Why is it the weeks that are craziest and should spawn a zillion blog posts are the weeks that I’m most quiet? Last week was one of those weeks, and I think I kept the contents to myself because many of the events of the week weren’t all good. It was a rough week for my circle of friends and there wasn’t much I could do or say that would make the pain go away so I opted for silence instead. Within my group of close friends in fewer than 7 days, we suffered the loss of 3 family members. My boyfriend’s grandmother passed away on Saturday the 14th, a close friend lost her dad on father’s day, and another lost his dad later in the week. It was a week of tears and exhaustion, and I wasn’t even in the thick of the mourning. My heart has gone out to these three friends in their time of mourning and that’s all I have to give.

My mom also landed herself back in the hospital for treatment of some open sores that have come and gone in her legs over the last several years and have been getting progressively worse over the last month or so. If the insurance approves the extended 3-week stay that the doctors have advised for her, hopefully the treatment will stick this time and she can stay out of the hospital again for a while. It’s not pretty, and the treatment she’s going through is painful and was horrible to watch on Saturday night when I was visiting. But when they had her legs undressed while performing the treatment, it was obvious that it is ultimately helping despite how much it’s obviously causing her pain in the short term.

But, it wasn’t all illness and death and helplessness in my life last week. I rallied some coworkers to do the heavy lifting and finally bought myself a chest freezer. I made ice cream. I discovered the bliss that is Balsamic Roasted Strawberries. I had a momma turkey and about 8 babies cross in front of my car on the way to get my veggies from the CSA farm. I finally met my uncle’s new wife (they were up visiting from Florida when mom went into the hospital). I knit on some socks. The plants on my patio are going gangbusters and I should be in for a summer of veggie overload. And at the point when I needed it most, I drove through just the right sized raincloud yesterday on my way back home from visiting mom in the hospital, and that raincloud produced a perfect full rainbow.

It’s a good random day. I’ve been neglecting the blog again and have many little things I want to update.

1) My brother’s gmail account was hacked yesterday. He was able to resolve it, but he wrote a really clear and concise post about what information one needs available and the process he had to go through to reclaim his address. It’s a really good read for anyone who uses gmail.

2) Mikey headed back to Cali on Saturday. We had a great couple of weeks while he was visiting and I miss him tremendously. Just gotta figure out when I’ll drag him back for another trip. Silly work is eating up all my time.

3) We had a great weekend with friends at Holiday World and Beech Bend while he was here. Some of our friends ran into some snags that soured our exclusive ride time a bit at Holiday World, but we still had fun. I didn’t take any photos this year, but I did manage to knit most of a pair of socks that weekend.

4) That pair of socks, I just closed the toe on the second one tonight. They will be going in the mail to my mom soon. Simple stockinette socks out of KnitPicks Felici in the Gelato colorway. They knit up fast and I really like how they came out. Since I finished them tonight, they are also technically my first completed pair for this year’s 52 pair plunge.

5) Socks, socks, socks. I also joined the summer of socks this year. And I’m still knitting up that design in honor of my cousin. And I’ve set a goal for self to finish all the Sock Madness 1 & 2 sock patterns that I haven’t done yet before next spring’s Sock Madness commences. And I’m hoping to submit a design or two for SM3 as well. And wearing a skirt today, I’m really wishing I had a pair of handknit knee socks. Socks, Socks, Socks!

6) My CSA starts next week, my birthday is next week, and I’m headed to Cedar Point and Waldameer Park this weekend for some more coaster time with friends. I will have my camera and a sock or three with me this time, so look for some more photos soon.

7) Another contest won, I guess I’m on a roll lately. Knitsaur requested hand sizes in her comments and drew a name in exchange for that info. I won a skein of Silky Wool.

8 ) While the rest of us were in Indiana and Kentucky, Craig took the RainbowHappySock all over New York and into Quebec. He has a ton of photos, and even wrote up the Quebec part of his trip report in French, but I’m going to be a little lazy and just put together a big mosaic of his photos from this trip. It even witnessed his daughter’s 500th coaster.

My mom has a knack for turning just about any hobby into a money making opportunity, and since her hobby is collecting dolls, we were up at the crack of dawn to setup a couple of tables and sell at a doll show on Saturday morning. It was exhausting, but I was able to finish a sock while sitting there watching all the local doll people mingle.

We wrapped up there and literally went home and all 3 of us crashed at 4pm. It was exhausting. And mom and dad will be doing another show this weekend in Grand Rapids.

Sunday for Mother’s day, we met mom’s aunt for brunch and I gave mom the socks I’d finished at the doll show. I had hoped to have time to make a different pair for her, but I’ll get around to them eventually. My knitting is just kind of being pulled in a zillion directions right now.

The finished socks are the stockinette socks in Trekking that I’ve been picking at for a while. I’ll be starting a couple other stockinette pairs for the summer as I have a few colorways of Knit Picks Felici that I want to play with. The Gelato colorway will be mom’s next pair, and the Coney Island colorway will likely be my park knitting for the summer.

But in the meantime, I’m focussed on the socks for my aunt and hoping to get them wrapped up yet this week so I can give them to her at the celebration of life on Thursday.

I also had a winning day on Friday which was a great end to the week after everything else last week. I was the runner up winner on Christina’s blog contest. Also, in the ultimate spot of enabling, I won fiber on A Verb For Keeping Warm. Camel/Silk blend no less. I think that marks the start of the slippery slope of spinning that I’ve managed to avoid until now. At least I know there’s an amazing spinning shop nearby where I can immerse my self in a new hobby once I’m ready.

Thank you all for the messages of sympathy on the loss of my cousin. She had a rough life  with more than her fair share of medical issues and it was a rough couple of weeks that lead up to her death. In lieu of a memorial service, there will be a celebration of life get together for family and friends towards the end of next week. As part of my grieving process, that creative spark in my head shot off and I’m working on a sock design in her memory. The initial pair from the pattern will go to my aunt as a belated mother’s day gift. And once I have it written up, the proceeds from the pattern sales will be donated to the American Diabetes Association in Chandra’s memory.

I am still moving through life as usual this week though. I’ve decided this year that in addition to my CSA, I’m also going to grow a few extra veggies on the porch. I’m also going to use some of my economic stimulus check to get a chest freezer so I don’t waste as much food when I have the CSA and veggie garden providing.

Since I’m in an apartment, the veggie garden is a few plants in a couple planters. And I picked out plants and supplies this weekend. I need to get some more soil and redistribute the plants a little bit since I only had enough soil to fill 2 of the planters, but it’s a start.

If all survive, I should have tomatoes, squash, eggplants, green and jalapeno peppers, cilantro, thyme and basil on the patio.

My kitties are indoor only cats, but since I was outside planting, I left the door open and they did a little exploring of their own.

What’s funny about that is that generally Gromit is my timid cat. He’ll warm up to people when he’s good and ready and not a second before and while he’s curious, he’ll usually let Lily explore something first before he indulges. Lily is typically far more curious and more social. But Gromit is also my window cat, so he’s more familiar with the outdoors at least in appearance. So, when given the rare opportunity to explore, he was far more comfortable and curious outside than she was. She didn’t leave the patio and jumped inside the door over every little thing.

He kept trying to leave the patio and go explore.

But once he started looking a little too comfortable and repeatedly wandered off the patio, we quickly got inside so there wouldn’t be any disappearing acts. I think if he’d seen a bird or a chipmunk or a squirrel while he was out there, he would have been on it in a heartbeat and I’d have never gotten him back inside.

37 is far too young.

You will be missed.

Chandra Page

1971 - 2008