Blue Saturday

To start with, I just heard a story on NPR where the town council of some little New England town (haven't done my research; don't know which one) voted to support the House Bill proposing a Department of Peace, and when the town citizens read about it in the paper the next day, they just went crazy. It was the craziest thing I've ever heard, all these people claiming that it would allow the UN to rule over the US, that it was a Communist plot, that having a Department of Peace would "make us a nation of wusses." And the town council voted to rescind their support. I find that deeply sad and disheartening. The reporter of the piece sat down with two of the guys who spoke against it and asked them where, exactly, in the proposed bill it said that the UN would have sovereignty over the US. They had a copy of the bill, and went through it and (not surprisingly) couldn't find anything, but (also not surprisingly) it didn't change their minds that it must be in there somewhere--or maybe something worse. All these ghosts and terrors--it was one of those truth-is-stranger-than-movies moments.

I slept really badly last night, and my shoulder really hurts this morning--time for some aspirin I think. Glad to see the doctor Monday, although she's going to rag on me about my weight. I'm not happy about it either, but I'm going to tell her--I know how this works: when I feel emotionally and financially secure, I lose weight. Right now, I feel like I'm teetering on the edge of complete financial disaster, or possibly physical disaster as the house disintegrates around me unchecked.

Scott Simon said something today about people with cancer who go on with their lives, going to work, providing for their children, planning for next year. Planning for next year? I don't think I've ever planned for next year. That implies stability, resources, and, I suppose, a kind of optimism. Or a belief in your sense of control over things: you have enough control over the circumstances of your life to allow you to manipulate them. I've got no control over anything. I make hair appointments 6 months in advance, but I wound up canceling the last two in the last cycle.

I suppose I should confess that my body temp is really low this morning--both oral thermometers said 95.8; the ear thermometer said 96.6; either way, it's really low. Ive been thinking about buying a new thermometer to support my temperature-taking jones; I've been reading that glass ones are the only ones that are really accurate. But the point is that I suspect that sleeping as badly as I did last night combined with the low body temp is not doing wonders for my mood.

I think one reason my shoulder is bothering me so much is this:

You remember the tangled mess from yesterday? (The colors are much softer than this, btw; this was the closest I could come, though.) After I got it untangled, I cast on for this scarf--it's more of a stole in the original, "Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness" from Lavish Lace, but that took two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Suri Alpaca Laceweight and I only have one, so I was going to make it just half as wide. At any rate, I got to row 19 and discovered I'd lost four stitches along the way somewhere and will have to rip back and start over. But my lamp is too far in back of me--it needs to come forward about a foot, which it can't do because of the computer cart being in the way--and I got really tense and tight while I was working. That's what messed up my shoulder.

I think I dropped most of those stitches doing left-slanting decreases--I like to knit 2 together through the back loops because it gives me a neater-looking decrease that some of the other methods--but my needle tips aren't sharp enough to ensure I've got both stitches. I guess I can experiment with the ssk method--I'd be working from the front that way and could be more sure that I've got both of them.

I'm not a lace novice--I've got yards and yards of knitted lace edgings, and also a couple of ostritch-feather stoles. I can "read" lace both on a chart and on the needles. It's the fineness of this suri that's giving me so much trouble. And the relatively blunt needle tips. I was going to order a 24" circ from Knit Picks, since I've been reading that their needle tips are pretty sharp, but they have this account system and I couldn't remember if I had one, and when it turned out I did I couldn't remember the password, and it was just such a hassle that I sent them a cranky (but polite!) e-mail suggesting they institute a system of account-free ordering for the occasional shopper like me and closed my browser. Honestly, it's just silly to make you set up an account for a one time purchase, or if, like me, you only buy from them once every year or two. For frequent buyers, yes, it's definitely a convenience, but for me, it's a pita. I'm sure they'll suggest I phone in my order. I don't want to phone in my order, I want to order on line. (Yeah, thats my unreasonable 3-year-old persona putting in an appearance.)

Well, I'm cold. I'm going to make some fake cappucino and see if that helps anything. It's going to be another rainy day--a good day for watching Pride & Prejudice for the umpteenth time, if I can find a project to work on. Not socks, I'm not in the mood for socks. I want to work with something easy, worsted or bulky weight.

Soundtrack: A Change Is Gonna Come, Moondog Matinee, The Band