That Matchmaking Gleam

Okay, so the ceremony was over, and there was a little cake and punch reception at the church before the dinner reception somewhere else, and one of my Mom’s old friends came over to talk to my sister and I. She asked about our ages and school situations and then she said, “Do you have beaus?” I wanted to laugh but held it together enough to reply that no, I don’t have a boyfriend and exchanged a look of amusement with my sister as she said she didn’t have a boyfriend either. “Well, you know, there’s plenty of time for that…let me tell you how my sister met her husband at a hospital.” (Remember my sister is a nurse.) So she told us the story and it was a nice one and I liked it…but then, she said sorrowfully, “But, she lost him five years ago, in his sleep, and now she’s dying of cancer…so it wasn’t a happily ever after story.” I was completely stunned but managed to gasp “I’m…so…sorry.” My mom’s friend is very matter of fact and a Christian so she wasn’t being morbid but, yikes! She moved on then and a gleam came into her eyes, “Now, I do have three nephews and two of them are about your ages…” “Horrors! A matchmaker!” I groaned inwardly and exchanged another look with my sister. So, then she told us about her nephews and how they want to go to Med. School and how they don’t have girlfriends and all their good points and ages…. Sounded like she was trying to start a clinic or build a bridge or something. Such a nice lady but, oh, for pity’s sake, I don’t want to buy your nephews! :-D When we politely got away, I dragged my sister out to the hall and groaned, “Wasn’t that just awful?!” And then we practically collapsed laughing...it was all so ridiculous…we just couldn’t help it. :-)

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Plink!

On Wednesday night, (the 25th) I had gone with Mom to the jeweler to have her rings appraised. Once there, I remembered that I’d been meaning to bring in a loose cut stone that I’ve had for years so I can ask the jeweler to examine it. It looks like a white opal and I’ve always wondered if it’s real. I found the opal in a bag of old jewelry that my great aunt gave me—she used to run an antique shop and gave me whatever didn’t sell. Anyway, I decide to hunt around online and see if there is a way to determine if an opal is real. One site informed me that if an opal is fake, then a hot needle will be able to penetrate it and if it’s real, the needle can’t go through the stone. That sounds easy enough, so I get the stone from my jewelry box and go to the kitchen to find a lighter. Now, my sister is cooking dinner and I prefer not to be asked what I’m doing, so I go into the bathroom with the lighter and shut the door. (Can you tell what’s about to happen?) I heat the needle and pull the opal out of my pocket and.... The next thing I know, I’ve dropped the opal and it’s spinning around the sink like a penny in one of those plastic circles at the zoo. I try to grab it but then, clink, clatter, plink! It’s fallen down the drain. When something like this happens, you tend to stare at the drain for a few moments, with sort of a sick feeling in your stomach, before you even begin to react. And thinking, “Why didn’t I shut the drain?” is perfectly useless at this point. (Besides, the drain cover for that sink doesn’t work.) Once I manage to move, I know I can’t leave the opal in the pipe...I’ve had it for too long (sentimental value) and it could be real (monetary value). So, I open the lower cupboard and examine the pipe; it’s thick and will require a large wrench to remove the catch. I summon Mom—who groans and tells me to find a wrench—so I go to the basement and look in Dad’s wrench drawer. Unfortunately, Dad doesn’t really have a large plumber’s wrench—like the one in the Clue game—and I take another kind upstairs. Mom and I try that one for a while and it doesn’t work―it won’t lock to the right size―and I have to go back down and bring up another one. That one doesn’t work either and I go back down to find a third...my nerves are getting pretty strung out by now but I find one that locks and take it upstairs. This one works... finally. The catch slowly unscrews, we take it off, and the opal (real or not) appears as soon as we dump the water from the catch into a pan. So now I’ve got it back but we have to put the piping, back together…we screw the catch back on as tight as it will go and run the water. It leaks…but only a little. We don’t have any of the putty that plumbers put on pipes to make a watertight seal so we placed a little dish underneath to catch the drips. The plumber is coming in a week or two (he was already coming for something else) so we’ll have him putty it when he comes. I think it’s a racket that they can’t make the plumbing plumber free but oh well… at least I got my opal back. And after it went through all that, I tried to stick a hot needle in it―I was well away from any sinks this time. It wouldn’t go in...which means that it is likely a real opal. So, I’m really glad that we rescued it. :-)

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