Old Things

When I'd re-injured my leg last week, Big Boss (below, center) had kindly gotten me a walker from the sales floor.  (I only needed it that one day, but I needed it--and I'm wearing a knee brace too.)
That day we gathered for a group photo to thank some donor

When I went back to work yesterday, there was Big Boss on crutches!
"I caught it from you," he said. Actually, he sprained his ankle playing basketball. He said he's aware he's getting old...

Lots of our coworkers have been out with infectious diseases--one day, FOUR of them were sick with different viruses--but not one had Covid.
That's the way it's been this winter, I read: more flu, less Covid.
 
The fluorescent lights in my work area make it hard to photograph things well, but here's some Old Things I priced yesterday.
Coworkers set aside vintage stuff for me--but some gets missed.
A coworker had priced that orange bud vase $4, for instance, but it's Fiesta ware and flawless, no chips, so I raised it to $10. (Still a good deal--it lists online for around $50.)
I don't really care if people underprice valuable vintage--what I do mind is if they throw out cool old stuff, thinking it's junk. NOooooo!

 I think that eggbeater bowl is uranium glass--I should get a black light to test green glass--it will glow!

It's frustrating that my mobility is so limited--the sales floor badly needs tending to, but I just can't twist and bend and put so much weight on my knee. My knee doesn't hurt if I stand or sit or sleep with it extended, but it is very painful otherwise.
I hope the doctor can give me good guidance this afternoon.

Sister volunteered to drive me there and back, which is wonderful. She's also going to lend me a new novel she just read and liked:
The Women, by Kirstin Hannah . It's about US women serving in the Vietnam War  (as nurses).

I always thought KH was just fluff, and Sister said, yes, it's a bodice ripper, but good history too---and I'm always interested in that war, the backdrop of our childhood in Madison, WI:
Walter Cronkite in the living room; student demonstrations downtown....

Sister texted me
"If you hate it, please don't make fun of me for liking it."

Eek. I cringed.
I'd just said yesterday that we are going to be the Bad Guy in someone else's life, and once in a while we get the proof.

I am GUILTY as charged for mocking her tastes. At Christmas I'd said something snarky about "Reading Group novels," and she'd even said then, "You're being mean."

I was, and it's not that I don't read lightweight pop fiction too!
One of my favorite fun reads last year was Less (2017) by Andrew Sean Greer, which won a Pulitzer but reminded me of some ridiculous culinary foam. 

Sister is older and mostly seems impervious to criticism. I honestly wasn't sure she even noticed such sniping.

Seems she did.
But even if she didn't, it was a low way to act, inferior, and not how I want to be. Getting a little late in life to Be Nicer to Sister All Along, but
I'll try to get out of Snipey Little Sister mode (high time!), and meanwhile...
It goes on my list for Things to Work On in My Next Life.

I'm going to take my copy of Less to exchange for The Women, which will be good to read in the clinic waiting room.
I'm going to wear a mask too--I bet the waiting room is a furry Petri dish of disease.

______________

P.S. Marz just texted me that the North Star Promise program that pays for Minneosta state university & college tuition (if you make under $80k) (so brilliant!) just paid all her tuition again for this, her second semester, as promised, and "refunded" her sixty bucks!

A refund on zero? She does have to buy textbooks, which are expensive, so maybe it's for that.
WONDERFUL!
It's like we're a civilized civilization!