Random Friday Thoughts

Here are some random thoughts for today:

1. Had a good workout at the gym today. I didn't learn too much interesting from the row of TVs , but I did notice that the parking lot was looking a little weak today. Usually the gym parking lot looks just like a luxury car dealership - over two-thirds of the cars there are Mercedes, Lexuses, and BMWs. Today there was a rampant outcropping of Toyotas, Hondas, and Fords. Even the red Ferrari that is there every day was missing today (yes, seriously). Which begs the question: Where were all the rich people today?

2. In other gym news, my iTouch did finally start taking a charge the other day, so I don't have to work out sans music. In fact, I am now protected from this from happening by my kind mom, who sent me a check to hold onto in case the battery does indeed decide to die. (Thanks, Mom).

3. I signed up for Facebook again today. I was resisting, but everyone around me kept seeming to know these little bits of information about everyone else that they read on Facebook, and I got tired of being out of the loop. Fortunately, they didn't erase my profile, so the friends from before that I so seriously neglected were still there. (Hmmm...I suppose they didn't erase my profile just in case they wanted to glean information from it in the case that they reverse that controversial Facebook policy...)

4. There is a new batch of pollen/moss balls now, after the previous ones were swept away. This batch is made up of smaller balls, for some reason. The other day after I wrote that "Tree Droppings" post, I actually saw the tree drop several of these. For some reason I was a little embarrassed, as if I had witnessed some tree indiscretion for a moment. Like it lost all sense of personal tree hygiene, as it were.

5. In other home/agricultural news, I moved my little seedlings up off the ground, and this seems to have thwarted the little bugs that were eating them. I think they're looking pretty good. I'm pretty sure they like this cooler weather we're having - that's usually good for seedlings.

6. Weekend forecast: busy. We have two evening dinner invitations, one birthday party, Jacob is going to the Clovis Rodeo tomorrow with a friend, and we have at least five "Perseverance Lessons" for the boys to attend. (a.k.a. sporting events). I'm all set for that, though, with my new mug from my friend Sandra. It's the best mug EVER:Even the inside is cool:

I'm just going to fill it up with some strong coffee, take it to the games, and watch away. Thanks, Sandra!

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An Unfortunate But Inevitable Equation

Here is the Equation of the Day at the Locke house:

Large amount of force + Front tooth = Less of a front tooth

Yes, it is true. We had a tooth trauma, as Jacob had a bike accident yesterday evening and broke off part of his tooth. Apparently he was riding on the sidewalk down to the basketball court and had to ride off of the curb into the bike lane when some runners came up behind him. After they passed he attempted to jump back up onto the sidewalk, but unfortunately did not make it. The resulting jolt him sent him over the handlebars and tooth-first into the sidewalk.

Fortunately, two good things happened after that. (Well, three, if you count the wonderful fact that he did not hit straight on his head and get a concussion or worse, and yes, he was wearing a helmet.) The ladies that had just passed him came right back to him, and Jason came up in the car right after this. Jason had been planning to come down in the car to watch him shoot baskets before he went to his evening meeting, so was right there quickly on the scene.

Bless his heart. He lost about a third of his front right tooth. It's sensitive and aches from the impact (as does his lip that got cut), but isn't giving him too much pain.

So after a call last night to one of our new church friends, we got the name of a dentist, and this morning I called him. They can see Jacob tomorrow morning, which is wonderful (but not if you're Jacob and have to go to school today with a broken tooth).

I suppose we can add this to our "services" tally for all the new services we've been forced to learn about our first month here. We now know of a Computer Doctor after a virus ate our computer. We found a good place to get new tires after we got a flat last Friday night driving to dinner. Now we have a a dentist.

I suppose some would say that we're being tempted with trials in our new home, but another way to look at it would the "Fast Track to Learning Our Way Around Fresno". Or perhaps it would be our Cliffs Notes to Fresno, if the Cliffs Notes were really quite expensive.

Ah, well. Off to the Ladies' Bible Study, and to hope that Jacob is not too bothered to be at school and hope that we don't need to acquire any new Fresno services today.

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When Life Gives You Lemons...

Actually, this title of this post should be "When Your Hosts Give You Lemons", because it was the new friends that had us over for dinner last night that gave us these lemons. We had just enjoyed an enjoyable time of dinner and visiting with them, and we going out to look at their nice back patio and pool when I noticed about 4 or 5 recycling-type crates full of lemons on the patio.

"Wow! Look at your lemons!" I exclaimed.

"Yes," our hostess said. "They're from our tree."

Well, of course they're from their tree. Why wouldn't someone have a lemon tree in their yard?

As you can see, I'm still a little in wonder that people have such trees in their yards as lemons, oranges, grapefruit, and even pomegranates. Amazing. These were no small lemons, either. It's hard to see how big these lemons are, but this is the biggest kitchen bowl I have, and some of them in the crates were as big as small pineapples. Seriously.

Our kind hostess gave us a big bag of them to take home with us. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I probably will not make lemonade. So in my case, when our hosts give us lemons, I marvel that they can grow them in their backyard in the first place.

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