Watching but Not Worrying; Unrelatedly, Hockey and Vaccine (separately)

As you may have heard, Tropical Storm Helene has formed and is headed toward Florida. The good news for me is that Florida is very large, and so far, the path is not aiming directly at where I am. Not that I wish a hurricane on anyone, but it has to go somewhere, and since two years ago it changed direction and Ian came here, I am (provisionally, not counting any chickens) relieved that it isn't us this time. I can deal with heavy wind and rain and flooding, if it doesn't mean power going and staying out, making hotel reservations, and packing up Mom, Maggie, and everything we need for an open-ended trip to the east coast.

Please let this all remain true.

Worst-case scenario, we'll have to bug out, and if we have to, we will. Best-case scenario, Helene will pull the humidity with her as she goes by, and we'll get at least a short break from the feels-like 100+ temps we've been having. Because much as I like hot weather, I am well ready for a break.

~~~~~

Completely unrelated, but as hockey season comes around again, finally, I have to say that one thing is making me sad. Well, two things.

1. The Bruins have not signed presumptive number one goalie Jeremy Swayman to a new contract, so he is not at training camp and can't join the team until he's signed. This actually makes me more angry than sad, but sad is part of it. I could go on and on, but I will spare you the rant. Just pay the man!
2. I am more and more happy with the social media experience on BlueSky (finding new-to-me authors! slowly finding more knitters! lots of cute cat photos!), but so far, few hockey people are there. However, as part of the recent influx of Brazilians who joined BlueSky when Twitter was taken down in Brazil, I was surprised to learn that there are Brazilian Bruins fans. I mean, why not, I guess. But what it means is that the account on BlueSky that seems to most closely follow the Bruins...is in Portuguese.

Come on, English-speaking Bruins fans and media people, step it up now! I'm happy to see black and gold on my feed, but it would be nice if I could read it. That one semester of Portuguese in college isn't helping me out much.

Also also, I got the latest covid shot over the weekend, and if you can, I would encourage you to get it. I made sure to do it on a weekend when I didn't have other plans, so I could rest if need be, or be lazy with a good excuse, depending, and had very few side effects. A little injection-site soreness, not bad enough to keep me from sleeping on that side, and as I have had with every covid shot, some swelling of the lymph nodes under that arm, making it tender but not actually painful. I believe in the vaccines, and in their power to make it less likely that I catch covid, and less serious if I do, and I hope you feel the same.

Saturday Afternoon, Getting Things Done

So far, I do not have a panicked look on my face, though I still love this Sheldon cartoon:

(Click on it to see it bigger)

Kind of true... But mostly, I'm tidying more than cleaning. Things pile up, when you live alone, and especially when you would rather sit knitting or reading than get things put away. As I read elsewhere this week:

"Company coming is our motivation to attend to all those little things we've been meaning to do."

So there I am. Not panicked, but busy. Some errands, a little laundry, dishes, rearranging. My mother tells me not to worry about it on her behalf, and I mostly don't: as I told her, I'm not cleaning the top of the stove (and, frankly, it needs it). But I will do a few things. In an unworried way.

The Bruins won this afternoon; they shouldn't have had to go to overtime to do it, but I'll take it. I follow a bunch of NHL blogs (official and not), but in general when I get busy, I don't always read that much detail that isn't Bruins-specific. I've noticed quite a lot of, "Wow, the Western Conference is so strong," coverage this year, and let it go in one ear and out the other. This week, though, I noticed that the Bruins, who moved into the top of the Eastern Conference after Tuesday's game, were still only ninth in the league overall. Eight teams in the West have more points than the top of the East? Eight? Okay, then. West is strong. I get it now.

There has been knitting progress this week. Last night, I kitchenered the sock toe on the bike (and started to cast on the second sock), meaning I finished one sock on the bike in about three months. Not so bad, actually. What, you want to see it? Sure! Whole sock:

 And from top

 To bottom

 As well as the turn.

Ta da! That's hours of exercise, that is. And a nice, soft sock.

After my long day Thursday, I was still tired yesterday. In fact, I was so sleepy at work that in the afternoon, so I got out the MP3 player in an attempt to get myself moving; a one-person dance party. Unfortunately, the headphones rubbing against the zipper of my jacket somehow made a noise/vibration that drove me INSANE. I had been pleased because it was merely chilly and not freezing in the office, but after that, ugh. The fact that I had a fleece over a hoodie over a long-sleeved shirt over a t-shirt, only to achieve "not freezing," seemed less like a win.

I put my scarf on, and that kept the wires from rubbing on the zipper, and the music helped me wake up. Still, how ridiculous.

Random thought: Periodically, I check the website of the cat rescue place that took Miri back, but she still isn't listed there. Perhaps they are not finding it quite as easy to make her the perfect, social, adoptable animal as they thought they would. They were certainly full of ideas when I dropped her off! But that's a month ago (praise the heavens), and yet, no listing. Interesting, eh?

Right, I'm off to put dinner together. Happy Saturday night, all!

Not *All* the Pictures Are Blurry

It's probably related to having my period, but I have had very little energy today, and combined with Carlos having a limpet day, I've spent more time on the couch than I'd planned, not getting a whole lot done. The annual end-of-October exhaustion! But Friday night (when, by the way, I was in bed shortly after 8) I promised more Bruins pictures, and I will at last deliver.

First, the only hockey connection is that this was seen in the garage. How quickly would I cut my leg open on the horns, if this was near me regularly?

The extremely artistic effect of someone (one of the officials, possibly) skating into the view juuuuusssstttt as I clicked the photo.

Lucic, looking, well, large as life, or larger!

Action shot of the snow barrel advertising the team's 90th anniversary. I honestly feel like they just celebrated 75. Sigh. Am old.

Tuukka! During a break in the action, obviously.

Reflections in the ice, half resurfaced.

Leaping out for the third period: I can fly!

I wonder if Vlasic has a nickname that is pickle-related?

Action shot: My puck! You can't have it!

Non-action shot: before the face-off, the linesman set the puck down in the circle. See, between the skates, on edge?

Coming right at me!

Finally, the money shot. Point eight seconds!

Meaning that:

Everyone celebrates with the game-winning goalie. Two Us, two Ks, two points!

Both Krejci (the second star) and Tuukka (the first) gave their sticks to fans in the crowd. Isn't that nice?

Some things I did not get pictures of: Bergeron taking a face-off and his helmet banging repeatedly into his opponent's. (Or vice versa: I don't know who started it.) And Marchand, standing around just in front of us in his best wiseass manner, while a linesman removed his (Marchand's) stick from the groin area of a San Jose player. Nice. He's totally a guy you love on your own team, hate on any other.

What a game. Is it any surprise that I'm knitting something for my friend? Specifically, for her grandson, a scarf in Bruins colors. I found some nice, machine-wash-and-dry yarn in Bruins colors, and after a few not-quite-theres, seem to have found just right, and it's half done.
Nooo... too many color changes.

Not that, either... not a big enough needle, no drape.

Yes, I think so!

I know, the pictures aren't that good, but they give an idea, anyway, and only time will tell if this is it, but I think so.

And given that I typed most of this with a handicap, it will have to do. What handicap, you ask? This one:

A loveable handicap, to be sure, but it does add a degree of difficulty to using the computer that I could do without.

What. A. Game.

(I'll share more pictures in days to come; I'm falling asleep here, and I want to get something up but can't manage it all tonight. A lot of them are not as sharp as I would wish; the lighting and the motion are challenging.)

No, you put your right foot in...

Mind you, it wasn't the absolute best game to see as a Bruins fan, not the whole time. The Sharks are a damned good team, undefeated in regulation going into* last night, and deservedly so. They out-shot the Bruins by an incredible margin, and the Bs were lucky to come out of the first without a deficit. The second wasn't a whole lot better, but late in the period, Iginla finally got his first goal of the season, and it was happy time. The Sharks spoiled that in the first minute of the third, and then it took until the actual last second for the Bruins to turn the tide. They stole one, and don't think I don't know it. But as the saying goes, "They don't ask how pretty, they ask how many," and a win is a win is a win.
*I love that I get to specify "going into last night"

So much for the game itself. How was being at the game? Oh, it was Fabulous. The tickets (face value: $300 each, plus a premium parking pass in the North Station garage) were for the same seats we got in April, but this time my friend got all four, so she could bring her daughter and son-in-law. They picked me up at home after work and we drove in. The traffic getting off 93 was ... unfortunate, shall we say, but we still got there in time. Did you know that with the preferred parking pass, the nice man moves a cone so you can get in to the good spots, as soon as you're in the garage? It's true, he does. Mind you, it's still one of those garages with small space and many columns, which I hate to park in, but after all I wasn't driving, so I didn't have to do the parking, did I? No. We went up, and in, and arrived in time to hear the anthem. Then they were off!

View from above, before going down to our seats.

In terms of seeing the overall flow and plan of a game, I can't recommend sitting right at the front, because there's an angle you can't see clearly, and you're too close to see the big picture. However, for getting into the spirit of it, you can't beat the excitement of being close enough to make eye contact with the players--and the officials, for that matter, as I was reminded when, during a TV time-out, the linesman threw a puck over the glass to the dad-and-kid next to me, as well as the many times when my view before a puck drop was the rear of the linesman. Or a defenseman.

And how close were we, really? Well, I was watching video of the winner, and I can pick myself out on-screen. Not so that even anyone who knew me well would say, "Wait, is that...?", but here, click on the picture to make it big.

Now, see, in the circle, lower right? In the gold sweatshirt, with the black purse strap across? That's me. It amuses me mightily, seeing myself on replays. The man next to me had a red shirt on, and my friend in black is to my right. She told someone where we were sitting (straight across from where the visiting team takes the ice*), and got a text asking if she was the one in black between two gold shirts. Yup!
 *See?

The game was on NESN when I got home tonight, and I watched it again, as if for the first time, knowing when to look and when not to bother.


Some things I learned:

• Jordan Caron makes tremendous faces as he skates.
• There are people who will wear banana costumes to a hockey game.

Technically, half-bananas, as you can see better here.

But still. Bananas. Hockey. It's a mystery.

• It's damn cold at ice level. I did remember this from last time, actually, so I was wearing a turtleneck under a t-shirt under a sweatshirt*, and long johns under my jeans, and knit cuffs, too, but still I was chilly, and my hands were freezing.

*Though I admit the sweatshirt wasn't zipped up. Have to show the shirt!

Thanks to the parking situation, I was home by 10:15, but that odd mix of tired and adrenaline that made sleep impossible for an hour or so. Meaning this morning, I could still feel the bed trying to pull me back when I got to work. So! Tired! But I did a little redecorating at my desk today. While Chara was the player pictured on the tickets, I bought a program and guess who was on the cover? And had a centerfold? That's my boy!

Mind you, if he ever (heaven forfend) has trouble with his left quadriceps, I'm blaming that staple.

Now, I have a form to fill out related to giving Miri back--quickly, before I fall asleep. Wish me luck catching her in the morning! I'm quite nervous about that.

With Point Eight Seconds Left

Go Bruins! The Bergeron, Sore Nose, Patricia Briggs Entry

My brother has a t-shirt that says, "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me" repeating several times in ever-smaller type*, and that's what went through my head as I thought about blogging tonight, and felt slight panic: "Can't blog, Bergeron's on TV!"

*I did a brief web search and found manymanymany options, none of which look exactly like his shirt. Since I don't want to buy one anyway**, I'll leave it there. If you want one, you have a lot to choose from.
**If you're shopping for me, I'd rather have a Don't Blink one, perhaps like this, which combines the Doctor Who saying with the Keep Calm trope. Or, of course, Keep Calm and Carry Yarn, like this one. Not that I'm asking you to buy me a shirt. (XL.)(Just kidding.) Moving on.

My favorite Bruin (as I've said often and often), Patrice Bergeron, was the first (I think)* subject of an NHL special called NHL 36, which follows an NHL player for 36 hours. (NHL NHL NHL!) It's on at 6:30! I have to watch!

*First I cared about, anyway. Proudly biased.

Well, wait, I then realized. I could always blog after the show, while half-watching the pre-game (the team's on the road tonight, so instead of the usual 7 o'clock start, it's at 7:30). The game tonight's not on the local station, NESN* (so it won't even be "my" guys), it's on the NBC Sports Network, the new name for Versus, which used to be the Outdoor Life Network/OLN, and who knows what they'll call it next. "NBC Sports Network" doesn't exactly flow trippingly on the tongue, does it?

*Though actually NESN still does a pre-game, so I don't have tune out the national guys for this half hour (though I'll still half tune out the locals). The game will be enough of them. I like Jack and Brick.

And what topic compels me to blog at all? Well, good question. Nothing earthshaking, really. My nose hurts, and I'm reading a good series. Let's go from ridiculous to (relatively) sublime, shall we?

Continued Less-Than-Perfect Health
Or: Achoo--Honk--Ow
My poor nose. I've taken out large bags full of trash twice since I got sick, and I swear each was three-quarters used tissues. I'm sneezing a bit today, still rather congested, and thus still extra blowing. My nose hurts.

On the other hand, I'm glad I had plenty of Puffs in the house when I got sick.

AND enough cat food! It was a close thing whether I'd have had "enough to get past the trip" or more than, and it would have sucked if I'd run out on Thursday. Or Friday. Or Saturday.

I'm also grateful that my mother spent part of last Tuesday doing some of my laundry, so I'm not all behind and searching for clean clothes this week. Thanks again!

Reading Again. Or Still. Are You Surprised?
The author is Patricia Briggs, whose work I first encountered in an anthology last fall. I picked up Down These Strange Streets (from the library, of course) based on its Charlaine Harris story, but went through to see if anyone else appealed to me, author-wise. Some stories I didn't finish, some I finished and wasn't interested enough to delve deeper into, but I liked the story by Patricia Briggs, so I got (again through the library) the first of her books in the related series. I liked it, and have now worked my way up to where the next one I get will be my last catch-up title, and I will be (gasp) reduced to waiting for her to write more. Oh, the horror! And, more practically, to trying some of her other series to see if I like them as much (happily, she has many other things to try).

This series features Mercy Thompson, an independent woman and auto mechanic who happens to be a shifter, meaning she turns into a coyote. She was raised by werewolves, so they're all over all the books, plus there are vampires in some books and fae in others (sometimes both in the same). The human characters too are plentiful and well-developed, and the relationships between all of the above are complex and real and may surprise you.

There are a lot of books out there with supernatural creatures, and while I haven't read them all I've tried more than a few. I was thinking last night that Patricia Briggs may have edged out Laurell Hamilton in my preferences; I've read Laurell's Anita Blake books for years, but as the series gets yet more violent and yet more sexual, I get yet less comfortable with reading them, and stopped buying them a few back. Mercy has much-less-detailed/graphic sex, and less-detailed and in-depth violence, which I find more to my tastes.

Also, Briggs writes well, and very ... thoughtfully, I want to say. She doesn't cut the easy corners. Mercy and her I-won't-spoil-it-for-you love interest like each other (it isn't purely physical attraction, though there's that too), and they understand each other. In the last one I read, she tries to apologize to him after something went wrong, and he points out that she wouldn't have done anything different, she had her reasons, and it didn't call for an apology. He's not happy about it, but points out that she is who she is. (What, no pointless misunderstanding?) Not that he's not upset ... he does some damage to the office, but not to her. I don't know; it felt refreshing. I like their relationship. I like that she doesn't run away from problems, but tries to address them, fix them. She's practical, and she feels real.

Even when she shifts into a coyote. No one's perfect.

Now, the game's started, so I'll leave it at that.

Mostly Yarn (a LOT of yarn), plus a bonus 6-foot-nine rabbit

I am struggling with Blogger's new interface tonight. It may actually be easier to use than the old one, once I know what works differently than the old one, but apparently the only way to find that out is trial and error. It's like they're saying, "Hey, you know that thing we did for years that was totally annoying, but that you totally got used to working around? Well, we fixed it! Oh, did you do it the old way? Yeah, that won't work the way you expect it to." Thanks, Blogger, my life isn't challenging enough these days? I just want to post pictures of yarn!

Yes, that's right, it's yarn haul photo time! One of the things I did on Sunday was take pictures of all the lovely, lovely yarn that October has brought me. And there's a lot of it!

First, my darling brother sent me some yarn from SF for my birthday. Hooray for colorful Californian yarn!

 The maker (of whom I had not previously heard) is Sincere Sheep, and the type is Castro. See? Pretty! It has a good strong-but-not-rough feel to it.

And there was the yarn that my aunt bought me at Apple Festival. It's from the same place as the yarn I'm currently knitting. Mmm, alpaca!

And wool and nylon. Soooo soft.

This one comes with a solid bit for the heel and toe. That will be a new thing to try; the logistics may take some figuring.

She also got me, if you'll forgive my stepping off the yarn boat briefly, this nice wooden bowl I was lingering over. It's been kind of hard to get a good picture of it!

This is what it's been doing since it got here: sitting on the kitchen table, holding a skein of new yarn for me to admire.

This one is totally out of place, but since I also got it at Apple Festival, in it goes.

A funnel, you ask? No, but probably inspired by one. It's for the dread upcoming season: it's an ice scraper for the windshield.

It even comes with a top that tackles the messier parts.

If you find it puzzling or intriguing, check out the video.

If you live in Florida or somewhere else that doesn't need ice scrapers, kindly keep your smirking to yourself!

Sorry. The trees are starting to look bare. I'm not excited for November and what follows.

{shake} Sorry! Back to the pictures! And, actually, on to Rhinebeck!

One non-yarny thing, which smells delicious! I know goats can provide fiber as well as milk that can become soap, but it does kind of perplex me how much more soap than goat fiber I see at Rhinebeck. It doesn't bother me, but it perplexes me.

Now, this next part is not yarn, but you'd have to call it yarn-related. Some good new buttons:

 Right?

All right, here's the yarn:

Ahhhh. Doesn't that feel good?

Oh, right, you can't pick it up and hug it when you need a little lift. Sorry about that. Feel free to come over some time and dive into the stash with me.

First, and not in order of buying but I figure who cares about that, is what my grandmother got me for my birthday (she slipped me a little yarn money the previous weekend).

Perhaps you aren't bowled over by the understated colors? Well, you're really going to have to come over and touch this yarn. See?

Cashmere! So, so soft. Whoof. I picked it up and couldn't put it down. It just wanted to come home with me. How could I say no?

You may recall, if you are memorizing all my yarn habits and actions (and if not why not?), that the yellow-gold socks I recently completed were from yarn I got at Rhinebeck in 2009, from a maker called Fiber Optic. They were selling it at The Fold, the booth where I got my first Socks That Rock, and it took me this long to use it, but I really liked it, both the way it felt to work with and the finished socks (which are on my feet even now, what a coincidence). When I went back to The Fold this time, I looked for more, but although they had some of her fiber, I saw no yarn. Then in the next building, there she was! Her own booth!

So I got another skein of Foot Notes (and another yellow one, but I swear it's a really different yellow)(yes, I know how that sounds), and I also got a skein of Siren Song. Because who could resist that?

Light, lovely yellow Foot Notes:

Lovely multicolor autumn-bright Siren Song:

Which is part seacell! Interesting.

At The Fold, I did manage to limit myself to one skein of the beloved STR. Knowing that Webs sells it if I need more before next Rhinebeck helps.

A lovely green. On my monitor, this looks a little teal, but it's more between grass and Kelly green in person.

Then I felt like I had to try something different, so here's, yes, more sock yarn. Nice wooly soft Canadian yarn from Shelridge Farms. I'll report on it, someday, when it gets on the needles. More of a soft pine green.

This one is (gasp) not sock yarn! It does have an intended purpose, but since Christmas is involved, no details just yet. Super soft!

Now, the final purchase was another repeat. I got the red Blue Face Leicester from Maple Creek Farm last year, used it to make the Frost Diamonds shawl, and loved it.

 I was going to get a more, ahem, sedate color, but this is what I grabbed twice as I was going around and around the BFL display. Clearly meant to be.

Meant to be what, I don't know yet. All will be clear in time.

Mmmmmm.

**********

Now, if you've made it through all this, you deserve a further reward. So here, hot off the presses, is a picture of some of the Bruins making a Halloween-themed visit to Children's Hospital. Can you believe this?

 Thanks, Big Bad Blog, for sharing!

I imagine someone hand-made that; surely bunny costumes don't come standard in six foot nine inch heights?