Round Robin

Over sixty years ago, my mother and her siblings started a round robin letter. When we were kids, the arrival of the family letter every couple of months was a big deal. Mother would read all of the letters aloud. Then she'd take out the last letter she wrote, write a new letter to put in, and send it on to the next person in the loop. School pictures were always circulated with the letters each year, so we knew what our cousins looked like, even though they were several states away.



Now only three of the twelve children of Ole and Mathilda remain, so the loop consists mainly of us cousins, but the letter is still going. Instead of eleven stops (Paul had already died, of pneumonia after having his appendix out, before some of the wonder drugs we take for granted today), I think there are seventeen, so it takes at least three months. We all grew up with the idea that you didn't hold up the family letter, but we're not quite as good about that as our parents were. The letters arrived here on Tuesday, and I mailed them off today - not bad. I mail it to south Florida, then it goes to Colorado, California, Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, about six places in Minnesota, three in Iowa, Kansas, and back to Kentucky.



Knitting

This is my production for the first two full weeks of March. There are five watchcaps there, although not all of them show well. Also three scarves that match three of the caps. Those things are for the Seamen's Church Institute. Then there are two short capes, which I mentioned a few posts ago. The gold one was worked in stitch number 254 from Lesley Stanfield's The New Knitting Stitch Library. Since I worked the cape from the top down, the pattern is upside down from what is shown in the book, but I like it that way. I think it looks like flowers.

I've made another cape this week, as well. When I get it washed, I'll stop by a nursing home to see if I can give them away. This one I worked in wide stripes of dark blues and greens in the Gothic Lace pattern from Mary Webb's Knitting Stitches.

I love stitch dictionaries! The Stanfield one usually lives in a basket with a large cone of cotton yarn that I use to make dishcloths/washcloths. There's a paper in it with the numbers of the patterns I have used so far. When the Art Guild director tells me that they need more cloths in the gift shop, I use the next pattern that seems suitable. It's a great way to try stitches without committing to a large project.


Medical
Tomorrow should be my last radiation treatment. I'm glad, because that daily trip to Paducah is getting tiresome. When many people have weeks of radiation, I shouldn't complain about ten days, should I?

The rash I had has disappeared, and my feet are back to normal. I started on 150 mg of Thalidomide on Monday, and have not had any problems with it. I see Dr Balbastro again on Monday, and I'll also be getting the Zometa through my port then. That will probably make water taste funny for a couple of days - at least it did last time.

I'm feeling a bit less stressed about the cost of the medication, because I got a letter from Medicare that I've been approved for extra help with the drug plan costs. I suppose it will take a few months for it all to shake out, but maybe it won't bankrupt me. In the meantime, I have two applications to other agencies that I have to take to the cancer center on Monday along with proof of income stuff for them to photocopy for me.

And this too shall pass.