What a week this has been. Ugh. I am often dismayed/disappointed in my country and/or its leaders, but currently, I'm embarrassed and ashamed. And I don't want to feel that way about my country. I know people that I think are pretty horrible, who are narrow-minded and prejudiced, and who are suspicious of every single person who is not "American" like they are. And you know what? Those people are examples of good character compared to those in charge these days! A friend in Ireland sent me an e-mail, saying, "I thought there were checks and balances? What are they, and why aren't they being used?" I've got no good answer right now. But I'm not about to sit back and let this happen. Fascism is never good. Ever. I'm one person, but I'm not alone, thank God.
(used with permission of the creator)
In order to keep myself from making myself sick, I have been actively working to do and think of other things. Like how much I love animals, and my own kit kats in particular. When one of them is purring in my lap, the world seems much better.
Also - knitting keeps my mind occupied with something happy. Between the world these days, and the fact that I am not as mobile as I usually am, I'm knitting up a storm (well, at least for me). And I'm making pretty good progress on the projects I mentioned in my last post.
This is sock #1 of my Winter Berry Socks, and as you can see, I only have the foot left before this will be finished. I love the yarn, and the resulting socks will be wonderful to wear around the house when it's really cold outside, but after this pair, I'm NEVER EVER using this pattern again! It's written in a really annoying, folksy way that makes the simplest of instructions difficult to understand. I know it's been around for a while, and lots of people love it, but not me. I'll probably power through knitting these just to be done with it!
My Bluegrass Baa-ble Hat is going better:
My only problem with this was that when I printed the pattern, it was hard to tell the difference in the shading of the squares for the colors, and it was so hard to even see because it printed out so small. (I downloaded the pattern back when it was a freebie from Shetland Wool Week; maybe the paid-for version now available has better formatting.) But The Tim enlarged the chart and fooled with some of it, so now I can see what I'm doing as well as figure out what's what. The trickiest part so far for me was the rows where you used three colors, but I'm past that now, and back to two colors per row. Phew! I just hope it fits after all of this, but if not, I'll have a lovely gift for someone with a smaller head than mine ... ;-)
In other news, this was an "exciting" weekend for me! I originally had an appt to get my hair cut the day after I got the cast on for my broken ankle, and I had to cancel, not just because I was in bad shape, but because there are a bunch of steps to get to the salon. So I optimistically rescheduled for yesterday. The Tim dropped me off, and I made my way up the steps with my crutches to get my hair cut, then he gave me a ride home. I feel so much better! (You get good at steps quickly when you live in an old Philadelphia row home.)
Then about an hour ago, I made my way to the CVS around the corner and got some stuff I needed all on my own! Granted, it took me about half an hour, and I made sure to come home and sit and have a cup of tea afterwards, but nonetheless it was a good feeling.
It truly is the little things, right?
Here's hoping we can all have a good week, even if only by finding the little things to enjoy. Take care, everyone, and let's keep going.