I had just started watching “House” last night when a storm popped up. I could hear hail hitting the metal stove vent and then a bolt of lightning appeared right outside my window (or so it seemed). That was followed by a very loud clap of thunder. I shut down this computer as quickly as possible and went back to shut down the one in the office, forgetting I haven’t turned it on since I got home from Fort Worden. The storm had pretty much passed by time I did all that but it was fast approaching midnight so I read a few pages of Miss Zukas and headed off to bed.
It was pouring rain when I got up a little before seven this morning, making me glad I had nowhere I was supposed to go today. Barbara wrote and said that when driving her son Craig to work just before 7 am she had the wipers going as fast as they could and she needed a faster speed. She said there was lightning and the road was covered with hail so that looked like it had snowed. After she dropped him off, she waited until it got light and the squall passed before driving home. I checked the weather for our area and saw where we had a chance of thunderstorms until one this afternoon. Having no idea how long the disk recovery process might take, I was hesitant to start and have a thunderstorm crop up in the middle of it. The rain had let up but it was pouring again by 8 o’clock. I figured this was the way the day would go.
I turned on the heat in the back but turned it off again when it became apparent I wasn’t going back there to work. When things appeared to have calmed down by two o’clock I decided to attempt the Recovery Disk. It whirred for 15 minutes and then an error message popped up saying it couldn’t open D something or other and gave an error code number. It gave me the option to try again so I did. It went a little longer before the same message popped up. I dropped an email to TK to let him know.
Somewhere in there I finished the green and orange ribbed hat that I’m putting in the pile for the Indian children. I talked to Deanna about ordering some waffle weave towels per our conversation on Wednesday. I talked to Joyce and learned the doctor was only able to put one of the stints in Nadine and he really wants to get her on some cholesterol medicine. She will be home tomorrow.
Just after three o’clock we had another hailstorm and the downpours continue to come through every so often. I talked to Mary and we caught up on the news. One of her kids was due to play football tonight so she and her husband planned to bundle up in their raingear since the covered bleachers are for the home team and they would be in the uncovered visitor’s bleachers.
I thought about the next hat to knit for the Indian project and I decided on The One-Evening Hat pattern I got at The Textile Arts Company on our Fort Worden trip. As I write this I have already knit 4 1/2 inches on it. I’m using the yarn I used for Reign’s vest so it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities that I might decide to put it with her vest. We’ll see….
As it continues to pour outside, I’m going to resume where I left off with “House” last night as I knit this hat. I only have 14 rows left to do.
It is a melancholy fact that there are few Christian duties so little practiced as that of forgiveness. – J. C. Ryle
“Something” last night was watching another episode of “House.” I have 37 inches knit on Reign’s fuzzy scarf and 7 1/4 inches knit on a wool ribbed hat that I planned to give for the Indian project. The more I think on it, wool might not be a good idea because if it gets tossed into a washing machine and dryer, it will felt and shrink and be useless. As nice as it would be to use up some of this wool yarn, I guess it is best to save it for the A4A projects.
I had hoped to get my Recovery Disks done on the new computer today but I couldn’t seem to find a stopping point with the computer work. I can’t be doing anything on the computer when that is going on. Until that is done I can’t install my Windows 7 upgrade. Maybe tomorrow…. I’ll just have to force myself back into the other room while it is doing its thing. I seriously need to get in the sewing mode but I can’t seem to get out of the knitting mode.
I still have 94 pages left to read on the current Miss Zukas book I’ve been plodding through since October 17th. It just today caught my attention that the three brothers in the story are named Franklin, Delano, and Roosevelt. Right on top of things, aren’t I? On the way to rehearsal tonight I listened to a new audiobook called “One Good Turn” by Kate Atkinson. This is the first of her books I’ve read and I’m not overly impressed so far. As Publisher’s Weekly wrote, “pieces of plot fall through the cracks between repeatedly shifting points of view.” But this was one I paid for so I’ll feel obligated to finish it.
I arrived at church early and found Debi and Wendy knitting away. She was hoping Wava would be there to help her with her sock project. Wava got her started on knitting two socks at the same time on two circular needles. I have a DVD here that someone gave me on that subject so I guess I need to loan it to her. She told me that her husband Joel got us reservations for Friday night when we go to the Christian Music Summit. That is quickly approaching.
Larry P was leading rehearsal tonight. He was sick last weekend and I hear Larry H has been off work with the bug this week. Looks like it will be a struggle to keep from getting something. As I drove home, I noticed there were a lot of branches, leaves, etc., on the road that I didn’t see on the drive to church. It seems there was a pretty good windstorm while we practiced and I never heard a thing. It had passed by time we came outside to go home. Bill said that Barbara called to see if we had power. Hers went out around seven and was out for awhile. At least her generator comes on when it goes out. The lights were blinking here before I left so I turned off the computer. Bill said there was period blinking of the lights but the power never went off.
Today was marred by the horrific happenings at Fort Hood. We have a young man from our church who is stationed there but so far as I know, he is fine. It’s amazing how many psychiatrists and psychologists seem to have mental issues. I was glad to hear that the young woman who was the first responder to the situation was not killed as was first reported. At any rate, my thoughts and prayers are with all those whose lives have been affected by this event.
Sometimes, Lord, I just have to cry. Amen.
I’ve finally caught up with myself after the retreat. I watched a “House” episode last night although I had a problem getting it going. I put the CD in and got a weird noise and then I couldn’t get the disk out of the computer. I got it out and tried again with the same result. I went online to Netflix to report a problem disk. They said to wipe the disk in a certain way and after I did that it worked. Time will tell if it works tonight.
I was up at 6:30 this morning so I could get everything done before time to head off to Bible study. I arrived at church about 9:10 and put on the coffee. Today we were studying the part where David was running from Saul. We talked about friends and what friendship involves. Several folks shared about special friends in their lives. I told how Wanda and I met online back in 1996, I think it was, and we had a common bond in that we were both caring for a loved one. And we saw each other through the loss of both of those loved ones. That is what being a true friend is all about, even though we did it at a distance.
I left church after Bible study and stopped into Dr. Peterson’s office to pick up some of my supplements. Then I drove into Tacoma. I was going down Bridgeport way and stopped for a traffic light. Green registered in my brain and I started moving only to realize it was the left turn light. I backed up. Whew! I drove on and eventually turned onto 72nd Street so I could stop at Fred Meyer to pick up lunch for me and Deanna. I was almost there when the van next to me started moving over on top of me! Sheesh… I laid on my pitiful excuse for a horn and escaped that disaster. I went into Fred Meyer and found that the bank was at the opposite end from where I came in. Having taken care of my banking business I looked for a pair of tights I have that I like so well. Then I found the Asian salad that Deanna wanted for lunch. I looked and looked for the Quaker Rice Snacks and they weren’t to be found. The fellow who was helping me finally tracked them down but I had already checked out. They were in the organic food section with the bread – just where you would NOT have looked for them. I got two packs and went back through the checkout line. I got out to the car with my purchases only to discover that I had left the car keys in the bathroom. Arghhhh! I pulled out my spare door key and put everything into the car. Then I went back and searched the bathroom. The keys were nowhere to be found so I went to the Customer Service desk and there they were.
I finally arrived at Deanna’s at one o’clock. Her daughter Judy was there and she left soon after I arrived. It was so good to see Deanna. She looked a bit ragged around the edges after all she has been though. She said she has lost 20 pounds. I did some Show & Tell of my towels and potholders and then I fixed the salad for our lunch. We both ate a couple of helpings of salad and then we took our tea and went back into the family room with a couple of oatmeal raisin cookies in hand. Then I showed her the scarf I’m knitting for Reign and the Rambling Rows afghan.
We visited until her husband returned. She talked about her hospital stay and other phases of this “journey” in her life. She said the surgery was not something she would want to go through again. She told me how scared she had been at one point after the surgery. I think that was when she was on the drugs. I suspect she is highly sensitive to them and gets some rather bad reactions. She went to clinic yesterday and all seems to be going as planned at this point.
I bid her farewell and headed for the Proctor District for a few errands. I went to the shoe repair place to pick up a couple pairs of Bill’s boots and then went next door to The Pomodoro where I got a couple orders of their yummy minestrone soup. Then it was over to Metropolitan Market where I cruised around and found numerous goodies. I wasn’t hungry when I went in there. I can only imagine what I would have bought if I had been hungry! As it was, I bought a beet salad, a wheatberry salad, a Portobello mushroom turnover, a mini spinach quiche, a prime rib and wild mushroom pot pie, a pint of Cioppino, some creamed spinach and the rabbit Bill had put his name on.
As I drove across the Narrow’s Bridge, the sunset was absolute beautiful. Earlier in the day when I passed the street that goes over to the cemetery I had a big tug at my heart over Clint. The sunset reminded me of him once again – and the time I got locked in at the cemetery! I stopped at Cost Less and picked up the yarn for the scarf that I got an order for. The gal who bought the two Husky scarves wanted one more – this time in dark purple and the light gold. It was dark by time I finally made it home. Bill helped me unload the car. When I was done I sampled the minestrone along with the beet and wheatberry salads and the creamed spinach. I remember going to some restaurant recently where I had creamed spinach and found it was quite tasty. It was equally tasty tonight.
I had a lengthy chat with Barbara tonight. She has been swatching yarns for a jacket she wants to knit. She was happy with it and then she wasn’t. I told her about my day. Last night I chatted with Phyllis, another knitting friend who is going through cancer. I’ve mentioned her before. I told her all about Fort Worden since she has been to that in years past.
And that pretty well wraps up today. I’m off to do something until bedtime.
There’s no faith like that of children. They know that God is quiet and calm and wonderful- big and interested in them, and kind. Their requests of God usually are reasonable and honest, modest. They seldom ask for more than they deserve. They know of no reason why the world, in fact, shouldn’t be mostly good. - The Leader
It was bright and sunny when Saturday morning arrived. Between breakfast and lunch, however, we were treated to a downpour. It cleared back up and was fine after that which was good for trick or treaters. After lunch Cooki and Judi took off to visit the local yarn shops. Barbara and I debated going into town but decided against it. We knew they close off the main streets for the little kiddies costume parade and there is a lot of traffic congestion and parking issues involved with that.
You can see the general setup of the big room where we met and knit during the day in this picture. There were other gals along the wall on the right of the wood floor. Saturday night was the banquet and Show & Tell.
Barbara took this picture of me showing the vest I made for Reign. I’ll have to take a close-up so you see what it really looks like. It took awhile to make it around the room for Show & Tell since that was interspersed with the giving out of door prizes. And of all things, I actually won a door prize. That almost never happens! We were wondering why they didn’t give everyone a favor this year when we checked in but we were told this night that they spent the money buying some gift certificates for door prizes. I don’t think that made a lot of folks happy. Since I won one of those certificates, it worked for me. I got a $50 gift certificate to Great Yarns. That happens to be one of Barbara’s favorite yarn shops. They are also one of the vendors at our Madrona Retreat, so I can probably wait and shop with them at that time instead of making a drive to Seattle. If you click on the yarn store link above you can see some of their kid things. They are cute but they are not cheap. The $50 wouldn’t make a dent in most of what they sell as they have kits that are upwards of $300.
Barbara disappeared not long after we returned from the evening’s events. Judi also went to bed leaving me and Cooki to our own devices. Cooki was trying to bind off a fancy neck scarf she knit using a skein of Artyarn that cost $40. It was silk and mohair with beads and sequins. Judi also knit one and finished it before she went to bed. Cooki left about 11:45 saying she was going to her room to get a ginger ale. When she hadn’t reappeared by midnight I headed off to bed having adjusted the clock for the time change.
Sunday morning dawned crisp and clear. I was awakened at six by Barbara putzing around in the dark as she dressed. We didn’t close the curtains and there was a street light outside our window which provided some light. We had breakfast while watching three deer outside the cafeteria. On the way back to the barracks, I glanced up and spotted a deer walking down the path by Alexander’s Castle. “According to the legend, Reverend John Alexander built the castle for a prospective Scottish bride in a style reminiscent of his native country. In 1883, he acquired 10 acres of land near Point Wilson and constructed the building known as Alexander's Castle. Alexander intended the building to serve as a home for him and his bride. Traveling to Scotland to get his bride, Alexander found that his bride-to-be had married another. He returned to Port Townsend alone and used the building as a temporary residence. During the park's Army days, the castle was used for a number of purposes including serving as the first site of the Post Exchange and for many years housed the tailor shop. The structure, renovated in 2005, is now available for rental as a vacation home.” Shortly after spotting the deer I realized it was a two point buck (or four point if you’re from the east coast) and I saw a doe and then a second doe in front of him. They were headed right for us. Barbara was up to the corner by then and I had stopped a ways back to get out my cell phone camera since my digital camera was in our room. The buck chased the does right between the two of us! Barbara said that was the closest she has ever been to a deer.
Back at the barracks I spied two more deer on the parade grounds as we packed up our belongings. I don’t know if we were seeing the same deer several times or not. MY story is that I saw eight deer. When we were all packed up the Rainbow Girls appeared to take it all down to the van. We bid farewell to our fellow knitters and were on our way by ten o’clock. This was a first and only happened because Julianne wasn’t with us this year. Barbara was thrilled not to be the last one to leave the premises. We stopped by the office so I could report my missing earring. I discovered it was missing about nine o’clock the first night so I have no idea when or where it got knocked out of my ear. It was one of my “I love to Knit” ones. I’m hoping the gal I bought them from can replace it if it doesn’t turn up.
It was about noon when we came out of there so we headed for lunch before leaving town. Churchmouse recommended Café Nola which turned out to be “a European style cafe comprising innovative, eclectic cuisine in a bistro setting.” Since Barbara had fish and chips when we went out to dinner Thursday night, I thought she might actually try something different. However, nothing else on the menu interested her. I, on the other hand, narrowed my choices down to rack of lamb salad, Portobello ravioli or Dungeness crab melt on essential bread. No, I don’t know what “essential bread” is since I got the ravioli dish. Barbara was wowed by the fish and chips and I really liked my dish. I brought half of it home and had it for dinner tonight.
Before leaving Bainbridge Island I stopped into Esther’s Fabric Store, the oldest one in Washington State. This year is their 50th anniversary. I found a piece of strawberry fabric – the one I couldn’t find back when I wanted it for the potholder to match the strawberry design on the tea towel. I also bought a piece with ballet shoes on it for my collection aimed at making Reign a ballet something or other. Barbara, meantime, went into The Eagle Harbor Book Company. I was finished in the fabric store before Barbara was done in the book store so I joined her there. She was purchasing a book by Aaron Elkins, a mystery writer who has lived on the Olympic Peninsula here in Washington off and on for 26 years. In talking with the store clerk about authors who live in the area, we discovered that Elizabeth George has recently located here and had recently appeared for an event at the bookstore. She is the author of the Inspector Lynley series that I was watching awhile back.
And that sums up our 2009 Fort Worden Knitting Retreat. I have pretty well caught up from being gone. This morning I got my lesson done for tomorrow’s Bible Study. I glanced out the window at four this afternoon in time to see a coyote run through the yard. About 20 minutes later the dogs from next door were in the yard. I’m off to watch last night’s “Castle.” Apparently “House” wasn’t on last week as I didn’t get an alert for that show. I started knitting a pink fuzzy scarf for Reign today. It doesn’t exactly match the pink in the vest but…. Here is a picture of the vest.
You find no difficulty in trusting the Lord with the management of the universe and all the outward creation, and can your case be any more complex or difficult than these, that you need to be anxious or troubled about His management of you? Away with such unworthy doubtings! Take your stand on the power and trustworthiness of your God, and see how quickly all difficulties will vanish before a steadfast determination to believe. Trust in the dark, trust in the light, trust at night, and trust in the morning; and you will find that the faith which may begin by mighty effort, will end sooner or later by becoming the easy and natural habit of the soul. - The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, by Hannah Whitall Smith
It was cold and rainy Thursday morning as we walked the two blocks over to the cafeteria. I did not weigh before I left home but I tried not to stuff myself at every meal. I did partake of the nice crisp bacon each morning for breakfast since I don’t usually eat that at home. Ok, so I also partook of the ice cream every day for lunch! Barbara rode back to the barracks with the gal we had breakfast with. I elected to walk so I would get a little exercise. Back at the barracks we knit until time for lunch. More gals arrived throughout the day. We put the things we brought to sell out in the room designated for that. I had three knit theme fabric bowls and one towel, the one that said “If I knit fast will it count as aerobic exercise.” Barbara had yarn and books. We spent the morning knitting, visiting, and looking through any new stuff people brought in to sell. I sold one fabric bowl that day.
We drove into Port Townsend about five and had dinner at the Bayview Restaurant. This was where we went last year and met the Chinese lady whose mother had the bound feet and was a knitter. I’m happy to report that she is still here at the age 86 but is no longer knitting because she can’t see well enough to do it. Back at the barracks we knit and visited. Barbara didn’t go to bed as early as on Wednesday, but once she retired I moved over and visited again the same gals from the night before. I was trying to get my first small block finished and I kept knitting along, finishing it just before eleven o’clock. Then I was off to knit and read in our room until about midnight.
Friday was a nice day weather-wise. By then we had been joined by a couple of ladies at our meals who are librarians. One has retired and the other still works part time. They hit it off well with Barbara since she is a retired librarian. After lunch we took off to visit a yarn shop in Port Hadlock called The Textile Arts Company. It was a very nice shop that we somehow missed last year when we were at Fort Worden. We spent a couple of hours there seeing all there was to see and I came away with a couple skeins of yarn for charity hats. I was surprised to see a yarn called Tofutsies Sock Yarn which has shrimp and crab shell fiber which makes it antibacterial. There was another yarn that had milk product in it. Who knew?
I’ll wrap this up tomorrow. I spent the day trying to catch up after being gone for several days. Now I’m going to find some dinner and then knit and listen to my audiobook – a Karen Kingsbury novel called “Oceans Apart.”
God, give me the faith of a little child!
A faith that will look to Thee—
That never will falter and never fail,
But follow Thee trustingly. —Showerman
I got home about three o’clock this afternoon from the Knitting Retreat. We had a grand time! We left here about two o’clock Wednesday afternoon which was a nice sunny day. We stopped off at Linda’s Knit ‘n Stitch in Silverdale where both of us bought some yarn and stuff. When we got to Port Townsend we stopped at Safeway for ice for the cooler and something for dinner. At that point we were both starving so we bought twice as much as we could eat. By time we checked into Fort Worden and got to our room it was pushing five o’clock. As soon as the Rainbow Girls got our stuff transferred from the van to the room, we sat ourselves down and ate. Our room was stifling so we opened the doors and the window. We also covered the two heating vents. When I glanced out the window, I spied a couple of deer grazing on the parade grounds across the street from our barracks. I told Bill about them when I called to let him know we arrived safe and sound.
Having staved off the hunger pangs, we got our stuff sorted out, our beds ready for the night and then went out to the big room to knit. We were among the first arrivals so we greeted those we knew who had also arrived. Barbara always goes to bed earlier than me and that first night she was really tired and went to the room around 8:30. I joined another group of gals we knew and visited (and knit) with them until about ten. By then I, too, had run out of steam. I went to the room and listened to my audiobook for a couple of chapters while knitting on my Rambling Rows afghan. Then I read my Miss Zukas book until I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
When I turned out the light, the room had cooled down pretty well but we left the window open a bit. I was awakened sometime later as the wind blowing in the window knocked first one and then another of the food containers we had left from dinner off onto the floor (I thought). Sometime later as the wind continued blowing a gale outside (and into our room!), Barbara got up and shut the window. Next morning I discovered that a bowl of fruit was one of the things that blew off the window ledge. It landed upside down on top of my suitcase, dripping some juice into my suitcase and also onto one of the two towels I brought to sell. Oops! I took it into the bathroom and ran cold water on it but I never put it out to sell.
With that I’ll sign off for tonight and resume with our retreat adventures tomorrow.
The closer we walk with God, the clearer we see His guidance.
I wasn’t able to finish the Upside Downer last night. 12:30 rolled around and I was still knitting and listening to the audiobook. I was at the most interesting part in the book but I had to get to bed. This was hardly the most exciting book I’ve ever read but I wanted to learn the outcome. I got up at 7:30 this morning and it was only 30º outside. We didn’t get the rain they predicted for today and the sun even came out for awhile. Today is Barbara’s birthday so I sent her an e-card.
I got a call from Deanna at ten this morning. She was just back from an emergency run to the doctor in Seattle. Yesterday she they discovered she discovered that about six inches of her incision was open and in bad shape. They called and it took three hours for them to finally get a hold of one of ten plus folks on the “team” to tell them what to do. She was told that she could come to ER and sit there for hours waiting to be seen or she could tape it up and come to clinic this morning. They opted to go to clinic today and were there when it first opened this morning. Someone in clinic fixed her up but now it will take an extra three weeks for her to heal up. Unbelievable! I gave her my cell phone number and told her to call me while I’m away if anything comes up.
I finished the knitting the vest just before five and then used the hand sewn method for binding it off. That was done by 5:30 and then I fixed dinner – lamb chops with angel hair pasta in an herb butter sauce. Yum yum! I also finished “The Year of the Fog.” I’ve downloaded a couple more library audiobooks to the MP3 player although I don’t know that I’m going to take it with me to Fort Worden. I can’t really think of anytime I might want to use it but who knows.
The phone repairman showed up here today. I mentioned a couple of weeks’ ago that we’ve been hearing other people’s conversations when we were on the phone. It is called cross-talk. I finally called CenturyTel last night only to discover it is now CenturyLink. I reported the problem to the Repair department. The customer service rep was not exactly Mr. Friendly. He told me this often happens with cordless phones. Never mind we’ve had the cordless phone for a number of years now with no problem. And I think Bill had it happen, too, and he uses the land line. The rep told us to unplug all the phones in the house and leave them unplugged for five minutes and see if that would reset them and solve the problem. He also told us to go out and do that thing with the interface box outside the house. But we weren’t going out in the dark to do that. He asked if we wanted a repair person. By then he had both of us thoroughly aggravated so we told him we’d do the unplugging thing and see what happened. And then, as I said, the repairman turned up this afternoon. He did the interface check and said it was not a problem at our house. I told him it never is. He said something was wrong in the lines between our house and the switch box. Since the lines are underground, I thought that should be interesting. I could tell he was doing something because the internet kept switching on and off over the next little while. Time will tell if he found the problem and fixed it.
I’m going to go watch my weekly “House” and “Castle.” I will have no internet access while I’m gone but I’ll get back home sometime Sunday afternoon. Hopefully I’ll get on long enough to at least let you know Barbara and I made it back safe and sound.
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.
I was knitting away and listening to the audiobook last night when I glanced at the clock at saw that midnight had come and gone. By then I had finished the second front on the Upside Downer and knit back across all three pieces. Now I just have to knit 6 1/2 more inches and that will be finished. That’s good because I need something for Show & Tell at Fort Worden. I knit two rows of black on the faux isle hat before calling it a night and then wondered if I had some navy blue. Thinking navy blue might look better than black on this hat, I went to bed.
It was raining when I got up this morning. By 11:30 it had cleared up despite the 100% chance of rain predicted for that time of day. I had finally waded through new orders and other business stuff and Bill was gone off to do the daily errands. When he took the trash out this morning he saw what he thought was a bear paw print by the small apple tree towards the bottom of the driveway. Yippeeee…
I also worked on my list for Fort Worden in between other stuff. Barbara emailed with questions about a few items. Then I found some navy blue yarn and replaced the two rows of black on the faux isle hat so now I’m happy with that. Wanda and I were chatting on Messenger about the “in the hoop” coffee sleeves. It seems she was as underwhelmed by them as I was. I told her it would be easy to make one on a sewing machine and you wouldn’t waste all the thread for the satin stitch edging. Actually, now that I think about it, I could do the pieces in the hoop right sides together and leave an opening to turn it. Anyway, while I was Googling coffee sleeves I ran across a pattern for this hand knit one. I took a break from what I doing and whipped one out. It is okay but probably not something I would do again.
Are you feeling far from the Lord—empty, weak, and afraid? It’s time to follow close on His heels. —Dave Egner
The movie I picked to watch last night was something else! It was called “Runaway” and it was a sci-fi thriller – “In the near future, a police officer specializes in malfunctioning robots. When a robot turns out to have been programmed to kill, he begins to uncover a homicidal plot to create killer robots... and his son becomes a target.” It was intense, to say the least. I picked it because it was a Tom Selleck movie I hadn’t seen. Now I know why….
Several folks at church today told me how nice I looked and how pretty my lilac shirt was. I’ll take all the compliments I can get. The music went well. I got survived accompanying the soloist even though it is very difficult to do so. After church I went shopping for things for the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. They are due back at church by November 15. One of the things I wanted was a small stuffed animal but all the ones I liked at the store where I shopped today were $10-12. I wasn’t spending that kind of money on a stuffed animal.
I called Bill from church before I left. We now have two cell phones and I got away from home without either one of them today! He wasn’t up when I left so he didn’t know I planned to go on the shopping expedition. Being the worrywart he is I didn’t want him wondering where I disappeared to when he couldn’t even call me. It was after two by time I got home and he was taking the soy parmesan chicken out of the oven just as I pulled into the driveway. That was perfect timing! I had bought a bag of Trail Mix on Friday and accidentally left it in the car. So it was there for me to snack on after church to tide me over till I got home.
I knit on the Upside Downer vest and listened to “The Year of Fog” until it was time to go back and play for the evening church service. That turned out to be very interesting. We had a couple of fellows from the Gideon’s as speakers. They were talking about people who have been saved as a result of getting a Bible from them. It turns out that Dave Berkowitz, the infamous Son of Sam serial killer, became a born again Christian in prison in 1987 after reading a Bible verse in a Gideon Bible given him by a fellow inmate. He was all involved in the occult and witchcraft when he was committing the murders. Shortly before her death in 2006, the mother of one of his victims wrote and told him she forgave him. Of course, one thing about anger and unforgiveness is that the only person it hurts is the one who is angry and unforgiving. The object of the anger and unforgiveness often doesn't know and more often doesn't care. Anyway, they played a video of an interview with him and it was quite interesting. And now he calls himself “Son of Hope” and he has written a book by that name journaling his experiences. Who knew?
Bill’s sister Janice sent an email this afternoon telling us to watch PBS on Wednesday night. They will be airing "Botany of Desire" based on a book written by Michael Pollan, regarding man's fascination with plants, specifically tulips, apples, potatoes and Marijuana. Her husband, Phil, and other scientists, horticulturists and growers are featured in the segment about apples. And, of course, we can’t watch TV anymore. I was happy she wrote because now I got all the family emails in my address book once again.
This has been a “rippit” day. Barbara wrote to say she had to rip out a whole block on her Rambling Rows. She is all the way up to Block 12 and this is at least the second time she’s had to do this. I’m only on Block 4 since I got sidetracked with other projects. I was not happy with the new faux isle hat so I ripped that back to just above the ribbing. Rippit, rippit…
With that I’m off to go to Plan 2 on the faux isle hat and either watch a movie or continue listening to the audiobook.
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be confident knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones,
and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
Teresa of Ávila
Determined to get to bed before one this morning, I didn’t start anything after watching “House.” When I saw it was midnight, I moseyed on back to bed, read a few pages and went to sleep. I woke at 6:30, turned on the alarm for tomorrow and went back to sleep until almost eight.
Bill went into Tacoma today to meet up with Jeremy and his four kids. They had lunch at Spud’s – a pizza place where we took Clint on numerous occasions. Then they went to Point Defiance Park. They saw a couple of seals out in the water. The two older boys found the old hiding place that Bill told them about from when he was a boy. By time they got around to Fort Nisqually it was only half an hour until time for it to close. It used to be free but, like everything else, they now charge admission. It would have cost them $20 to get in and it wasn’t worth it without plenty of time to prowl around and see everything at a leisurely pace.
I had a nice quiet day to myself. I sewed the pieces of the two knit theme fabric bowls together. I didn’t feel like messing with the knitting tweet so I guess I’ll save that for a Christmas present. I decided to try a “coffee sleeve” using the fabric that looks like knitting stitches. I encountered a few problems. When sewing the Velcro, it chewed up the thread. When it was done I brought it out into the kitchen and tried it on a medium sized latte cup I had and it wasn’t big enough. That was disappointing. I’ll snag a Styrofoam coffee cup at church tomorrow and see if it fits that. In light of that, I guess I’m not putting it out for sale at Fort Worden.
I started listening to Julie Garwood’s “Murder List” but decided I didn’t want to listen to something where voices were telling a guy to kill people. I downloaded one called “The Year of Fog” - a mesmerizing novel of loss and grief, hope and redemption, and the endurance of love. We’ll see if it measures up to all that. While listening to that I knit on the Upside Downer vest. I finished the bottom, divided for the sleeves and then finished one of the fronts. Now I’m working on the upper part of the back. With that I’m off to find something to watch before I go to bed. Bill is watching more “Taxi” episodes.
If you're in the middle of a trial right now, remember why it's happening - so you will be able to comfort others… so that you can learn to trust God more… and so that you can give thanks. Open your heart so that you can receive the full benefit God intends for you to have from that trial - and be grateful for it.
Hi Diane. Was finally able to get out cyberwalking again and wanted to check on you and see what you were up to ... 
Hi Carol, I get a "lump in my chest" reading your thoughts that you share .. thanks for reminding us how life is a 
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