Yesterday featured some qualified success and a failure, but it is just about a wrap for Christmas 2011 in the Little Village by the Bay.

The failure: I had an appointment with Doc B for Big Mama but spaced it out in the activity of donating the green car, deferred from before Christmas Day.

The green car: departed the property at 1030.

By the time I got back to the office e-mail, the morning appointment time had passed. My regrets. We will have to re-schedule around the next visit, which I expect will be Mike in January. Let’s firm up the plan.

The rug and the flood: I rented a carpet cleaner at Glenns- a mixed success.

This is what the rug looked like when I first saw it:

This is what it looks like now:

Not happy with the results, and there is a mildew odor, I have a fan on the area to see how dry I can get the patch before I depart the Little Village by the Bay later today. That section of the rug may need to be pulled up and trashed. I washed the throw rug on the tile floor of the bathroom and mopped up with 501 and hot water. I think everything is functional.

Kitchen: The cabinet to the right of the stove we have been using as pantry for canned goods had the shelves sagging from the weight in the middle. I unloaded the cabinet and installed braces in the middle for extra support.

Raven status: He was pretty engaged on Christmas, the day I spent the most time with him, and completely out of it when I visited two days ago. Apparently he had fallen again that morning, a fact of which I was not apprised until after I was back over at Potemkin Village. His good days now consist of being able to shuffle with someone on his arm. He bad days are uncommunicative. I do not think he is happy- one of the nurse’s aides told me he had expressed the same sentiment to her as he did to me in the last complete sentence he uttered shortly after arriving: “I got to get out of here.” I have no idea about alternatives- he needs this level of care.

Big Mama status: She has had several good days. Yesterday she was engaged and chatty. She is very short of breath even on short trips and is resigned to being where she is, and is happy to substitute me for Raven when I am around. She had been reading the large-print books, or at least looking at them. There are three more remaining on her Literary Guild membership and I will order them for her. She did not like anything in the Potemkin Village library.

I am going over for breakfast this morning to say goodbye. The redoubtable Carla in the Challenged Dining Room assures me she will continue to look out for Big Mama- the check made her very grateful- and get her at the most social table for meals. Also, this being Wednesday, it is Shower Day with Lovely Rita who is back on the case from the Emmet County Friendship Center. After breakfast, I will look in at The Bluffs as well, then pack and button up the house and turn the thermostat down to 60.

Renter in Loft: I expect the renter to show up at mid-day, and will do a thorough turn-over. The deal is for the loft apartment only- no house use. She wants six months to complete her training at the hospital.

Snow removal: I talked to The Snow Man and arranged with him to plow “when more than two inches falls.” He did not do the yard work last year, since he saw the construction activity that Annook was honchoing,  and thought that the house might have been sold. I reconfirmed that we own the place and want it kept up, so we should have continuity between the winter and the six months of bad sledding up here. First plowing may be required this weekend.

This would be a good travel day, but since I am pinned down by the renter’s schedule (coming from down below) I will get as far back south as I can while there is light. I have business in Virginia on Friday, so that is driving my travel plans, that and the snow expected this weekend. I have to be in front of the front, so to speak, so that is the wrap for this trip.

More from the road, if anything significant crops up this morning in the course of clearing the Village. I am really looking forward to cresting the bluff and watching the steel-gray waters of the Bay pass out of my rear-view mirror.

Vic