Unraveling

Bad news/Good news - The Update

The bad news:

They cut the Boyo's clothes off in the ambulance. Of course they did. He was injured and they needed to get at every part of his body FAST. The casualties? a cheap suit (yes, he wears a suit to the "formal" fraternity parties) and these:

 
The Fraternity Flag socks. I was prepared for this.  After he told me they cut his clothes off, I wondered if he had been wearing them. I steeled myself for the possibility that the labor of my love may have been cut off and discarded, and it's sad to think of the scissors slicing through all those neat hand-wrought stiches.

The good news:

He was wearing his fraternity flag socks, hand knit by his mommy, to a formal fraternity party. Here's a hint to all you muggles out there: A knitter always wants to know that handknitted gifts are being used by their recipients. If you wear out a pair of hand knit socks it means they were worth knitting because you loved them enough to wear them a lot. That you wore them out is music to a knitter's ears and we would gladly knit you another pair.

More good news:

He is mending. Cranky, but mending. And surrounded by friends who really care about him. Of course, our first instinct was to fly to his side. We are, after all, his parents. But, oh my! it's expensive to fly at this time of year and  there is so much going on here at home. For the time being, we are letting his surrogate family do its job. And it seems they are doing it very well. He is likely to have a second surgery next week. We've done a little online research on the Orthopaedische Universitaetsklinik Heidelberg, and he couldn't be in better hands, medically speaking. So we are breathing a big sigh of relief and counting our blessings.

Now, off to order yarn for another pair of Fraternity Flag Socks. BMFA, here I come!

Bad news/Good news

The bad news:

The Boyo called to tell us that he broke his ankle, and smashed his face.  He lost his balance waving to a friend, and fell from a balcony - 18 feet to the pavement below. He landed on someone's bike and took out a tail light on a parked car. He's had one surgery (at one of the best orthopedic clinics in Germany) and is expecting another, once the swelling goes, down in 5-7 days.

The good news:

The Boyo called. People saw him fall, so he got to the hospital very quickly. He's alive and no apparent brain injury. We've talked to him twice and it sounds like he's being well taken care of and has plenty of visitors to keep his spirits up.

More good news:

International Skype is incredibly inexpensive. A twenty-minute call to a land line cost us...fifty-one cents. We will be using this quite a bit over the next few weeks.

These are the times when I'm really glad I have a knitting project to occupy my mind and a yoga class at the end of the day.

Talkin' Turkey

For more than thirty years we have traveled to Fresno, and this year Thanksgiving came to our house for the first time EVER. It was all one generation at our table. Of course, we missed the kids - those who are thousands of miles away (you know who you are!), and those who are closer but stayed home sick (thank you!). And we missed seeing Mr. Celia's mom. But we enjoyed each other's company, we ate a fine meal (if I do say so myself), and Mr. Celia and I so appreciated being at home.

I discovered two things this Thanksgiving: 1) Winesap apples are not only good looking, they make the BEST pie, and 2) the apple peeler works really well on potatoes:

What a thumbsaver!

This long weekend we have been catching our breath, enjoying leftovers (wow! Leftovers!), and NOT DRIVING. I walked down to Lacis yesterday to look for, well, lace, and I was invited into the museum to view the Bobbin Lace exhibit. What a sublime diversion.

Now the house is filled with the aroma of turkey stock cooking on the stove, and there's one last piece of pumpkin pie with my name on it.

I hope you all had as nice a holiday as we did.

Rug Mania

Good question, Pamela! Yes, it will take more than one old sweater to make a rug. Conveniently, I am in the middle of a wardrobe purge. I have a basket full of well-worn items.  Also, single event items - t-shirts from the blood bank, Breast cancer walk,  Huey Lewis concert, 25th high school reunion (next year: 40 years!) - and stuff I just no longer like.

I am cutting out the sentimental bits and saving them for a future quilt.

 

The rest  goes to throw rugs.  I've been experimenting with color for different rooms, and am keeping track of how many sweaters/shirts I'm using.

12.5 x 12.5 inches = 6 t-shirts

8.5 x 9 inches = 2 t-shirts, .75 turtleneck

How big a rug will this pile of red make?

Time will tell.

The process is a bit unwieldy and must be done in small spurts. My shoulders, arms, and hands are getting a real workout. I have acupuncturist-prescribed stretches for the painful left thumb, am  "liberating" my shoulders through several yoga postures,  and yes, Pamela, I'm throwing, but with the right hand.  It's all I can do to just hold these fat needles with my left hand.

Cutting Up

A well-worn sweater is undergoing re-purposing.

 

 

It's going to be a nice rug but, OW! This project makes my thumb hurt.

I'm off to get the ice pack.

Party Hearty

There is an annual Halloween street party that takes place several blocks uphill from my house.  Sometimes we feel like we're sloppy seconds as gangs of trick-or-treaters bypass our house for the more glamorous above College Ave. venue. But we had plenty of kids in costume and ran out of candy at an appropriate time.

As we were closing the house down and preparing for bed, we heard a commotion outside. Quite a commotion it was! Mr. Celia went out to investigate. The street party was closing down, too. About 150 teenagers-with-nowhere-to-go congregated in our intersection and cross street, stopping traffic, bouncing on cars, and looking for mischief. Mr. Celia wisely called the cops as the crowd swelled to 250 then 350. I grabbed the camera.

 Luckily, it was a good-natured crowd and young enough (or maybe it was early enough) to not be a bunch of rowdy drunks. The cops were polite but persistent, "The party's over - keep moving." and "You wouldn't do that to your mom's car."

But it took a while to get the crowd moving. After all, it was Saturday night - and early (9 p.m.)! These kids wanted something to do.

No arrests, no damage, no big incidents. Just a big crowd of aimless celebrants looking for a Halloween to Remember. I have to admit, though, it did make me nervous to see them congregated across the street right next to my little red car.

Party Hearty, kids. Just not in my street...

Gratuitous Dog Photos

Because I know the Girlie will love this...

 

And the Boyo will love this...

 

And Pamela will love these...

 

 

 

Shot with an iPhone at the dog park. It was a beautiful day!

It's Official

I'm about to reinvent myself. Today I filed the paperwork to retire from my job. I wasn't planning on this outcome for at least another ten years or so. But earlier this year things got pretty bleak. The downturn in the economy has taken its toll on the organization I work for.  Our unions were faced with accepting concessions and the offer of a "Golden Handshake" or layoffs. Two unions voted against the concessions and some people were laid off in August. My union voted the other way and now the opportunity to retire early is real. The way I see it, I'd be a fool to not to take it. So, today Mr. Celia and I signed in the presence of a notary and on January 21st, I'll be leaving my current employment. Let's call it an offer I couldn't refuse.

Now begins the reinvention. This job has been very good to me. I've learned a lot and worked on some GREAT projects. I went there as a geeky graduate student and will leave an accomplished professional. I still need to work - and I'm young for a retiree - so I'm looking for something new.  The retirement income and benefits allow me to consider a wider range of options, like part-time or project-by-project consulting offers. I am alternately excited and terrified. But I'm pretty sure there's something really cool ahead. I just have to make it happen.

HolymoleyIreallydidit!

Come on!

(Sense memory, after picking up the Mystery Sock and remembering my disgust from last night)

ARGH! DWTS voters picked Michael Irvin and Louie Vito over Natalie Couglin?  I wanted to see more of Natalie, dangit. NOT more of those two. And what was Aaron Carter doing in the bottom two after his performance Monday night? Grrrr....

Infamous Rain

We had buckets of it yesterday. Between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. we had over an inch. It overwhelmed storm drains in San Francisco and flooded streets. Over at my house it came down so hard, I was able to photograph the drops coming down.

 

 

It over-ran the gutters on the street and filled the parking strip.

 

I considered - for a fleeting moment - pulling the car up into the driveway, but decided against venturing out into the downpour in my robe and slippers (home sick from work) and the rain eventually subsided without flooding the car or floating it down the street.

Don't get me wrong now, I'm happy to see the rain. We've been in drought mode here for many years. The garden loves it. It's cozy to stay inside and watch it come down. But yesterday's rainstorm, which followed so quickly on the tail of last week's epic storm, really taxed the system.  Last week, Conan O'Brien poked fun at Californians (you have to sit through a short advertisement at this link) as precipitation phobics. I suppose we are a bit. Our fears are well founded, though.  This October's rainfall total is already five times seasonal normal. Fire-ravaged hills tend to slide in rainy weather, and I can remember several rainy seasons when even the non-ravaged hills slipped. Our arid soil can only absorb so much water, and then whoosh! there it goes. So pardon us, Mr. East Coast, if we get a little nervous when it rains, especially with an early and fierce start to the rainy season.

But it does give me an opportunity to get caught up on my knitting. So we say yes to rain! Just not too much, please.