LiviKnit

 

Had a great visit with Thom’s sister and brother-in-law, Sharon and Bob, last week. That’s the good news.  The bad news is that Thom had put his back out the Saturday before they arrived when we took Sadie for a walk while we were on bikes. He was holding her leash and balancing his bike at the same time; apparently not a good thing for someone with a bad back. It’s now a week and a half later, and it’s still not good. We’re all trying to convince him to try a chiropractor. He must be in bad shape, because I think he’s actually considering it. Here’s hoping.

Boy, did I have the return trip from hell Monday trying to get back home to Florida from Michigan.  What started out quite pleasant — an early-afternoon flight out of Traverse City to Detroit — turned into a four-legged yo-yo experience like nothing I’ve had in awhile. And even though I do love to fly — I really do — three more legs and three different planes later PLUS an hour-long delay out of Charlotte was about enough to do me in.

The most interesting stop by far, though, was my second leg from Detroit to Huntington, West Virginia. I mean, I know there’s not a lot of big towns on that side of the state, but this little ‘terminal,’ if I might call it that, was out of one of those sitcoms about the south. Remember WINGS?  I’d been a little concerned about making my connections at each of my stops since I wasn’t familiar with the terminals and didn’t know how far I’d have to run to get to the next gate. I needn’t  have worried. Arriving in Huntington, we deplaned onto the tarmac and walked into the terminal. I looked around for a gate monitor. When I finally got my bearings I realized I was already standing at the gates. All three of them. When I walked forward a little way, I saw that if I went TOO far, I’d be exiting the airport and would have to go through security again, which I could see right in front of me. I found vending machines and a bathroom, then settled in for the hour-long wait for my next flight. My turbo-propped airplane came screaming up to the gate, and that’s when I realized, without a doubt, that this was a reeeeeeally little airport. Soon all nine of us boarded this airplane and took off for Charlotte, North Carolina.

I like Charlotte’s airport. In the center of it there’s a bunch of nice shops and white porch rockers for your convenience, if you’re lucky enough to find one open, which I never am.  But it’s a nice-sized terminal, nothing too far away — not like Detroit where you have to travel by foot under the runways to get from one terminal to the next. Aside from having our gate moved and our flight delayed over an hour, it was a pretty uneventful flight to Daytona Beach and home.

I’m staying put for awhile.

Wow. It’s 6:00 o’clock, and we’re up. And even though it’s still dark out there, there’s one bird that’s as noisy as anything I’ve heard. Wish I could find out what it is just by the sound! “Choo, choo, choo…choo, choo, choo, choo, choo!”  I don’t hear anyone answering him back; maybe that’s why he keeps it up for so long. Yesterday I even had to close the slider after I’d opened it up. That’s how loud he is!!!

I’m not complaining. I’d much rather hear that than traffic, construction, or much of anything else. But I’d also really like to know what it is.

I was searching for something in my g-mail recently when this old e-mail headline caught my eye. Of course I had to open it and see just what the heck prompted this heart-stopping (for any knitter) headline.

Apparently, my knittin’ buddy Anita and I were working on a keyhole shawl pattern called “Starry Starry Night”that we were both pretty excited about; something challenging, but those are always fun when you do them with someone else. We were both having the same issue with the pattern where the directions simply did NOT make sense to us ‘advanced’ knitters. I had written the pattern designer with our questions, and I received her email response a few mornings later. The above headline was what I’d written in my email to Anita, knowing that she’ll often get up and start knitting at 3:00 a.m. The body of the email was simply:

“I heard back from the pattern designer! 

WE’RE DOING IT WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The designer went on to explain that the pattern was correct, and why.

These are the ‘ties’ that bind us knitters together.  LOL!!!!