Yesterday afternoon Terry had worried me when she said "we might have an issue."  Had I worn out my welcome?  

Terry keeps track of things with Neil, including whether his night had been good, fair, poor, or bad.  In any given month she would log 5-7 'poor' or 'bad' nights.  But yesterday she'd been looking back over the calendar, and in the 6 weeks that I've been here there hadn't been any.  So she wondered if Tom would object if I didn't come home...

I also took a chance and used my foam emory square on Neil's horrible left big toe nail.  It seemed to be catching on his slippers since he always objected to having the left one put on or taken off.  (However Terry said he also objects mightily to having his nails clipped or filed, so I wasn't sure how it would go.)  Happy to report that he let me work on that toe for close to 15 minutes - and nary a peep out of him. 

 AND (for the first time) he did not react 

when the slipper went on his left foot later.  

Elinor had asked if I would be driving anywhere before she parked her truck in front of mine, and I'd said "not until Wednesday"... totally forgetting about last night.  But in the end I was able to squeeze by.  There were a lot of antelope out and about, bounding across the dirt road, when I drove down to the ranch around 7:00.  (Terry said she had the same experience driving home from the party in Saguache.)  The concert was a lot of fun (the musicians were obviously having a wonderful time also) and as a bonus the potluck had just been getting started when I arrived an hour "late".

They performed an a cappella sea shanty they had written about Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated Trans-Antarctic expedition (which launched in 1914.)

Andy stopped by at one point to play for us.

I'd brought my glasses for the drive home in the dark, at 9:00. I was not worried about the dark since with no traffic I could go as slowly as I wanted, and there would be no other traffic. Haven't been wearing my glasses while I've been here (looking forward to getting better ones next month)  so (not surprisingly) for a change the stars were crisp and clear.  Even saw a shooting star on the walk from the car to the house. 

Karen was headed down there this morning, for a session with Cynthia.  She knew there were two entrances/exits to the new parking area... but where she drove the rental car off wasn't one of them.

  In her defense, she lives in NYC and doesn't have a car.  

Mark forgave her.

She's wearing (another) great penguin t-shirt today.  

Did I mention that her penguin nightshirt (which I admired the other day) somehow waddled into my room? I wore it last night.

Sunflower pollen at the Apple Pool this morning:

Kinki sure is a cutie!

\

I thought she wanted to get in the water (like virtually every other dog here) but according to her people that is not the case.  She just wanted to be near them.

I got an additional dog fix at the swimming pool later.  It was wonderful how mellow all the dogs were.  At one point I had a pooch on each side of me - ignoring each other!  Rosie, Judd's dog, was on my right, and sharing some of my chair shade (even though there was true shade behind us.)

Emily's dog was on my left.

She did have a blanket in the shade!

Today is Neil's 64th birthday.

(It's also Terry & Neil's anniversary.)

Cakes being baked, and party happening later.