I don’t feel blue, but for the first time since Sunday the sky is wholly overcast and the rain more than intermittent if not constant. I don’t mind rain and clouds, and sun causes me all kinds of problems, but at this time of year I prefer the partly sunny or cloudy of the past few days to complete gray. One damp woman, carrying a plant purchased at the farmers’ market through the rain, saw me, laughed wryly and said, “My umbrella’s is in the car — right where it belongs!”

Yesterday afternoon I celebrated my natal day by contacting the gynecologist, who told me Ignatius is 10 cm, one of his friends is 9.5 cm, and the third is large. She said that they’re about the size of a small medicine ball, although I’m not sure if she meant individually or combined. While my weight, which makes me a poor candidate for surgery, could be causing my lower back pain (a relatively recent development), she said that common sense would indicate that all that crowding could be affecting my bladder. Both back and bladder are interfering with my ability to walk as much as I would like, alas.

She referred me to the brochure she’d given me, so now it’s up to me. I’m still undecided, but I sent an e-mail inquiry via Ask4UFE to the radiologist. Now I suppose I should make a list of questions with my own spin.

We walked through a dense, young woods last evening, the kinds of woods that birds don’t favor — not enough open spaces. The lack of clearings didn’t faze the mosquitoes, which usually leave me alone. When they do bite, generally I don’t suffer much effect. This evening, however, I was a mosquito magnet, and now I have enormous red welts on my thighs and calves. It was a great excuse to sink into a comforting bubble bath with my current reading material and relax.

This morning, I headed for Falling Water, walked quickly through the farmers’ market lest I be tempted, and ended up at Café Verde, still my favorite place here. A man next to me told his friend that all he knows personally of the woman who will be his new boss is that she is “very smart and very competent.”

I don’t know who he is or what he does, but I envy him.