24 Plus 3

Today 27 hand knit hats left the house for the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank. I really hope the kids like all the colors, I went kinda of crazy with this batch. So more stuff left the house. Yes I have more hats on the knitting needles.  

How to Lighten Your Wallet

I was going to write about Eric and his equine therapy today. About the 2 mintiure horses that competed with each other for Eric time by resting their heads on his lap, one was even licking him.   The equine therapy director said she had never seen these miniature horses take to someone so fast and want to just hang around with someone that they just meet.  Can my friends with farms please enlighten me on this?

Instead I will write about the clueless dude driving a mini van who almost hit Eric while he was in the ramp deployment zone of the Handicapped parking space. You have all seen them the large space right next to the Handicapped parking space marked Van Accessible with the hash lines painted in multiple places in the space.  As I was about to open the passenger door to get my shopping bags, He actually pulled into the ramp deployment zone to park and missed running Eric over by less than 12 inches. I saw him out of the. corner of my eye and grabbed Eric. I ran him up the ramp into the store and made sure he was ok, before I went to get the bags and my purse.  Then the dude decided to park some place else.  

If the van driver had not been so clueless or lazy he would not have had a near miss.  If you want to be a clueless or lazy driver any of the following could happen to you.

You will get a ticket for hitting a wheelchair in the loading zone.  I am not sure what moving violations cost in your area, but it will lighten your wallet.  

Depending on the judge and laws in your area you could lose your drivers license, that will lighten your wallet.  

If you have auto insurance the premium will go up, that will lighten your wallet. If you choose to,drive with out insurance the cost of driving with out insurance will lighten your wallet.  

Depending on the laws in your area you could face jail time.  This will effect your income for the rest of your life.  Oh, and did I mention the legal fees and cost to hire an attorney.  In some areas you are even required to pay for your time in jail.  You might as well hand over your wallet and forget about having one for a while.  

So if you want to have a prosperous year and life, please don't be a clueless driver.  

Cars, Cows and Planes

I have been very busy over the last few days being the 3rd driver. This was not my plan, John got sick so I left him home with the sick boy. Eric is better and at program and John needs a few days to recoup.  My plan for the weekend was going to be spinning, knitting and possibly weaving if I fixed my loom.  The the opening at the Domengis Art Gallery.  

So Friday morning I left for San Diego to Teri's place. I stayed the night.  The kids loaded the moving van. I was not allowed to help. I followed the kids, they were driving the u-haul truck and I drove Teri's car.   We stopped for lunch at Brent's Deli in Northridge, California. If you are in the area and have not eaten there it is a must.  With big eyes I ordered the chopped liver appitezier and a cup of mushroom bar.ey soup.  After I finished the chopped liver and fresh rye bread I had no room for the soup and cancelled the order for it.  

We decided we were too tired to drive, so being the worlds rudest sister I called my brother Glen and asked if we could stay the night at his place.  We had a nice talk and caught up on things.  I find my sister in law Marla so amazing, she not only runs her own graphic arts business but keeps up with the driving for my 2 active nieces.  The girls have just grown so much since we last saw them. They are fantastic parents.  

Sunday was the last day of driving to Northern California. We drove through what was once the most productive farm land in the country, too many fields sat empty covered with tumble weeds.  Now if someone could figure out a way to get all those big piles of snow from back east and drop it on the Sierra's or in the almost dry lakes things might get a little better.  We have a national highway system, why can't we have a national water system. Harris Ranch had lots of cows. Yes I said that there would be cows. We arrived at our destination and the kids unloaded the u-haul.

Monday I flew from the San Jose airport to San Diego. I then picked up my car and drove home getting in at about 8 pm. A very long day.  At least I did not have to hit the ground running.  

Air Mattress and More

As I write this post from San Diego, I am eating leftover pizza from our dinner at my all time favorite pizza place, Project Pie. Last night I slept on an air mattress for the first time ever. While I found it very comfortable, after about 2 hours it became unbearably cold. So I got up and grabbed my coat to put over the blanket I already had on the mattress. That helped a bit.  Needless to say my body really liked the hot shower this morning.  

 For those of you who think that I can not pack light, the Big Dog backpack on the bed is all that I packed for everything but knitting until Monday. If Teri can pack light so can I.  Oh and the reason that I a in San Diego is that the kids needed a third driver.  

Less is Better

I am doing a lot less laundry.  Today was the 1st time in 3 days that I have had to do a load of whites. I used to do at least one load a day.  Eric has been very concerned that he is not making enough laundry.  We told him tonight that he did not have to make any more laundry.  That it only means that I will have more time to spend with him.  That we would listen to more books and watch more television together. Also that I would have more time to spin and knit, which will make me happy. 

I wonder if doing less laundry will show up on our power and water bills.  I currently hope so.  Now to reboot my cleaning and tossing now that I can move better again.. I only have 2 major areas to finish.   

Tummy Bug and take backs

Last night was a very long night with Eric. The eyrpy tummy bug that is going around town has hit Eric with vengeance. At he peak of the mayhem Eric made a full basket of laundry in just 30 minutes. This lead to a couple of learning experiences with the new washer.

The first thing I want to say is never ever wash eyrpy laundry on the turbo cycle unless you want to wash the load twice. On low water machines use extra water and a longer wash cycle.

The second thing I learned was that there is a child lock on our washer. It was not on my list of needs, but I have it anyway by default. Reading the washing machine manual at 4:30 am looking for a code is not my idea of fun. The good news is that by 5 am I had figured it out by myself and did not have to wake John to solve the problem.

I guess that this is part of my learning curve on the new washer. Washing machines have changed a lot in the 25 years since I last got a new machine. When I looked at the manual, when it said heavily soiled, I assumed kids playing in mud and dirt. I think that it should have a different section dealing with sick, but that maybe just me because we deal with it a lot.

Oh by the way, Sears sent people out to level the washing machine, without a level. I have yet to do a load but we will see how they did. They still gave the self adjusting spiel. No that does not work. This crew added the self adjusting springs as well. Don't they know people do read the manuals that come with the machines? So I got out the level and pointed out that even I knew it was not level. It also made me uncomfortable when the delivery guys said how nice our TV was.  I made sure to point out that it was 5 years old (therefore not worth stealing).

I am sure that with Eric home tomorrow he will help me knit a few more hats. I have a pile of 6 hats that need tags, with 2 more in progress. We just have to get rid of the fever that came with the eyrpyness before we can send Eric back to his day program.

I am positive that tomorrow will be a better day.

Rethinking Laundry

With the new larger wash tub, I think I will have to rethink the way I do laundry. This is for the better. Today I did the weekly towels, in the old washer it would have been 2 full loads. Today the towels filled a little less than 1/2 the tub.  With the whites I saved 2 days of laundry ( this should read 2 loads in the old washer ) and used a little less than 2/3's of the tub. So I am going to try waiting for 3 days before I do the whites again. That is unless we have a laundry explosion.  So I am thinking I will cut my current  of 25 loads of laundry week down to 10 to 12 loads a week.  Yes I will have the same amount of folding. I am thinking that unless the laundry is eyrpy that I will no longer be doing laundry in the middle of the night. 

I am so grateful for the simply wonderful engineering from the LG Washer Group.  Thank you so much.. I would also like to thank my wonderful husband for getting me such a wonderful washer.  By the way Sears called back today and will check to make sure we are in perfect level.  They said it should have been done on Saturday as part of the delivery.  

On a different note when I am not wearing my usual 2 inch heals, I need Teri's step stool to reach in to the bottom of the tub. Teri don't expect to get your step stool back anytime soon. 

I will have to figure out how all this will effect how much extra time I have for other things.  I can see more knitting, weaving, spinning and sewing in my future.  Maybe even a few more new patterns published.  

Up date 11:40 pm, Eric must have heard that I was doing less laundry. Since I first posted this earlier tonight he has made a load of eyrpy laundry...and life goes on.