The Kindness of (Sorta) Strangers, Part 2

Last month, I showed you a pair of socks that a blog friend knit and sent to me when I was recovering from surgery in July.  That post is here, in case you didn't get to see it.  As I mentioned in that post, receiving those socks was one of the things that made me feel so happy while I was otherwise feeling awful.

Lorraine is not the only blog friend who took the time to be thoughtful and let me know someone was thinking of me and wishing me well.  Amazing.

I have been reading Lorette's blog for years, and we have become really good online friends.  We have a common love for wine and cocktails, knitting, food, music, and reading, just to name a few things.  Through Facebook, her husband John has also become a friend.  So when a package arrived with their return address, I was really curious to see what might be inside.  I opened it, and it was a gorgeous skein of Eidos yarn from The Verdant Gryphon.  The colorway?  The Kidney Heist!  Let me tell you,  The Tim and I got a BIG laugh out of that - and it hurt me to laugh!  The Tim almost immediately said, "That would make great socks for me," and I said something to the effect of, "Excuse me?"

Fast forward to last October.  Our anniversary was coming up, and The Tim is a really hard person, present-wise.  He usually buys things he wants for himself.  So I decided to actually go ahead and use "the kidney yarn" (as we called it) to make him a pair of socks - I mean, it's the only thing he had actually requested.

The details about the socks and their making will be in another post. but I can tell you that they finally got finished, and that knitting with that yarn was a truly wonderful experience.  So soft, and so pretty!  Here's one of the pictures I have of the finished pair:

Again, how lucky am I to have a friend like Lorette, who - even though we have never laid eyes on one another, or even spoken on the phone - sent me not just beautiful yarn, but yarn with a colorway name that was a) appropriate, and b) hilarious?  I still find it astonishing that she took the time to send it to me.

Thanks, Lorette and John!  You gave me a happy feeling and a good (if somewhat painful) laugh at a time when I needed it more than just about anything else, and I will always remember your kindness.

Kindness is never a bad thing.

Quiet For a While

This post is the last you'll hear from me for a while, probably a couple of  weeks at a very minimum.

Remember The Big Fall in June?  Well, they did about a thousand different tests and scans on me during the two days I was in the hospital.  And though I didn't break any bones, and it was determined that the fall was not due to any cardiac problems, they did find a tumor on my right kidney that was determined to be cancer.  As it turns out, falling was a lucky thing, since the dr told me that by the time I had symptoms, there might be very little they could do for me.

So on Monday, July 28, I'm having surgery to remove the tumor.  Hopefully that will take care of it, but if not, I have every confidence in my doctors.  I've been told that there is a good chance that I'll be just fine, I just need time to recover.  I'll be off work for 6 weeks, and I'm hoping that soon I'll at least feel good enough to check in here, and read all of your blogs.

If you would, please keep a kind thought for me, and if you are the praying type, I would appreciate a prayer.  I'll be back as soon as I can be.

Have a good rest of the summer!