So, I Have Problems?

Mr. Hen Xiao, My Best Friend
On my Shoulder as we ride on the Moped.

           My problems? I don't really have any, except those that I manufacture myself. Mr. Hen Xiao, Xiao for short, takes care that I am busier with him than with whatever problems I can create for myself.

           The day I found a beat-up bookcase, I knew it had to be mine. A neighbor helped me get it to the apartment, and I proceeded to patch, stain and repair it.  It was six shelves high, and I knew that ever with all mu books, I would never want anything up on that top shelf. So up went an Indian wooden plate with 'nacra' inserts, three Maya pottery pieces and a flower or two.  I had to made the shelf back a light color since the wooden plate was a dark wood. Had some white shelf liner and hung it as a backdrop.  Did not have to have it all the way down to the shelf bottom since the fool thing was so high, and that was good because my shelf liner was a bit narrow.  

             Xiao did not h me one little bit. He decided that sleeping under the blankets in my hammock was energetic enough for him. He tends to do that lot in the wintertime.  For the cold wind, Glen made him a pair of googles. I requested it since Glen asked to learn how to spin cat fur.  G. was a fast learner, but on the motor scooter, Xiao needed something to keep his eyeballs from freezing with the wind chill on a bad day. 

His First Pair of glasses.
We went for a bicycle ride this time.

             The first pair got stolen, probably by a neighbor who had a bigger dog.  It was believed that the glasses made for Xiao would fit the bigger dog. Ha.  That is what they thought!  Glen was nice enough to make another pair for Xiao and now he is ready for Summer. In fact, if I don't take him for a ride every day on the scooter or the bicycle, he gets very upset with me, unless he had already been outside for his necessities, and found out that it is either windy or very cold. 

          He then snuggles in the hammock until I get ready to join him.  He has learned how to shift around until I get the blankets where I want them on my feet, then he creeps up to my chest and lays across me, happy as can be.

             Ih dear, I had to get the rest of my teeth out. I must be getting old. Every once in a while I take a good look at myself in the mirror. But not too often. I am always surprised that my face does not match how I feel. In fact after years of not even bothering to look in a mirror, [my current bathroom is much smaller] I was shocked to find someone else looking at me. It was not what  I expected to see.  

             Quite a shock it was to find the drooping cheeks under my eyes. And those fine lines around my mouth. OMG. I am even older today and I cannot get used to my mirror image. I liked me much better when there were no mirrors.  But now I at least brush my hair down in the morning. When it is short; it tends, in cold weather to have an electric flare-up at the back of my head. 

               Did someone say Botox? Absolutely not. I remember the one program on Twilight Zone when the children were small. It was about a girl who did not want to become a carbon copy of her mother and her friends. I sided with the girl, but she lost the battle anyway. The memory of her sudden change into her mother's image has never left me.

                  

                 I did have a recent experience when my daughter took me to a hairdresser to get a Mother's Day haircut. When I left the chair, I looked exactly like a neighbor of mine with a short puffy hair-do with bangs over the forehead. [She also had a dog a bit bigger than Xiao.] NO WAY, was I going to look like her. I shampooed my hair as soon as I got home. The next year, my daughter took me to another and I got the greatest hair-cut I have ever had.  It followed the natural waves, even across the back of my head. I was so surprised. I had dreaded another child-make-over. But this time it was a great cut.  Eventually, though it grew out and I trimmed it as usual. It still looks good, but I never see the back so I never know what it looks like there.   No problem, since I usually wear a sun-hat for my trips with and without  Xiao. It usually is better than a brush-out.