Life as a Spectator Sport

Not where I had planned to be today. Clarence watched the weather forecast yesterday morning and informed me that I would have to do the southwest Virginia inspections on Tuesday and Wednesday if I wanted to be able to do them at all. He was right, but that doesn't lessen my irritation at his increasing attempts to control my working life. Work has always been my way of getting away from him, and from his determination to manipulate everything I did. Having to take him with me when I worked was annoying and time-consuming, but at least I was still in charge of the work itself.

Now, as his cognitive abilities are beginning to return, his former personality is coming back with a vengeance. I mentioned this somewhat grumpily to his doctor, who assured me that Clarence only wanted to "be a part of things." No. Clarence is either running everything going on around him, or he is obstructing it. Those are the only two choices you get with him. So unless I want him to actively interfere with my work, I have to allow him to believe he is in charge of it. So here I sit, where I would probably have decided to be anyway, if Clarence had simply alerted me to the weather and asked if I didn't think it would be a good idea to head out here promptly.

I know how whiny that sounds, and in fact, it is a minor complaint. Clarence can't answer my company phone any more, as he used to, and give erroneous information to my customers. He no longer has access to company funds, though he has begun to inform me whether or not he believes a particular expenditure is permissible. But he can't interfere in the ways he used to, and I'm grateful for that. I tell myself that the rest of it is the price I'm paying for eventual ownership of the land, and for the living expenses I don't have now.

But it's still aggravating.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Home again, home again AND The Woolery

I obviously don't mind spending long stretches on the road and in hotels, or I wouldn't be doing this kind of work. But I have to admit that it was really nice to wake up this morning in my own bed, in my own house, with my own well-equipped kitchen to cook breakfast in, instead of trying to fix it in an electric frying pan on the end of the bathroom vanity in some hotel far from home.

We were out six days this time, one day longer than I intended. But I worked two additional inspections that came in during the week, and spent an enjoyable hour at The Woolery in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, just south of the Virginia state border. The Woolery is not your typical Local Yarn Shop, with walls of knitting yarn and, if you're lucky, a pretty good selection of books and needles and accessories. The first sight that greets you when you walk in the door is the greatest selection of spinning wheels and looms I've ever seen in one place, other than the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (which I will be attending again this year). I should have asked permission to take a couple of pictures, but I was so bemused by the equipment, the fiber, the books (and yes, quite a lot of yarn), that I wandered around in a daze.

In addition to Schacht, Louet and Kromski wheels, they also carry Norwood looms. That is the brand I was planning to buy, so it's a good opportunity for me to have a hands-on inspection. I hadn't expected to be able to do that. The smaller Norwood loom folds down to a size that I just might be able to transport in the car, so it's likely that I'll buy mine from The Woolery later in the year. I wish I had waited and purchased my Kromski wheel from them. I got a good deal on my purchase, but I'm having to put it together myself, whereas I could have bought it assembled from them for only about $40 more.

I bought one of Anna Zilboorg's sock books, a Kromski niddy-noddy (what you use to make skeins out of your handspun yarn), a bag of pretty merino purple and teal fiber, and a couple of other small things, and then discovered that their credit card processor wouldn't accept my PayPal Mastercard. They reassured me that the problem was with their system, not with my card, and very graciously allowed me to write a check. Anna Zilboorg lives near me, and I've been trying to get my hands on all the rest of her books that I don't already own, so it was nice to find Socks for Sandals and Clogs.

I'm already hoping for another pile of inspections in the Tidewater Virginia area so I'll have an excuse to swing by The Woolery again. And of course, they do sell over the internet. So if you're a knitter, check out their website, and if you have an opportunity, do stop in to see them.

Back to my still unfinished Chain Link Socks, which will now not be finished by the deadline, even if I did nothing but knit today. Since one of my long-time computer customers called and asked me to look at her system today, I won't be knitting. Oh well.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Winter is finally here

Sleet is falling, earlier than predicted, but that's good, because one hopes it will also be over with earlier than predicted. Forecasts of icy roads on Monday morning were not what I wanted to hear, not with an early departure planned.

I have 91 inspections pending, a record for this early in the year. The last time work was churned out this early was in the spring of 2003. When I asked one of the agency employees why they were putting the inspections out so early that year, she said, "We were told by people at the top to get our work out as soon as we could." At the time, it was just odd. Later in the year, after the bombing began in Iraq, a light came on in my brain, familiar with government budgetary manipulations: "Get the money committed as fast as you can so it isn't taken away."

In 2002 through 2006, it was back to the previous pattern, ramping up in the spring to a maximum in June and July, slacking off to a minimum in December and January. This spring I'm getting dumped on again in January. Don't bother to tell me we aren't going to invade someone.

So Clarence and I will be off in the morning for a five day inspection trip, weather permitting. This will be the longest work period on the road so far. We took a longer trip last fall when we went to Atlanta, but there were no deadlines and no stress for me, other than having to deal with Clarence at close quarters for a week. This time I've got a huge pile of work that must be completed during the week.

But I have the coolest new toy! Some of my work must be scanned to turn it into a digital image. I tried carrying a small flatbed scanner with me on overnight trips, but it didn't survive long, and it couldn't be used in the car without an inverter. So I bought a little sheetfed scanner that is about the size of the cardboard core in a paper towel roll. It is USB-powered, so I can run it off a USB port on the laptop even when I don't have line power, and it fits right into the knitting bag with the laptop, in its own little case. If I had to, I could do an inspection and submit it immediately, anywhere I could find a wi-fi signal. One more step toward being completely independent of a fixed office location.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Podcasting? Maybe

For the last couple of weeks, I've been catching up on a year of Brenda Dayne's knitting podcast (Cast-on), and thinking more and more about doing a podcast myself.

Like I needed anything else to occupy my time!

But seriously. I was present last year, 2005, at the production of a podcast in San Francisco, where my good friend Miss Sunbeam was interviewed, and it immediately caught my interest. I had known about podcasts before that, but didn't realize how easy they were to produce. With some background in both radio and television broadcasting, I assumed there was more to the process than people, a laptop and a microphone.

Well, there is somewhat more than that, of course. But not as much as one might think.

So I'm pondering the idea and turning it over in my mind, and one of these days I'll decide. I already know that if I do one, it will probably replace this blog. I don't have time for both. And it will be a combination of talk about both knitting and slash fiction, which I haven't talked much about here. I do have a slash blog, which hasn't been updated in umpty-dozen months, and that's where the blog portion of it will migrate to.

The idea of doing a knitting/slash podcast may be a non-starter to begin with. There are knitters among the slash fans, and there are probably even more slash fans among the knitters around the world. But whether there is an audience among them for a podcast devoted to both is questionable. I suspect I'll just have to try it for a while to find out.

So that's where my brain is wandering these days.

Monday, January 15, 2007

This is a pain.

When I travel by myself, I have a tote bag for my clothes, a tote bag for the computer, and a plastic file box with my paperwork. I eat fresh fruit, yoghurt and cheese, for the most part, things that can be packed compactly or purchased fresh for each meal.

Traveling with Clarence is like moving house. It isn't just the wheelchair and the bag of equipment and medications. It's the additional clothing, beyond what would otherwise be necessary, to accommodate accidents. It's the refrigerator and the food and the dishes, because if I don't cook our dinners in the hotel room, the food costs are out of sight. I carry an electric frying pan, a hot plate and a small sauce pan, various food preparation utensils, and of course, silverware and plates. And paper towels and dish detergent and a scrubbie. And the little French press coffee pot and the glass coffee cups.

Well, maybe I'd carry the French press pot anyway. There is just no comparison between freshly roasted, freshly ground, organic Honduran coffee and the swill served almost everywhere else.

And then I'd have to carry some kind of cooler for the half and half. And I'd still have to wash out the coffee pot and my cup, so I'd need soap and paper towels. So it isn't really so much more to have the big refrigerator and all the food and the dishes and the bag of medications and the wheelchair and two days clothing for every day that we're out. Yeah, right.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Chain link sock

I think this may be the prettiest sock I've ever made. Wish I had taken pictures of some of the socks I made back years ago. It never occurred to me to make any special record of them. They were "just socks." Now that sock knitting is a fad of sorts, I wish I had documented them better. Digital cameras may it all so much easier.

This is the Chain Link pattern from the Six Sox Knit-a-long, and I've only got three weeks to finish the second one. That would normally be far more than enough time, but since the agency I'm under contract to has decided to spit out a month's worth of work in the last two days, I may just manage to finish in time.

It was made with a very fine fingering weight hand-dyed merino, the most expensive sock yarn I've ever bought, paired with a worsted weight wool/cotton blend from Joann Fabrics. This is not what one would normally call a good combination! But the colors went together so beautifully that I couldn't resist. The heavier weight yarn in the pattern section resulted in a much larger diameter than if I had used a contrasting yarn in the same weight. Since I have heavy calves, that suits me just fine. In fact, they fit perfectly and I'm anxious to finish the second one so I can wear them.

The felted bag is also coming along nicely, and it dawned on me suddenly that I could use the same mitred-square technique to translate just about any other nine-patch quilt pattern to knitting. Bear's Paw next!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

When the cat's away

I didn't realize it until the cats were gone, but even though Neko never caught a mouse at all, and Chloe had lost interest in them as she grew more feeble, they were keeping the rodent population down here very effectively. As soon as they left, the mouse telegraph must have been red hot with "Hey, no more cats here!"

I was awakened two nights ago with something that sounded much larger than a mere mouse running through the empty mason jars on the shelving in my room. It probably was only a mouse, but I got up, grabbed my pillow, went back to Clarence's room and ordered him to shove over, because I was sleeping in there. He wasn't much amused because it meant he couldn't run the television all night, but until I stop whatever it is that is running around my room at night, I won't get any sleep in there. What's more, they are in the wall between the living room and the front bathroom, and this morning I found mousie poop all over the kitchen counters.

So I'm going to have to put poison out, much as I hate that. They will not take the bait on traps--I have tried it countless times. They either ignore it or manage to get the bait without springing the trap. There are traps that let you put bait inside, and then prevent the mouse from getting out, and I might get some of those. I have no desire to kill the little buggers--I just don't want to share my house with them.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Bye bye, little Daewoo

Kay, my youngest, rode back with us from Baltimore after our New Year's visit, and stayed the rest of the week. This morning she drove away with the old Daewoo, the bike I wasn't using, a huge collection of food, kitchen utensils and small appliances, some of them purchased for her and some scavenged from my stockpile, and the two cats. So I am pet-less for the first time since Shelley asked me to care for her kitties, and a great relief it is. I still miss my dog, but he seems to have become Shelley's dog, and there is no question that he is better off on the truck with her than being stuck in the back seat of my car while I'm working, or even worse, having to stay outside here by himself while I'm gone.

We spent the week doing mother-daughter stuff--baked bread, roasted coffee, went shopping, knit and crocheted together, and took the cats to the vet. Chloe, the older kitty, turned out to have some kind of liver problem, so far not specifically diagnosed, and will require daily medication, special food given at specific intervals and additional veterinary care, all of which I am not in a position to provide. So Kay packed her up and took her home, along with Monster Kitty, Shelley's little stray that she brought home last fall, that never learned to use a litter box. I'm greatly relieved at not having to clean up messes any more, rescue a kitten from various high places in which she was mewling piteously, or separate the two cats (Shelley had the notion that Chloe--a 10 year old female who'd had the house to herself for years--would welcome a kitten playmate). But it seems odd to be able to swivel my desk chair around without checking for kitten tails, or to go out the door without making sure no one escaped. I expect I'll get used to it.

On the needles: the felted tote bag from the Fall 2006 issue of Knitter's Magazine. It's a knitted version of one of the endless variations of the nine-patch quilt pattern, in muted colors, with braided i-cord handles. I've finished most of one side, and should have it completed in a couple of days, depending on how much work comes in next week. My version is slightly more colorful, using gold, ecru and dark brown, and I like it enough that I'll probably make more of them in other colors (though that may change after I do eight feet of i-cord on size 8 dpn's!). Pictures forthcoming.

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