If you saw yesterday’s post, you know that I was on my way to the podiatrist’s office to deal with a sore toe that has had me hobbling around in pain for several weeks. What I didn’t mention was that I had convinced myselfz the only cure would be amputation, and that I was doomed to spend my remaining years as a nine-toed circus attraction.

But sometimes life’s little surprises turn out to be pleasant ones.

First, yesterday had been predicted to be rainy and thunder-stormy — the most appropriate weather for a funeral or a dreaded visit to the doctor. But, while it was mostly cloudy, the rain held off and the sun occasionally peeked through . . . a truly auspicious start.

Then the friend who had referred me to this new doctor and offered to accompany me there said that she and her husband wanted to take me out to dinner after my appointment, if I was feeling up to it. Pleasant surprise #2.

Now, about the offending phalange (that’s podiatrist-speak for “toe”). It turned out that it wasn’t being devoured by a flesh-eating bacterium, or otherwise in need of being divorced from its nine siblings. Without going into boring detail, it was a simple matter of a little novocaine, a little scraping and digging (totally painless, thanks to the novocaine), and a padded bandaid to be worn for a couple of days.

Oh . . . and some really nice people, including the entire office staff and the doctor himself. Lovely surprise #3.

Then a good seafood dinner with friends, and back home with all of my lower digits intact, and absolutely pain-free even after the novocaine wore off.

Finally, for the icing on the cake, I got to spend an entire afternoon away from the news of the day. No Trump, no Russia, no China, no Iran or Cuba or Venezuela or Israel or Greenland or . . . well, no negativity at all. Just good company, and a happy toe.

It doesn’t get much better than that, so I wanted to be sure to share it with all of my friends out there.

And now it’s onward into today.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/9/26