Wednesday and it isn’t snowing!

And it isn’t even supposed to!  This week’s storm is a bit later than normal, and it is going to be…

 

 

wait for it…

 

 

RAIN!

On Friday, we are supposed to get RAIN!  I am so thrilled.  Rain will wash away some snow.  Rain doesn’t need to be shoveled. Rain means we can keep to the planned tax schedule.

I love rain.

This week is turning out to be a different one. A few out of the norm things at work and in real life, and I feel like I am not getting my usual crafting time in, which makes me feel a bit out of sorts.  Plus I am coming down with a cold or something.

Monday morning I got to work to find an email from the boss asking if I could help him arrange dinner for the board meeting to be held Tuesday night.  I didn’t have to attend (good, because I couldn’t) but if I could get him on the right track?

Now, of course I could, and did, but here’s the thing.  These meetings happen monthly.  The woman who usually takes care of dinner is on vacation, which we have all known about for months. She missed the last two meetings due to scheduling conflicts. Why he can’t see these things coming ahead of time and plan accordingly is beyond me.  Had he done so, I would have cooked him a nice casserole and gotten him some green salad and cookies so there would be no scramble.  Because he left it until the end, he got frozen lasagna, and he had to cook it himself at the location, which meant he had to be there quite a bit ahead of time. Why his lack of planning is my emergency, I do not know.  Except that he is the boss, so can do it that way.  I will no longer assume that it is taken care of when I learn she is to be away.  From now on, I will volunteer to arrange things ahead of time.  Because even though it is not remotely up to me, and others who DO attend these meetings are perfectly capable of doing this, some how when it is a crisis, it falls to me.  I guess that is good, but it also is annoying.  🙂

So that whole process shot Monday morning for a loop.

Monday we also learned that A’s nephew’s father-in-law passed away.  We did not know him well, but he was a very nice fellow, and we adore his daughter, so that was sad.  Nephew lives in PA, and Dad lived here near us, so there was scrambling and traveling and all manner of things they had to sort out.  The calling hours were last night, and it was pretty special to see all the people he touched over the years gather.  It was overwhelming for his children, but I think in a good way, to see all the people who loved their dad.

When we left there, we went to my second favorite place to eat in Bangor, Elevation Burger. Yum yum, organic local food is delicious!  But that meant we got home way past bed time, so no basketball (we taped Monday’s games) and no knitting.

Before we went up to the calling hours, I met one of our tax volunteers at the home of another volunteer who is going through some tough health issues. Together we prepared his tax return and visited, and I got to meet his lovely wife.  I was sorry to have to dash off, but so glad for the opportunity to see him and his wife.  And see that he is still very much himself! and I feel more confident that he is getting the best possible care and I am hopeful that I can convince him to volunteer one more year when he recovers.  He says no, but I think he misses us.  Maybe even enough to agree to it. 🙂

Today is a regular work day, I think, though I might not stay all day.  And tomorrow is a short day, depending on what I do today.  If I last all day today, I might take tomorrow off and just chill.  Friday will be a long day, and I have to keep my hours to 40 for the week.  So with a little vacation time thrown in, I could get the day off.  I feel like I need to nap, and it is better to do that at home than at work.  🙂

So. Donning my mask and heading off to the office.  Don’t want to share the germs. Wish whoever had shared with me hadn’t.  Sharing is not always as good as Mom led us to believe.

 

 

 

 

Just a quick pop in visit

Word Press tells me I just hit 500 followers!

Just wanted to say welcome to the new followers and thank you to all of you who follow me. I appreciate the loyalty!

 

 

2 down, 5 to go

The second Durrow square (very thankfully) mirrors the first. Next up, we join them and knit a square from outside in to join them. Should take another month or two. 😂

And in spinning FO’s, I give you Flamenco Eggs.

I started with these two 4 ounce braids of cheviot, dyed by Debbie at the Purple Fleece.

Flamenco Dancer on the left, Easter Eggs on the right.

I divided each braid into thirds. And then each third into a millions short little strips.

I spun two thirds of each braid and made it into two ply yarns, one of each colorway. Then I spun the remaining thirds and plied them together.

What I got:

2.5 ounces and 261 yards of Flamenco Dancer on the left; 2.25 ounces and 290 yards of Easter Eggs on the left; and in the middle, 2.5 ounces and 239 yards of Eggs Flamenco in the middle.

Playing with color is so much fun!

Now, what to make…

Oh, hey, look!

It’s snowing!  But not a lot.  Not enough to miss work or even think about that.  Not enough to reschedule tax day, though loads of people have rescheduled themselves.  If this keeps up (snowstorm once a week) for much longer, they will run out of days to reschedule to.

This week has been so crazy at work, that I only have to work a half day tomorrow.  I am working on a half day Friday list for you all.

Some housework

Some spinning

Some knitting

That seems fitting and vague enough!

I finished my November/December socks last week at Whorls and Purls!  Yippeee!

Of course,  I went right home and cast on the next pair.  I am loath to call it the January/February pair as it immediately makes me behind again. So I think in 2018 I will aim to knit 6 pairs of socks, and if I get it done by August or December 31st, it is all the same. No more sock a month.  So this is pair number 1. It is Plymouth Happy Feet, color 122.  Good job naming the yarn, Plymouth.  That name really tells me a lot about the colors.  🙂  I like it because it is sort of Christmassy, but not in your face happy holidays Christmassy.

Still working on hitofude…

Haven’t worked on Durrow at all this week, but maybe tomorrow I will get to that?

Still spinning Flamenco Eggs, haven’t done that this week either, but I think I can finish the singles tonight or tomorrow and get this plied and bathed by the end of the weekend.

I am so glad this week is almost over and I get half a day off!

Power is ON, Cars are dug OUT

So things are theoretically back to normal today.

Still some cleanup to do around the edges.  Normally, we wouldn’t worry too much about the edges this time of year – in January, it is important to clean up after a storm so that you are ready for the next one.  In March, it’s not usually a problem, because the snow melts pretty fast.  But this March is not normal.  Over 3 feet of snow in a week, and guess what?  Another storm is predicted for next week.  I am hoping and praying that it is warm enough to be rain, but no one is talking about that.  I’ll bring it up when I speak to Ma Nature.

Yesterday I declared a snow day and did not go to work, though it was open (and 194 others didn’t go to work.  We have just over 200 employees.  There’s a message there somewhere) but it wasn’t a calm and lazy day like last week.  We shoveled snow almost all day, with plenty of breaks for resting, of course.  It took all day to get those two cars free.

I did not much else.  A bit of spinning and few rows of Durrow,  I was just too tired.

The good news was, the power came back on mid-morning!  A true miracle.  Our wonderful plow guy told us he saw no trees or lines down.  And he lives around the corner, and had power.  So I think it was just a case of a branch touching a wire, or something.  Anyway, we were super thrilled it wasn’t out for days.  I got as far as bringing the cooler upstairs, but had not started to fill it when we got power again.  Yippee!

It’s pretty but…

That’s my car. You can tell because it has the i knit and i spin stickers. That is what I would like to be doing but we have to shovel.

Powers Out

Thank goodness for smart phones.

Nuff said

odds and ends

I finished something!

and delivered it, and she loves it.  Whew!  We agree the flower needs a button, and she will add one.  She has been taking a Craftsy class on learning to knit, I am happy to have inspired her, but will miss her as a customer if she really learns!  She has me knitting things I might not otherwise, stretching myself.  This scarf is an example of that.

So.  It’s snowing.  Did you know?  Yeah, I hardly noticed.  Ye gods – up to 24 inches?  It’s roughly a third of that now.  We got out of work at 2.  I would have preferred noon when it first started snowing, but I got home safely.  Not a lot of traffic out, thank goodness, because the roads were a mess. Boss says he is opening at ten tomorrow.  I really hope he changes his mind.

If he doesn’t, we will be up and shoveling early.  Unless I decide to take the day off.  I just might.  We will see what tomorrow brings.  Because there is fiber!

On and off the needles

Finished knitting the scarf. When it dries, it gets a big i-cord daisy shaped flower and it is done!

Hitofude is hard to photograph but coming along. Chart B is complete, just have C, D, E and ribbing to go! That’s 57 rows but who is counting?

That’s what I did this weekend. What are you up to? Do you miss your spring ahead hour as much as I do?

SNOW DAY!

This time the nor’easter arrived as predicted and it is snowing and blowing for all it is worth. Boss sounded downright glum when he called. He knew I was toning down my joy.

A little later I will have to start calling tax clients, but other than that, today is about shoveling and knitting and spinning.

Here’s a quick shot of the scarf I am knitting for my favorite co-worker and customer –

It will get a border and a flower when I finish the center cabled panel.

We are safe and warm and ready for the power to go out, though we hope it won’t. Hope you all are also safe and warm.

PS if you know anyone at CBS News you could let them know that the storm has not yet finished with the east coast as they just implied. Maine is in the US and gets no respect on national weather and news. Just saying.