Work In Progress Wednesday

This odd picture is the shawl, or whatever it ends up being when I run out of yarn, that is frustrating me right now. I really like the yarn and colors. I decided on size 11 needles and garter stitch to give it a lighter weight and drape. That part is working. It is much wider than it will be long before I run out of the thrift store skeins. I think I got 5 and am 1.5 in currently.

The frustration is that the needle I was using is an interchangeable set that I have had for years. The set has been showing it's age and I've had my eye on a really nice set on Amazon. In the past 2 days I managed to break 2 of the connecting cables. There were dropped stitches each time, and a scurrying to get the stitches on to a smaller needle to use as a stitch holder. I don't know if in my collection of circular needles I have any long enough in a size 11. If I do, they are in the storage unit.

Excuse me while I head to town to the storage unit before it gets dark. Then I will sit down and pull out the credit card and buy the new shiny set of addi needles I really want. That is if they come up as far as a size 11.

Thrift store yarn is not always as inexpensive as it seems at first...

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Changes

I found a nice out of the way park on the edge of Payson to move the motor home and set up with full hookups.  There are also trees for shade. I feel more at home here than I have any place else for the past few years.  For now that means that I am going to get my patio chairs out of the storage unit and put them on the patio.  That feels settled for me.

I had a nightmare this morning.  It was time to get up, but I almost involuntarily fell back asleep.  The content of the nightmare isn’t too important, but it tells me that I have some parts of myself to confront.  I want to get out more and do more and tie up loose ends.  It is hazy in my mind the details, but I know there are a few areas I need to pay attention to.  My body is one of them, my mind another.  Diet and exercise and maybe some more supplements so I don’t hurt as much.  Learning and  off-loading some stuff that doesn’t serve me anymore are on the agenda.

I’m out in the country-ish, and saw elk bedding down for the night as I drove home in the early evening this week.  The area is good for walking.  I have time.  It is time to change gears in many ways.

Part of seeing so many elk even in town is that it is extremely dry.  The forest roads and campgrounds are closed, and more will be closed as we go along until there is a substantial amount of rain.  Driving back from Mesa yesterday I saw that the northbound side of 87 at the brake check area at Mt Ord had burned recently.  More and more spots are turning to ash as the small (and larger!) wildfires start burning.  No one is even supposed to smoke cigarettes or pipes or anything outside of a building or vehicle.  Of course out of towners think the rules don’t apply to them, so we have the burnt areas that are increasing.  Last year it was the end of July before the monsoon rains arrived.

Part of my changes are to attempt to do stuff that I can blog about.  Maybe I’ll post a bit more often.

Yeah, I’m still alive

I started a part time job this week driving for a local shuttle.  He calls, I go pick someone up and take them where they are going, usually go pick them up again after awhile.  I couldn’t live off this if I had to, but it keeps me out of trouble.  I’m probably saving more by not spending because I’m bored than I am making in money.  It is almost a service for folks here as there is little or no public transportation here.  Just a couple of these small shuttle services.

I had new tires put on the motor home, so some things are progressing.  I’m still putting things back in place from moving the motor home to get tires.  If I was moving around more I’d have to come up with a better plan for things to not move around while traveling.  Right now I just dismantle the table and move the computers someplace safe.  I’d do built-ins if I had to do this every day.

Trips away are on hold while I take advantage of making some small amount of money.  Mom is doing well.  We have our evacuation plan in place where she drives to the motor home and I drive it while she follows me driving her car in whatever direction we are told to go.  This is important as just this morning I heard bunches of fire trucks headed up the Rim.  It is wildfire season from now until the monsoons come.  I hope those rains do show up.  We didn’t get the winter or spring rains and it is very dry.  This is another reason for not leaving the area right now.  Mom can drive and follow me while I drive the motor home but she doesn’t want to drive outside of town by herself.

Summer up in the pines.