It was a mellow relaxing holiday here yesterday. In the morning, after opening cards and trying on the glasses I'd bought to help celebrate Tom's patriotic birthday (it was a surprise to me that they had lights in them) Tom and I did some soaking at the Apple Pools; he was actually able to get into the upper (and hotter) one for a bit.  It was empty enough that I was able to take a number of birthday shots.  We spent most of the afternoon by the oly-sized swimming pool where again it was empty enough for me to start my laps regimen.  I only swam 4 lengths (of course Tom had to comment on that low number, but it was 4 more than he swam) and like last year I plan to add 4 to that number each day. The rest of the day we spent hunkered in the shade reading.  It was sunny until mid-afternoon, but still much less crowded than we've ever seen it here on a holiday.  We haven't run into too many 'regulars' from the old days, though it seemed that most folks had their dogs with them so we made lots of new friends.

In the late afternoon the 3 of us played Cribbage, and as promised we 'let' Tom win. (Not the case after dinner, when Terry skunked both of us.) While there is a certain amount of luck in the cards I am dealt, I do feel like I'm getting a better handle on strategy and what to discard into the crib, and have actually won two of the games so far.

Dinner included steaks on the grill and the ubiquitous holiday corn-on-cob, when I got a steam burn on my hand reaching over the pot to turn off the stove.  (The aloe I brought with me was very soothing; while it's still pink the burn doesn't really hurt today, and the hot water did not give me any problems in the shower this morning.) For Tom's birthday 'cake' Terry had baked his favorite, a pecan pie.

Today Terry and I are picking up her sister Elinor and taking her to town for a pedicure, lunch, and a little shopping before she heads to Denver tomorrow for Thursday's major back surgery (expected to take 8-10 hours.) Elinor has had a rough year; she'd been dealing with the back issues for some time already when we visited last year, then this winter she had a hip replacement, and is currently healing from a broken ankle which was a result of the numbness in her feet caused by the back issues.  She's looking at a lengthy recuperation from the surgery (they are going in through the front first, then will flip her over and do the rest of the fix from the back) but the hope is that she will be pain-free and totally functional at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Since Neil's aide Steve is in Denver for several days Tom will be on Neil-duty for a bit until we get back because Nancy has to leave early this afternoon.