Back Safely

We survived all the travel and all the funeral-related events, and are home again and trying to make it up to the cat (who has, I think, been on my lap for about four hours combined so far today), and we're exhausted physically, exhausted mentally, but fine.

The Time Finally Came

My grandmother died this morning. She was 105 in April, and still hanging on until just recently, when she declined fairly rapidly. She was more than ready to go, and we are sad but not shocked.

We'll be going up for the funeral and all, and I'm not sure how long it will be before I'm back and able to write here, but I wanted to let you know.

I Who What Um Brain Gone

Our neighborhood is usually a fairly quiet one, though this summer has been noisier than usual, as this neighbor replaced their carports, that neighbor put pavers down where the blacktop used to be, and another is having their roof done. But nothing has been as bad as our own roof work, and after a week of 11-12 hours a day of banging, sawing, drilling, beeping, thumping, yelling, and big-engine noise, I am considerably closer to insane than even I usually get.

They are building scaffolding up the front of the building, and reached our lanai today.

Every time I go in or out, different paths are blocked off. This morning, I had to ask someone which way I could go, since it seemed like everything was blocked. (Oh, I can duck under that caution tape? Great!)

One of them told my mother earlier this week that 'just' the roofing part would take a month. We're not sure what else there will be, beyond painting/stucco work, but the roof isn't that big, and I can't imagine why it will take a month.

Certainly one week has been more than enough, noise-wise.

And before you ask why I don't go elsewhere to work, I tried that this afternoon. The library was blissfully quiet, but for some reason the computer wouldn't log in to the back-door way we're getting our email since the cyber-attack. Since I do need to have the email, I moved to Starbucks, where the email worked fine, but it was freezing cold, and a Very Cheery Guy was Loudly and Enthusiastically Working the drive-through. Hi! Thanks for choosing Starbucks! Can I get you something to eat! At which point, I gave up and returned to the land of roofers.

At least it's Friday. Weekend good. Me need weekend.

Yes, I Know That It's September

But the Bruins opened training camp today, which makes this apt:

In the Space of Two Minutes

The zips? Who had the zips? Not Maggie, this morning. Or did she?

Work and Roof and Hockey and Knitting (to name a few)

It's been an odd day. I logged in to work this morning and found email wasn't working, and learned that it was company-wide; apparently, there was some sort of cyber-attack on the email/servers this weekend. Now that's unexpected! As I didn't have a report from Friday to work on, and as email is where the work comes from, it was a longish day of keeping an eye on the chats to see if there were any developments.

Meanwhile, in pros and cons:

+ The Bruins rookies were playing a game against New Jersey's this morning at 9:30, of all odd times, and NJ happily was streaming the game, so I got to watch that. Nice! It was of course very Devils-focused, understandably, but I was just happy to see it. Hockey's coming back! Full camp starts later this week, and I'm excited for it.

- The roofers are here and starting on giving us the new roof the building has needed since Irma struck two years ago. Which is really a + except for the noise. Which is considerable.

+ Knitting! As long as I had the time, I pulled out the baby-turns-one sweater that I need to have finished before my trip next month, and got to work. It's getting there:

Working on the shawl-collar thing, and then second sleeve, and buttons, and done!

Just Too Many

I've been trying to get all sorts of things done, and I've reached this point:

Some of the things on my to-do list got done (trimmed Maggie's claws); some of them I tried to do and they just added more things to the list for tomorrow; some of them may fall by the wayside today. I'm just kind of done for now.

Mostly, It's Working

Back in July, I stuck this note on my computer:

My intention was simply to remind myself to think twice before spending money; the goal wasn't to spend no money for the next three months, but to be sure that my spending was intentional. And I feel pleased with how that's been working out for me.

That said, I do have some yarn to show!

Looks like a burrito, doesn't it?

But it's not:

Treasure Goddess Yarn had a moving sale, and I had to jump on this:

Merino with nylon and, oh, what's that? Cashmere! In the most gorgeous blue tones. And a hefty 150 grams! Delightful.

The other yarn I actually ordered two months ago, but it was a dyed-to-order from Blue Moon, and just arrived. Cloud Nine:

Yes, more blue! Though it's really a blue-green-teal kind of thing.

And more cashmere! Yes!

I guess they saved some money by not using spaces on this part of the label? 

I kid! It's lovely yarn, and I can forgive a little spacing oddity.

More Maggie

One: We continue to be fine here; there's been a strong wind all day, but nothing otherwise.

Two: Water aerobics class this morning kicked my ass; I ache all over, but especially my arms, ow my arms, ow.

Three: I'm going to bed early tonight.

But first, some cute Maggie pictures from last night. When she basically face-planted on my lap.

 

I love this cat.

But if she gets on my lap tonight, we're not staying up as late as she might like.

We're Fine

It started raining here a little while ago, but although the radar says it's part of the effect of the hurricane, it isn't coming down like anything all that unusual for the time of year. So far, anyway!

It's not that I'm happy that the worst weather is hitting other people, but we still haven't had our roof fixed from the Irma damage, so we're very grateful not to have a direct hit right now. Rain? We can handle rain. Though it would be nice to get enough of a break from it that they actually can do the roof; it was supposed to start tomorrow after a bunch of delays, but who knows if that will happen now.

It's been a good long weekend, and I got a lot of things on my to-do list taken care of, which is a good feeling. Here's hoping that the short work week doesn't feel extra long. I find that sometimes happens, which is most perplexing.

Cat Levels

The hurricane won't make landfall for a few days, but perhaps, like me, you will find this a handy guide to understanding the different levels.

Meanwhile, Maggie

While we wait to see how the hurricane develops, and which part of Florida Jim Cantore ends up in (please, not here, please, not here), the furry princess has been caught doing cute things.

Last night she curled up on my lap very neatly, while I did my knitting-to-a-movie thing (Some Like It Hot).

When she turned, though, I stopped knitting, as she was Very Interested in the yarn moving.

"Humph, like I care about your silly yarn."

All paws together. 

So she was very cute, but then she had a bad night--she isn't usually that disruptive to my sleep, but oh, half of last night was Not Good--and I wasn't really in the mood for her this morning. But her six-hour nap, though you'd think it would piss me off more, at least gave me a break from whining, and by this afternoon, I was ready to admire the cute again.

Cat loaf on box:

Unrolling the loaf.

Big stretch!

Pause.

 Caption this!

 That's one of my all-time favorite photos of her. The yawn-wiggle-stretch move is something else.