Baby,

It's cold outside!  

And I don't want to hear it from any of you folks up north.  I know this is just another Monday to you, but remember, we aren't built for this.  But that's not the point.  

The point is, it's cold outside.  You want to know how cold?  The ice in the wildlife trough was this thick this afternoon.  

My hand included for scale.  

That photo was taken around 2:00 PM when I went out to scatter some corn for those animals that eat corn.  I don't judge.  This table is open to all who are cold and hungry.  

While I was out there, I took that chunk of ice and tossed it onto the ground, 

but I don't really know why, because it's just going to re-freeze once the sun goes down.  Today's high was 31, and when I got up this morning, the temp here was the same as it was in Fairbanks, Alaska where my sister lives. 

Why yes, I do have all my siblings' towns in my weather app.  Doesn't everybody?  But I had a nice, cheery fire crackling all day and a warm blanket to snuggle under while I was taking it easy today. 

OK, moving right along, my new knitting needles arrived yesterday, 

 and to be honest, I have mixed feelings about that.  While I was glad to have them without having to wait until Tuesday -- today being a holiday and all-- I don't really like that mail is being delivered on Sundays now.  Not having mail delivery on the Lord's Day was our government's last concession to our Judeo-Christian heritage, and now even that is gone. 

But since I had them, I went ahead and cast on another cowl, and have gotten this far while watching the Inauguration. 

Again, I'm not using a pattern, just winging it.  I'd found a pattern somewhere that called for a 40 stitch cast on, only now I can't find it again.  Still, that's what I went with.  I debated on how long to make it, and almost bound off after 8", but decided to go ahead and knit up the whole skein and see how long it ends up being.  

Plus, if it grows in width like the last one did, it'll likely shorten a bit in length.  If it ends up being too long and skinny, I might go back with the 48 stitch cast on that I used in the one I'd made for my friend's brother.  We'll just have to wait and see. 

And finally, I've spent most of the day watching Inauguration coverage, and this is only the second time I've been able to see it live.  Usually I'm at work, and have to watch on YouTube after the fact.  Me, I think it should be a mandatory national holiday so all Americans can watch.  

I'm going to have to go to bed soon, though, because they have us coming in at 4:00 again.  They do everything in the world to make our jobs harder and more labor intensive, then wonder why we can't keep up.  So they just make us work longer and longer hours...

I can't wait to get out of there. 

Short Break

After a short break, I'm back here blogging all the dullness of my life for you.  I know you're all thrilled.  

I don't know what it was.  Maybe it's getting back into the swing of working.  Maybe it's the weather.  Maybe it's as I mentioned earlier, my life is just dull.  Whatever the reason, I needed a break.  But now, I'm back to bore you once more.  

In the midst of my blogging break, I finished the first charity hat of the year.  This one is for the Seaman's Church Institute. 

This was knit with that Red Heart granny square yarn, and I like the way it striped up.  I may make a few more out of this type of yarn, even after I use up this skein.  

Speaking of using up skeins, a few years ago, I bought some yarn from a company in Canada called Ravenswood Fibers.   They have some really gorgeous colors, but I didn't like the yarn itself so much.   I thought it was loosely spun, frayed in spots, and quite splitty.  

Anyway, I'd knit a beret from one of the skeins and gave it as a Christmas gift.  It only used up half of the hank, so I cast on what was supposed to be a cowl with the rest of it.  After I'd finished, I didn't like the result.  I even posted that I didn't like the result, but that I wasn't going to re-do it. 

I'd let it sit for a while, and find someone who would appreciate it.  However, after three years in the gift drawer, I still didn't like it and decided to do something about it. Yesterday, I got it out and sent the whole thing to the frog pond, and let the yarn soak in a big bowl of water

until the kinks relaxed.  

Then I squeeze the water out, rolled it in a towel, and now it's hanging over my shower curtain drying.  I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet.  It's just under 200 yards, so that kind of limits my options.  I'd thought I'd do one of my hats, but I'm sure that won't be enough.  Maybe I can find a headband pattern or something.  Or a 4 X 4 ribbed cowl.  I don't know.  I'll figure something out. 

In the meantime, work on my Jazz Rhapsody hat is still ongoing. 

I really hate that moths got to this yarn, because it's knitting up so pretty.  I've had to make several more joins because of those moths, but I'll eventually get it finished, and it'll be all the more beautiful for its flaws.

In other news, I finally got around to hanging my painting back up over my entertainment center. 

For those of you who don't know the story, one of the teachers at my elementary school took up painting after she retired.  Before she died, she gave this one to my cousin with the instruction that it was for me.  It has been hanging in my living room ever since, except for when I take it down to put out my fall, then Christmas decorations. 

As far as the weather goes, we hit our high of 56° right around noonish, and the temps have been steadily dropping ever since.  The coldest temps won't hit until tomorrow night, but since I was up and about today, I  went ahead and wrapped my outside faucet and stuck a bucket over it. 

I've got one of those Styrofoam blocks to put over the one on the South side of the house, but this one on the North side is a double faucet, and those things don't fit.  Thus, I had to redneck it.  Hey, whatever works. 

I had planned on moving all my food back into the deep freezer then covering it all with jugs of water just in case the power went out, but when the models started moving away from us having any accumulation, I changed my mind.  I mean, we do have the possibility of light snow and a little bit of accumulation, but the worst of it will be well to the south of us.  They're predicting up to 5" of snow down on the coast, but nothing here.  Well, nothing to speak of, that is.   

Anyway, thinking of the cold that is to come, yesterday at work, I got a hankering for pumpkin soup.  I'd found an can of pumpkin puree in the pantry that I'd forgotten I had, and was trying to figure out what to do with it.  Yes, I considered a pie, but I still have pie in the freezer from Thanksgiving -- that I keep forgetting about, so that idea got shelved.  Then the idea of pumpkin soup came to me.  

After work, I checked online for a recipe because I'd already been to the store this week and didn't want to go back, and wonder of wonders I already had all the ingredients except for heavy cream.  Next step was to look up substitutes for that, and evaporated milk was one of them.  I have some at home, so no extra trip to the store for me.  Yay. 

I was going to make the soup today, but had to eat up the gumbo first.  Not a problem.  I had the last bowl for supper tonight, so tomorrow I'll make the pumpkin soup.  

I guess that's all the dullness I have to bore you with tonight, so I'll end this and go watch football.  And knit some more.   And maybe look for a pattern I can use that yarn with. 

Laters. 

It Grew

Yesterday I wore my new cowl to work, and let me tell you, it grew quite a bit.   I mean, it really grew.  Wide, not long.  So much so, I might as well not have been wearing it at all.   I decided then and there that if I were going to knit some as gifts, I really needed to use the correct needles and the correct number of cast on stitches-- which is a 40 stitch cast on using size 13 needles.    

As soon as I got home, I dug through my needles looking desperately for some size 13s, but nope.  I found plenty of 11s and plenty of 15s, but no 13s.  Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  I jumped online and ordered some.  I went to Knit Picks first, but they didn't have any DPNs that big, so I went to Amazon and ordered some there.   They had some 8" Clover bamboo needles, and that's a pretty good brand, so I'm OK with that.  

They're supposed to get here Sunday, but usually that means Monday, which this week will mean Tuesday since Monday is a holiday.  In the meantime, I ripped this hat back to the ribbing and started over from there. 

 But why would I do that?  Because about an inch into the body, I realized I hadn't switched to my larger needles, and the resulting fabric was pretty stiff.   No biggy, and I'm already past where I was when I decided to frog it.  I still like the way it's striping up, too. 

I'm still progressing on my latest sock yarn hat, as well. 

Oh, and my coworker told me her brother loved his cowl.  He's dealing with some health issues, which I'm not going to talk about because it's not my place to share his personal information, and the nurse told him to wear a scarf to keep his neck warm, which will help with his pain.  My coworker said, "I've got you."  And that, Gentle Reader, is why I do it. 

By the way, we're expecting another winter storm early next week.  The models keep waffling on whether we'll have any form of precipitation or not, but all the meteorologists are in agreement that we will be having what they refer to as pipe busting cold.  Now is the time to prepare.  Go get that milk and bread.  Can't have a winter storm without your milk sandwiches!  

I know this is short, but morning came early today, and I still have to practice my piano.  

Good night.  

Saturday

All day yesterday it felt like Saturday to me, I guess because I didn't have to work and there was college football on the TV.  I don't really know.  All I know is that it felt like Saturday.  I even got up and did all my Saturday chores.  

Now, today feels like Sunday -- because my Saturday chores were already done and there is NFL on the TV.   I have no idea what tomorrow will feel like.  I do know I slept until 7:00 this morning, and it felt wonderful.  Of course, I stayed up to watch the Texas vs Ohio State game, and as I predicted, Texas lost.  I'd said last week that they were going to have to play a whole lot better than they have been if they wanted to beat Ohio ST, but they didn't.     

OK, moving right along.  I finished my cowl for myself and I think it turned out really nice.  

I got up this morning and washed it, so hopefully it'll be dry by Monday.  Tuesday at the latest.  Then I cast on with my Granny Square yarn and it's striping up really nicely.  

I should be able to get three hats out of this skein, maybe four.  It's about time I got started knitting hats for the Seaman's Church Institute again.  I've been so caught up in knitting the ones out of sock yarn, I haven't done any for charity in several weeks.  

By the way, just for fun, I asked X's AI thing Grok to draw me, and this is what it thinks I look like. 

Apparently, Grok thinks I love Christmas and knitting.  It's not wrong.  By the way, the T-shirt comes from my profile picture.  I'd intended to order one years ago, but never got around to it. 

In other news, while I was putting the card table away yesterday, I found a mysterious project bag in that particular closet.  Curious, I pulled it out and found my dinosaurnaments!  They're supposed to be Christmas tree ornaments, and they've been marinating a long, long time. 

I bought these some 25 years ago, I think.  I'm not really sure, because it was before I started blogging.  I'd worked on them off and on over the years and finished them in 2016, except for the backstitching and cutting them out.  Maybe this time, I'll finally get them done.   I'll let you know. 

That's about it for today, unless you want to hear about me emptying out my deep freeze so I can get it defrosted and cleaned out really good.  I'm trying to move as much as I can to the small freezer and eat up what I already have instead of buying a bunch of new food.  I found a couple of what I believe to be turkey breasts or chicken breasts, and made a huge bowl of poultry salad.  I also found some of the gumbo Cody made in 2022, and ate some of that this afternoon.  

I've gotten a lot of the food food out, and most of what is left is snake food.  I'll have to find a big cooler to put that in, because Cody and Brennan took my cooler at Thanksgiving, then my grand-cat Finley claimed it as his bed.  I found I still have an inordinate amount of rats for Slider -- much more than he can eat in his lifespan.  He is 20 years old, and only eats 4 times per year, or less if he's being picky.  I don't know why I have so many.  I can only guess that they got buried under other food and I assumed I was out and ordered more, when I really just needed to dig deeper.  

OK, well I guess I'll stop boring you with the contents of my deep freeze and say goodnight for now.  

Good night. 

Snowpocalypse 2025

The long anticipated snowpocalypse  blew through last night, and as I expected, we didn't get anything but sleet and freezing rain.  They got a good snow as close as Batesville, but in all fairness, we were on the very southern edge of the warned area, so it could have gone either way.  Plus, that weird geographical thing that protects us from the severe weather also keeps snow from getting here.  

The last really good snow I remember was back in 2011.  That was when Cody built his snowman Sned.  

That was also the year we had that really bad tornado outbreak the following April -- 349 tornadoes over a three day span, including an EF-5 that hit Smithville, MS.  Makes me wonder if the two were somehow related...

But I digress...

As I said, all we got was sleet and freezing rain, but as the temps barely got down to freezing in the first place, there was basically no accumulation.  Just a slushy mess in my back yard. 

And I realized as I trudged out to the shed in an old pair of house shoes to get another armload of firewood, I probably ought to get a new pair of rubber boots.   I tossed the old pair when the rubber began to split, but I'd had them for several years, so I got my money's worth out of them. 

So what did I do while I was sitting in front of my toasty fire?  I'll give you two guesses.  If you say watch TV and knit, give yourself a cookie, because that's exactly what I did.  I made a good start on my cowl, and should be done by tomorrow. 

I like the way it's knitting up, and think maybe my sister and sister in laws might just get one for Christmas next year.  I'll have to ask Cody if he thinks Brennan would wear one.  If so, she'll get one, too. 

And finally, the last thing I did today -- unless you really want to hear about my laundry and housecleaning -- was to finally take my Christmas tablecloth off of my card table and put the table back into the closet.  

I guess Christmas is over for real now.  

Until next year...

Winter Is Coming

Winter is coming.  This weekend, at that.  They're still predicting wintry mix, but without significant accumulation.  Still, I have a bill that is due Friday -- right in the middle of all that mess -- so I took the better part of valor and ran into town and paid it today.

Since I was already in town, I decided to go ahead and go to Walmart and get my shopping done.  I didn't really need a lot, but ironically enough, I needed milk.  So I go to the milk cooler and there is this man there.  He's already got a gallon in his buggy, then he puts about 10 of the little pint bottles of milk, and about 10 more pints of chocolate milk.  

I'm waiting patiently behind him for him to be done, whereupon he turns around and sees me there.  He apologizes, saying, "Sorry about that!'' Apparently he is a Door Dasher or something similar and was filling a client's order, and the client wanted all that milk.  

"There is a winter storm coming.  You got to get the milk and bread!" I quipped.  He laughed and said, "They're going to eat those milk sandwiches!"  

I continued with my shopping, and got to the bread aisle-- which is where the coffee is.  It was almost devoid of bread, so I guess it's a good thing I didn't need any.  What I needed was coffee.  I know I've got all of that Victor Allen's coffee, but I wanted some Hazelnut cappuccino pods, because sometimes I like a good cappuccino.  I eased my way through the throngs of of people grabbing the last of the bread, and found my coffee.  Then I helped a lady with an oxygen tank find the coffee filters she needed and decided that was about enough shopping for one day. 

I went to the checkout, and was patiently waiting my turn when the lady in front of me called to me and warned me that her rotisserie chicken had leaked and be careful not to slip on the grease on the floor.  I thanked her and tried to ease my buggy around the puddle, knocking a box of candy to the floor as I did so.  Immediately, the man in line behind me said, "I got it!" and picked the box up, putting it back onto the shelf.  I thanked him, saying I'd been trying to avoid the grease on the floor.  

I managed to check out without further incident, then came on home, filled my bird feeders and lit a fire which proved to be very stubborn, but in the end, I prevailed and it's now merrily crackling away in the wood stove. 

And that was my day.  How was yours?  

All that to say, I liked the cowl I knit for my friend's brother so much that before all of the above went on, I went down the yarn aisle and bought another skein of Wool Ease to knit myself one.  I chose a different color, though.  This one is called Carousel.  

It's got a slightly softer, more feminine look than what I'd bought for my friend's brother.  By the way, she told me she was going to give it to him next week for his birthday, but she'd tried it on first and said, "Oooh, I like this!"  

On a similar note, a while back, Red Heart came out with this yarn that was dyed specifically to produce multi colored granny squares without having to change yarn several times.  Ever since I first heard of it, I'd been looking for some.  I don't do granny squares -- that's crochet, but I had wondered what it would look like knit up as a hat.  Today, I finally found some.  Naturally, I bought it.  

They had several colorways, and I chose this one, called Soft White - Frigid.  Heh, when I picked it out,  I chose it for the blue and white colors.  I didn't even know what it was named.  That was just a coincidence, but it is fitting for the weekend we're expecting. 

I need to get back to knitting my charity hats anyway, so that'll be a good project while I'm iced/snowed/winterymixed in.  Which shouldn't last too long, since the temps by Saturday are supposed to be back up into the 40s.  

And finally, I got me a new toy. 

It's an electric melter for my sealing wax.  I haven't used it yet, but I figure it'll be good when I just need one or two seals.  Some of the reviews say it takes a long time to melt the beads, but it can't be any longer than holding the spoon over a candle.  Now, I just need a few more pen pals. 

And finally, tomorrow is inventory at work, so I don't have to go in until 7:00.  I told Group Leader Shark it just feels wrong not to be going in at 5:00.   Usually, they have a card writer class the day before inventory, so this morning, I asked GLS what time it was with the intention of asking how much trouble I would be in if I skipped it.  She said, "It was yesterday."  Oops.

Well, nobody's tarred and feathered me yet, so I must not be in too much trouble.  

Not really my fault, though, because nobody tells us anything any more.  Back in the day, they'd make copies of the list of people working, along with the schedule and instructions, and everything you'd need to know and they'd hand it out to everyone working inventory several days ahead of time.  Not only that, they'd have the list of who was working posted in several locations around the plant.  Everyone knew who was working, and everyone who was working knew what to do, and when to do it.  

They don't do that any more. 

Nobody, and I do mean nobody, told anyone when the card writer's class would be.  Not that I need it.  I've been doing inventory since the late 1900s, so I pretty much have it down.  Even so, I went and asked one of the other card writers if he had gone, and he said nobody told him, either.  He was getting ready to leave yesterday when another employee came to his work station and was just standing there.  He asked her if she needed something, and she told him, "We have to go to the card writer's class."  If she hadn't come and gotten him, he wouldn't have gone, either. 

As I said, it's no big deal, because all they do is stand up there and read the instructions that they will hand out to every card writer tomorrow morning anyway.  But still, it beats the heck out of me why they can't just tell us what is going on, and what they want us to do.  Then they yell at us for not doing what they never told us to do in the first place.

I guess that's better than them yelling at us for doing what they told us to do, then decided after the fact that we shouldn't have done it.  What they told us to do...

But that's another post for another day.  This one is already long enough. 

And I need to practice my piano.  

Laters.

Snow!

There I was at work, just a working away, when my coworker called to me, "Becky, it's snowing!"

"It's snowing!" I shouted, then leapt over my brazing stand and ran to the door, shoving old ladies down, scattering chickens, and stepping on kittens in my haste to get outside to revel in the snowfall. 

OK, not really, but that sounds so much better than I casually strolled to the nearest door and looked out of the window, which is what I really did.  Sure enough, tiny little snowflakes were floating down from the heavens.  It didn't stick, but it was still nice to see.  

Now, this weekend is going to be a different story, as this is what we have in the forecast.  Oh, and just so you know, we did not reach that high of 37.  

They keep going back and forth between snow and rain, but what with the temps it'll end up being an icy mess either way. 

The good thing about it is that they're doing inventory this week, and we are all going to be off on Friday anyway, and the ones who aren't working inventory will be off Thursday as well.  I think.  The latest rumor going around plant is that they're going to bring in all the employees to do inventory.  I don't believe that one, because they've already put out the list, but I've heard it from several sources, so who knows. 

I mean, what are they going to do?  They can't write cards, and -- in the words of a former supervisor of mine, "you got to have sense enough to count", which most of the employees out there don't have. 

Ask me how I know...Yep, every single order I got today was short of parts.  Every. Single. One.  Oh and you remember when I said all those parts that they'd been telling us to let go they were suddenly not good enough?  We got there this morning and one of the auditors had flagged several orders and sent them back up to tubing. 

But after a lengthy discussion with Group Leader Shark, Uncle Supervisor, and a few of the auditors, they sent them back to the line.  Then the auditors brought out this board that had examples of parts...I don't know if they were bad or what, because I didn't go look at it.  The question is, why did they bring it over to sub-brazing?  Shouldn't they have taken it to tubing, you know, where they make the parts in the first place?  

Wouldn't it make more sense to have them check the parts before they run 216 bad ones?  It would to me, but what do I know?  I don't have me one of them fancy schmancy college degrees. 

Well, I do, but, but, but that's not the point.  The point is, it should be common sense to make tubing check their parts instead of just sending them on to the next person and saying, "If they're wrong, someone else will catch it."  

In other news, this cold weather is making it feel like Christmas again, and good thing, too, because I got two more cards today.  

And finally, even though we didn't have any tornadoes in the area, the wind blew so hard it blew the cover off of my fire pit.  Fortunately, it didn't go far, and got stuck in my fence.  It's now safely back on the pit and weighed down with firewood. 

Speaking of, I lit a little fire in the wood stove when I got home, which I don't normally do during the week, but as cold as it was, it felt really nice.  

Oh, and my coworker loved the cowl I knit for her brother and insisted on paying me for it.  I was only asking for the cost of the yarn, but she gave me some extra.  When I tried to give the difference back to her, she said, "No, you will not!"  

Anyway, I hope her brother likes it, because I sure did, and now I want to make one for myself.  

Maybe I will.  

Stormy Sunday

Just another typical Sunday in the South.   As is my custom, I spent it with Ryan, 

and I had Reed on for a while until he ended his stream, so found some of the storm chasers who are in this area -- Brad Arnold, Corey Gerkin, Jordan Hall  - and put their channels on.   I'm going to have to make this quick, so I can get one of them back onto my computer.      The worst of the storms is just about past us now, so I believe we'll be in the clear very soon.  It didn't get that bad here, but we did get some thunder and heavy rains.  It's still looking pretty sporty down south, near where my friend Amy lives, but I did want to show you my friend's cowl after I got it washed. 

I also realized I didn't tell you what the yarn's colorway was, which is Hudson Bay, and just in case you have a memory like mine, it is Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick. 

The only other thing I did today was to get all my books and stuff back onto the bookshelves in the living room.  As I had planned, I changed a few things up to make room for my new candles, and I may adjust it a bit more even after this. 

One thing, I knew I had some more Doctor Who Funko Pops, but I had no idea where I had put them.  I had a Fourth Doctor and an Adipose Baby, and I tore up the house looking for them.  I looked in every place I could think of, but couldn't find them anywhere.  

"Eh, they'll turn up eventually," I said as I sat down to watch my storm chasers.  It was about that time that I remembered what I'd done with them.  I'd put them inside the TARDIS.  Jumping back out of my chair -- and I use the term jumping very very figuratively -- I retrieved the missing Funkos and they are now safely back on display.  

Eventually, I'm probably going to move all of that stuff from the top shelf, because science fiction stuff doesn't fit the farmhouse theme I want to decorate my living room in.  

And finally, I used my Christmas tree cocoa topper last night and the background matched my mug. 

 That's about it for now, and I've got to get off of here because one of the storm chasers is in Grenada and I need to watch his stream.

Laters.  

All Done

Well, mostly done, that is.  I still have to weave in the ends and wash it, but the cowl I've knit for my friend's brother is finished. 

I didn't follow a pattern.  I just cast on 48 stitches, knit in K2P2 rib until I ran out of yarn, then tinked back until I had enough yarn to bind off.   I also knit on larger size needles --15 -- than what was recommended on the ball band, which was US 13.  I figured a looser fabric would make it more comfortable and scrunchable around his neck, for the extra warmth.  

Other than that, not much else has gone on today.  Needless to say, I didn't go up to Batesville.  Again.  I'm not sure why I'm stuck on going to Batesville, other than collecting a few more route badges at the Mounds, and might as well go to Lowe's while I'm there.  Other than that, until the Hobby Lobby opens, there isn't much I need up in Batesville.  But it's stuck in my head that I need to go, so one of these days, I need to go. If only to get the idea out of my head. 

So, what did I do while I was not going to Batesville?  I did a little piddling around the house, including putting the Christmas cookie and candy containers back up into the top of the cabinet in the laundry room, where they'll remain until next year.  I did laundry and....that's about it, besides knitting and watching TV, I mean. 

Soo, what did I watch while I was knitting?  I found a documentary series on Prime called A Day In, and it centers around German history.  There are three episodes:  once is about a women living in Dresden after WWII, one is about a German immigrant to New York in the1880s, and the third is about a castle manager in 1218.  The narration is in English, but most of the dialogue is in German with subtitles, which made it difficult to watch while knitting, but we made it through.  As a history geek, I found it very interesting, and I'm sure those of you with German ancestry would love it. 

I also started watching The X-Files again.  I'd gotten through season 5, then stopped.  I don't really know why.  I guess I just needed a break.  By the way, I don't know who needs to read this, but it's a show of fiction.  Chris Carter was never a super duper secret FBI agent, and the scripts are not taken from super duper secret FBI cases -- I actually saw a Facebook meme making that case a while back.  I kind of wish I'd saved it for my meme debunkeration segment, but I wasn't doing it back then. Still, the show does seem to be where so many modern conspiracy theories originated. 

Okayyyy, I did not mean for this to turn into a What I Watch On TV blog, but hey, when all you do is work, there isn't really that much else to talk about.  

You know, I was thinking -- scary, I know, but hear me out -- I was thinking that if one could feel sorry for a month, I would feel sorry for January.  Nobody likes January. 

After the lights and warmth and family of the holiday season, and by holiday season, I mean from Halloween through New  Year's Day.   Yes, there is Epiphany, but it's more of an observance than a holiday.  I guess.  Growing up Southern Baptist, we didn't really do Epiphany, so I don't really know that much about how it's observed.  

But that's not the point.  The point is, after the joy and beauty of the holiday season, January is dreary and depressing.  Snow isn't magical any more.  The lights are gone-- after the 6th at least-- and the decorations are down and put away, and January is just cold and blah.  

The only exciting things that happen are tornadoes and ice storms -- both of which we are expecting through the next week, starting with tomorrow's severe weather.

It's like January is the Monday of the year, it's cold and dark and seems to last forever.  Case in point, I've thought it was the 5th all day.  But it's only the 4th...

See?  January. 

Wake me when it's over. 

New Year New You

You know how around this time of year, people are saying things like, "new year, new me" or some such similar nonsense? 

Yeah, apparently the plant never got that memo.  You guessed it.  There were shenanigans.  More shenanigans. It would seem there had been a fight yesterday.  In the bathroom.  Between two guys fighting over a girl.  

And I said, with my voice dripping with as much sarcasm as I could muster, "But, but, but, I thought taking our insulated mugs away was supposed to stop all that stuff!"  

But wait, there's more!

Yesterday morning, one of the second shift brazers came to day shift.  I know she'd been wanting to come ever since they hired her back last last year, but I'd been under the impression that they weren't going to let her.  But there she was. 

"Huh,"  I said to myself.  "They must have let her come to day shift after all," and didn't think much more about it.   Fast forward to just after lunch today...One of the assembly line supervisors came up to the sub brazing area and said that nobody had told that girl she could come to day shift. Nobody.  She'd just done it.  

That explains why Group Leader Shark didn't know, or Uncle Supervisor, or even the front office.  Nobody knew she was supposed to be coming to days.   She says Junior told her to come, but he won't be back until Monday, so they couldn't even ask him.  I don't know what's going to happen with that.   I mean, it is his decision who to move where, but he's still got to go through the proper channels. 

Heh, one of my coworkers said, "Maybe they'll get rid of him because of that."  No such luck...

And we won't even talk about all the bad parts they were telling us to let go last month that suddenly they don't want to let them go, only nobody wants to admit who it was who approved them...but it had to be somebody...

Who needs reality TV when I can just go to work? 

In more pleasant news, one of my coworkers approached me yesterday -- a lot happened yesterday that I didn't tell you about, apparently -- and told he her brother has cancer, and offered to pay me to knit a scarf for him.  I told her scarves take a long time, and she'd probably be better off just buying him one. 

But after I got home, I got to thinking I could knit him a cowl.  If I could find some bulky weight yarn, I can probably get it done this weekend, so today, I asked her if she had gotten him a scarf yet.  She said no, so I told her my idea and she said that would be better anyway.  

Knowing I didn't have any bulky weight yarn in my stash, I meandered down the yarn aisle at Walmart after work, and found this.  

 I liked the yarn, but didn't know if it would be suitable for a man.  As luck would have it, a few aisles over, I ran into a male coworker of mine and told him what I was planning and told him I needed a man's opinion on the yarn choice.  

"I'd wear it," he emphatically replied.  

Thanking him, I finished my shopping and as soon as I finish this post, I'm going to cast on a cowl, and I should have it done by Monday, especially since we did indeed get tomorrow off. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I must go find some size 13 needles.  

Laters. 

Hi Ho Hi Ho

 It's back to work we go...

I walked into the plant this morning, and my coworker said, "Good morning!  Welcome back!"  

"Good morning.  I hate to be back," was my response. 

Other than that, the day passed largely without incident, and I'm even hearing rumors that we're going to be off Saturday.  If we are, I might finally make that trip up to Batesville after all.  

But back to today, by the time we got off, my feet were so tired and hurt so bad, needless to say I did not go walk any Pokémon Go routes after work.  I came home, filled the bird feeders and sat down.  I've been there ever since save for a short moment to take a hot shower. 

Thus, this post will be brief, because I still need to find time to practice my piano and frankly, I'm already ready to go to bed.  

Oh, and I tried one of my hot cocoa topper marshmallows yesterday.  

It was cute, but overall, I wasn't impressed.  Let's just say, I won't pay full price for them if I see them next year. 

That's it for today.  

Wait, I almost forgot!  One of the local vape shops burned down a couple of days ago, and yesterday, the owner released the surveillance video clearly showing that the fire was set deliberately.  At the risk of repeating myself, and you thought life in a small town was dull.  

Now, I really am going to get off of there.  

Goodnight, all. 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Gentle Readers!  

Would you believe, I almost forgot to watch the Tournament of Roses Parade?  Seriously, I was right in the middle of an episode of Gilmore Girls, when I said, "Wait!  The parade!"  Fortunately, I still had a few minutes before it started, so I switched to Great American Family channel, which is where I usually watch it because they don't show commercials during the parade.  

As soon as that was over, I switched to ESPN and watched Texas vs Arizona State, which was a much closer game than I expected it to be.  I'm telling ya, if Texas wants to make it past --well, as of this writing, it looks like it's going to be Ohio State, but the point is, Texas is going to have to play a whole lot better than they have been lately if they want to advance past the next round. 

While all of that was going on, I took down and put away the Christmas decorations.  The house is sad again.  I still haven't put all the books and stuff back onto the shelves, though.  That'll come over the next few days. I want to figure where to put these three candles, which means I'm going to have to change stuff up.  

I'm thinking they might look really nice beside the painting my older brother did back when he was on his Bob Ross kick.   Hang on a second...

Something like this: 

I don't know.  I'll figure something out. 

In other news, as expected, I finished the Coal Harbour hat. 

Want to hear something funny?  I have one of those metal tapestry needles.  I know I have one, because it's what I'd been using to sew the buttons onto all of those Calorimetry headbands I knit last year.  When I started doing these sock yarn hats, I looked all over for it, figuring it would be easier to weave in ends than the fat plastic needle I usually use for my worsted weight hats. 

I couldn't find it anywhere.  I looked and looked, and was pulling my hair out in frustration.  What on earth had I done with it.  Right before the first freeze, I went out to my herb gardens and cut the last of the cayenne peppers to ....string them up and dry them.  That's when I found the needle.  

I'd left it on the thread I was using to dry the peppers.  

And finally, New Year's day is when a lot of people make resolutions to be a better person or whatnot.  This thing says, "Nope.  I'm going to be as evil as ever."  

The brat...

Last Day

Well, it's the last day of 2024, and it's kind of funny to me to look back and think it was 25 years ago that folks were freaking out over the Y2K bug.  People were stockpiling food, and buying generators, and hoarding gas, and I'm just over here like, "Calm down folks!  The electric company isn't just going to say 'Oh, well' and shut down.  This is how they make their living.  They'll figure out how to keep the lights on.  Same with the stores.  They aren't making money with empty shelves.  They'll figure out how to keep them stocked."  And sure enough, they did.  A few little blips, but nothing really major happened when the calendar turned to the year 2000.  

I did buy an extra bag of rice, and some beans, but that was the extent of my panic prep.  To me, the whole thing wasn't much different from being prepared for a hurricane -- which even a cat 1 causes more disruption than that whole Y2K did. 

On a similar note, I went back to last year to try to see what goals I'd set for 2024, and there really weren't any, other than finish my Alfred's book, which I already blogged about, and keep scrolling past the stupidity on Facebook.  That one takes some effort, but I've managed to do it-- for the most part.  I mean, I did start my Meme Debunkeration segment on the blog, but other than that...

I guess my goals for the new year will be the same:  keep scrolling, finish the Alfred's book, and start getting this house fixed up.  That's going to be the difficult one, because it requires two things I don't have -- money, and the ability to make phone calls.  Oh, and to keep up my walking and keep my blood sugars under control.  

By the way, I went walking this morning, but only made one lap of the Lake Circle because that wind like to have blown me away.  It had a bite to it, too.  So much so, I came home and hauled a load of firewood up to the house, then cleaned the ash out of my wood burner in anticipation of the cold that is to come.  I went out a few minutes ago to fill the bird feeders, and it already feels colder, but the real cold isn't expected to arrive until Thursday morning.  Just in time for us to go back to work.

And now I'm depressed.   

Because I have to go back to work day after tomorrow.  I don't want to.  Nobody wants to work at that place.  Which reminds me, I drove past the plant on the way to and from the lake, but I didn't see any broken or boarded up windows.  Either they got them fixed really fast, or I was looking in the wrong place.  Or the whole thing could just be a rumor, but the security guard was sitting out in the front parking lot, so there was that.  

In knitting news,  I got this far in my new hat when I decided I probably ought to finish the one I had already been working on, so I picked it back up.

I'm almost to the crown decreases, so I ought to get it finished while watching football tomorrow.  And I brought in my storage boxes, so I'll probably start taking my Christmas stuff down tomorrow, too. 

I think right now, I'm going to go get me a slice of that DiGiorno pizza.  

Laters 

The Funniest Thing

The funniest thing happened to me while I was at Walmart this morning.  

But first, I'd gone out to the lake and walked the Lake Circle route three times, which amounts to just under two miles.  If I can keep this up after I have to go back to work, it ought to keep my sugars under control just fine.  Alas, convincing myself to go walk after a 10 hour shift is the difficult part.  I have good intentions, but once I'm sitting in that car, all I want is to come home, especially after it starts getting hot. 

So anyway, I went out and walked the Lake Circle route, then went to Walmart.  I didn't really need anything, but wanted to check out the clearance section to see if there was any good stuff left.  They had quite a bit -- a lot of wrapping paper, which I do not need -- but all I got were some fancy marshmallows for my hot chocolate and a new Pez dispenser.    

I also picked up another string of these lights, which I may put up next year.  

I have a few different styles and tend to put up different sets each year.  I was looking for some multi-colored icicle lights, but all they had were the ones with white wire.  I like the ones with the dark wire, so they're not as obvious.  But that's just me.  I might run up to Batesville tomorrow to see what they have and collect a few route badges from the Mounds.   Or I might not.  We'll see. 

I almost bought another box of Christmas cards, but put them back after reminding myself I still have five boxes at home -- three of which are still unopened.  Speaking of cards, I got home to find three more in my mailbox.  

All of them had been mailed before Christmas; one was mailed December 12!  Tell me this isn't a government operation...

I imagine by this point, you're wondering what was so funny about all this.  Well, I'll tell you.  

I was strolling down the aisle in the clearance section, when a man stopped me saying, "Ma'am, smell this candle" and held out a candle towards me.  At first, I thought he was looking for something for his wife and wanted my opinion, but when I sniffed the candle I noticed it had a very peculiar, yet very familiar, scent.  

I stood there trying to place the scent, looking puzzled, and the man said, "It's pizza."  A pizza scented candle.  We shared a chuckle over that, then I said, "Now, I'm hungry.  I need to go buy me a pizza."  

And that's exactly what I did, but not just any pizza.  I DiGiorno stuffed crust pizza.   

I haven't had one of those in ages, not since they got so expensive, and indeed this one was $8.47, but I decided to splurge.  

Now I done et too much.  

And finally, one of my coworkers called me a little bit ago and told me that apparently there have been some shenanigans out at the plant.  Someone had gotten fired, and didn't take to kindly to it, so she went out there in the middle of the night with a sledgehammer and busted some windows.  They say they have it on video surveillance, and know who it was.

The weird thing is, I drove by the plant this morning on the way to the lake, and didn't even notice.  I was too busy looking at the Dick's Sporting Goods blimp that was parked at the airport.  I said I was going to have to be sure to look tomorrow when I go walking.  

I mean, it won't look like much, because they've already boarded up the broken windows, but still...

And you only thought life in a small town was dull.