Monday, June 15, 2009

Packed and ready to go

Yesterday I went through my yarn and chose the sock yarn I'll take to Florida, along with the necessary patterns and the box o' needles. I am ready for any eventuality.

I pretty much know what books I'm taking (I think I'll just sneak 'em into the car after Tom packs it, because he thinks I'm taking too many); I've gotten a bunch that look good at book swaps lately.

I might not be quite as prepared for leaving the condo, though, as I don't have any clue as to what clothes I'll take.

Over the weekend, I read I Am Legend, which was written in 1954, I think, which can be sort of aggravating with the details of life at that time (as in, no microwave, records instead of cds, cars with chokes, etc.), but it really is a timeless story. Only the car with a choke, and a record player seemed odd in this day and age. I imagine that the movie with Will Smith will address those issues; now I have to see it. Very good book.

And I read the 5th book in the House of Night series. I can't remember what its title is, although I think it's Hunted. Those are fun, easy books and I enjoy them.

As for knitting, I did finally finish the second sock of the pair that I started two years ago. They fit and feel good. I knit them with fingering yarn and size 2 needles, which is what put me off them so long ago. They make a very thin fabric, but I like the way they feel. Very lightweight, soft. I started a pair with some of Claudia's sport discards, pink and yellow, but I don't know the colorway. I'm making them for a coworker whose only luck is bad luck, really really bad luck. As in she used to be an English teacher (in a piss-poor backwoods county, if that tells you anything) but had a nervous breakdown or something because she's now working as a teacher assistant for maybe $12,000 a year, and she's always deathly ill with this or that, or having foot surgery that laid her up for three months and she couldn't work, and her kids won't help her (although it's possible they have a reason for that), her furnace broke down in the dead of winter and she couldn't afford to fix it, so people here at school chipped in to take her through those months, including paying her health insurance when she couldn't work. Well, last week the poor woman had a mini-stroke while working and had to be rushed to the hospital. She was hospitalized for two days. Anyway, a few weeks ago I asked her if she'd like some handknit socks (she's always admiring mine) and told her to measure her ankle and the length of her foot. She wears a child's size 3 or 4 shoe! She never did get the measurements to me, but I'm guessing that her foot is about the same size as 9-year-old A's foot, well, except for the poor woman's bunions.

On top of it all, the woman was running back and forth 5 hours to the bottom of the state to take care of her ailing father, then he died and left her some run-down, no good rental properties waayyy down there, and she's sunk way too much into fixing them up, and the people who are renting aren't paying their rent........... She's just a magnet for bad luck, poor thing.

I tell you, we are so blessed. During the winter when the scary financial things were going on with us, I had no doubt that we'd come out of it okay. We came out really well. And here we are, with plans to spend my entire 6 weeks off work in the Keys, while we look for a house to buy, just seven months after the financial boogey man attacked us.

We truly are blessed.

7 comments:

Trillian said...

I just finished reading I am Legend too! I really liked it. The record player did bother me, as I have one in my living room now. of course i use it to listen to The Who, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, not that classical stuff :)

your vacation plans sound fantastic. Wish i could do something like that.

rita said...

I'm kind of surprised that I didn't read I Am Legend many years ago. I've always loved that kind of story. I've been scaring myself since I started reading scifi and horror at 14. I actually had to quit reading it for about 10 years because it was giving me such awful nightmares (can't imagine why...)

One of my all-time favorite books is Lucifer's Hammer, about a huge asteroid striking earth and destroying civilization as we know it. Absolutely horrifying, and absolutely riviting.

I have to stop letting things annoy me; so a book was written 50-100 years ago, so what if they used things like the original tv dinners, or old cars with chokes, because the books themselves are so good.

We're lucky that friends offered us the use of their condo for the summer, otherwise we'd go for a week or two and that would be it. This is something to really treasure.

Georgi said...

I feel for your friend and it is fgood of everyone to work together to help her.
I hope you have a great time this summer. I want you to drink at least one frothy icy drink for me and to get one sunburn for me. I really miss the beach :-)

rita said...

The school people I work with are an awfully good bunch. Our Key Club raises $5000-$10,000 a year for charities, local and global. A few years ago they raises thousands for an alumnus whose infant daughter had leukemia. Next year they're going to concentrate on raising money for one of our teachers; her 21 year old son was paralyzed in a car accident in January. She's adapting her home for easy access for him.

I promise that I'll have lots of frothy cold drinks and think of you. I don't have to told more than once! I miss the beach, too; most Keys beaches don't have "real" sand because of the coral reef offshore, but one a few miles from the condo is the only real sand beach in the Keys. I plan to get to know that one intimately!

Uptown Girl said...

I think you will love the movie. I didn't read the book, but I was scared silly in the movie theatre. And Will Smith... mmm.

rita said...

My thoughts exactly, Will Smith is yummy! I have to see the movie. And anything else he's in. We watched The Pursuit of Happyness last weekend; his son is so cute. He's in The Day the Earth Stood Still (take 2), which I haven't watched because the original is my alltime favorite movie and I'm highly irritated that it was remade. That old movie shaped my life, it seems. Saw it on tv at age 10, and it started my lifelong love affair with good sci fi.

Anonymous said...

Betty said...

I also loved "The Day the Earth Stood Still" as a child, but it had the opposite effect on me....I can't go near science fiction now! It scares me and frustrates me. But, it sure was fun watching that movie on tv with you when we were little!