Petunia rambles on and on….

Damn, I haven’t posted anything in a long time.

Many things going on. Many of them just aren’t for public discussion – gotta figure out what is.  Saw a post on a friend’s blog that she is going to be posting something every day in October.  I wish her luck and I thought, for just a moment, about making a similar promise.  But I would be doomed to failure.  Just too  much stuff, too little time, and a dysfunctional brain.

We did not get washed away in the torrential rains that hit the east coast of the US in the last 48 hours. Daughter lives 3 hours southwest of us, very near the western side of the Chesapeake Bay and a road quite near her home literally washed away. She sent pictures of the waters rising up her driveway.  I think they got about 13 inches where she lives, us maybe 8 inches. No damages but quite an onslaught.

Finished the knitting part of a February Lady Sweater, in deep red Cascade 220 yarn. Need to pick out 3 appropriate buttons, and photograph it. Also currently working on a Braided Cable Tote Bag that I downloaded for free from Ravelry and doing it in Paton’s Classic Wool.  I got a goodly amount last week when a local store had a sale and it was almost half off.  As I used the Paton’s last year for fingerless mitts, I bought quite a few skeins – will either make some of each of these for holiday gifts, or continue to shove the skeins out of sight in the back bedroom so husband doesn’t know how much is really back there.

About 3 weeks ago, I was invited to attend participate/demonstrate spinning at Outstanding Dreams Farm, an alpaca farm in Preston, Maryland. A friend and I went down with our wheels, and had gorgeous combed alpaca fiber provided for us to work on. I was truly surprised at the size of the crowd – probably close to 400 people came out. We attracted an ongoing group of interested spectators – I brought my Ashford Traditional wheel, as it is “traditional” in looks. It looks like what most people think a wheel should look like! The women who watched us told stories of their knitting and crocheting, and many seemed very interested in trying the spinning craft. The men who accompanied them were very often more interested in the “engineering” side of it all – what was needed to be done and how the “machinery” accomplished the task. The kids they brought with them were fun, asking questions, playing with the fiber. We had to spin very slowly when the children were  near, lest a finger/hand get entangled painfully – I was alert to this possibility thanks to our grandtwins who often were nearby when I used a wheel at home. We were lucky to have a bright, sunny day, perhaps a bit on the HOT side, but bearable.

I was working with very light colored fleece which got all over me, and by the end of the day I looked like one of those crazy old ladies who lives with 84 cats in the house. (except that I don’t like cats!)

There were 3 of us spinners there and a lady who was weaving with several shades of alpaca fiber – I’m told they now are bred to come in 23 distinct shades of fleece.

It was a great day.

This says it all.

Some days it’s better. Some are worse.

Pop had to have eye surgery, and it was so much fun, he’s going back for another episode next week, too, on the other eye. This time, it’s me driving him around and he’s wearing the funny glasses that they give you.  His problem was eye pressures way too high. He never thought that a routine eye exam would end up with him being told he’d have to have holes drilled into his eyes.  Our life is like that!

And his truck needs work.

And the dog broke her chain and raced around the neighborhood, scaring the wits out of people – she didn’t hurt anybody, though.

Our Verizon service has a battery back-up box.  The installer attached it to the wall over my washing machine in the laundry. I woke up about 4am, hearing a beeping noise. Normal people would go back to sleep. I swore. And listened for the next beep, and the next and…..   Damn.  When I got up, I thought it might be the microwave??  We finally tracked the beeping down to that stupid Verizon box, where there is a red light now alerting us that it needs it’s battery replaced??  And it keeps beeping, about once every 10 minutes or so.  Just enough to really piss me off, especially as I can’t get anything done about it til Tuesday. I doubt they’ll come out on a weekend, and Monday is the next trip to the surgeon in Easton.

Pop got a new toy that plays VHS tapes and records them to DVD.  This will free up about 3 acres of space around here if he actually throws out the tapes after they are copied. I’m told that the machine will work, will copy, without the movie being viewed on the television. Still, he wants to watch all his silly sci-fi movies while this process takes place.  I had enough of sci-fi about 30 years ago.  (it only adds to the silliness knowing that his doctor is Dr Who! (Hu)

I knit and spin to keep a loose grip on my sanity. The Eastern Shore Yarn Crab Crawl starts on Wednesday and I have no money.

The wee baby grandtwins started Kindergarten this past week. How did that happen so quickly? It was just a few days ago that I was feeding them with a baby bottle, wasn’t it?

I am told by many that I need to get blogging again. “Life” got in the way there for a bit, and once you slow down/stop posting, it takes a kick in the arse to get back on the right track.

I’m still knitting, spinning, and a friend has me dealing with a fleece (or two). Husband said the house smelled like a poorly kept barn for a few days.

Soon, I promise.