A Busy Week

Last Monday was moving day for Nana's furniture. I had been stressing the entire week before that. Would the furniture that we wanted to put in the house actually fit? No one had thought to measure the pieces when we were last in Mesa. Would all the extra stuff fit into the garage until we could decide what to do with it? Would we be able to figure out what to do with that stuff before Christmas? (The jury's still out on that one.) Would it be worthwhile to rent a storage unit? (Easy answer on that one. No.)

Well, the movers showed up right on time. It only took about two hours to load the furniture. All dishes and small bits had been moved out a few weeks ago. We took a more round about way home due to an accident on the freeway. Joe and I stopped briefly to drive through a McD for a burger, and we bought an extra burger for the guy sitting with his cardboard sign at the freeway exit. (It was 9-11. We shared with a fellow American.) By the time we got off the freeway to head out into the boonies, it was getting pretty cloudy and some sprinkles had been encountered. The truck driver wanted to stop for gas, which we did, but it turned out that the stations at the exit didn't take his corporate credit card. We told him that we would find one that did near our home.

Well, we found the right brand name station all right, but they didn't have any diesel fuel. So we drove further out and finally found a station that had the diesel and the right brand name. The driver filled the van and went to pay, only to find that his card had been frozen. Yikes!!! Here he was sitting at the station with a van full of gas he couldn't pay for, and our furniture still loaded in that van. (No one heard any muttering about we should have had the furniture off-loaded first.) Finally the driver was able to contact the corporate office (we did use a major name van line, in case you were wondering) and after much "Oooops, oh gee, we didn't realize" the card was reactivated, the gas was paid for, one very embarrassed driver finally stopped apoligizing (I certainly didn't think it was his fault), and we were on our way again.

Of course by this time it was raining, the occasional thunder and lightening variety. The two guys ran the furniture into the house, where it actually fit into the garage (with walking space to spare!) and into the house (much better than anticipated!). The one young man who was assisting the driver was Russian and had very little English skills, but he immediately gravitated to our Russian nesting dolls (purchased in Berlin on the old other-side-of-the-Wall). After all was done, it was nearly 6:oo o'clock and they had at least a three hour drive to get home. We gave them four cold sodas and $20 to buy some burgers or whatever. You would think we had given them a million dollars.

See, I was brought up to think that you ought to treat everyone with the sort of consideration you would like to have yourself. In all the moves we have ever done, I've always seen to it that the movers got something when they were done. Am I the only person who feels this way, or is this a common practise? From the reaction of these movers, I think it was totally unexpected. And that's too bad.



Anyways, we have started to go through Nana's things in earnest now. She makes the original decisions, of course, as to what she still wants and what she doesn't. She wanted to keep her bedroom furniture, but everything else was left up to us to keep or give away. Joe and I are keeping a lot, and getting rid of a lot of our tattered stuff in return. After Joe and I decide, then it's up to the kids to decide what they may want. After that, what's usable will be given to charity and the unusable rest will be trashed, of course. And as you can imagine, all of this is going to take some time to accomplish. At least her old house is now empty; we are going to get the 28 year old carpeting replaced and then hopefully it will sell quickly.



Now on to the promised knitting content. Above is the second Branching Out done in Silky Wool. It certainly makes a heavier scarf than the Frog Tree Fingering Alpaca that the last one was made from; I am enjoying it just as much, however. I have a goal of doing one pattern repeat every day, and I only missed two days this week due to the move and some late work days. I figure that this is a low-stress way to get some gift knitting done.




The Harebell Lace/Pumpkin Socks are coming along slowly but surely. The right lighting continues to be a critical factor in working on these. I have turned the heel and picked up the gusset stitches. I have decided to use Abigail's suggestion from several weeks ago and knit the rest of the sock in stockinette stitch, keeping the pattern just in the leg portion. And Icarus is coming along nicely too, in the time I have been able to devote to it. The mohair blend yarn has a nice little crisp feel to it and I can tell already that this is going to be a very cozy shawl for those cool evenings of spring and fall.



The main project of this last week, however? More rounds on the sock yarn Log Cabin. Perfect non-stress knitting for three-hour car rides, waiting for movers to show up while watching 9-11 memorial services on TV, watching movers haul furniture out of the house, wondering if a valid gas station will be found before the van with the furniture still in it runs out of gas out in the middle of the boonies of Arizona. Seriously, it was about the only knitting project I had the mental capability of doing this week. No pattern to memorize, no counting. MDK, I found you just in time.