End of the Trip: The Day of Endless Travel

I never did get around to posting about my long day returning from my trip up north in October, though I started drafting this weeks ago. I do want to share some of the pictures, so...here we are, a month later.

My return travel day was already going to be long, though not as long as if I'd picked an itinerary with a 5-6-hour layover, what's up with those? Instead, I chose a route with a layover of 100 minutes, which would get me out of Syracuse at a decent hour and into Florida manageably late.

However, the layover was in LaGuardia, which had had numerous weather-related delays and cancellations the day before, and apparently wasn't over it. I was at the airport but not on my first flight when I got the notice that the second flight was delayed, and then the first flight was also delayed. Which meant I got to spend quite a while at Hancock airport.

They had a few small "shops" with just basic food/drink options, not the bigger ones that have travel items and tourist shirts and so on, and they had scanners instead of human checkers. You put your item on the scanner and the display says "Thinking..." but in my opinion, thinking is not what it's doing. It's scanning.

However, it did at least register what I was buying correctly.

Since I had plenty of  time, I tried finding the mythical place with a comfortable seat, a table, quiet, and not freezing cold. This spot was good on the first two, not on the last two.

But at least I got some knitting in before moving on.

The Middle Ages Brewing restaurant had some fun ads.

I tried this empty gate, but it was cold and had a tv going, so not all that quiet.

Still, I sat and listened to the start of the Bruins matinee before it was time to go closer to my gate: they kept switching how late we were actually leaving, and I didn't want to miss it if they pulled the time way in.

It did get pulled in a bit, actually, and finally we were on board and going.

I noticed that the track lights above me were not all white, and tried to get a photo, but the camera didn't know what to do with it. I promise, it didn't look quite this rainbow to the naked eye!

We made it to LaGuardia without any more drama, and I had time to eat and do some leg-stretching. I liked the sign over the food in this store:

As I had on the way up, I had a good chicken lunch at The Grille, and a delicious cookie from Magnolia Bakery.

It felt like forever until we boarded, but eventually I was back on a (very uncomfortable) plane, picking another movie I'd seen before but was willing to watch again. This time, I went with the hockey classic Miracle.

Some fuzziness as we went up into the clouds.

Finally back in Florida, it was about 10 PM when I walked out of the airport, and was immediately warmer than I had been the entire trip! It was so nice to be warm again. When the shuttle got me to my car and I got in, one of the first things I did was take off my shoes and socks. My feet were very out of practice with being en-shoe-d for days at a time (plus I've always preferred to drive barefoot).

An hour's drive home, and I dragged in and was in bed about 20 minutes later, thanking Past Me for being smart enough to take the following day off work.

All right! Now all I need to do is show what I brought home from that weekend, but that can wait until next time.

Heat (or lack thereof)

Let the record show that I turned the heat on this morning.

Despite yesterday morning's low, we didn't have the heat on yesterday. It was cooler in the house than we normally keep it, but not that bad. This morning when I got up, it was lower still, though, and when it went down another degree, I gave in. There are limits to how many layers I will wear.

Mid-afternoon, I turned it off, and we'll see what the temp does this evening and overnight.

Newman says we'll get through it together.

Brrrr; Depressing Library News; Good Cat News

While I understand that my cold weather is not your cold weather, Florida did have record-breaking cold overnight Monday into Tuesday. This was what I had at 8 this morning:

Brrrr! In Florida, that doesn't merit a frost warning, but a falling iguana warning:

The local weather person shared some fallen iguana photos on Facebook today: it really does happen.

Now, by mid-afternoon, it was more like 60, and probably in the sun it felt decent. But inside, not in the sun, I was layered up. 

Brrrr.

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I've written before about how I have not only a library card for my county's library system, but reciprocal borrowing through the next county's library. Since I read more and more ebooks, I love having two cards* to use: I read an absolute TON, increasingly so this year, as escapism, and I do buy some, but I would be bankrupt if I bought them all. 

*Technically, I have a third: there's an org called the Queer Liberation Library and signing up for that gave me another 5 loans a month from Libby, nothing to sneeze at. 

I was therefore crushed, and I mean CRUSHED*, to get an email from the other library system saying that they are changing the reciprocal borrowing program to eliminate ebooks. Almost the only thing I use it for! (The closest branch to me is an hour's drive, so obviously I'm not making that trek on a regular basis to borrow physical items.)
*Now, a few days later, I'm starting to get over the shock, but that just means I changed the title of this post from "Kind of Heartbreaking" to "Depressing" Library News. Dial it down, there, ccr.

In the email, they note that they offer a non-resident card that can be used for ebooks as well as other things---for $60 per year. Sigh. 

I get it. I do. But ow.

So my Libby borrows would go from 35 a month to 15, and Hoopla from, well I don't know because it tells me how many more I can borrow this month but not for any amount of googling can I find out how many I get per month, why is this a hard question, ugh.

Ahem. I go from more to less, basically. And I probably will suck it up and pay for the non-resident card, since I can afford $5 a month to read 20 books. But, you know, ugh. Change.

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I took Newman to the vet for his checkup, and though he wasn't pleased about the experience, he was a very good boy, and got a mostly clean bill of health. 

"Why does this take so long? I guess I'll watch the TV."

He needs dental work ($$$), and they're testing to make sure the worms are completely gone, but he's at a good weight (about 12 and a half pounds, he's not a lightweight) and there were no red flags. They also trimmed his claws: I'll do that going forward, but for now the needles are gone and he can make biscuits on me without making me shriek. 

Which makes both of us happy.

Triumph!

A month or two ago, maybe longer, I bought a new shower head; I had noticed that mine was acting a little drippy, and figured I should replace it before things became catastrophic. Then of course, I put it aside and didn't do anything about it. But today I decided it was time, and gave myself the you-can-do-it (and if not you'll call a plumber) pep talk.

I turned the water off, that much I know how to do, and I got the old one off; I was pretty sure I would be able to, since I actually put it on, back when I moved in and found the then-current one needed replacing. This new one is a different style, and instead of just having the piece that goes in the bracket or can be handheld, the new one has one of those but it's surrounded by a holder that also sprays water. That sounds weird. Well, I don't know the terminology, but it looks like this:

So the shower head part connects to the wall thing, then the handheld connects to a hose and hooks into it. You can have water come out of one, the other, or both.

Long story short, I tested it out and it works and I like it! It even feels like better water pressure somehow, so win-win there. 

Thank you for letting me brag about accomplishing this fairly simple thing. Have a Newman picture. Or four.

New Wallpaper

It's too perfect.

A Little Scattered

Sometimes there are enough different things I want to write about that I somehow manage not to write about any of them. Fortunately there are no blog police and I adhere to my initial thoughts from when I started the blog, which is that I have to write for myself before anyone else. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that anyone else wants to read what I write! But it starts with me.

So, a few things with little detail and in no particular order. First, yes, those who guessed (or suggested) I open the yarn advent starting on November 1 instead of waiting until December, you win, that's what I'm doing. So far there have been beautiful blues revealed and I couldn't be happier. I took a picture yesterday:

Continuing on the yarn theme, my cousin L (who is actually married to my second cousin, to be specific; they've lived in this area longer than I have) was on a trip to Germany this summer and was inspired by all the yarn stores to bring me back yarn. She was in northern Germany, and said every village had a yarn store, and the larger town she was in had three, and she simply had to bring me back some. She has often commented on my knitting photos on social media, and apparently she showed some to the woman in the yarn store, to give her an idea of the level knitter I am! Look at this bounty:

Rainbow! Cashmere!

Naturally, I want to knit her something in thanks. I picked the Clove Hitch scarf pattern, as she said a scarf for Christmas trips up north would be nice, and she said her favorite color is teal, so I'm using these two from my stash.

It's hard to see in the picture, but they are slightly lighter and darker: it won't be a huge contrast, but I like it so far. Much better pictures to come, I promise, but I have started and so far, so good.

That's all well and good, I hear you say, but don't you have any cat photos? Newman? You know, the new guy?

Do I have any photos. Ha. Boy, do I. Here are a few.

Am I This Kind of Knitter

Believe it or not, there are things going on in my life that do not revolve around a certain orange cat!

I mean, he is the highlight of my week. But far be it from me not to use this space for my regular chatter, venting, and complaining!

After a cat photo.

In knitting, it's good to know yourself, and what kind of knitter you are. (This may extrapolate to other crafts--I wouldn't be surprised if it did--but I will stick to what I know.) Do you prefer making lacy shawls? Then ignore that sale on bulky yarn. Do you make a lot of sweaters? Then don't buy that single skein of yarn, no matter how lovely. That kind of thing.

One thing that's true for me is that generally, I prefer to know what I'm getting (into). I don't want to do a mystery knit-a-long, because I may not like the project. I don't want to get a mystery grab bag of yarn, because how do I know I would like the colors? Like that.

So it is perhaps inexplicable for me to have ordered a yarn advent set. 

If you're not familiar, some yarn dyers will create a themed set that one opens from December first as a countdown to Christmas. (I believe that some people will plan to knit a bit every day, so that they have a finished object by Christmas, though goodness, that seems ambitious to me, with everything else going on in December.)

The reason I ordered it anyway is that I was beguiled by the inspiration photo that Purple Lamb put up. Are these my colors, or what?

(The image is fuzzy, but you get the idea.)

I couldn't resist. Well, I didn't resist, anyway. And the order was delivered this week. I was eager to see what the colors actually are, because I had kind of forgotten the whole point of it being an advent. I opened the box, and:

Ah, yes. Little daily boxes. Of course.

So what it comes down to is this; I have a few options.

1. Open them all now. So far I have managed not to do this, even though I want to know.
2. Wait until December 1 and do it the way you're supposed to.
   2a. Possibly give the box to a friend to hide for me until December 1.
3. Start opening them on November 1, instead.

I'm leaning toward 3, as you may have guessed. Because waiting until December?

What would you do?

More Newman

Newman is settling in well. Even the medication I have to give him for a week isn't causing him to hate me, though he isn't at all fond of the process. He's eating well, drinking water, using the litter box, sleeping a lot. Which makes sense, as they estimate he's ten, a grand age for a cat but hopefully with many happy years ahead of him.

Here he is when I first met him at the shelter, ready to accept scritches.

Riding home. He didn't love the carrier, but he was good, and far quieter than both Maggie, and Carlos before her. We even went into Petsmart to buy food, and the cashier was delighted with him.

Home and investigating.

He has a huge purr and is almost violently in love with being petted and scritched. His head-butt is a thing to be cautious of.

His claws really need to be trimmed, ouch.

How many pictures do I have of Maggie like this?

Passing behind me on the couch.

Hanging out in the office.

Here he is attempting to look innocent after he made strong and endless passes at my dinner Monday night.

"What? I've been here over 24 hours, we should be sharing."

So far, so very good!