Week 40 - Hot Poppy in the House!

So, for the last 5 weeks, I've been driving a rental car. You might recall that faulty Takata Air Bags resulted in over 13 MILLION cars being recalled.  Well, my 2008 Ford Edge was one of those recalled.  We have known about the possibility of the passenger front airbag deploying and possibly killing the passenger since July of 2016.  Yep, you read that right.  Takata filed for bankruptcy and Ford has been trying to come up with a replacement air bag since then.  We would periodically get a letter from Ford telling us that they were working on it, but that didn't take away the fear that the airbag would deploy and kill my mother - she's the one who mostly sits in that seat.  

Well, this past June we got a letter from Ford. They said they are still working to get airbags for all the recalled cars.  They made the following offer to   everyone who owned a recalled vehicle and hadn't gotten the airbag replaced yet.  Ford would pay the cost of a rental vehicle comparable to my own until they had an airbag to replace my possibly faulty one.  Yes, possibly faulty. It seems they had no idea which airbags would end up being faulty and which ones were perfectly fine.  They need to replace every single front passenger airbag in every single 2008 Edge they made.  Plus other vehicles but I don't recall all the years and models...and that's just Fords....they are other makes, models and years that are part of this massive recall.  

We talked to our service guy at the Ford dealership and he strongly advised us to take the offer.  So we told them to hook us up with a rental car.  5 weeks ago, I parked my own Hot Poppy and started driving a 2018 Toyota 4Runner...a backup camera (I love it!) and it sits higher so I can see around a lot more vehicles on the road.  Mom is so short that she has a bit of trouble getting up into the passenger seat but the running boards and a handhold help.  I was told that Ford is willing to pay for the rental car as long as it takes - one month to as long as a year or more!  Well, it's been just 5 weeks and I got a call from the dealer that they have a replacement airbag for my car and I took it in on Thursday nite...they brought her back to me at work on Friday morning.....Hot Poppy is home!  And she's no longer a threat to my mom's safety!  I will take the 4Runner back to the rental place tomorrow after work.  Yeah!

In other news, I've finished another pair of vanilla socks...this time using  a self-striping yarn from A Whimsical Wood Yarn Co., Pixie Toes Sock, in the colorway "Scary Ass".  I love using the Ass yarns....they just make me smile to say them!  Here is Scary Ass.

The colors are eye-searing neon yellow, orange, a tiny bit of pinkish-purple, and black.  A treat to knit...the yarn is yummy soft!  

I'm now in the very beginning of a sock pattern that I've wanted to knit for a long time - Fiesta Feet.  I'm using another of the Whimsical Wood Yarn Co. yarns...this time the color way is "F**k Cancer"...I didn't type the entire name to protect some of my more genteel readers.  I've wanted to use this yarn for a couple of years and this pattern just screams for it!   Will see how it goes....progress report soon.

Well, laundry is calling......thanks for stopping by. 

Week 38 & 39 - Catching Up

It seems as the year continues on towards its natural ending on December 31st, I am having more and more difficulties getting the blog done.  I start out the year with such good intentions - once a week is not too much to ask, right?  Once the summer begins to wane, I seem to run out of steam on the blogging front.  That being said, I am going to try again to get back to once a week till the end of the year.

My absolute favorite time of year is finally here!  I love Fall!  I mean I really love Fall!  The temperatures are in the mid-60's to high 70's.  The light in the sky - well, there's just something about that that makes me happy.  Yes, the day gets dark earlier - that's not one of my favorites.  And Fall means that winter can't be far behind - again, not a favorite of mine.  But only because of the snow and ice!

If I could spend the winter inside not contending with the hazards of snow and ice, I would like winter more.  But I digress from my Ode to Fall.  The trees are beginning to change their clothes to fall colors - Remember when we all had our colors done, back in the 80's?  My colors were Autumn - I look best dressed in all the colors of Fall - rust, gold, orange (even though I'm a redhead), yellow, yellow-green, brown, khaki.  Yep, even my own color palette is Fall.  I like decorating our front porch - but usually only get excited and actually do it for Fall.  In fact, we have some plans for the front of the house for this year - just no time to actually do it.  Hopefully soon I can show you pictures of our Porch Panorama for this year.  

Here is a Fall Bucket List that I found on the internet.  Now, we don't have children living at home anymore so actually DOING a Fall Bucket List is pretty far down on our list of things to do.  But it's fun to look at them.

We won't be Camping or running a 5K, And I certainly won't be watching football.  But we already do a lot of those - Use Cinnamon, make chili, Soup, watch sunsets.  And my favorite on that whole list - can you guess?  Yes, KNIT!  Doncha just love that knitting got onto that list?  I sure do.

I finished all the socks that were on the needles earlier this past week.  These eye-searing ones made me happy to knit.  

The yarn color is one of the Ass yarns - Scary Ass.  Seems to fit, right?  I'm getting ready to cast on an entirely new pattern for socks.  One that I've wanted to knit for a very long time.  The pattern is Fiesta Feet by Lucy Neatby.

It's kinda scary to look at, but if you take that elephant and cut it down to bitesize, you can get it done, right?  That's what I intend to do with the Fiesta Feet pattern; cut it down to bitesize and knit away till it's finished.  The picture really doesn't do it justice.  I saw a pair knit up at the yarn shop last week and it was stunning.  I'll post, of course, when mine are done - don't hold your breath.  I am NOT a monogamous knitter!  So these may take a while.

Here's a cute emoji that I found on the internet....it, too, makes me happy.

That's me, all year long!

Thanks for stopping by. 

Week 36 & 37 - Kittens and Stuff

So, we've had the kitten for 2 weeks now..we've settled on a name - The Skipper.  I took him and Gilligan to the vet yesterday and it was perfectly normal to say I had the Skipper and Gilligan to see the doctor.  One other lady in there giggled when I said it.  

Here he is....a bit less camera shy.

He really IS a goof - full of spunk and so much energy.  Makes us all tired just to watch him run around the house.  We all, including him, sleep really well at night.

And some of the occupants of the house sleep well during the day as well.

          

Gilligan is slowly getting used to having the little guy in the house...there's a whole lot less hissing and growling coming out of the Old Grump these days.  

John and our son met up in Little Rock, Arkansas this past week for a Father/Son Getaway.  Big John drove to Little Rock early Thursday and Young John flew in from Utah.  They toured the State Capitol of Arkansas, meeting up with the State Treasurer and getting to hold about 1/2 million dolalrs in federal money!  From there, they went on down to Jackson, Mississippi to tour the State Capitol and then to Vicksburg to see the Civil War Site.  Then on to Baton Rouge, Louisiana - again to tour the Capitol and on up to Hot Springs, Arkansas for the night.  They toured the Hot Springs Park, had some lunch, and went on to the airport so Young John could catch his flight home and Big John could pick up his car and drive home.  Big John got home about 7 o'clock last night - tired but exhilarated.  The three days went fast but they got to spend time together and that's always a gift.  

And lots of good food doesn't hurt, either.

Hurricane (or is it Tropical Storm) Gordon pretty much fizzled out by the time it got to land in Louisiana and Mississippi.  At least the damaging wind fizzled out.  We got tons of clouds and rain from Thursday through today.  Not as much rain as we were told to expect but enough to make us all breath a small sigh of relief.  And we got some pretty spectacular skies near sunset, too.

I took this facing East the other night....gorgeous, isn't it.  

Well, that's about all for today.  Until next time, Thanks for stopping by.