Catching Up

Last week, my neighbor passed away...she had been suffering for quite some time with rheumatoid arthritis and COPD and I'm so torn about her passing.  Her husband is my office partner at the library.  I know just how devoted he was to her and I'm sure he wasn't ready to let her go yet.  No one ever is.  A part of me wanted her to remain here forever.  Another part is glad she is now pain free and can breathe.  RIP Miss Sandy...you surely will be missed!

The same day that Sandy passed, I heard a noise outside the house and looked out the window.  A UPS truck (a huge semi truck) was trying to make a Y-turn to leave the cul-de-sac area and got stuck in my yard.  A couple of neighbors had come down with a big 4-wheel drive truck and they spent over an hour pulling that big semi out of the 'ditch' it created in my front entry.  Those track marks are over a foot deep!  I didn't go out there cause, let's face it, what could I do but nag at them to get that truck out of there and then fix the mess he made...Once the guy got his truck free, he never even once came to the door to let me know what he'd done!  I went out and took these pictures and talked to my neighbor who helped the guy and then sent an email to UPS asking what they were going to do about the mess.  I got a call on Monday afternoon from the operations manager at UPS Freight - he told me that they were turning the matter over to their insurance company to handle and that I could expect a call in the next few days. Sigh!

                                      

Yesterday was my day off and sometime mid-afternoon, the doorbell rang. 2 men were standing there from UPS...they said they were sorry that their driver had made such a mess - he had reported to them on Friday that he'd done it - and if they come out and fill in the tracks with new dirt and smooth it out and re-seed it, would that make me happy? Well, of course it would, gentlemen!  And thank you.  They apologized for the mess and said that, yes, their driver never should have tried to make a Y-turn on that narrow turn...he should have just backed out till he could get turned around. So it should be fixed by the time Mr. Wonderful gets home in mid-April!

We had some really fast winds all day yesterday and they blew in some wicked clouds, filled with wicked rain and hail.  Here are some of the clouds scudding across the sky from the west...made for some really eerie light; really bright yellow and shimmery.  And there was a ton of thunder - I really love thunder...really! The dogs and the cat aren't really fond of thunder but I just love it!  Add in some lightning and I'm one happy girl!  

They say we will be getting some more thunder and lightning later today...and probably up to 3 inches of rain in just a few hours!  Fortunately, we don't live in a 'holler' so no flooding is likely to occur.  

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

First Finish

I've finished the first Round of Sock Madness 9 in under 1 week.  And I've already received my acceptance from the moderators so it's on to Round 2.  Round 1 doesn't officially end till next Sunday so I've got plenty of time to rest up.  In the meantime, here are my Alohomora socks: the little stitch markers are showing the moderators that I did 11 repeats of the pattern as required.

I took a bit of a tumble yesterday at the quilt shop; my own fault..not watching where I was going and going too fast resulted in a trip on an uneven join in the cement slab and my sprawling like a beached whale.  A perfect 6 point landing - both knees, both hands, my chin, and the tip of my nose.  Fortunately, no skin was broken...but it took a very strong young woman to literally lift me to my feet since I was unable to do so by myself. I was pretty sore by the time I made it home last night and slept fitfully...but today is much better and the only bruising I have been able to find is the heel of my left hand and my chin.  See?

Except for my embarrassment, I got off really easy, don't you think?  

On a totally different note, I am a most proud mama these days.  Our son lives in Utah and was recently awarded one of the top "40 Under 40" awards...now that would be awesome in itself...but he was told that the news of this award went much further than Utah...all the way to Times Square in New York City.  Lookie!

John and I are so proud of him. 

Thanks for stopping by...I'm off to rest my knees and get some sleep.

The Madness Has Begun!

It's that time again...time for Sock Madness.  Sock Madness 9 began at 1:30 a.m. my time on Sunday....the pattern was posted and over 760 folks began feverishly knitting this here-to-fore unpublished pattern. We have 2 full weeks to complete the entire pair, without ANY changes to the pattern.  Once the time limit is concluded, those finishers who have satisfied the moderators that they have completed a pair of socks absolutely according to the pattern will be separated into teams of about 40 people.  From that point, it gets really hairy - now you are competing for a place into the next round!  I have traditionally made it to the 3rd round at least...one year I made it to round 5!  I present to you my progress on Round 1...

Almost done with the gusset reduction and will proceed down the foot.  It's hard to see, but those 'bumps' are little boxes...A very cute and easily memorized pattern.  I don't think I'll have too much problem completing a pair by the deadline.

On another note, our weather is still playing hide-and-seek with us. On Saturday, we got 6 inches of snow.  Today we had temps in the 50's which melted most of that snow.  In addition, we had some pretty wicked fog...here we had fog that allowed me to see about 1/4 mile ahead.  I had to go south to meet up with a friend for lunch...down there it was really dense...see?

And this was clearer than it was right there in town...I was really glad to get home safe and sound.  

Tonight we are told to expect ice, snow, sleet, high winds....sigh!  I repeat, Sigh!  Can I just say how much I am done with winter?????

Will let you know once I finish the pair of socks...in the meantime, 

Thanks for stopping by.