'Twas Winter...

'Twas winter, and the slithy toves, 

Did gyre and gimble in the drifts. 

The Intersection

It's almost Wednesday, and February 2019, which means the roads must have been noteworthy once again. We had a wee bit of a blizzard over the weekend - not much actual snow in our location (unlike 50 miles to the east), but sufficient winds to remind mankind that plows are not the solution to everything. Sometimes you need a road grader, or a front loader, or a tank. And sometimes, not even a tank can manage the job. By mid-day Monday, though, the intersection (see previous posts) was clear.

The bridge over Perch Creek was clear. 

Looking left after crossing Perch Creek

The road after Perch Creek had a nice cut in the drift, wide enough for a car to get through.

A drift near Deer Corner also had a nice cut in it. This photo was taken from almost the same location as the fourth picture in this post.

Truck.  Stuck.

The cut there had a little added attraction -- a southbound truck, sitting in the northbound lane.  That definitely explained why the northbound lane wasn't clear!  Happily, there was excellent visibility, so two-way traffic took turns using the available lane. Or shoulder.  At this time of year, we're not picky about those things.

Do you see the antenna?

The roads were good, all told.  Definitely winter driving, but not in the 'top 5 worst days of commuting to work in February 2019'.

What will March hold? 

Road? What road?

Looking out to the street

The crevasse

Standing in the gap?

The word from the farmers chatting at the hardware store is that this weekend's storm is going to bring more snow than today's....

Another road report

Yes, if it's Wednesday in February 2019, the roads must have been up to something bloggable the day before.

The crossroads.  There's a road to the left of the power lines.

Approaching Deer Alley

On the way to Filia's work, there's Deer Alley and Deer Corner (Deer Curve, really.  I'll have to rename it.)  Just before the crest of the hill (forgive me, you who have real hills in your terrain), there's a house on the left which has a mailbox.  After two years, I no longer see the dark shape and think DEER!  Except yesterday ... THREE mailboxes?  No.  One mailbox, and two imposters.  They exited the road as I approached.  Because I was driving, all the photos I got by holding by balancing the tablet on the dash with one hand and tapping where I thought the proper button was, were pretty bad, and I will spare you.

Hoth

I leave you with a drift.  The road doesn't go straight forwards -- it's not THAT bad (well, not unless I was on the return trip, about a half mile down from this location).  The white stripe that isn't snow in the lower center is the stripe at the road shoulder, and the yellow dash at the left edge, half covered by the growing drift, is the center stripe.  Decent driving, so long as one didn't need to share the road on a few stretches.  And - like last week, when Vir said the conditions were the worst he's experienced in 23 years, we heard from another person yesterday that the afternoon commute was the worst in 15 years. 

Continuing with the travel trend..

Stopped at the crossroads on Friday

Stopped at the same crossroads yesterday

 When the forecast calls for 1-3" of snow, you don't think much of it in February. But when Vir calls mid-afternoon to say the conditions are the worst he's experienced in 23 years of Minnesota driving ... one looks outside to smile at the flakes drifting quietly past and wonders what the roads will be like when Filia finishes work for the day.  Not bad, actually - if by not bad, you understand that in comparison to last week, they were very passable. 

 Having a skid-loader with a plow blade go past just before I backed out of the driveway was a nice touch of providence which I greatly appreciated.  The plows hadn't been out in town yet, and the 1-3" was about 6" deep.  Once I got  out of town, the first 4 miles were plowed ... and then, they weren't.

Thanks to the fluffiness of the snow, driving in a few inches of it wasn't a problem. And thanks to 2 years of experience on this route, I knew where the road should be.  Normally on the corner in the picture above, I'm looking carefully for deer.  Yesterday, I was looking carefully for the road.  (Carefully = at 35-40 mph) 

When I *wasn't* looking carefully for deer, they decided to run in front of me. I'd not been carefully looking because a) I was watching for the road, and b) I was watching the oncoming pick-up truck, making sure the two of us agreed on where the road was and that we were agreeing on where the left half and the right half of the driveable area was. (Sometimes, this means that westbound traffic uses the eastbound lane, and eastbound traffic uses the shoulder (paved and/or unpaved))  No 25 yards after we passed each other - DEER!  All seven of them managed to cross without interacting with the car.

More blessings!  We also spotted 2 bald eagles and quite a few turkeys, making yesterday a good day on the Wildlife Sighting Scale.

Until next week ..

Almost wordless Wednesday

Extra layers for shoveling on Monday

This morning's commute - leaving us wondering if the thermometer stops at that temp

White stuff in January?

After several weeks - or at least what seemed like several weeks - without any white stuff, we had a delightful storm pass through last Friday. Light and fluffy, and not accompanied by any ice that disrupted our electricity. A delightful time was had by all.

The other white stuff on my radar is the counterpane.I've already decided that my Dallas trip this April will be accompanied by counterpane knitting.  The squares are small, portable, and I don't need the pattern. 

Except - I only have 15 squares left to knit.  And the borders, and the edging.  Those are going to be LONG strips, not anywhere near as nicely portable as the squares.  Not to be foiled in my travel knitting plans, I decided to seam together the 64 squares I had done, calculate how long a border needed to be, and start work on those. 

The observant reader will notice that 64 squares + 15  = 79, a very odd number of squares to need.  That's because seaming a queen-sized counterpane - in white - is NOT appropriate knitting for stationary bicycling, so I started, and finished, a 65th square.

Based on photos in Mary Walker Phillip's Counterpane book, the border seems to be seamed to the bias edge of the squares at about a 3:5 ratio. And since there are 159 rows in a square, that translates 1064 rows in a border.  With 47 stitches per row - maybe 21 hours for a short border?  Maybe a bit more, since the bobbles and wheat ears do add stitches , and there's a lot of turning. 

In other news, Filia and I have finished the Third Degree Martial Arts Black Belt Sudoku book.  We've had fun, and have some new strategies firmly in our store of tricks.  We've a fresh book of 300 puzzles to start tonight, and a goal - master the Y-Wing!

Until next time ...

First Finished Object of 2019

The subtitle of this post could well be "What a difference a dyelot makes".

Just over a week before Christmas, it came to my attention that Filia's favorite mittens were getting rather threadbare. I mended the hole which called this fact to my attention, and decided to knit her a new pair for Christmas.  And when one has 8 days to knit a pair of mittens (and live the rest of one's life), of course, one picks a nice Norwegian design in fingering yarn on size 1 needles, and uses yarn from the stash. 

But I ran out.  And ordered more, knowing that there's likely be a dyelot difference.  The base wool would be from a different shearing, as well.  Still -- what's a mitten without a thumb and a tip?  In Minnesota?  It's not a mitten. 

The yarn arrived with all deliberate speed, and Filia now has proper mittens, making them the first Finished Object of 2019!

Mending has also been happening.  My 2016 Sanquhar gloves were getting a bit thin in the thumb, so I duplicate-stitched a small area before anything actually became a hole.  While those were in the mending pile, I wore a different pair of gloves...

And they, too, attracted my attention for mending.  I reknit the thumb (it had been previously mended) and added some reinforcement to the other thumb, which hadn't given way - yet.

My goal of thrift/recycle/tossing an item each day has been happening, as have technique exercises on the harp.  Current audiobook is Augustine's Confessions (which is going along MUCH better than trying to read the Great Books version, in which I bog down in the second paragraph). 

Until next time ...

Happy New Year!

Reading Challenge 2018 was successfully completed, thanks to the library's prompt sending of and postal delivery of Arabella of Mars.  I'm all set for 2019 with the Modern Mrs Darcy's reading categories, and may well save A Gentleman in Moscow for my Christmas Eve reading this year.

Although I'd like to call the Sanquhar gloves my first finished object of 2019, they were finished in 2018, on the 29th.  And my next finished object was also finished in December. When the calendar changed to 2019, I had no projects on the needle.  

Twined Fingerless Mitts

That's only because I was between squares on the counterpane.  59 squares down, 21 to go -- and then the borders, and then perhaps an edging. My counterpane listening is The Laughing Cavalier, by Baroness Orczy.  I've two chapters left, and am looking forward to my listening time today.  There's a damsel in distress to rescue!

Today's thing to ponder: "Give heed to yourself..."  What an interesting way to start an instruction.  It's not "give heed to this instruction", but "give heed to yourself".  And so I contemplate -- why?   And what's the etymology of 'give heed' anyway?  What's a heed?  

Destashing 2019 is moving along nicely.

Happy New Year, dear reader!

The End of the Year

The week between Christmas and New Year's is one of my favorite times of the year. Not only is it REALLY Christmas - as opposed to Advent - during which there is a bit of tension between 'celebrating Christmas' and 'observing Advent' in my head - but there is such a wonderful opportunity to organize. There's a year to wrap up, and a year to plan for.  My happy spot.

Yum!

We spend Christmas Day at my mom's house.  We spend Christmas Eve there, too -- so after a wonderful Christmas Eve service, we opened up the box of Jólabókaflóð bon bons (all soft centres this year), made up a tray of sausage and cheese and crackers (a present from the family I dog-sit for), and curled up with our books.  I had picked Americanah, to mostly finish off my 2018 Reading Challenge categories  Mom dipped her toes into the waters of Agatha Christie with Murder on the Orient Express, while Filia read about Lucy's Bones and Filius started off in a thick tome but ended up re-reading Murder on the Orient Express and checking in with mom every 5 minutes or so to get her latest thoughts on Who Done It. 

Vir et Filius

The next day held a Lessons and Carols service at church (with harp prelude and piano for the first half of the service provided by me, and the second half by our other pianist, so we can BOTH enjoy sitting and absorbing the service.  Pianists can't typically just absorb a service, as that can lead to awkward silences when a hymn is  supposed to be starting and the pianist is contemplating what was just said.)  And it also held a second December kidney stone for Vir.  A few aspirin, and he was ready to continue with the day.  Ouch.

Mater et Filia

The Filius returned to his flat, and the rest of us returned home, and we settled in to enjoy Christmas week.  Our corn stove is behaving and I discovered that Corn Stove Glass Cleaner is a Thing.  It's a wonderful thing, and works as advertised.  No baking soda, scouring pads,  razor blades, dish soap, and elbow grease needed.  It's a thing of beauty.

Currently on top of the stove is a pair of drying gloves. Can I call them my first project of 2019?

Today I have plans for Christmas baking (stollen),  Christmas letter-writing (a letter a day will get all my Christmas letters answered), pattern editing, work on Demosthenes: Research Project for Classical Writing, some time of the bike (indoors, while finishing square #58 on the counterpane), and other miscellaneous things.

My last year's goals were to publish 6 patterns on Ravelry, and knit 20 or 24 counterpane squares.  At #58, I can say I met the last goal with room to spare.  The first goal, well, didn't happen.  I started to, really I did ... but the yarn for the first pattern I'd selected was discontinued, and one of the mittens had vanished so I would have needed to reknit them in new yarn, and then  I got busy, and ... my heart just isn't in self-publishing.  I did design two items for Cast On -- but that doesn't count as meeting the goal.  I read books in all the categories I laid out for myself, except 'Nominated for an Award in 2017.'  (Unless you count Americanah being selected as a book for the city of New York to read?).  Arabella of Mars has been requested from the library to fulfill that category, and if it gets here by Monday, I will be sure to finish it this year. 

I'd be nice to finish the counterpane in 2019.  I have SO MANY THINGS on my knitting wishlist.  We'll see how it goes!  I'm planning to read by categories again, from the Modern Mrs. Darcy reading list. 

How are you wrapping up 2018?

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Do you ever feel like you're in a season of transition or upheaval ... and then, when you step back and look at life around you, wonder why it feels that way?  I'm somewhere between that state and wondering why it doesn't feel MORE upheavally. 

Our pellet stove, courtesy of someone who knows more about pellet stoves than I do and his trusty grinder, is now working again.  True, it's not been 48 hours yet, so it may still go Crrrrunch in the night and come to an auger-jammed halt, but all signs are that a little metal surgery on the auger flighting has done the trick. If practice makes perfect, I'm four steps closer to being perfect in disassembling the pellet stove.  

Just today, I have NOTHING on my computer to-do list.  That means I can knit all day! (So I'm writing a blog post.) 

I can knit all day, that is, except for when I'm talking with the AAA tow truck driver.  Because our faithful minivan failed to start this morning (Grandma to the rescue for getting Filia to work) and our wonderful auto shop from Amboy was pretty sure that a jump start would do nothing towards keeping the van running long enough to drive to the shop.  Again, I thank God that the minivan is having issues at a nice convenient location, rather that somewhere awkward.  (Two weeks ago, it failed to start at the auto shop.)

Filius has signed a lease on an apartment and is gradually transitioning over.  It's much closer to work for him, which will be wonderful.  I'll miss him and will have to re-shoulder the mantle of being Chief On-Site IT Personnelle. 

My favorite harp concert of the year (tomorrow!) has been cancelled (not tomorrow) due to the bronchitis of the harpist.  It's an excellent reason, but I will miss the inspiration to Practice Harder (so maybe, when I grow up, I can play beautifully too.) 

Yesterday, we also transitioned from the Large Christmas Tree Era to the Smaller Christmas Tree Era.  Filius wasn't available to help pick the fattest and closest-to-a-9-ft-ceiling tree on the lot, so I picked something skinny that I could carry.  My, does it look different! 

And I've got three projects on the knitting needles. 

So is this upheaval and transition, or not? 

Not. 

My week in pictures

I'm sure I could turn this into a haiku, but not today. Today is too nice and sunny to spend staring at a computer screen, coming up with just the right words for a clever blog post. And so I present some pictures of what I've been looking at of late.

This last one is one of my favorites, and also covers where perhaps 30 hours of my life has gone since my last blog post.  I imagine that Excel is trying its hand at a winter landscape.  (Well, winter portrait, given the orientation of my crop),  Snow, clouds and patches of blue.  Trees silhoutted against the sky.  Frozen.

That job is DONE and I have life beyond Excel, at least until Monday, when I will be ready to tackle anything once again. 

Catching up at the end of November and in which there are Photos

The last time I sat down to write a blog post when life was quiet, a full tide of activity descended upon me and did not ebb for a week or two. After a delightful period with much scope for usefulness, quiet has again descended on my little sphere of life and I turn my attention to writing a blog post. Most of the busyness has been in computer field, and that makes for very poor blog fodder. Creating fields, granting permissions, and uploading 45,000 (total) rows from 30 spreadsheets into a database - twice, since one critical column was missing from the first 30... only a project manager could read that with pleasure. Knitting is more interesting. I delight in how God sends me knitting just when I need something to balance the computer's siren call. First, there was a test knit. A few days later, I had another request - and scant hours after that, a third. I finished off the current counterpane square, wound cakes of yarn, and dove in.

Let me have cakes!

Hours of fun!The cakes in the back left have become cycling knitting.  I'm not crazy enough to try knitting while riding my bike outside (especially in a Minnesota winter -- knitting in insulated gloves?  That would require too much concentration) but since I have a bike on a trainer (turning it into a stationary bike), I can exercise and knit in peace - and listen to an audiobook, if so inclined.  To make sure the yarn doesn't get caught in the chain, I have the ball sitting at about elbow level next to me.  The delightful red and white yarn in the front became a swatch.

Swatch

The size of a finished knitted item depends on a lot of things.  The yarn used, the needle size used, the number of stitches, the stitch pattern, the knitter, the blocking ... and even the knitter's mood (which affects the stranglehold, or lack thereof, she exerts upon the yarn while knitting) and needle material.  This swatch was worked up to see what range of gauges would work well with the yarn. I always love an excuse to get out my needle case labelled 0 00 000.  (4-0 through 6-0 are also in there). 

Swatch and a friend

Once I'd finished the swatch, the need for another arose.  Different yarn, mostly the same needle sizes, and a whole range of different gauges.  

Our next knitting photo comes from Filia's knitting. She hasn't been bitten by the knitting bug lately, but we've had a few craft gatherings lately - and when one attends a knit-in with one's mother who happens to be me, one MUST have a project. But it needed to be not just a project, but something that could conceivably get finished.  And be useful.  There are enough abandoned WIPs and non-useful collections of looped yarn in the world, more need not be created.  And it had to be something that could be assembled from what was available to us, with about 30 minute notice. 

What one knits when one's mother cannot tolerate inactivity at a knitting gathering

And so, after assessing the available yarns, I decided that she could knit the Cape Spear coverlet.  A task not unlike copying the Rosetta Stone, for lack of other material to copy. Except this, I think, will take longer.  So long as I acquire the rest of Lisa's stash of cotton carpet warp in this lovely blue color, Filia should be set for maternally-dictated knitting for the next few score of years.  And I, should I finish my counterpane and be at a loss for what to knit, can knit up a triangle or two while pondering what to do next. 

The rest of life:  My new bullet journal and I are getting along famously; Christmas gifts are knit and awaiting wrapping, but I need to find a good source of not overly-chocolate-coated espresso beans, our pellet stove is beautifully caulked and keeping us warm (and drying my swatches overnight), and all is well. 

Until the next blog .... adieu!

The Long Darkness

Daylight savings time is here, and with it, darkness has arrived.  For some time it's been dark when I get up - and now it's not only dark when I get up, but it's dark at suppertime as well.  Darkness is excellent for indoor activities -- knitting, stationary cycling, listening to audiobooks.  Triple-tasking!  In the summer, I go for 2 hour bike rides and do nothing on them but cycle and think.  Now in the other season, I knit-listen-cycle and sneak 90 minutes of activity into 30 minutes.  How will I ever get back on my road bike?

In the knitting world, I've got a finished Christmas present sitting to one side of me, and two cakes of yarn for a test knit on the other side of me.  Another test knit was mailed off last week -- and I'm up to 51 squares done on my counterpane. Knitting is most definitely happening.  I'm hoping to knit up a pair of Sheringham Mitts for Beth Brown-Reinsel's KAL, too -- and am dreaming of what I'll knit after the counterpane.  Sweater dress?  Gansey?  Stockings?  Gloves?  It'll be fun.

My first bullet journal got all filled up, and I decided to continue the experiment into a second one.  I upped the page size from 3x5 to 5x8, more or less, and have a lot more pages.  It will take me a few weeks to settle in to how I want to use the pages, but I do appreciate being able to make longer lists. My overflow to-do list from yesterday would have more than filled a page in the old journal.  Lots of little things - nothing overwhelming - but enough to juggle that it's good to have it written down so as to not lose track of any piece. 

Curious thing of the week:  A few months ago, we replaced the toilet seat in the bathroom.  Nothing extraordinary -- just a plain white 'slow close' seat with two hinges to replace a plain white seat with perhaps 1/3rd of one hinge left.  And yesterday -- I noticed that the portion of the seat that one sits on (but not the sides in the back ... the part with actual contact to an average body) is turning BLUE.  A very charming, pale blue. 

It's an imponderable.

My season is here

It's fall.  I have a greater appreciation for summer these days, and can enjoy the feeling of warmth soaking into my bones after almost two decades of Minnesota winters, but the change to fall brings delight.  And maybe a bit of a fall cleaning urge, which - for the sake of family harmony - I try to keep mostly under wraps.  Mmmm.  Delightful, lovely, crisp fall.

And then comes winter, which may be my season even more than fall. Fall has getting-the-yard-ready-for-winter chores. Winter has no such thing.  I can hibernate inside with a pot of tea, a blanket, my knitting, and knit/play harp/system-administrate to my heart's content. Except for when I have to go out, of course. 

Hummingbird Feeder with Ice Cube

One of the things I did yesterday in my winter prep was bring the hummingbird feeder in.  The sugar water in it was frozen.  The day before, I picked all the peppers (and some of the plants).  The last few butternut squash got picked today, and the squash plants taken down from the trellis.  I've left the pole beans up for a bit longer.  I'm hoping to get more than a cup or so of shelled beans out of a 6-ft row.  Maybe Jacob's Cattle Beans needed a longer growing season?  We'll see what the yield is after giving things another week or two to mature/dry out, and I pick anything that remotely looks like it might have beans in it.

 

I finished my Print O' The Wave Stole, and apart from wishing it were a foot or so longer, like it very much.  It's 5' long, and despite my careful calculations, I ended up with enough yarn that I probably could have worked another repeat or three, or left the insertion in on the edging.  Initial calculations showed that I could work the insertion, and have roughly 60" of yarn left.  That was NOT enough margin.  I'm back to working on the counterpane now, and hope to finish up square #45 this evening.  I rather looked forward to starting up again, and am amazed to discover I no longer find bobbles irritating to work.  And after 1400 of the little critters, I unvented a small modification in how I make them. 

It's the little things that are delightful.  

My next library book, The Obesity Code (Fung), arrived in the mail today. More interesting things to read and learn about!  

And how can this have been a 15-minute post already?

Adieu!

Beans, Beagles and Burgundy

Canis

Canis is now 16 years old, best as we know from the adoption paperwork, and we've been able to see for a while that his hindquarters were going to be the first thing to go. There's a definite right sag to them, which leads him to shuffle his legs to the right to keep them under his hips -- until he comes to rest against a wall, or door, or wheelchair.  He'll break out of a slow, faltering amble only for Very Important things -- like, perhaps, another dog walking through the yard.  And then he'll try to walk fast without falling over.  Sigh.

The Print O' The Wave stole is a rich, wine red.  Not that you can tell it from this photo, but it is.  I blocked a nice chunk of it to get an idea of dimensions and yarn usage and the like, and have come to the conclusion that if I use a narrower edging that Eunny Jang's Print O' The Wave Stole (which is only reasonable, considering that I've not followed much of her pattern yet -- I cast on a different number of stitches and am using the chart from Heirloom Knitting), I can probably squeak 42 repeats of the main pattern in without running out of yarn.  I might try knitting the edging from the outside of the ball, starting by working across the cast on edge, then up one side.  I'll be able to see how much yarn is left then, having done 2 sides of edging, and will know if I need to undo some of the center or not.  Maybe?  Apart from tangled yarn, I'm not seeing any pitfalls.  (Which might be like saying, "apart from Florence, the Carolinas aren't expected to get any rain this weekend.")

Speaking of rain, I think we must have been having a wet summer.  My shelling beans are sprouting in the shell! Bean sprouts are a thing, I know, but not in my shelling beans. I wonder if they're still edible?

Mother Stallard Bean Sprouts

 

 

Jacob's Cattle Beans

My pole beans this year are FAR from sprouting in the pods (bean pods? Bean shells?  Bean _____?)  They're barely beginning to dry.  We're still enjoying peppers, and I'm enjoying chard and kale.  Butternut squash is ripening - including the odd dark green ones, which are acquiring a butternut squashy color - and that's about all that's going on in the garden these days. 

I discovered that my wonderful bike light disables my speedometer (aka 'bike computer').  Drat.  Supposedly, wrapping the entire light in tin foil will help.  Except the lens has to be wrapped too, and then it's pretty much useless.  Still, I did get to use the lights on Tuesday when my ride went a bit beyond sundown. 

Adieu!

Fall!

September is here, and with it, the promise of fall weather.  The promise is being realized today, so my planned morning bike ride has shifted to the afternoon when the temps are supposed to be out of the 50s and into the 60s.  Ahhhh. 

The bike tail light (and front light) have been added to my collection of cycling gear.  Next up will no doubt be something with long sleeves.  Ganseys, while perfect for staying warm at home and walking around the town, are probably not going to be my go-to top when it's 40-50 degrees on a bike.

I've taken care of the 'everyone who has pedals with clips goes over at some time' business.  A week ago Tuesday, as a matter of fact, I decided I would try clipping in with my right foot first.  Bad idea.  It was also a bad idea to continue down the driveway for a ride after I got back up.  Shortest.Ride.Ever!  0.1 miles was enough to tell me that I really shouldn't expect a bit more use to ease the ouch, so I circled round the block, UNclipped carefully, and got an ice pack. 

And two days ago, I - by the grace of God - came to a safe, rapid stop along a US Highway when a piece of wire got tangled up between my front tire and pedals.  Clankety clankety clankety cling!  Brake-unclip-stop safely. The change in speed was enough to let the wire sink to the pavement and be left behind me.  So I got going and clipped in again, came home, tried something new on the unclipping side of things ... and plunk - learned something else that doesn't work!  Ahem.  Today's ride will be a medium-for-me-distance, exploring some new roads. 

The cyber world has been busy this week, from hunting down accounting items to testing workflows and LOTS of stuff in between. And there was an imponderable.  What *is* the non-printing character that looks like a small, hollow circle, sitting just above mid-line? 

Another buzz cropped up on my harp.  I'm not sure if it's going to be a persistent buzz, or just a 'Friday the 7th of September, 2018' buzz.  Time will tell. 

Knitting is proceeding apace.  I haven't stopped to figure out how large I can make my Print O' The Wave stole yet, but I expect I'm about half done with the body.  One of these days I will have to stop knitting and make some calculations.  I'm at the stage of the project where I'd normally be plotting my next project - but that's the counterpane, so I've nothing to plot.  A sad, sad state of affairs.  

The rest of my day is calling -- adieu!

Another quick post

Setting a timer for 15 minutes and writing seems to be an excellent way to keep up with posting.  I've got a spare 15 minutes before heading out... so welcome to this week's post!

Behold, the mummy!  Not the same mummy with two glorious black eyes in the previous blog post, but an 'it's not winter yet, but this newly knit scarf will be GREAT for keeping the wind off the face' mummy.  One weekend, 4 skeins of chunky yarn, a stitch pattern book, and voila.  Cozy warmth.

Last week's mummy was the result of an unexpected and abrupt meeting between a face and a concrete sidewalk, courtesy of a sudden unbalancing tug on a dog leash, resulting from a dog catching sight of a rabbit in the shrubbery.  I'm not sure who was more startled - mom, dog, or rabbit.  The dog now avoids that section of the yard on her constitutionals.  Despite mom's avowal that she didn't need stitches, the nurse at church thought otherwise so we popped over to urgent care in lieu of the church service, and made it back in time for the fellowship meal afterwards.  Despite the doctor's considered opinion that the faceplant would not result in black eyes, the gloriously purple rings were evident within a day.  Now, almost 2 weeks later, they've sunk beneath the cheekbones and add a greenish cast to the face.

Bicycling -- the smiling providence of a flat tire, perfectly timed to avoid a deluge, turned into a trip to town the next day for a new tube, a replacement tube, possibly a new tire tread, and a Serious Consideration of cycling shoes/pedals.  I came home with two tubes, two new tires (mounted!), new pedals, AND new shoes.  With a bit of a bike realignment/tune-up and bike fitting tucked in there, plus practicing How To Unclip While In A Trainer.  A few minutes clipped in on the trainer clued me in to the fact that I might be using different muscles now that my feet were affixed to the pedals, so I decided not to overdo things with a long ride right away.  Maybe 5 miles would be a good first ride?  So, after getting home, I headed out, and decided after a few miles that a loop round the block shouldn't be pushing things too much.  13.5 miles, check.

The next day was a normal riding day, but I didn't want to overdo things - so I planned a 20-24 mile ride.  Except around 24 miles, I was having too much fun so decided to ride up to my mom's for an ice cream sandwich.  40 miles later and 5 towns later, I was home.  (That's total -- not from the 24 mile point.)

So, with Saturday rides of 30 and 40 miles, what was I do to this past Saturday but something a bit longer?  I plotted a route to Truman (45 miles), left mid-morning so I'd be home before the sun was blazing hot, TOTALLY underestimated how long it would take the fog to burn off, and had fog dripping off my helmet the first two hours of the ride.  One hour in, my glasses were consigned to my jersey pocket.  And I had a delightful 3 hour ride -- followed up by a 5 mile jaunt with Vir (his first time on a bike in several years) to make a total of 50 miles for Saturday.  Will I do 60 miles this coming week?  We shall see.  I think my next bike-related purchase will be a tail light. 

The 15-minute blog post

Let's start with some yumminess.The above was a gift from a family I dogsit for. This dog doesn't require much ... I open the front door for her to come in, then she and Bandit spend the rest of her stay either sleeping, riding in the car, or taking one another's sleeping positions.  With a little bit of 'when is my family coming back' thrown in.  The shiny spot on one muffin is a QUARTER.

Counterpane update! I reached 40 squares and am taking a counterpane break to knit a stole for myself.

Yarn for stole

I've decided to use the Print O' The Wave pattern, from Sharon Miller's Heirloom Knitting.  The problem is I have just ONE skein - and I'm going to live dangerously and work the edging last.  Worst case scenario, I have to frog a whole lot of edging and back up a repeat or few.  Really bad worst case scenario is that I have to do it twice because I calculated wrong during the first frogging.  I've about 1.2 repeats (out of 3-4 dozen) done. 

I've also submitted a design for the next issue of Cast On, and it's been accepted, and the yarn arrived today.  So the stole isn't going to grow particularly fast.  Oh, and I had a test knit last week too.  And SysAdminning has been busy.

So I've needed a bit of balance in my life, beautifully achieved by riding 20-30 miles on my bike a few times a week.  Except this morning, when I had a flat tire.  A rock embedded in the tread was the culprit.  And my spare tube was spare because it had made a lovely hissing sound from the valve once upon a time, and was only still around because I hadn't been able to figure out WHY is was making that noise, once it was off the bike.  I put in on, and voila -- hissing noise and decreasing PSI.  No bike ride this morning.  So I picked tomatoes.  A lot of tomatoes.  How a lot?  Enough so that my stock pot couldn't handle all the product of the food mill, and I had fresh tomato soup  for lunch.  I think the stock pot is going to be simmering for another 3 hours or so to get down to 'half'. 

Oh, and it POURED rain about 90 minutes after my ride was deemed cancelled.  So much for TWO weather apps telling me I had 4 hours before the rain was supposed to arrive.  The frowning providence of a flat tire produces quarts of tomato sauce AND the lack of a drenching. 

I still have a lovely harp -- with two things that need fixing (move a lever, move a string).   Are things really shifting around on it, or did I manage not to notice, for four or five months, that one C lever was not aligned with the string?  And that the D next to it isn't equidistant from the C and E strings?

15 minute buzzer went off.  Should I save the story of the last photo for the next blog post?  It'll give me something to write about!