Quiet for too long

It's been too long since I've posted.  Why?

• It's been hot here.  Dripping hot.  I'm so sick of the hair on the back of my head being perpetually drenched.  I'm sick of sweat dripping off of the end of my nose.  We had 3 drops of rain here this morning.  That was it.  You'd think my sweat would be enough to replenish the earth, but I can't exactly make it work for the whole yard, much less the entire NOTR area (that would be North of the River in KC parlance; not to be confused with LOTR).
• Busy.  I've worked at the Studio just about every Saturday, which means I'm pretty tired on Sundays (zzzzzz in the pm) and I've just not been too focused in the evenings.
• Hmm.  Boring?  I've knitted a second swirl hat (which did not turn out much bigger, if at all from the first swirl hat knitted for the nieceling seen here)



• I'm knitting matching booties.  Will be very cute.
• MS3.  That's Mystery Stole 3.  I'm one of the slow bees, having started the actual knitting late in the game.  But I'll catch up.  What is MS3?  A shawl designer created a Yahoo! group for the summer, and it was open for membership through early July.  Nearly 7,000 knitters signed up.  Once a week on Fridays, she posts part of the shawl pattern.  It's a mystery because no one knows the theme, and the shawl pattern parts are called "clues."  You knit along not knowing exactly what the finished shawl will look like.  The e-mail list where knitters share clues, troubleshooting, etc. has massive traffic.  I've deleted most of the messages because I just can't keep up.  Oh, and there are volunteer translators across the WORLD (yup, across the planet) who translate the written directions in various languages.  And then there are those who translate the charts into written directions.  I'm one of those knitters who loves charts, though -- it's much like reading a musical score for me.
• Work has been nuts in some ways.  The day-to-day stuff's not bad, but there's been lots of other not so fun stuff to deal with.  'Nuff said.
• Now a thought to leave with you.  When I was in Virginia, I took some time one day to do some shopping and ramble a little.  I drove over some roads I hadn't been on in say 20 years or so.   These are mountain roads, barely wide enough to accommodate two vehicles side by side, and one needs to be prepared to hug the shoulder.  Some of the roads have steep drop-offs and no guardrails (in fact several of the roads I drove on were like this).  There's just not much traffic.  Anyhow, I drove up the mountain, climbing higher and higher, and when I drove over the gap onto the other side of the mountain, the view was fabulous.  Hollers, ridges, meadows, mountains all lay out before me.  I gasped (and immediately shifted the car down a gear to save the brakes) and said aloud "why did I ever leave?"  I left because there were no job prospects for me as a musician, as an academic who wanted to be at a larger university.  And yet, seeing the view, that rip your heart, your breath out view of the land where my family lived for generations, reminded me that home is still there in Virginia, despite where I make a living, and where my music, books, and knitting are stored.  During the drive down the mountain and the rest of the drive back to my mom's house I was thinking of what Joel and I could do for a living on one of those mountainsides, and would satellite internet work well enough for me to be some kind of information broker?
• Enough for now.

Comments

[Suzanne]

Love the hat! Back in the day (before work left me with cubital tunnel syndrome and carpal tunnel syndrome) I used to crochet and I too preferred the charts to the written instructions. The mystery shawl sounds fun.

[Carl V.]

It is horrible here now, isn't it? Summer has finally arrived. I hate this time of year when there isn't even one hour of the day that isn't hot and humid. Yuck!

I certainly understand your feelings about Virginia. I always envy those people who have the courage (and certainly some financial resources) to pack up everything and move out to the country, or move to another country, to build a new life.

[Heide]

I liked living in Virginia , but I remember it being quite humid there as well.
Glad you're back though, and the hat is quite cute, indeed.

[Tracy]

Isn't the heat awful? The few drops of rain only serve to raise the humidity. I am longing for fall....