The Journey Has Begun

My body won today. After getting up very early with Eric and taking care of him, I started the laundry. I then took a long nap after he left for his day program. Not everything on my to do list got done or even finished once I started. With 8 loads to start the day I did stop after the 5th load of laundry. John was very nice in folding the last 3 loads of laundry and putting all the laundry away. He is a  keeper.

I did find the time to start on on line fiber course today. I am only 2 weeks behind on a 6 week course. I wonder where Teri learned to dig her holes at the start of classes? I did read both the 1st and second e-mails. I also think I finished my Pintrest board, but might go back and add some color. I also started the journal of my Journey for the Golden Fleece. Tomorrow I will start the next packet.

For now it is time to wave bye bye to the computer and get back to work. TTFN.

A Busy Holiday Weekend

We were lucky enough to have Teri and Tej visit for the weekend.  They came in very late Wednesday after a full day of work.  We had a great weekend full of eating and talking.  

We hit most of Teri's favorite eating spots including Cafe Poca Cosa, Micha's, Eegee's, Blue Willow, Frost and China Phoenix.   We also had treats from 5th Street Deli and Nadine's. 

Yes we did spend a lot of time eating. We also spent a lot of time catching up. The long weekend went much to fast.  I will share one picture of our wonderful weekend. 

Bits and Pieces

I don't get to decorate the dead computer as a center piece. Apparently John and I had major differences in how to decorate it. So John boxed it up.  I guess I will have to go with traditional Thanksgiving decorations. 

I am still in the purging junk from the house mode.  I wish I had grown up in a house that did not have to hang on to everything.  I have managed to fill 1/2 the recycle bin since yesterday.  I have learned that once something is gone I don't have to deal with it again.  I am also finding more things that need to go, even in areas I thought were done. I am hoping that all this work now will give me time to play catch up with my on line spinning class next week.  

I also think that the new medical supply company that the insurance company assigned us to bid their contract price to low.  When we needed new supplies for Eric's suction machine they sent us parts from another machine. They also sent us trech supplies. No trech here. When I called to say that the machine was not working right with the wrong parts. I was told that the parts were no longer available.  That I had to kludge the parts together and try to make it work. My only question to the insurance company and the medical supply company is; why are the necessary parts available on Amazon, EBay and at least a dozen other sites.  My search was so exhaustive that it took all of 15 minutes. In that 15 minutes I did notice that the retail price of the wrong parts were between 20 and 40% less expensive than the correct parts.  Which brings me back to the first question, why did the medical supply company make their bid so low that they can not do the job that they are being contracted for?  This was my head desk moment for the day. 

Only one more day until Company comes for the holiday weekend. So the work that is not done tommrow will not get done until after company leaves.  We'll that is not entirely true.  I will try to keep up with the laundry. 

Busy as Usual

Eric is sick again. I did the usual of being up late and waking up early with him.  After a trade off with John I took a nap. 

I managed to get 2 1/2 hours of more deep cleaning in. With 3 more baskets of recycling going out. No matter how much I toss I still seem to find more to toss.  John also started the repair job on the sewing table. 

Tomorrow I will get the the counters done  and the last bastion of clutter will be taken care of.  Although I am not quite sure that I know how to turn a dead computer that is in parts into a center piece for the Thanksgiving table. I am thinking pleanty of candles.  I will also try to get the last of the shopping done. 

A Wet Weekend

We had an unusual winter storm this weekend. We got 2.5 inches of rain in 36 hours. Considering that we consider 12 inches of rain a good year, this was an exceptional storm.  I am glad that it was a slow rain so that the cactus and trees had a good deep soak. I also do feel very badly for the riders in the El Tour de Tucson bike race. For those riders going the 111 mile route who did not make it past Sabino Creek before it was closed, I am truly sorry that you did not get to finish your race. I hope that you give us another chance in the future. We would love to have you back. 

Since it was a cold and rainy weekend we stayed home. I have a house full of company coming Wednesday for Thanksgiving so I am working on last minute cleaning.  I also took time to start the next batch of hats. I got 7 done this weekend. 

I also now know what John considers a reasonable yarn and fiber stash. I have a lot of knitting and spinning before I get it down enough. 

I am looking forward to this week, even though I will be super busy. Have a wonderful week. 

Understanding People

Sometimes I really don't understand people. Take yesterday for instance. I listened to a speaker from a local charity. She talked about all the good work her group was doing helping children. this was perfectly acceptable. Then she went on to criticize the very people her group was helping use racial overtones just because the people her charity were helping were not like her.

I would like everyone to remember "That all Gd's children are special ALL the time." and that we are all Gd's children. No matter what your religion or race we all bleed red. No matter your economic standing we all bleed red.

I am not saying that you have to like or agree with all other religions or cultures. The really important thing is that you have to RESPECT all other cultures and religions. All cultures have provision for helping the elderly, frail and less fortunate among us. Not everyone can be the top 1 percent , the math just does not work out that way. So we do have to work together to make this a better world.

In an ideal world we would all have a roof over our heads, food on the table, enough clothing, heat or fire wood for a cold winters night. Even health care. But the world is not perfect and we need to help one another through life. We come into to this world alone and leave this world alone. In between we need to help and care for one another. "For no man is an island".

So as the holidays approach try to be a little kinder. If someone is looks great, tell them. A kind word or action go a long way. Donate things you no longer need to charity, its good for the environment, your closets and your wallet. Live life and treat other people the way you would like to be treated. Yes, it the whole Golden Rule thing. I am an idealist who has been tempered with reality, so come join me in my world for a while.

Busier Than a Bee

It has been crazy busy around here. I have holiday guests arriving on Wednesday. I really think that it was a very good thing that I started cleaning 3 months ago. It gave me time to really go through everything. I know that I have not reached perfection by any means, but I consider it a major victory to only have 2 boxes of things that need to be dealt with instead of a whole room going into the garage.  

I will have 30 hats leave the house tomorrow for the knitting guild challenge. I have also found a small local school district that is very willing to give out more hand knit items to their students through their family resource center. I have 5 gallons of yarn for that project. I have 21 hats finished for that project. That means I have finished 51 hand knit hats in the last 30 days. Sadly even with 51 hats knit this month, it has not made much of a dent in the yarn stash. Just to give you an idea of how much yarn was used. Each hat took the equivalent of 1 skein of yarn which equals about 51 skeins of yarn. Of course I used a lot of bits and pieces to make the hats more colorful. 

I have run out of some of my design mojo for now. I have been asked to design and sew up some project bags for other peoples knitting. I am really thinking that after Thanksgiving would be a better time  to start this project.  I will feel less rushed and will come up with something way better if I wait. 

We'll I have another crazy busy day tomorrow so it's time to call it a night.