Counting the days

It was three years ago today that I started my little blog. For three years and through 987 posts, I've been anesthetizing you by sharing the daily exploits of a boring hospice nurse who just so happens to knit. There is no charge for this service. I do this out of love. After all, conscious sedation is one of my specialties.

Though this will post on Tuesday, I wrote it on Monday. Still feeling hungover from last week, I clocked into work remotely and realized when I hung up the phone, I'd pushed the code to clock out instead of into work. This mistake may have been wishful thinking, but inadvertently, I'd created a monster which will perpetuate itself without correction and now I will have to involve my boss because I can't fix my own mistake. Sheesh. Did I mention it's only Monday? When I thought about the whole thing, I realized I likely didn't clock out Saturday at 0h two hundred and since the pay period ended Saturday night, I really messed things up. It should take at least 2 pay periods to fix my sloppy time keeping skills. Ugh.

I need that vacation that's coming soon, don't you agree? I'm counting down the days (32 to be exact) on this beautiful Australian calender that Ruth sent me (see top photo). I like looking at it because when I see photos like that, I can pretend I'm there and it's likely warmer than here. Much warmer. The temperatures here are still in the 20s and we're to get a little snow today. I'll not despair as the countdown to Ground Hog's Day is just a few short weeks away. Whatever may happen, the days are getting longer and sooner or later, this frigid weather will go away.


To help myself feel better, I temporarily set aside the second mitten (unfinished) and cast on, Pimpelliese, a little something I think will be quite special when done. I'm using Blue Ridge Yarns Kaleidoscope in the Mossy Hollow colorway. Instantly, I was transported to spring--never mind that I ripped the first repeat out 3 times before I got it right. The colors are perfect for spring and the yarn came from Virginia. I'd been waiting for the right project to come along for this yarn and last night, there it was right before my eyes. I was helpless in the process. A clever little pattern, it begins with only 7 stitches and grows in width on one side of the marker. The other side of the marker is the border which helps me because I don't have to add it at the end. It'll all be finished at the same time. Done in garter stitch, there are no purl stitches--only knit stitches, yarn overs and decreases.


Lastly, I thought you'd like a word or two about Leo. He's been so good lately and I'm truly hoping his winning streak will continue. There have been some break-ins in the neighborhood and we had a discussion that we'd feel better if the dog wasn't crated. We started with short little trips and on Friday, he was on his own for most of the night. Nothing was chewed, no food missing, no messes to come home and clean. In short, he was very successful and I'm so happy for him. Not that he minds his crate, because he doesn't; it's just that he seems happier loose and able to stretch out on the sofa.


Here he is trying to conquer his desire to shred the paper on the floor and balance that with his desire to please me by paying attention when I tell him no. I won. So did he. We were both pleased with the outcome. He's been a welcome and refreshing addition to our little family and I'm thrilled he's adapted so well.

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who reads and to all of you who have become long distance friends and pen pals. I never imagined how much fun writing a blog and reading all of yours could be and can say that this is definitely an entertaining part of my life.


Oh... And I'm giving away a little something as is my tradition on my blogiversary. Leave a comment by Friday night at midnight and win a fabulous hank of my handspun yarn (I think it's BFL) in the Sangria colorway that my friend Sarah dyes so beautifully. This will be awarded by random selection. Don't knit? Leave your comment and I'll make you a hat or cowl to help ward off what's left of winter's chill.

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...

Soul Sucking Winter

This has been a weather week to be remembered. It has snowed off and on for the whole winter and frankly, I'm over it. We've had another 2 big snowfalls in 5 days. It is always pretty when it first snows but then just gets ugly quickly. It warms then melts then snows again---followed by an arctic deep freeze. I don't quite know how it happens, but it always snows a s#%tload during the night and ALWAYS when I have to get up and drive in the mess on my way to work. I only work 3 days a week so I am pondering why it always has to snow on those days.


Wednesday, I was off and we had a "surprise" snowfall that I got stuck in. I booked an appointment for highlights, lowlights and a haircut at the Douglas J Institute. I got to Royal Oak a half hour early so I could buy a skein of Mountain Colors Mohair in my favorite LYS then get to my appointment on time. Little did I know that I was in for an ass-numbing 5 hour color job with a relatively new cosmetology student. Because she was a student, I knew she would be a bit slow, but 5 hours? She was awesome and she did a very good job on my hair but it took forever. I was grateful to have brought a couple of knitting projects with me so I should have been thankful for the 5 hour knit-in. Instead, I was worried. The whole time she was doing my hair, I was watching it snow outside. It just kept coming and coming and coming. Fat flakes, wet thick rainy flakes that fell on top of sleet. We had sleet and freezing rain a whole hour before the snow came. Five straight hours it piled up. The buzz around the salon was that this had been deemed a "snow emergency" and the school would be closing. And me? I still had foils in my hair. I was a virtual prisoner of the salon. When I got out, I couldn't wait to get home, but it was rush hour. What is a girl with new hair to do?



I walked (slipped was more like it) across the train tracks and down a half a block and slid into the door of O'Tooles Pub with a half inch of snow piled on my new do. I looked like a wet dog but was met by my lovely daughter and her friends who had lucked out with a "snow day" at the Douglas J. I had decided to wait out rush hour traffic here but there was no waiting out the weather. It just kept coming. The TV weatherdummies (who were totally perplexed at having been blindsided by this surprise weather event) kept saying 1-3 inches total while I could clearly see it had fallen an inch an hour since I had arrived for my first appointment. Hmmm. I can do the math. 5 hours mind and butt-numbing hair appointment and 1 hour in the bar. 6 x 1= 6. Six stinking inches of new snow on top of the "3 to 5 " that fell last Friday.


Here is the view from my car window--driving home from O'Tooles behind the crazy driver who had his emergency blinkers going the whole way down. No s#%t sherlock. It is a snow emergency. Not only do I have fat flakes in my windshield, but I have your annoying flashers to look at too!And this morning? This is my backyard with my dobie Duke who hates the rain but loves the snow. Who is Duke yapping at you ask? Why, that would be my neighbor who obviously has nothing better to do and is snowblowing the snow out of his yard. Not his walk or drive. His yard.

**********NEWS FLASH**********

UPDATED POST

In a phone conversation with my brother Freddie, it would appear that my neighbor who snow blows his YARD is not the only one with too much time on his hands. Fred likes to snow blow his YARD too. Let me tell you, his YARD is huge. He (who is afraid to leave his own comments here) also told me to quit whining because he got a foot of snow. Awwww. Wouldn't seem so awful if you hadn't been compelled to snowblow the YARD too.