The Crazy Man Always Rings Twice

For days, the news stations have been warning us of an epic snowstorm that will start after midnight on Wednesday morning. Tonight, they altered their forecasts to say there will be a coating to an inch or two of snow, surely not the life altering blizzard they warned about. Even so, I'm sure Mr. Larger Than Life has his knickers in a knot over this one.

Saturday, after a half inch snowfall, he called to tell me our snow blower was at his house and he wanted to know if we needed it. It was 8:05 AM. Well actually, he thought he was talking to my husband, and I just played along. I swear, I have a girlie voice, but that's beside the point. I told him we didn't need the snow blower for such a small amount, and by the time we get out of bed, the snow will melt. He was very insistent, wanting to know what my son was doing. Uh, sleeping. I'm not dumb, I knew exactly what he wanted: someone to clean his drive. He can't come right out and say so though, it must always be masked as something beneficial to us. By the time we got going on Saturday, he'd already cleaned his own drive, and then called everyone he knew to let them know we didn't do it for him. When the boys saw him, they were regaled with stories of how much he was sweating while shoveling. As predicted, the snow melted on its own by late morning, and no shoveling was required at our own house.

As obsessed as this man is about leaves, he's ten times worse when it snows. He gets very upset if there is even one flake left on his drive. He used to call when he was out of town and thought it may have snowed at home. He needed to be sure his drive was cleared. As with leaves, there are special implements to use for different areas of the drive and the chore provider must be ever vigilant to adhere to the rules. There is a certain shovel that will tear up the carpet he applied to the front porch. I know that begs the question of why someone would carpet a 6 x 4 foot area, but that's neither here, nor there. That was very expensive outdoor carpet he installed a thousand years ago. Particular care must be taken. When shoveling is complete, liberal amounts of road salt must be applied, and don't bother arguing when it's too cold for salt to melt anything. You'll not get anywhere. One of these days, I'm going to hook him up with Mr. Farmer. I'm sure they'll get along famously.

Tomorrow, I'll be ready for him. When I go to bed tonight, I'll turn the ringer off on the phone. I'm not getting up early to hear about something that will melt by noon.

Photo: Google Images

Dukealicious Dog

You would have thought we had a near catastrophic event with Duke and Rachel today. The dog was snoozing, which is what he does almost all day long now, when Rachel crawled along the floor, and used the sofa where he was napping to pull her self up. Startled, Duke yelped, jumped up, and landed on the world's loudest squeaky toy. The racket scared the hell out of all of us, including Duke. Thoroughly annoyed, Duke kicked the squeaky toy off the sofa and looked at all of us with suspicion and obvious disdain, then he yawned and went back to sleep. He's a funny boy when he sleeps-always chasing something with those long legs going a hundred miles an hour. Maybe he's dreaming of times he was capable of running like the wind.

Ever watchful and alert, except when he's napping (we've already established that's just about all day long), Duke likes to keep an eye on the barbarian activity (squirrels and rabbits) in the yard. I think he also keeps an eye on the farmer. Same difference.  Those two never really hit it off. When Duke was just a wee little hot dog on stilts (that's what he looked like), we tried to crate him. He would let loose with a symphony of dog noise only the deaf could ignore. One day, my husband was working in his home office and crated the puppy (he had a hankering for expensive shoes). The dog scratched, cried, yipped, squealed and howled for 20 minutes. Certain we were beating the spoiled little beast, Mr. Farmer hopped the fence to see why the dog was carrying on. Even though the man was there to rescue him if need be, the pup never liked him. He still doesn't care much for him-or his dogs.

With the exception of beef tenderloin, there was one thing this dog seemed to love above everything else: chasing shovels full of snow that we'd toss to him. For us this was a chore, but for him, it was a game he loved. My son used to take him in the yard for an hour and throw snowballs. Duke never tired of it, but when frostbite threatened, my son would throw in the towel. Duke always won in the stamina department. He still loves snow, but instead of catching snowballs these days, he sticks to eating it off the table I always forget to put away in the fall. Since it's the only time he's allowed to eat from the table, I can't say I blame him. He's still a handsome boy, and even if he can't chase snowballs anymore, at least he still gets to run after them in his dreams.

Today's therapy is a pair of thrummed mittens in Cascade 220 and Louet Merino roving.  This is as good for my soul as watching Dukealicious eat snow.  For today, it doesn't get better than this.

Depth Perception

Pretty soon, there'll be no fence between Duke and Mr. Farmer

Ignoring the basket of languishing works in progress, I’ve cast on another neck warmer. I was envious of Mareseatoats’ soft wool so I went looking in my stash for some of my own.  I found what was leftover from a scarf I knit my friend Sr. Jeanne. This one is in a lovely lavender alpaca, which isn’t a bulky weight yarn, so it’s being knit double stranded.  It's incredibly soft and comforting.

For this week, I’ve needed something soothing to knit. My young hospice patient isn’t doing so well. The nurses have been visiting her and her family day and night, and the evening visits have fallen to me. While part of me wants to be the one on duty when it’s time, the other part of me just dreads the call. I find myself updating my laptop twice a day to see if she’s fallen off my roster. This case just breaks my heart--so I knit-- while thinking about and praying for her release from suffering. I hate cancer.

A Chill in the Air

There’s been some knitting at the house of Rudee. This is a completed neck warmer I’ve done in a sweet pattern, courtesy of Mareseatoats. The pattern called for a bulky yarn so I thought I’d use up the remainder of my Lamb’s Pride bulky in amethyst. Mares made hers in a beautiful gray alpaca. Hers was prettier with a beautiful drape. Mine has amazing stitch definition. I like them both. Although I finished knitting mine, I have to find some suitable buttons-that means going to stores that probably sell yarn. I’m trying hard to be good. Really, I am.

I’m still working on my Michelle socks, and while they’re very pretty, it’s a slow go with US size 1 needles. To me, it’s like knitting with toothpicks. It would help if I’d wear my glasses when I knit them but I just don’t. Stubborn. I’ve finished working the heel and gusset decreases of the first sock. I’m near the end but the thought of making another one on these twig sticks has me down. I’m not defeated yet though so there is still hope this sock will have a mate.

We’re expecting some weather tonight. We’ll get a glancing blow by the storm that’s leaving devastation in its wake as it races across the middle of the country. I guess we’re blessed it won’t be worse. Just a few inches of snow and none of the ice that other areas are dealing with. My Ohio pals are in my thoughts. Stay safe. The weather makes working on the road a daily challenge. I never know what I’ll run into-literally. Last night, I went to see my young patient and parked in front of their house. It was dark and I thought I was parking in slush. I stepped out of the car and into about 4 inches of water-it was frozen on top but quickly gave way to some ankle deep water. Last week I went to her house and dropped my keys in a snow bank. I felt lucky to find them. I’m not complaining, but jeeze, whatever happened to a January thaw?

Can You Stand It?

I have more pictures from a day in the life of Nurse Rudee. As I began working last night, it began to snow. Just enough to muck up rush hour and give me a white knuckle drive to the opposite side of town. Then it stopped. When I went to sleep last night, the weather men were predicting disaster by morning. Three to six inches of snow were expected. I think we're at about 9 inches right now. My drive has been cleared 3 times to no avail. It's still coming down and I can't see the drive. Don't you think that sounds like a perfect day to do nothing?

Not even the birds are out today. I think the weather explains their gorging feast of the past couple of days. After the snow, we're expected to descend into an arctic freeze. The critters always do seem to know better than the weather forecasters.

Even the low shrubs in my yard are nearly completely covered. The farmer must be snoozing too because I've not heard seen him yet today. It's past his bedtime now. He must be completely ready for tomorrow's 6 AM wake up call. If I were smart, I'd go to bed now so I could be prepared to wake up then too.

Instead, I'm busy with my needles. I'm making something rather special for one of our hospice doctors. Well, it's for her baby. OK. I admit it. I completely fell off my yarn diet yesterday and gained 300 grams of fiber and that book. Isn't fiber supposed to be good for the diet? I'm weak, weak, weak. And totally in love with this pattern.

So the doctor asked for a hat (after I offered) in red. Do you realize how many shades of red there are in the world? I couldn't decide. Instead, I bought bright red Cascade 220, and lime green and white. I'm going to make one of these hats in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in a cream color and use the red, lime and scraps of stuff I have laying around to make this. Maybe both. Red will be the primary flower color so she'll get the red to go with her baby's coat. The rest will be fluff. Aren't these hats the cutest things?

It's almost 8 PM. The kitchen floor is washed, the dishes are done, and Duke has been waited on and had his dinner cooked for him. Right now, he is in a turkey induced sleep. I'm considering taking down the Christmas tree. I was waiting to see if Someone else would do it, but since Someone was busy and Nobody wanted to take the incentive, I thought I should. Then I thought that over too. I think I'll wait until tomorrow. Maybe Somebody, Someone or Nobody will want to do it then. I'll enjoy it one more night and besides, it looks pretty with all that snow behind it. What's one more day? I'm off to knit some flowers.

Sprinter in Detroit

Spring:  noun.  the season after winter and before summer, in which vegetation begins to appear in the northern hemisphere.

BLECH

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful

Monday was warm. The weather was downright balmy and it rained. I welcome the rain after such a brutal winter; we need it to cleanse the soot stained snow and the salt from our roads, drives and walkways. In this part of Michigan, we don't ordinarily get much snow and major snowfalls are sort of rare in Metro-Detroit. This winter? We've had about 50 inches of snow with MORE on the way. It has been one snowfall after another. Different counties are issuing alerts that they're running very low on road salt and some counties are mixing sand with the salt (that should be pretty) to extend what they have left.

I had heard we would get a bit of snow today but I didn't know how much since I've given up on watching the news. I fear death by stabbing already should I venture out to shovel or snow-blow, so why bother watching? To avoid getting my panties in a knot over something in which I have no control, I just avoid watching the news. (The snow stabbing came to my attention when I was googling daily news headlines for a previous post). It was my friend who told me it would snow and wondered if we'd all have a snow day tomorrow.

I've whined before about how it always seems to snow during the night before I work. Maybe this snowfall is heralding a change because finally, I've got a snow day! I don't know how it happened, but it did.

This is a table in my yard. That is 6 inches of snow on my table after 5 hours of snowfall. It is expected to keep snowing for another 8 hours. These pictures were taken at 10 PM-it looked like broad daylight.

This is Duke acting like he is on watch for stabbers. He is really only waiting for me to turn my back so he can eat the snow off the table. It's his thang...