Colorful Abstract*

I'm pleased to say that John's knee was much better this morning but his calf and ankle were quite swollen. After going down to get the newspaper and again to retrieve the green bin, I was losing patience when he was being all helpless about taking my orders  suggestions to stay off his feet and put his leg up. I also suggested some compression socks that have languished in a drawer for years but, ironically, he said he threw them out two days ago when clearing out the drawer looking for a thumb/wrist support for me which had also been languishing in said drawer.

But a plan of action for the morning began to emerge as we decided to combine a flat walk along our newly discovered Brush Creek Trail with a trip to the nearby Birkenstock Store which carries support socks for men and women. We got there before the store opened, so we  abandoned the Brush Creek plan and walked Spike around the shopping center which also contains a Whole Foods a pet store and a donut shop. It is also the parking lot to which we repaired with several of our neighbors during the Tubbs fire in 2017 which brought back memories of watching the sunrise through the smoke and flames and drinking coffee from Whole Foods which opened their coffee shop and rest rooms early to assist evacuees. A coffee never tasted better.

 We wound up passing the pet grooming place where we took Spike when we first got him. It is run by a young man named Mercury who was busy trying to comb the tangles out of an unrecognizable animal which turned out to be a cat. I asked if it was a Maine Coon Cat because it was so big, but it turned out that it was a rescue, and they thought it was a Persian that had been neglected for ages. Mercury couldn't get anywhere with his comb and brush so an appointment was made for a bath, a rinse and possibly a trim. The cat seemed oblivious to Spike and completely unphased by being put into quite a small carrier but it was all but impossible to determine which end was the head!  We made an appointment for Spike but decided there was no rush to get him done before Christmas....

Back at the BIrkenstock store we bought some knee high compression socks and a waterproof, non slip sole pair of Dansko shoes for me. They're  not colorful, just utilitarian black but they are quite comfortable.
John, of course, is complaining about how hard the socks are to put on, and decided that he only needed to put on one, leaving his ratty cotton sock on the other. I suggested ordered him to put them both on.

The afternoon has been spent on preparing posole (me) and trying to restrain my spouse from going down the driveway to get the newspaper/mail/ garbage bin/ take Spike for a walk to the bridge ('that's flat') What part of DO NOT GO DOWN THE DRIVEWAY does he not understand? He only went down once when I wasn't looking. 

* What else but the Christmas tree ICM on the slow shutter app.