kmkat and her kneedles

Livin' in the snow. And lovin' it. Or not.

Any of you in New England, particularly in the Boston area, may want to look away from this post. Unlike you, we have places to put our snow.

A couple weeks ago Smokey was backing his car down the driveway. We tend to back down in the winter because there is not enough room to turn around (until next summer and forever after, but that is another story entirely) and it is easier to back down and drive forward up the hill than vice versa. 

Anyway.

He was trying to put his car as far to one side as possible so as to give me lots of room when I drove out. He is nice like that, but it got him into trouble this time. He got too far over to one side and got stuck in a snowbank. 

 

The sharp-eyed and car-savvy among you may notice that his car is an Isuzu Trooper, a 4WD vehicle. How in the world did he get it stuck in that little snowbank, you may wonder? (As some of us did wonder, but never out loud.)

Here is a clue:

Younger Son using a Sawzall to cut off the iron pipe the car was hung up on.

Why was that pipe there? Well, it's part of that other story that I may or may not blog.

Once the pipe was removed, my little Volvo performed admirably in pulling the much bigger and heavier Trooper out of its predicament. (Please note the warm hand-knit hat sported by YS.) 

Notice how I [finally!] managed to embed an animated gif? Yay, me!

 

The remains of the villain.

If it is Sunday, I must be muttering. And stuff.

First, the mutterings.

1. 64 :: When I'm...
2. Dark :: Crystal.
3. Honor :: thy father.
4. Crystal :: Gayle.
5. Postscript :: printer.
6. Things :: go awry.
7. Fever :: heat.
8. Bare :: butt.
9. Thump :: Bunny!
10. Point of view :: slanted.

* * * * *

Chocolatesheep blogged that her household is off the innernetz for a few days because there are Major Problems with her connection.  A technician will call on Tuesday to Fix It, whatever It is. This prompted me to do a speed test with my connection just out of curiosity.

Go check yours now and report back with the results and your approximate location:

www.speedtest.net | My Results | Take a speed test.

I am curious to compare my rural results to yours, given that the site rates my speed as a D.

* * * * *

I am making chicken soup this afternoon and just did something incredibly clever. Instead of sautéing the vegetables in canola oil as I always have done, I sautéed them in the schmaltz that I skimmed off the chicken stock. We shall see what that does for the flavor.

* * * * *

Both sons are here this weekend. The only time that has happened in the past six years or so is at holidays. Elder Son and a friend from grad school came last weekend after attending a wedding in the UP. They and Smokey then went camping on the North Shore for a few days. (This was the ten-day camping trip that Smokey and I were supposed to go on. It had been planned for at least six months. But his recovery from the kidney stone surgery delayed and shortened the vacation drastically, plus I had an important vote at the county board meeting on Tuesday night that I didn't want to miss. So I stayed home. All by myself, as long as you don't count the cats, books, wine, knitting, and NetFlix. It was sheer torture, believe me.) Andrew's friend, who came here from Somalia when he was 13, had never been camping in the woods and wanted to know what it was like. From all accounts he had a great time. Alí is a very friendly, outgoing sort. He says he learned to be that way when he was a beggar in Somalia because it helped him get more handouts.*

Younger Son is here finishing the dog run. Sadly for him, the outdoor temperature sucks. Don't believe this thermometer.

It lies. The real outdoor temp:

Poor Matthew. We set up a big fan to blow on him and moved the table with the umbrella so it would offer him a little shade. Right now he is skipping the hottest part of the day by making a supplies run -- in his air conditioned car -- to the Big Box Building Supply Store.

His and my car were sitting in the shade talking about the Old County (even though my car was actually made in Belgium).

* * * * *

Earlier this week I had to go out and about. After a little thought, I decided it would be prudent to take Smokey's car instead of mine because:

1. We haven't gotten the new plates from the dealer yet.
2. We haven't gotten the new insurance card from the insurance company yet.
3. I haven't replaced my driver's license, which I lost sometime in the past month, yet.

I figured that if I were stopped for the lack of plates, that error would be compounded exponentially by #2 and #3. The first thing I did on my errand run was to apply for a replacement license. At least  I will be legal, even if the car isn't.

* If you ever doubt the value of education (and opportunity), think of Alí. He went from begging on the streets in Somalia to grad school at the University of Michigan and hopes to work at the CDC. What a guy.

Mutterings on a Monday.

1. Packing :: road trip!
2. Rent :: lease.
3. Inspire :: knitting.
4. Anti-social :: behavior
5. Common :: goals.
6. Repeats :: lots.
7. Dracula :: Count.
8. Cross :: -eyed
9. Short sighted :: myopic.
10. Corrupt :: officials. (Sigh.)

* * * * *

I have a new-to-me car! 

It replaces this one...

... which will go to Elder Son to use during his final year in grad school in Ann Arbor.

You may remember he totaled our yellow Aveo last winter and didn't want another car or ever to drive again if he could help it. But he will need a car to go to residency interviews this fall. Smokey was planning to fix up a 1982 Rabbit convertible that he has in the pole barn, but he was worried about its reliability. My minivan needs a little work -- new belts, to have the plastic sheathing in the wheel wells reattached, swap out the radio (this one  got rained on once too many times) -- but it is proven reliable. A/c doesn't work, but it has a sunroof.

Enough about him. Now, me!

Smokey and YS went out yesterday to rent a carpet cleaner. While they were out Smoke decided to peek at all the used car lots in the area to see if he could find a suitable car for ES. In the process they came across the Volvo station wagon. As soon as they saw it, they knew I would like it; I had commented more than once that I was jealous of the Volvo they bought last winter for YS. This one has all the features his has: heated seats, leather interior, power everything; plus a few more: all-wheel drive, moon roof, cruise, cargo nets, fold-down rear seats.

We will trade in this one, which Smokey inherited from his parents and which has been adorning the front yard far too long.

Now you know a secret about my husband: he goes out to [fill in the blank] and comes home with a car. Another secret: one of his favorite things is any problem that can be solved by buying a car.

Mutterings, knitting, cars, computers. And stuff.

1. Interests :: varied.
2. Bloom :: Harold.
3. Ceiling :: sky.
4. Tears :: roses.
5. Jerk :: chicken.
6. Weight :: free.
7. Friends :: many.
8. Camera :: lens.
9. Chicken :: jerk.
10. Hose :: garden.

* * * * *

Other items OTN.

A couple summers ago I bought some worsted weight sock yarn when we were on the North Shore. 

The person at the yarn store told me that one skein was not quite enough for a pair of socks, but that I could get two pairs out of three skeins. Hence, my choices.

During tax season I had decided that, when I had free time again, I was going to focus on knitting down my stash. Lots of good yarn there; time to use it. My priority would be to knit up the yarn that didn't fit into my Rubbermaid bins. Although I had planned exactly what I was going to knit first -- and it was not this sock yarn -- when the day actually came to pick up my pointy sticks, this is what I chose.

Sock The First:

It may not be apparent, but this sock is like armor. I knitted the foot and ankle on a US#2 and the leg on a US#3. Result: very dense fabric. The sock is also a little big on me; I am hoping a hot bath will correct that.

Heather, before you ask, here is the inside:

* * * * *

In other news, Younger Son was here yesterday to work on his car with Smokey. Did I ever show you the car they found for him to replace the 14-yo Chevy Metro he had been driving?

Someone had donated it to a tech school in St Paul, which sold it for very, very cheap, like <$2k cheap. YS is thrilled with it -- sunroof, turbo, heated seats, power everything, plus it all works (except for the speedometer, they are still working on that; he uses the GPS in his phone to gauge his speed).

Anyway, while he was here he installed a new external hard drive for me. My Mac Mini has a 160GB hard drive that is nearly full -- it has been nagging me for several months to delete stuff. I had done that, but it was a stopgap measure at best.

This external drive was one that had been sitting around where he works for a couple years; since his firm went to network storage they had no need for individual backup drives. It may not look impressive, but there are two 1TB hard drives in there. He set it up so that one mirrors the other -- automatic backup!

The copying/migration process, which kinda scared me, but to him was just click click, all in a day's work:

* * * * *

The official ice-out day on our lake was yesterday, May 5, the latest anyone can remember. Transiting geese and ducks and loons and maybe even some swans have been sighted and heard. The trees are still completely bare except that I saw that the swamp maple opposite our kitchen window was blooming. Maybe spring/summer really will come.

* * * * *

Well, there you have it:  the minutiae of my recent life. Knitting has been on my mind constantly -- well, except for when I was fretting about the surgery -- and I hope to have more projects to show soon.

Wyoming bullets.

Yes, we are in Wyoming on vacation. Bullet post seems appropriate.

• We got a late start. Mechanic didn't deliver mini-mini-motorhome (Rebuild transmission! Make a/c work!) until the day we were supposed to leave.
  .
• A number of things remained for Smokey to do to the m-m-mh. He worked on them. Days passed.
• Eventually we left. Can I get a huzzah!
  .
• Thank you.
  .
• Bed in back of m-m-mh is extremely comfortable, made more so by addition of 4" memory foam mattress on top of existing cushions.
  .
• Comfortable sleeping is essential to a good vacation.
  .
• The green chili at Tom's Diner in Buffalo is so good I could eat it every day.
  .
• Tragically, it was only on the specials board for one day.
  .
• The french fries at the Bozeman Trail Steak House are still the best in world.
  .
• Parts of Wyoming are very empty.
   
  .
• Unlike parts of New York City.
  
  . 
• Although Grand Central Station is not exactly teeming with people at 10:30 on a Monday night.
   
  .
• Yes, I took a short side trip to NYC. More on that later.
  .
• It can be very hot in Wyoming in July.
  .
• It can also be comfortably chilly.
   .
• The correct wardrobe is essential: shorts, jeans, lightweight sweats, heavy sweats, a fleece jacket, short-sleeved t-shirts, long-sleeved t-shirts, a denim shirt, lightweight wool socks, heavy wool socks. That about covers it.
  .
• Except for the dressy black pants, white tank top, short-sleeve sweater, and silk scarf I wore in NYC. More on that later.
  .
• No moose sightings so far. Several deer, many cattle and horses, no antelope. Where are the moose? We came to see the moose, and we shall find them. They can run but they cannot hide.
  .
• Actually, they CAN hide, and remarkably well at that.
  .
• The stream next to the campsite has been running high, apparently due to melting of the 300%-of-normal snowpack in the mountains last winter.
  .
• Businesses next to Clear Creek, which flows through the center of downtown Buffalo, had sandbags lying around.
  .
• No flooding right now.
  .
• This is a good thing. Occasionally I remember the flash flood in the Black Hills in 1972 that killed 238 people, including 11 campers in creekside sites.
  .
• Our campground is in a canyon.
  .
• I remember, and then I force myself to forget.
  .
• Moving on...
  .
• Much knitting and napping and reading and audiobook consumption have been accomplished.
• Life is good, much better here than at home. More on that later, too.
  .
• That's the report from Wyoming. Knitting report to follow.

Tuque!

We have had our share of car troubles this year. I won't bore you with all of them right now, just the one that led to some knitting.

When Smokey and I were driving home from our Temperance River camping trip in August, we had a slight problem when he was turning the mini-mini-motorhome around in a driveway on a side road off Highway 61 a bit north of Duluth. It was dusk and too dim for me to get a photo, so I'll have to paint you a word picture.

Imagine the mini-etc. backed into a driveway just a leetle bit too far, so that the left back wheel is off the edge of the driveway. This driveway spans a ditch and the edges of it drop off quickly. With that wheel over the edge there was no way we could drive out of the predicament.

We walked down the driveway through the woods to find the house and see if we could use their phone to call a tow truck (cell phone = dead battery; car charger = broken).  We found the homeowner working on an outboard motor in his pole shed/workshop/garage. When Smokey asked about using the phone and described our plight, the guy, name of Harley, said he could pull us out, no problem.

"Which would be better to pull you out, do you think?" he asked. "My tractor or my dump truck?"

Moral: if you are going to get your car into a non-drivable state, do so in the driveway of a man with a tractor AND a dump truck.

Harley pulled us back up onto the road with his dump truck and refused any sort of payment.

We continued on our way.

But I had noted his head and foot sizes, thinking idly that I could knit him a pair of socks or a hat in gratitude. Socks seemed to have too many variables -- size, fit, fiber, color, preferred thickness -- so I went for the hat. Because he lives on the North Shore, land of the voyageur, I thought a tuque would be the thing.

Dale-Harriet came to my aid with an authentic tuque pattern, plus some history. I used the DK superwash wool left over from my multicolor striped raglan.

 

Yarn: Phildar Pure Laine 3-1/2 (apparently discontinued), DK weight, colorway 'Corsair', 3+ skeins (350 - 400 yds.).
Needles: Addi Turbo US#6 (I think; might have been 5s).
Pattern: (I'm not telling; Dale-Harriet said she is veeerrrrryyyy particular about who she shares her patterns with.)

Here's what I told Harley about the hat in the note we enclosed with it.

p.s. The hat pattern is from a friend in Madison who is a re-enactor in French fur trading-era stuff. Here is what she told me about it:

Regarding the Toque Pattern (as I sees it)

A sailing vessel, the Machaud, went down in the mid-18^th century in icy Canadian waters. Among the artifacts found on her (and we have a book with photos of the lot) they found a toque precisely the same construction as mine. We re-enactors call that “provenance” and it makes my toques valuable to the voyageurs!  Now, in those days most knitting was done on steel “knitting pins” – but a dear friend examined the original and said that he thought it looked like it was done on what we’d call maybe #7 DPNs!  (His wife knits; he knows whereof he’s looking). The voyageurs (being French or Canuck and therefore vain) generally go for “rouge” – I use something between a brick or burgundy or darker red, or something with an orange off-cast. The other favorite is “French bleu”, a sort of grey-blue. [like yours!]

But you’re not bound by Authenticity Hounds and so can use whatever strikes your fancy.

Two words.

ROAD TRIP!

Yes, indeedy, the day of our departure on the annual quasi-pseudo-camping vacation approaches. A couple weeks ago Our Man Lennie replaced the transmission in the $750 mini-motorhome, and last week one of Lennie's Minions painted it. (When you only pay $750 for a vehicle, you can justify putting another thou into it.)

On Sunday I started cleaning the inside, but ran out of energy right about even with the back edge of those side doors. There was stuff filling the empty space in the rest, and I didn't have the energy to move it. Yeah, sometimes I'm kinda... low energy.

Another view:

Big honker, isn't it? Especially sitting next to my minivan. If we get 12 mpg we will be thrilled.

Mea culpa for the massive carbon footprint we will leave.

Here is the cab, complete with Smokey's briefcase and trash. Note the curtains, which can be pulled all the way around the front to cover the windshield for privacy when we are parked. He put in a new oak drink holder rack in the center and showed me the new oak dashboard cover for the instrument cluster.

He is like a kid with a new toy, which, really, is exactly what he is right now. After 35 years of vacations in VW microbuses and conversion vans and a camping trailer, this will be perfect.

* * * * *

The itchy rash, while still present and ugly and itchy, seems to be slightly better. I will still see the dermatologist on Tuesday, but I am hopeful that our vacation will not be cursed with The Itch.

Random Friday.

I found myself thinking in bullet points on Thursday afternoon, which led me to this post. Of course, once I started typing, the individual bullet points got longer. As #1 Son says of himself, I can't even say hello in 25 words.

* * * * *

Remember this delightful carved wooden shawl pin that I am using to close my kimono sweater?

 

As I was putting the pin into place yesterday, I suddenly realized that the corkscrew-shaped end would enable me to screw in the pin, thusly:

 

...which means the pin Stays.In.Place. That was a bit of a problem the first few times I wore the sweater.

Damn, I'm good...

* * * * *

(Oops. I seem to have forgotten the other bullet points. Hmmm...)

* * * * *

(Oh, yeah.)

* * * * *

Smokey and I are going to enjoy a free night at the local casino hotel on Thursday night, which is TONIGHT as I type this but will be LAST NIGHT as you read it. Got that? Not that it matters.

I have three four small knitting projects that I will bring to work on tonight/last night while The Bear is happily dropping his quarters into the slots.

1. Second pair of colorful socks.                                   B. Chemo hat.
 

iii. Second cuff.                                                              IV. Medical mittens. (IV = medical, get it?)
 

1. Coming along nicely. These are my fall-back knitting right now; completely mindless and satisfying. ETA: just tried on the first foot -- it fits perfectly! Unlike the first pair of colorful socks, both of which turned out to be about 1/2" too long despite my careful plotting.

B. By request for an internet friend for her friend who is going through cancer treatment for the third time but the first time with chemo. Friend, very dignified, is more worried about losing her hair than the cancer. Chemo hat to the rescue!

iii. You haven't seen these. I have a 10-year-old fleece gray and white pullover that I love, but the cheap white knit acrylic cuffs are falling apart. These replacements will give the pullover a new lease on life.

IV. Yeah, these were supposed to be for Christmas for #1 Son. But when he told me he no longer has time to go running and hence has no particular need for them, I sort of lost interest. Then I got to a slightly more difficult part of the pattern and had screwed it up and was going to have to tink back a couple rows and needed to reprint the pattern but my toner cartridge was empty and I didn't have another and beside the dog ate my homework and the cat threw up on it. New toner cartridge now installed, pattern reprinted, and it's time to finish these suckers. Plus they are occupying my #0 and #1 circs, which I might need again someday.

I predict that numbers B. and iii. will be done by the time I come home tomorrow/today, the socks will have grown a bit, and the mittens will still languish.

Digression: I tweaked the color in the photos to correct the yarn color. Notice how different the color of the chair pad is in the different photos. Also: the blue in the socks and the mittens is NOT the semi-fluorescent blue it appears to be in the photos. I Could Not Make The Blue Behave.

* * * * *

If you are unable to shower, say, if you are camping in a place without showers or are running very very late for an appointment, acne pads -- the ones with salicylic acid -- work pretty well to swab out the stinky bits. We keep the generic ones from Wal Mart on hand; they have 7% sal acid, which is pretty strong.

You're welcome ;^)

* * * * *

I had another run-in with Da Yeep last Friday. Smokey had used it the day before to plow three driveways, charging around in 4WD. When I drove -- very carefully -- to the next little town and back, the brace holding up the plow lost its hold-it-together thingie (technical term) and the plow dropped to the road surface. If I had tried to drive it like that I would have broken the plow. Smokey was in Minneapolis, his cell phone was off, and his other phone (internet phone) was not set up to ring in the room where he was sleeping after his double shift. I did get hold of Lennie The Wonder Mechanic, who sent one of his guys with a wrecker to lift the plow blade and chain it up so I could get the vehicle home.

Smokey drives Da Yeep with reckless abandon, even as far as to Minneapolis and back, and never has a problem. I drive it five miles and end up stranded or some such. I'm cursed, I tell ya...

* * * * *

Have you seen these socks, just added to the latest issue of knitty.com? I was completely smitten at first sight. Even though I generally prefer mindless knitting, these might just be worth the effort. As soon as I finish the second pair of colorful socks and free up the #0 and #1 needles from the medical mittens, I plan to make these. Stay tuned. There are sure to be some, er, colorful metaphors flying around.

2009: That was the year that was.

January.

Well, there was this (bad).

And there was this (good) (from left, Wendy, me, Chris, and Susan).

On the knitting front:


 

February.

Good intentions.

 

Snow and cold.

Knitting:

March.

Winter melted away.

Knitting.

April.

Spring arrived in earnest.

Yarnover.

End of tax season.

Taste of St. Croix.
 

Knitting resumed after tax season.

 

May.

I scored big at Macy's sale racks, I helped Norm go away, I celebrated Mother's Day in an eco-friendly way, the bears and the ticks came out of hibernation, I picked up trash, I enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend, I bid farewell to our local librarian, and Hannibal discovered the joys of catnip.

Knitting was primarily of a stealth nature, but did include scientific swatching and the F'ing of a couple of O's that had been OTN for nearly, and over a year, respectively. (I am rather proud of that sentence -- and its punctuation -- awkward though it may be.)

 

June

June was for knitting and vacation and celebrating that brief magical time that is summer in the north woods.

 

 

Lots of knitting.

 

 

July.

July was for more vacation -- the rest of the one in Wyoming and another on the North Shore.

And summer.
 

And injuries.
 

And knitting.

 

August.

It was a very good month. I turned 60, had a contest, and laughed. We went to a concert.
 

I learned the difference between eagles and turkey vultures, and I had surgery to remove some extra/unneeded bits and pieces and repair that torn cartilage in my knee.
 

Knitknitknit.

 

September.

In September I had lots of cats on the blog, it was my turn to give the prayer at the beginning of the monthly county board meeting, the county budget process blew up, and the most gloriously gorgeous month of the year was here.

 

The knitting, she continued.

 

October.

I became a biker by proxy,

more new-to-me music found its way into my iTunes, and we celebrated 35 years together

by not-camping on Lake Superior.

The kneedles continued to fly.
 
 

November.

The van that took us on some wonderful vacations met up with an unfortunate bear on the road and was replaced by an older but bigger and more customized van.

Cold weather arrived, and once more I cooked and baked.

 

Mostly, though, I knitted.




Apparently I can crank out hats like other knitters crank out... sweaters

December.

I continued to be thankful (there is a lot to be thankful for).

With the help of Matthew and Maggie, I decorated for Christmas. This decorating thing is never a given.

I showed you my ornaments, y'all showed me yours.

 

We ate well.
 

A bit more knitting* for others.

I pretty much finished my Christmas knitting. (Shhh, the Calorimetry is a surprise.)


The medical mittens are still OTN -- stay tuned.

*For someone who doesn't like pink, I sure knit a lot of it lately...

Eye candy Friday: the random edition.

Soxanne posted photos of some of her family's Christmas ornaments a few days ago, and I am cheerfully and shamelessly stealing her idea. Feel free to do so yourself -- I'd love to see what y'all hang on your tree. Tell the associated stories, too (voyeur here).

* * * * *

Thursday morning, 7:55 a.m. (yeah, the clock still thinks it is summer):

 

My morning adventure; let me tell you it.

Our cars are a bit scrambled. Smokey is driving my car to work every night this week because #2 son has his car because #2's car in in our pole barn awaiting installation of a part. Thursday morning I needed to go to a 9 a.m. meeting; Smokey said I should use Da Yeep (remember Da Yeep*?), just remember to shift it out of 4WD low range -- he had been plowing the driveway -- before I took it on the road. No problem, mon.

I knew that it would probably take me a few extra minutes to get to the meeting (15 minutes away) so I began bundling up 45 minutes early. Plenty of time.

Da Yeep has an annoying habit of draining the battery when it is parked more than a few hours. Smokey has tried unsuccessfully to find the cause and eventually put a switch on the battery to disconnect it when we park Da Yeep. In order to turn the switch on I needed to open the hood. No problem, I have dealt with this switch any number of times.

Oops. I have never attempted to open the hood when the snowplow is on the front of Da Vehicle. I was not strong enough to lift the hood at all when standing in front of the plow. When standing at the side I could -- just barely -- pull the hood latch behind the grill, and I could -- just barely -- lift the corner of the hood closest to me, but that twisted the hood enough to wedge the opposite corner. Grrr. 

After several attempts I decided that if I wedged something under the closer edge after I unlatched it, I could then walk around to the other side and finish lifting the hood. The handle of a screwdriver did the trick. Go, me!

Now I am standing at the other front corner of Da Yeep holding up the hood with one hand and thinking, Oh great, I suppose the prop rod to hold it up is on the other side and I can't reach it.

But lo and behold, it was within reach! Yay!

I turned on the switch and pulled out the prop rod to drop the hood. Except that I couldn't pull out the prop rod. I had pushed it too far into the hole in the underside of the hood, thinking that I was being extra safe; visions of the hood dropping and taking off my arm had danced through my head, and I had congratulated myself on my Safety First! attitude.

I tugged and wiggled and cursed at that rod, but it wouldn't come loose. Back into the house (again) and up the stairs (again) for a hammer. Whacked that prop rod a good one and it came loose. ::fist pump::

Da Yeep started, albeit reluctantly, and I started up the driveway.

Oh, wait, gotta take it out of 4WD low range before I drive it at speed.

Shift lever Will.Not.Budge. I tried it in park, with my foot on the brake, with the engine on and with it off. Every combination of above. I may have whacked it with the hammer. Once again, I was not strong enough. Da Yeep is one butch vehicle.

So I drove to the meeting on the shoulder of the highway, max speed of 20 mph, with my four-way emergency flashers on. And was 25 minutes late for the meeting,

But I did get there in time to give a little moral support to a friend who was making a pitch to the county board personnel committee to allow employees to donate to the United Way through payroll deduction, which was my goal. Yay!

I was pretty amazed at my perseverance. When a car doesn't work, I tend to try one or two things and give up. Maybe I am [finally] growing up...

* * * * *

Before it got so ungodly cold, I was having fun wearing these shoes with handknit socks.

 

Now I wear anything and everything that seems warm, and plastic shoes ain't it. Next spring...

*  If you google "da yeep" I am the first hit. I'm famous!.

R.I.P., bear.

Also, R.I.P., Van That Took Us On So Many Vacations.

 

My Smokey Bear is fine, but a wild bear has gone to the Great Hunney Tree In The Sky. A couple weekends ago Smokey was on his way to work in Minneapolis. Driving on a dark county road at 10 p.m., he suddenly saw something big and black and about two feet in front of the car. Bam!

He was not sure whether he had hit a bear or a black cow, but Al, a local guy and fellow car enthusiast, tells us that if it had been a cow it would have been lying in the road after the collision because its legs would have been broken. Apparently a cow, being higher off the ground than a bear, is far more fragile in a dispute with a moving vehicle.

Smokey turned around after the collision and searched the shoulder and in both ditches but found no body nor any debris from the van. He was not injured, but the van is totaled. (see above)

So my Bear went looking for a replacement vehicle suitable for camping trips and found one like this:

 

The one pictured above is a 1998 whereas the one we bought is a 1988, but both have the same interior floor plan. I can't show you a picture of ours because it is currently residing at Lenny's (remember Lenny, our never-fail mechanic?) waiting for some transmission repair and a new paint job. Since we will get almost three thousand dollars from the insurance for the old van and paid well under a thousand for the *new* one, we can afford to put a little money into it.

The van is dead, long live the [new, camper] van.

A secondary benefit of this whole thing is that my own personal minivan, which has been parked in one of the garages for 4-1/2 years because it had something wrong with the transmission that Smokey couldn't figure out, has now been fixed and is back on the road. With the old van out of commission, the new one not suitable as a daily driver, and Da Yeep having its snow plow on the front, we have had to share the yellow Aveo.

This was clearly not a permanent solution. I, in particular, do not share well.

We took the minivan to Lenny and less than a week later he had diagnosed the problem and replaced the transmission seals -- a minor repair, really.

I love my minivan. It has every bell and whistle and accessory that was available on that model (1998 Isuzu Oasis; identical to the Honda Odyssey of that year), including a sunroof and a 5-CD changer under the passenger seat. Can I get a w00t?

All is good here in our lives. Except for the bear. We are both very sorry about the bear. He should have stayed in the woods and not tried to go snacking in that cornfield on the other side of County Road I. Or else he should have worn a reflective sneakers and vest. Smokey would gladly have yielded the right of way if he could have seen him. Srsly, in 35 years of marriage I have never seen him as upset as he was over killing this bear. He is an animal lover and bears are understandably very special to him.

This 'n' that.

To those of you who commented on how much I knitted while we were on vacation: when one is camping in a place where the only thing to do is hike, and one is not a hiker, knitting -- and napping and reading and occasionally going into town -- is pretty much all there is to do. So that is what I did, most happily.

* * * * *

I have had to drive Da Yeep (shown above in a photo from last December) for the last week (minus the plow) because Smokey is using my car to get to work while his van in the shop awaiting a brake job.

Da Yeep has a little electrical problem that drains the battery if it sits for more than 12 hours or so. More than once in the past week one of us has had to hook it up to the battery charger to get it going.  As a temporary fix until he has time to do a full trouble-shooting exploration, Smokey put in a battery disconnector. Whenever I park the car I have to raise the hood and turn a knob; when I want to use the car I must raise the hood and tighten that knob. It is inconvenient, but better than having a dead battery.

Why, yes, I have gotten some odd looks in parking lots...

Because it has been sitting outside all the time, Da Yeep has also become a bit of a spider mecca. I counted three spiders of various sizes on the inside of the windshield when I drove it today.

Luckily I am not particularly bothered by spiders as long as they keep their distance...

* * * * *

Bear, our senior dog, had surgery again this week. She had something in one paw that was making it increasingly difficult for her to walk. That something turned out to be a tumor that the vet thinks was cancerous. But she is an old dog, and we hope that any recurrence grows as slowly as she walks. The vet found a couple other tumors, too -- one on her tongue and one at her other end -- but those did not look problematic under the microscope.

I emailed Elder Son, who is very, very attached to Bear and he replied:

Hey, this may be a little weird, but could you ask him if he could email me the images?  If they're digital that is, not so easy to send if their microscope isn't hooked up to a computer.  I'm just curious to look at the cellular pathology and see if canine neoplasia looks like the human neoplasia I learned about in pathology... anatomy's so dull that a pathology slide will be absolutely fascinating by comparison.  I really liked pathology, and I'll probably TA for it next year.

* * * * *

I was just reading a 70-page pdf document that summarized the Wisconsin state budget bill that was signed into law a couple weeks ago. (Yes, it was fascinating, thanks for asking.) But besides all the normal budget stuff about money, I also read this:

The budget creates a process for declaring and registering domestic partnerships between two individuals who meet the following criteria: 1) they are at least 18 years old and capable of consenting to the domestic partnership; 2) neither individual is married to, or in a domestic partnership with, another individual; 3) the two individuals share a common residence; 4) the two individuals are not nearer of kin to each other than second cousins; and 5) the individuals are member of the same sex...

...[d]omestic partners will be considered a “member of the family” for purposes of victim notification; receive the same privilege from testifying against one another as husband and wives; be entitled to damages under wrongful death actions; receive Crime Victim Compensation Program funds; be able to title assets in joint tenancy; domestic partners will be subject to the same inheritance law provisions as spouses; have the same rights of access to individuals in care facilities as spouses; have the same rights of consent to medical treatment and access to medical records as spouses; have access to insurance provided by fraternal organizations; be exempt from the real estate transfer and manufactured home title transfer fees for transfers between partners; be entitled to worker’s compensation death benefits; receive the same coverage for Family and Medical Leave as spouses; be subject to the same procedures for transferring a motor vehicle title at the time of a partner’s death as for spouses.
 
The budget also allows domestic partners who are public employees to qualify for
Wisconsin Retirement System benefits, including health insurance and survivor benefits.

A couple years ago Wisconsin voters passed a constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriages and civil unions:

Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.

There will certainly be court challenges to this budget provision, but for now I am happy, even though it is kinda sneaky to put something like this in a budget bill.

* * * * *

On Smokey's cousin's porch in Laramie, on our way home from vacation:

 

Mile-high posting.

Here we are in Wyoming; Buffalo, where I am wi-fi-ing in the library, is at a bit less than 5,000 feet elevation, and the campground where we are living is at something like 6,000 feet. So, on average, I am a mile high. No comments from the peanut gallery, please.

We had a bit of a late departure from home -- 24+ hours late, to be truthful. Car trouble, Smokey not feeling well enough to fix it, our eternal optimism about how long it would take to pack. But our good buddy Lennie came to the rescue and did all the tire mounting and oil changing and other stuff that needed to be done before we set out on this adventure.

A couple little giggles from Lennie's shop:

Twenty hours after we left the lake -- and one dead deer* later -- we pulled into the Middle Fork Creek campground.

 

That's Middle Fork creek viewed from my knitting chair.

 

Note the handy cup of tea and iPod. I'm on my second audio book already and have finished a pair of socks and the skinny cotton Clapotis.

 

No photo of the Clap until I get home and block it.

I am half done with another chemo hat, this one for one of Smokey's co-workers. This hat is from the same lace-edged hat pattern that I, er, *modified* for my friend Mary. Raydean's hat, however, looks exactly like the pattern photo. Yay, me! I can conquer a four-row lace pattern that has two plain knit rows! Photo of that one will be forthcoming after I get home and block the lace edging. I am feeling quite triumphant.

This is a dog that has just seen a squirrel/other dog/leaf twitch:

 

She practically went nuts when this pretty girl crossed the campground (sorry for the blurry photo; the subject is in the middle of the creek, crossing from right to left):

* Smokey hit a deer twenty miles from home.

The bumper is sad but the car was still drivable. He plans to putz with it while we are here and make it prettier.