The Oldest Corner...

...of the house. I was tempted to post a picture of myself. It's been that kind of day.

Much if not all of this corner has been posted here before, but in some ways it's one of my favorite spots. It's a rather odd room, with an arched entry and no door on one side and a single set of French doors leading outside. This bisects the room and makes arranging the furniture difficult. 

The solution for what to do with it came to me in the middle of the night after we had purchased the house but before we moved. This corner contains some very old books inherited from both sides of the family (and never read by us) and my grandmother's clock. Her diploma from the University of California in 1899 and below it, the fanciest one in a collection of old family papers, my grandfather's diploma from Colusa Grammar school hang on the wall above a Victorian era rosewood table.

We had the bookshelves built by an Oakland woodworking friend who also made the mantel for a redone fireplace. All the rest of the furniture in the room is new, and the other half of the room contains the television, and a couch.

It's a tight squeeze to get out the door,  but I'm still pleased with the combination of old and new, though it's a tight squeeze for any kind of family television viewing gathering. It serves John and Spike and me quite comfortably.

It's been a difficult day for our ongoing struggles to communicate with John's neurologist. It is impossible to talk to him in person without an appointment and it takes six months to get an appointment. Messages are relayed in a continuous loop through any number of receptionists, nurses, and medical assistants who don't seem to talk to each other. It's like that game of telephone where the message is completely different by the time it has been whispered from one person to the next around a circle. Some decisions have been taken  but without being able to talk to the doctor, we are left with unsatisfactory speculation.

The troops are beginning to gather for John's birthday on Saturday. Matthew gets here first and will stay for a few days, so he has been awarded the guest room. Dana and Jim have room should anybody else want to stay overnight. Jim and Peter have been visiting Jim's mother all week but they are due back on Saturday at noon.

My only comment on the political scene today is a footnote...a cartoon from the newspaper in extras.