Unraveled Wednesday 3/9/22

 Good Morning!

It's a little warmer here this morning (38), but it is grey and damp.  A wintry mix is expected within an hour or two.  And yet Fletch mentioned that it will be warm again tomorrow and he'd like to grill.  Crazy up and down, spin me around weather.

Also, tick season has already begun (or, more likely, never ended).  Fletch has been doing quite a bit of work around the garden - putting up a fence to keep out the rabbits, deer and other creatures (Steve the Beav - our resident groundhog??).  Anyway, he discovered a deer tick on his pants leg the other night.  We gave Mabel a flea & tick treatment so I hope she is safe too.

The news about my brother Ray continues to evolve.  The Penn doctors really don't see the situation as dire as the Delaware doctors did.  The heart surgeon at Penn is ready to replace Ray's mechanical valve if necessary, but it will not be right now.  Instead Ray will be sent home with a pic line and IV antibiotics.  He will have monthly check ups at Penn and CT scans.  Not only will he see the heart surgeon monthly, but also an infectious disease doctor.  Linda is hoping his discharge can happen as early as tomorrow, but we are not sure yet.  They have other things they need to check - like his blood thinner meds (which he has been on since open heart surgery), how the newest/latest antibiotic is working, etc., etc.  Meanwhile, Linda has been camped out at a hotel next to the hospital so that she would not need to commute daily from Delaware.  It's a lot!  I continue to appreciate all your healing vibes and well wishes for Ray.  Thank you so much!

And that brings us to Unraveled Wednesday where I hook up with Kat and her merry band of unravelers to talk making and reading

You already know (if you read my earlier posts this week) that once again there was unravelling, or knitting backwards as I prefer to call it.  I have not yet re-cast on the Hiking Trail socks for Colin.  Soon I will.  I will most likely just do Hermione's Everyday Socks pattern, or a simple rib like I did for Fletcher's Barn Owl socks.

Here is the scene from last night:

Another messy table scene, but such is life.  In front is the new beginning of the Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood.  This is the one that was completely unraveled the other week.  And, in reading the pattern (what a concept!!) I discovered that what I had knit last year was fine...I was just messing it all up when I started knitting on it again this year.  Distracted much?  Yes, I would say so.  But I believe/hope I am on track now.  That is only the first 8 rows of the wrap, but after taking this picture I ended up on the phone with a friend and literally laughing for 2 hours (very good for the soul).

On the reading side of things, I finished Circling the Sun by Paula McLain and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Much of it was so familiar because many years ago I had read Beryl Markham's memoir West With the Night (highly recommend) and, of course Out of Africa (and the movie - so good).  In the picture above you will see the next two books.  Fletch and I are reading Taste together after dinner and are laughing out loud and enjoying it.  Even reading it AFTER dinner, I still find my mouth watering over the recipes.  I also started The Final Case by David Guterson.  Decades ago I read "Snow Falling on Cedars" (by Guterson) and loved it.  I'm not loving The Final Case.  I'm roughly a third of the way through it and I'll finish it, but I'm anxious to get to some of the other books that recently came through for me at the library.  Fortunately it's not that long a book.

You may have noticed sweet Mabel in the picture above.  Yes she is sprawled on the table - that's how we live.  She was deeply asleep with tail, paws and her mouth periodically twitching.  Deep dreams.  Here is her sweet face.

Daily she is growing more affectionate (and tolerant of me picking her up) and loving.  So happy that we rescued her.

OK, I need to get moving.  Despite the weather forecast, I am headed to the office this morning.  I have some things I need to do and I've arranged to meet up with Christina - a peer - who asked for help navigating the legal data base and learning what she is supposed to do with it (something she should have been taught when she was hired 4-5 years ago!!).  I'm hoping to get in early, do my stuff, meet with Christina at 9 and then blow out of there by 9:30.  I need to stop at Trader Joe's for a few things and the State Store for wine.  And then home again, home again jiggity-jog.

Happy mid-week!  It is good to be on the downward slope to the weekend!