Way Behind

Blogger dashboard tells me i'm 4 days behind in blog reading. Well, not quite that much, probably, because when i check a blog i usually see all the posts, not just the one blogger shows as "current."

Did i mention i'm knitting a sweater for my MIL? Her BD is late this month. It will just be rather big & bulky, but it is a pretty lavender color, bamboo/acrylic mix. I've the front & back done now, & am starting on the sleeves. I've made sweaters before, but not for many years. I never use a pattern (sweater pattern, i do use a pattern for the lace). I'm doing the horseshoe pattern with it. I like the lace trellis best, but i get impatient in having to count the purl rows. I'll post a pic, eventually.

I have meant to write here a number of times now, but have had things going on & haven't done it. I meant to post some pics of "This is why people want to live in So Cal" from last week, because it was so beautiful. I never got really good pics of the mountains, tho. I tried, but the other part of So Cal is that there is so much in the way: Buildings, electrical lines, freeways, cell towers, trees, hills & so much more.

When i first moved to So Cal i couldn't wait for heaven to be able to see what this area is meant to look like, to see it as it was created before we humans got to it.

Anyway, here are a few of those pics.


The last 4 here were taken in the parking lot of the office where i work. These flowering ornamental trees were cut back severely in January because one came down in the storm & so they had all of them trimmed. (I miss the foliage, honestly.) I mention that because it still is so strange to me.

When i was growing up in Montana, "trimming trees" was a delicate job. If you got too enthusiastic about it, you could kill the tree very easily. When i first moved to Ca i lived in Long Beach. We had a beautiful ficus tree in the front yard. I loved that tree a lot. But it was overgrown & needed trimming. So it was trimmed, & i was so angry! I thought they'd killed the tree. They cut it back so severely there was no foliage left on the tree. I thought if it survived, it would be years before it was green again.

Ah, welcome to So Cal, Kathryn. Within a month the tree was green & leafy again. So different from where i grew up! I mention this because it still is a surprise to me to see blossoms on these trees 2 weeks after they were trimmed to trunk & branches. In January/February, no less! The rest of the country (most of it) won't see spring for weeks yet.

I've a headache like nobody's business today. I woke up with it. Makes me wonder how folks who don't see a chiropractor manage. I'm sure this is because i've gone 3 weeks or so without an adjustment. I'm feeling it all over (the lack of a recent adjustment). Did some massage over the weekend & i could really feel the problem in my wrists & ankles too.

This headache is pretty bad. Nothing i have tried has helped at all.

We had a mess with the new car already. When there is a lot of melt/thaw/freeze weather the roads don't handle it well. We have a lot of potholes. Hit one Saturday night on our way home from visiting Duane's aunt & uncle in town. It tore a hole in the sidewall of the front passenger tire. Did not ruin the rim, for which we are thankful. Found one place in town open Sunday AM (& so did not make it to any church). Turns out they do put expensive tires on some new cars (to my surprise). Replacing that tire will be more than twice the cost of what we normally spend. They are "high performance" tires & go only about half the mileage of something less costly. Pay twice the price to have it go half as far??? They are softer tires so that they corner better, supposedly.

We've decided to replace both front tires with something more durable than "high performance" tires. We'll have one spare to use in case something happens to those expensive ones we'll still have on the rear. The cost to replace both front tires with the cheaper tires is less than replacing the one that was ruined with an identical tire. I don't rotate tires. I never have. Someone told me, long ago, that the reason to rotate tires is so that you have to replace all four at the same time, because they have "balanced wear." I've always driven a front wheel drive. I buy two new ones & put them on the front. The two on the front (which are newer ones) go on the rear. This has always worked well for me because i only have to replace 2 at a time, not 4, & i always know which are the newest. Duane says we'll do the same on the Subaru, even tho it is a all wheel drive.

Anyway, the tires won't be in until about noon tomorrow (hopefully by then) so our schedule tomorrow will be off. I have to say, i'm so, so, so very thankful Duane was driving when this happened. I don't think i would have been as calm about the whole thing (or he, either) had i been driving.

Please don't think that i'm not reading your blog! I am/will. I may not comment, tho. I've been a bit ovewhelmed the past week or so.


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