Posts

Showing posts from November, 2011

challenging the comfort zone, #3

Image
For some reason I wanted to knit a pair socks.  My mom was a great sock knitter (and a great knitter in general) and I wish I would have appreciated her homemade socks, mittens and hats more than I did.  My sister also could knit socks.    I always thought that I would be unable to master using all those knitting needles at the same time, so never tried.  Until recently.  Ironically, my sister, my daughter and I all decided we wanted to knit socks.  I didn't tell my daughter (Kseniya) that I, too decided to take up the challenge, because I wanted to surprise her with a pair  at Thanksgiving. I found a pattern and some yarn.  The pattern called for 5 knitting needles, which surprised my sister, who said she and my mom only used four.  But I was determined.  I watched a You Tube video on how to cast on to five needles.  I still ended up starting several times, tearing out my stitches and starting over - swearing a lot!  I was not having fun.  I went to bed and dreamed about the soc

what is, is.

Image
My father in law died about two weeks ago.  Bruce and I headed to Wisconsin on my birthday and I felt honored to be able to share the day of my birth celebrating my father in law's life.  What a great life he lived and what a great example of living he was to all of us.  His children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will carry on with a part of him. The minister who conducted the funeral was, as she put it, "the minister du jour"  and did a less than optimal job of eulogizing him.   I bet he would have smiled at her mistakes (such as saying he was born on Christmas day, December 5th) and not wanted his children to exchange looks and shake their heads at her inaccuracies.  I thought I should give it a try - eulogizing him.  He deserves at least my attempts to describe what he meant to me. I know all of us had different memories of him. My father in law, William Gilbert Thomas, was born on Christmas Day, December 25th, in 1914, the oldest of several children.  I

there's less shade on main street

Image
The  main street of the little town I grew up in once was lined with fine maple or oak or maybe elm trees on each side.  Over the years, many of them grew victim to old age, some tree disease, or to the power company because they were interfering with the power lines.    One lone oak tree stood proudly across from the post office - all that remained of those old trees that used to shade the lovely main street....until a few days ago, when it also met it's fate.   I wish  I had a better picture of this tree but you can see it in the picture below, on the left side of the street. My sister had heard rumors that this tree was going to be taken down by the power company.  A home owner feared that it would fall on her house.  The tree looked healthy and did not appear to be dying.  I don't know...maybe it was interfering in power lines and was a potential hazard.  But if that was the case, it was not apparent.   A few people in the town threatened to chain themselves to the tree an