making sense of things, of putting the pieces of the puzzle together.   Disappointing, as I said, but I do see her point.  Nine or ten years ago The Inn quoted an article in The Wanderer which, while not precisely on point, is I think relevant.  It's here.  It's pretty much the attitude and practice I try to follow.  I can hardly blame someone for doing something similar.  Though I shall miss her commentary.

And finally,  I sat down this morning in the big, black chair with a mug of coffee and twiddled the appropriate knobs on the Grundig for the Saturday Met broadcast.   But what did I hear? 

Hoyo to ho.

Bloody Wagner. 

I misread the schedule.  Tosca isn't until next week.

A very disappointing week indeed.