I had both a great and a lousy holiday. It was great in that I got to go spend a weekend with almost all of my family
including the newest member Raya, my brother’s great-granddaughter!
I was about to not go, when I found a last-minute rock-bottom cheap airline ticket deal and grabbed it. DCA to BNA and back for less than $250, fantastic price especially considering the other quotes I got were for $500+! We had a great time, met up at my sister’s house in Manchester Tennessee, and got together with (deep breath) my sister and her husband; their oldest daughter and her husband and their three kids; my sister’s son and his wife and their son; my brother and his wife; their daughter, her son and his daughter; and my brother’s youngest son, his wife and their two kids. Thanks to my sister Ann for figuring out the arrangements!
That was the good part of the trip, the bad (which was very very bad and still is) was this nasty, painful, hateful, nearly debilitating gum irritation I picked up just before the trip. I have only had one bout of pain that was worse and longer lasting than this, and that was the post-operative pain from my appendectomy. I’m lucky in that I have no problem with aspirin, because I was eating the 500 mg ones like M&Ms. I managed to get to the dentist, who can’t identify what the cause is. So, even though I’m smiling in the picture, and I’m really having a great time, it’s a kind of dazed enjoyment, and right now I’m typing to the rhythm of the thudding pain in my jaw. Frack.
At any rate, hopefully back to some interesting stuff this week, it may be light and scattered (when is it not?) while I deal with this.