On the Road

The Talking Back to Other Drivers and As Seen on Vacation Edition (with a surprise ending)

Three drivers on the road today have suggested tonight's theme.

#1: It's probably not only a Boston-area maneuver to speed up at a yellow light. This morning, though, I was far enough from one to slow down instead--and the car behind me sped up and blew straight through the red light--straight through, from the left-turn lane.

Dude, congratulations. Even around here, that was stupid and dangerous enough to stand out. Hope you made your train. If not, that was a lot of wasted testosterone for nothing.

#2: At the other end of the spectrum, there was the SUV on the quiet, curvy road with a 35-mph speed limit, who was doing 25-30 mph instead.

How very cautious of you, sir or madame. I will admit that I thought about parking, walking up to your car, and strangling you with my bare hands while you Drove. Very. Slowly. I would like to get home before dark, you know.

#3: On a little side street close to home, not wide enough for two-way traffic with cars parked on both sides, an oncoming car had to pull over to the side between two parked cars while I went by. With no cars parked on my side, I felt I had the right of way there. Apparently, he wanted something more, for I heard him say, "You're welcome," as I passed him.

Um, you wanted me to say thank you because you didn't pull forward and block both of us in place? Do you expect thanks for not being a bigger asshole often? If so, I pity you: you must go around in a constant state of disappointment.

So, while we're on the road, here are some fun things I saw on vacation.

From a WWI-flying-ace Snoopy on the back of a motorcycle trailer:

To some very fun plates:

And on the last day:

My friends said, "Oh, 'find joy'!" and I said that I must have been fully into vacation mode, because I read it as "Found joy".

**********
Finally, in an extremely tenuous "well, it could go on a road" connection, have you seen the Hungarian pool with its own backhoe?



The voices sound so matter-of-fact; I wish I knew what they were saying. Still, watching it was surprisingly mood-elevating.

Of Cleaning, and Drinking

You would think that, since I got back from vacation on Friday night, and had all of Saturday and Sunday to get back into the swing of things, that it might not be ... how shall I say this? ... a complete pit around here, but sadly you would be wrong. So when I say that I have a fair bit of tiding* to do tonight, in advance of my brother being here tomorrow, this is not to imply that my brother needs cleaning up for. He's about the least judgmental or uptight person I know, and probably he wouldn't bat an eyelash at the current conditions, but I think it would be nice if he didn't trip over eight pairs of my shoes in the living room, or some random cardboard boxes in the kitchen.

*Years ago in China, my mother saw something (in a park, perhaps?) that gave the story of Snow White and the seven dwarfs. Owing to translation issues, the plaque announced that Princess Whitesnow "tided" the house for the seven short men. Ever since, in my family, we speak of tiding the house.

It is often the case with me that I am found cleaning up before someone comes over, because my standards for "just me and the cats" are rather lax. Things get put away eventually, nothing rots in place like on those awful, fascinating, creepy shows about hoarders, but, well, it isn't exactly tidy most of the time. I don't live up to even my own, relaxed standards, basically, until I see with the eyes of another, and then mercy! What slob lives here?

I'm not sure how much sense I'm making. Moving on. My brother will be here tomorrow! Just for the one night, but still, it's a treat to get a visit with him beyond the Christmas season. San Francisco is just so inconveniently far away. They need to get that travel portal on the market already, so I could see him for a Saturday without all the hassle.

And in his honor, I finally got around to tackling the slow-draining bathroom sink (which, yuck, where's the landlord to deal with that), so hopefully he won't have to wash up in the kitchen. And I will pick up at least some of the shoes.

While I do that, you can look at some pictures of things I drank in Maine. I'm posting about my vacation in a manner quite categorical, no? I had intended to do the usual chronological, but this happened and it's rather amusing me.

Swedish soda at the diner. Not bad, either. Next time, I'll try the raspberry.

This was from the coop, on the last day. I had to try it! The liquid was clear, not at all purple, and neither tasted nor smelled like lavender. Dry and crisp and rather refreshing.

I bought this one, at T.J.Maxx of all places. Who could resist the bottle?

And Welsh water! Who knew?

I also had some of this, naturally.

But the best had to be the raspberry lemonade at Jordan Pond House in Acadia.

It tasted almost as good as it looked.

Let Me Tell You About My Knitting Vacation

I wish.

Monday.

After vacation.

At a job I still don't love yet.

When it rained and it poured on and off all day.

And no one else came to stitch and bitch tonight.

So, not the best day ever. Not actively terrible, but not great.

So, let's look at knitting on vacation, shall we?

Knitting at an awesome diner (with all of six booths and a counter, plus a sign on the register inviting me to like them on Facebook) on the way there, a week ago Saturday:


Knitting on the rocks on Sunday. (I have trouble with using the word "beach" when there isn't sand. It's a personal hangup. Say shore or water's edge or rocks ... but not beach. Beaches have sand.)

Knitting by Jordan Pond, in Acadia National Park, on Monday:
(I sat and knitted while my friends circumnavigated the pond. Another day, they climbed a large hill, while I relaxed, knitting, by the car. Postscript to that is below.)

That was sock two, and the pair was done by Monday night.

Next up! This much was done before I got there.

On Wednesday, I tried them on, on the beach (Sand Beach, in Acadia, to be precise).

(When we walked back to the car after the beach, we passed a woman who asked how the knitting was going, I was knitting earlier, wasn't I? Yup, it's going fine! Big, crowded park, but small world.)(Or else knitting is a really weird thing to do in public ... but I'll keep doing it.)

No pictures of me knitting on Thursday at the winery while my friends tasted ... but if you're going to bring a non-drinker to a winery, on a rainy day when sitting outside or looking at the garden is not an option, bringing a knitter is probably your best bet.

And driving home Friday, it was all-but-done (I kitchnered the toe on Saturday).

That was sock one, and I cast on sock two tonight.

I also worked on the striped scarf one night, but I haven't taken its picture again. I'll show you when I do. The colors blurred similar again, but seem to be going different once more. Very interesting!

At least, if you find that sort of thing interesting. And I do!

Vacation Ends. Sadness.

Last night I tried to upload a little video I took Friday, of Carlos and the good time he had with the little catnip toy I brought back for him, but it hadn't finished loading an hour and a half later, when I was ready to turn off the machine and go to bed. I tried again today and got error messages twice, so it seems that you are to be deprived of the 90-second delight, poor you. (Don't worry if that doesn't bother you; I understand, really. I was just so happy to see him.)

Now, I took hundreds of photos last week (you: shocked, right?), and in the deep Sunday-night-ness of tonight, have little interest in sorting through them. But here are a few to start out with.

Basically: Maine is beautiful.









If you lie on the rocks and look back over your head, the view is the same and yet different.




So. Obviously, more to come.

Vacation

More later.

Ahhhhhhhhh...

With Just a Little Imagination

If you want to get into my head tonight (though I don't recommend it), watch this video and substitute the word "packing" every time he says "chicken".



That is all.

The Universe Thinks It Is Sooooo Funny

Last month, when I was paying my bills online on a headache day, I didn't notice that I had put one payment in the wrong line. I only realized it the following week, when it was processing and too late to cancel.

The money that was supposed to go to my credit card went to Macy's instead, which was particularly annoying given that I haven't used the Macy's card in over five years. I was uneasy at the thought of how much work it would be to get my money back. (Cue ominous music.) I dug out an old bill (2005!), and procrastinate.

My first actual progress was to go into a Macy's store and ask. No dice, the in-store people can't do anything.

Step two, call Macy's. Navigate through the auto-system, which wants my account number and then claims it's no good. What's worse, it's a "press or say" system, meaning I can't curse out loud without getting the bland "I'm sorry, I didn't understand that."

Eventually get through to a human, but she is no help. She doesn't understand my explanation, I have trouble with her accent, she can't find my account (even by SSN), and eventually she says she will have to transfer me to billing adjustments. Click click, and dead air. She didn't cut me off, but the call goes nowhere.

I hang up and call back, fight the autobot again, and get another person. Very pleasant, but no more able to find the account than the first one. She tells me that I will have to get my bank to fax them a "transmittal" so they can research it. She gives me the fax number, and tells me that the bank will know what a transmittal is.

I looked at the transaction online, and notice that there is a link to send a payment inquiry about it. What the heck, I put the request in and send it. This was July 16th. A few days later, there was a message acknowledging the request, but then nothing further.

I decide to go into an actual bank, and today at lunch walked to the branch in town and asked. The woman was very pleasant, but did not know what a transmittal was (nor did her manager), and she had to call the online banking people to ask. Who knew that the building and online were such different banks? Eventually the man on the phone had enough information to say that he should be able to take care of it. Whew.

When I got home, I found a letter from the bank telling me that they faxed the information to Macy's as I requested, on Tuesday.

...

So, will Macy's send me a refund without my having to follow up? Will they send it twice, if the bank faxes twice? What will happen next in this crazy story? I'm afraid to find out.

Little Boy Blue

Worked late again tonight! Ridiculous. I would be more peeved over it (especially since I was backup tonight, not main coverage), except:

• I am NOT working late tomorrow, or Friday. Period.
  
• In fact, tomorrow I'm comping an hour of the extra time I've worked, and going in late, so there.
• Plus, I went shopping after work.
  

So. Wanna know what I got?

Well, this is what the box said when I cracked it open:


To me, though, this is more of a netbook size:


Tomayto, tomahto. Or whatever the blue equivalent might be. Remember when I said this was my blue period? I swear I did not plan to buy a blue one (though I've said something similar before). But when they had one, well...

And yes, the photos were taken in the car, in the store parking lot. I figured if I turned it on and it did anything funky (or nothing at all), I could go right back in. Therefore, of course, it worked fine. And when I got it home I went online, and sent an e-mail, just to see how it felt (answer: fine).

Doubtless I'll have more to say about it. But lord, it's late! If I want that hour's extra sleep in the morning to do me good, I need to get ready for bed now.

Pfft, Work: Let's Talk Yarn

Well, only half an hour overtime tonight! (And by overtime, I mean the time, no money is involved. The downside of being salaried.) I won't usually have to cover two nights in a row, but we're shorthanded this week.

I haven't really gone into the issue of late nights at work yet, have I? Because of all the daily deadlines we have, there is the possibility every day that someone will need to stay late in order to get things done. Therefore, there is a schedule of who will be the ones to stay if it comes to that (one primary and one backup from each of the department's sub-groups), a schedule that was put in place because apparently the same people were always staying when it was necessary.

So. That's that. Meanwhile, in a happier, yarnier world, here's what I mentioned in passing last night, that came in the mail yesterday to redeem my evening.


I've been wanting to get this kit for the fiddlehead mittens for a while, and when the purveyor announced on her blog that it was going to be discontinued shortly, I snapped one up. No regrets!


The colors came out of the bag and were immediately brighter:


Too bright, even, as the lighter color washed out:


This one is more true:


Now I just have to decide when to start them.

And the ribbed shrug I want to make (for that extra little layer at work).

Hmmm. I do have vacations coming up: how much knitting is reasonable to bring for a week? Keeping in mind that a, it isn't a week solely devoted to knitting, and b, reasonable may not be the word I'm looking for.

Meanwhile, I have made progress on the scarf I mentioned recently. After a good stripey start, the two colors got a little too close, but I kept on to see what would happen, and they diverged again. I am finding the changes very entertaining.




I am ready for something other than green or brown to come out, though!

And just to show that we are everywhere (we meaning knitters, in this case), today's mail brought the new PW with these guys on the cover:

Pay no attention to the Tanis card; it was the closest thing I had to hand to preserve my secret identity.

Seriously, how cute are they? It's the craft issue, and this is a new book coming out.


Now I want to see inside!

Take a Deep Breath and Try to Follow Along

So I had to work late and I hoped the silver lining to leaving at 6:30 would be less rush hour traffic but instead it was awful so I figured I'd better grab dinner on the way home because I didn't have much that could be ready quickly and I was already hungry. [breathe] I got Chinese and decided I'd drive home the shorter way even though I usually go home the other way, and I had to pull to the side for an ambulance and then I had to pull aside for another ambulance and a mile or so later I got diverted from the home-in-five-minutes road to the home-in-fifteen road by an enormous mass of police cars and wreckers and flashing lights, and I had only just enough sanity left to be grateful not to have been in that accident. [breathe] Then a car pulled out in front of me like I wasn't there and then I was behind a car that appeared not to know which way to go and felt that driving at 22 mph and then stopping in the road was the solution to that, not pulling over but stopping in the middle of the road to think it over, and then shortly after he went a different way another car pulled out in front of me to do 29 mph and I finally pulled over to park and eat a few bites of dinner so I wouldn't pass out before I got home, since I was starting to wonder if I would in fact ever get home (it started to seem as though I would drive around being diverted until it was time to leave for work Tuesday morning), particularly when the car pulling out of the road I was turning in to did not feel that my blinker and slowing down were strong enough signs that I was turning to make him want to pull out and get out of my way, and then there was a section of road with parked cars on my side so I had to wait for an oncoming car to go by first, and it seemed as though he was going to come forward far enough to prevent me moving and then possibly stop.

Seriously.

I believe it was quarter to 8 before I got home, and by 8 I had more dinner in my stomach and felt less like death, and even went to get the mail and found something happy, which I'll tell you about tomorrow, but for a while there? That was one lousy story I was living.

A Good Weekend

It's been a good weekend, which any weekend without migraines would be anyway, but I also got quite a bit done, which is nice. I am exhausted, though!

I think it has something to do with these:



Small children gain energy by sucking it out of nearby adults, but cats spread lethargy through a powerful contagion. Hard to stand up to!

And you're still awake why exactly?

A Friday Night Mix

It's hardly news, in the US at least, that the country is almost universally going through a massive heat wave. Has this news, and our endless whining about it, gone around the world? Well, trust me, it's hot, it's humid, and it's almost bad enough for me to start complaining about being hot. (Not quite, though.)(I'm grateful for air-conditioning, even if I don't always use it: I'm using it quite a bit.)

How hot is it, you ask? Well, at 8 this morning, on my way to work, it was already above 80, and highly humid.

After work, I started the car and the thermometer registered 108. Now, it always starts out higher than the actual temp and drops, so I laughed a little and said well, it's not quite that hot! And wondered what it would drop to.

Well.


By the time I got home, it was all the way down to 100.

So, yes. It's hot. What's really been killing me, though, is trying to dress for it while simultaneously dressing for work in a too-cold-for-me office.

My ideal outfit for the super-hot weather: a sleeveless shirt or tank top, shorts or a skirt or at most (lightweight) capris, and bare feet (with flip-flops or sandals for going out of the house).

My ideal outfit for the office's climate: a short-sleeved shirt under a long-sleeved shirt (with a sweater handy), non-lightweight slacks, wool socks, closed shoes.

I can, of course, wear a sleeveless shirt as my first layer, and then take the other layer(s) off outside--in fact, that's what I have been doing. It's the lower half of the body that causes problems, and make me think about bringing a blanket to work.

If I wear capris or a skirt to work, my legs get really cold, and if I wear sandals, my feet freeze. But in long pants and closed shoes, as soon as I step outside, I'm melting! The last two days, when I reached the car after work, I removed my socks and shoes and rolled up my pant legs, to alleviate the worst of it, but I may just bring shorts to work and change at the end of the day instead. It's crazy.

Now, here are some sights seen on the road.

What would surprise you more: seeing a Lotus?


Or seeing it turn into the parking lot of a White Hen Pantry? Lotus drivers go to convenience stores?

Visualize world peace --> visualize whirled peas --> visualize grilled cheese?


Someday, the world will have clickable spots around things, so you can learn what the story is for those oddball custom license plates.

Perhaps this person really, really likes Ray Bourque ... and sleep?


I don't know what Disney charges for a Mickey Mouse outline to put on your car, but apparently someone wasn't willing to pay.


Despite the enormous amount of advertising all over this car, my eye went to the plate first, and I thought, "Playboy?"


I don't say it's logical ... but that's what I thought.

Now, this is completely random, but I was looking back through the pictures, and found a couple of short videos I took when I was trying out the camera's video capabilities. I probably put these up at the time, but who doesn't want to see them again? I thought so.

Miri, looking deceptively friendly, even purring:



And my Harold:

Sending You Elsewhere

Already it gets late, how does that happen every night? And tomorrow is another work day, so I mustn't stay up too late. Please forgive me, then, if I send you elsewhere for your daily dose of reading.

I read on Adrienne Martini's blog that Slate magazine had written about Ravelry, when she linked to it thusly:

"The muggles finally acknowledge the existence of Ravelry."

Perfect description! If you're not a knitter, and you've ever wondered, when I mention Ravelry, just what the deal is, then you really should read this. I think it explains rather well.

And I will try for actual content tomorrow night.

Or, you know, lots of pictures. Of shiny things.