We started out today by taking Dick to the Clinic to have his legs rewrapped. This time Theresa did it. We hope this will bring the swelling down. Angie who did them last week is really sweet, but they did not get much better and began to swell right away. I will cut them off on Saturday and we are going to see Dr. Phelan on Tuesday. Hopefully things will be much better.

Today was a really nice day overall. I cleaned the kitchenette and bathroom downstairs and did some quilting. I also took down a few Christmas things and gathered up my Christmas plates. I have four. One was made by the wife of an appraiser, Gary Kramer, that I used to work with years ago. She laquered Christmas fabric on glass plates and he gave them to us with his homemade caramels that were simply "to die for." One is a small blue plate I picked up at a garage sale it is #79 of a "limited edition" of 10,000. Wow. The third and fourth I got from Grandma Bowser's house when we closed it up. One is a 1972 Christmas plate - made in the USA none the less. The second is a plate with a picture of the Christ on it. I had not looked at the manufacturing information for YEARS. Imagine my delight today when I discovered that it was manufactured by the Crooksville China Company. Several years ago I started collecting their china and this was a pleasant surprise. A plate I didn't even know that I had.

I decided to tell you how I got my first driver's license today. I did not get it until I was almost 19 and less than a year before I left for California.

I told Dad that I wanted to learn to drive and asked him to teach me. Now, you might not know that my Dad hated driving and detested cars. He drove them only because there was no other way to get to jobs and some other necessary places that one could not walk or take a bus too.

Anyway, he took me out to a long deserted country road. I got into the driver's seat and he told me to start her up. I said "How?" and he paled. He said to push on the clutch and I said "Which is the clutch." He started to panic. We finally got it started and I jerked it a few feet down the road and killed it a few times before we decided that this was just NOT going to work.

So my boyfriend Jumbo Martin took me out a couple of times and then we went do the police station in Sheboygan Falls when the State Officers that gave the test were in. I passed the written test with flying colors. Then we went out to drive, it was not too good but really fell apart when he asked me to parallel park. I pulled up next to the patrol car with Jumbo's Cadillac and proceeded to scrape the patrol car with the Cadillac. Needless to say, they failed me.

I tried once more and failed.

Then I asked my brother, Tim, to practice with me. Tim, even then, was an old wise soul. I got really nervous and said something like I'll never be able to do this and he said something like Not with that attitude. That brought me up short. I was not going to let my younger brother think badly of me so I dug in and really tried. Then I took a couple of lessons from a professional so that I could learn parallel parking.

Finally, Dad took me to Sheboygan to take the test. It was bit humiliating to have to listen to the Officers fight over who would take me out. Obviously they were both terrified but finally the last one to take me got to stay at the station. I was perfect. I drove like a master and when it came to the parallel parking, I slid that thing in there into a space where the car JUST fit. And I got my license.

I do not now parallel park. I figure I did it once and I never have to do it again.

Tonight was the last board meeting that I will have to attend for Rhine Plymouth. For the first time since I joined that club, I will be just a member.

We got a package today from Leslie. What a pleasant surprise that was. She had such special items in there. An plate with a map of Ireland, made in County Cork. A CD of Mitch Miller, memories of childhood. A DVD of the girls. And a 1930 quarter in a little case and a 1930 National Geographic for Dick's birth year. How special was that "treasure chest".

Have a great day

Mary