Friday evening thoughts

 A video that came across my Bluesky timeline, and I've been thinking about it for a couple days:

 This is something people have talked about periodically: how the rise, and now supremacy, of recorded (and now: streaming) music has replaced many people making music on their own. But again, I am a bit older, and my family was demographically older (my maternal grandmother was born in 1897) and I remember older female relatives who sang while doing housework (my grandmother usually favored hymns). And I knew people growing up who had pianos or guitars or other instruments, and they played for their own or their family's entertainment. Oh, it wasn't COMMON by the time I was a kid, but it was understood "a lot of people used to do this regularly"

And church choirs used to be more common than they are now (some churches largely dropped them during the pandemic, for safety reasons, and never really brought them back; others have "praise bands" which are, I guess individuals making music in a different style*) And I guess in some congregations there isn't really congregational singing any more?

(*I admit "praise songs" or what is sometimes derided as 7-11s - the same seven words or phrases, done rock style, repeated at least 11 times - are very much not my style; I prefer the hymns with older roots. Some hymnals have also brought in hymns from other cultures - we sing a couple that are based on (in one case) a Maori song and (in the other) an East Indian folksong, and I remember when my parents were in the choir at their church a couple times they did a South African hymn/song called Siyahamba. And I like that; I like the explicit reminder that there are people around the world who, whatever our other differences, have a big thing in common with me)

I've also thought how recently home-sewing is MUCH harder to do than it once was - unless you're in or near a large city that would have dressmaker shops. JoAnn's is gone, most of the fabric you can buy in huge areas of the country is restricted to either quilting cotton or maybe what you can mail order (the problem there, being, you can't FEEL the fabric first before buying it). And now paper patterns will be much harder to get, given that the companies have been sold off and it's not at all clear if affordable ones will still be printed.

I am old enough to remember when it was more affordable (at least for the quality) to make clothes at home than to buy them (then again: I am also old enough to remember "look for the Union Label" on clothes that were made here; now, very, very few clothes are). 

And I worry a bit about the apparent decline in knitting again, after a high period from the late 1990s until shortly after the pandemic, and I DO suspect we'll lose a lot of yarn shops to tariff costs. (Maybe being online will save some of them). And magazines are mostly gone. Oh, I can still get Simply Knitting, for as long as we're allowed to get printed matter coming in from the UK without huge tariffs. And yes, online patterns are a thing, and thank God especially for places like Knitty where the patterns are explicitly peer-reviewed, and they've made a strong pledge not to use AI (there have been cases of "AI patterns" that make no sense showing up places on line......perhaps you set out to make a sweater and wind up knitting a ranch house?)

But there are also far fewer knitting books coming out than there were in the earlier 2000s, and some of the ones I see advertised online have a whiff of "might be AI" about them. 

And I do worry about this a bit. One thing some of the faculty have talked about is how you can tell people who did "creative play" (for lack of a better term: I mean stuff like building with Lego, or building models, or making doll clothes) as a kid; they are more comfortable working with stuff in lab, sometimes have better fine motor skills but also *less fear* of working with physical things. 

And today on Bluesky the question came up: Did your kids (or, if you're younger) have to read "whole" books in school? 

 And at first I was like "bwuh?" but apparently some places are just giving excerpts to read? And yes, that also used to be a thing - the old SRA system I loved a lot as a fourth and fifth grader were very short pieces, in a few cases things abstracted from longer pieces or things like a very short précis of some nonfiction topic. But we also read books, and in fact when I blew through the whole SRA box before Thanksgiving (it was supposed to last the whole year), the teacher kind of sighed and told me to pick something from the classroom library (that's how I read "Where the Red Fern Grows," which, I was probably a little emotionally young for at that point, I didn't deal well with....well, if you've read the book, you know)

We also had what was called SSR (sustained silent reading) in the early grades - at the end of the day, 15 or 20 minutes where you could bring a book from home, or use a book checked out from the school library, or a book from the classroom library, and you just read. You could sit at your desk or under your desk or on the floor, as long as you weren't disturbing anyone it was fine. I always like that because it was quiet and it was a nice cool down after the day. 

But maybe that's less common now with the rise of high stakes testing where there are particular subjects that "must" be covered, and covered in the way the test will approach them? Several of my colleagues, including people 20 years my junior, have complained "the students we are getting now.....they don't READ. They're not comfortable with it, it's not something that's been expected of them" and YES I understand things like dyslexia and other LDs, but those aren't that widespread, and also, things like audiobooks work as an accommodation. These are just folks who....don't seem to do narrative stories? Or want to do a sustained deep dive into a non fiction topic?

And that's another concerning thing, and I already had a student complain about a (20 page, and not terribly complex, and most of the information was stuff I had talked about in lecture) reading I assigned them because "I'm not good with reading long things" (this is not someone with an accommodation)

And I admit, I do fear we're losing that. I don't know if that's an "elitist" concern, or if I need to "check my privilege" - but for centuries, reading in one form or another was the primary way people got information. And one thing I like about printed books is they don't change....I've seen stories in the news presented one way, and then spun another way later, or completely disappeared without a trace. And I do wonder if the people who only know what they see on tv or on TikTok are more easily....duped into things. And certainly, there's the concept some have written about, how reading fiction specifically helps grow empathy in a person (And I'd argue that's something our society seems to lack, now). 

And I admit: I don't read as much as I once did. Right now, with four classes and two research projects, it's kind of a lot, and some days I don't have the energy to read more than a couple pages in SPQR (which is enormous and is going to take me a while) before I can't concentrate on it any more. I keep saying I need to make more time to read, but I have so many things (have to finish the chicken for my niece's birthday! have to practice piano! have to grade!) that seem more urgent and eat up the time.

But I do still read, at least some. And I HAVE read, there are a LOT of books I read in the past and remember. 

But also, I realize more and more: I don't fit in. I'm an oddball, a weirdo. I'm the "egghead" that students called me when I was a kid, and it's hard to relate to the rest of the world even as I want to. I don't know the same pop culture other people do, nobody knows the books I do read. 

And I don't know how to fix that. I miss having a group, a tribe, which I don't really, but I'm not sure the "try to make myself normal" thing I undertook in seventh grade (watching the shows - at least, the ones I was allowed to - that my classmates said they liked, listening to "top 40" instead of classical), and it really didn't help because I do have the stink of the oddball on me. 

But I also worry about all of us becoming increasingly "helpless" and shackled to consumer/media culture in how things have changed - if you can't make your own clothes (because no supplies), you have to buy whatever fast fashion has churned out. And fast fashion isn't well made and doesn't last. (And now, with tariffs - it will be as expensive as "proper" clothes once were). And I admit I worry, I don't know how we fix or change any of it. 

Another field day

 Last Saturday, I went out with a colleague and a group of her research-class students to help start a vegetation survey of an abandoned golf course in town. (Right now it's being kept as a semi-natural park, and one of our aims with this study is to encourage it to be kept so - right now people do go there to walk (there are paths and trails) and to fish in the former water hazards, which I guess have bluegill and other small fish. We're going back out again this Saturday, and while it's a bit of a push for me to add this on with four classes and my own research, it feels good to do it.

But today we went out to the local Choctaw cultural center - a couple of people from OU had come down to help a couple of their people with a survey of a prairie. I hadn't realized what TYPE of prairie it was at first - it's literal virgin prairie, as far back as land use records go, it's not been plowed, and also it has some topographical features (mima mounds) that likely would not be there if it had been cultivated. I really don't know how it escaped cultivation; I am not sure who owned it up until the cultural center was built (I wonder if it was a tribal member or members who liked it for the link to the past, and just maintained it). 

But first, we met for lunch - the center has a cafe serving traditional Choctaw food (and less traditional things: they also have a gelato bar). I wound up getting the pork plate - grilled pieces of what I think was pork shoulder (it was very, very good - grilled just right, and lightly but adequately seasoned, and it was good pork, too) and pinto beans (also good, unlike some places they don't oversalt their beans) and then something called Banaha bread, which I'd never had - it's a simple cornmeal "mush" that's steamed inside a cornhusk - like a tamale but without meat (one of the two center employees we ate with noted that it was also traditional to make it with beans in the center, and it would have been good that way, less plain). It  WAS very plain, but maybe the idea is next to the meat and the beans something plain is good? Or maybe it was keeping with tradition and that was how it was made. 

After lunch, we went out to the site, This was where Ian - one of the center employees who was most involved with it - told us it was, as far as they can tell, a site that had never been plowed. As I said, it has mima mounds which you tend not to see on sites that have seen extensive plowing. 

It's pretty amazing.

 

That's the casino and the casino hotel in the distance. It's really very close to town, which is why I'm so amazed to learn about it - I never knew it had existed before today

It's got a lot of vegetation diversity - most of the common prairie grasses you'd expect, like Indian grass (which is flowering, so I grabbed a picture)

And also an old friend I knew from Illinois (and perhaps even earlier, from Ohio): Echlinochloa crus-galli, also known as barnyard grass:

 

There were also lots of forbs - the broadleaf plants most people would think of as wildflowers

 Euphorbia corollata, another old friend I knew from prairies in Illinois. It's in the same family as poinsettias.

And I don't remember what they said this purple one was. I thought they said it was an Orobanchaceae (a hemiparasite), but the flower shape is wrong for that family, and I can't think now of what it might be. But it's pretty

 there were lots of Asteraceae (what used to be called "composites," for reasons related to their floral structure). This is probably Solidago missouriensis, Missouri goldenrod:

 

Some species of aster, not quite heath aster but similar:

 

 

Or it might be heath aster, and it's just extremely variable. (Or hairy white aster, S. pilosus)

 

And I don't remember which this one is. They mentioned the name but it's not a familiar species and I don't remember it:

 

 

There was also a tick-trefoil, likely Desmodium sessilifolium, with small white flowers. This plant was a little worse for wear but I took a photo anyway

 

It was a very good day.

Bit more chicken

 If I can get this done this week, I should have plenty of time to get it to my niece in time for her birthday. (She is going to be 13 but is a 4-H chicken keeper so i think she'll enjoy a big stuffed chicken, and anyway, it's more like a cushion than a toy, if she's no longer into stuffed animals. It's always hard to know - even at my age I'd welcome a stuffed animal as a gift, but some young teens get very unhappy if you think they're "younger" than they are.

Anyway, I am now up to the neck stripes; the tricky parts with shortrowing are at least done, so hopefully the rest of this won't take too long.

 It's just a simple acrylic yarn; both colors are Loops and Threads from Michael's; their house yarns are really halfway decent for simple knitting.

halloween decor time

 the fieldwork went a lot better than what I was worrying about. It's always fraught for me know, especially with other people - can I keep up with them? what if my knee gives out? But it went well.

 

Yesterday afternoon I decided it was close enough to Halloween, so I decorated. (I did most of it yesterday, but some today).

First, a little movie showing the blinky lights I put up, and the moon-phase garland (which I love so much and now am glad I bought from JoAnn's when we still had JoAnn's). And then the critters on the piano. The little Bluey wearing a pumpkin is new this year, as is the pink sparkly ghost (which amused me, both because it's glammed up, and because it vaguely reminded me of the minor Egyptian god Medjed) 

 Today I also put up the wreath and got the haunted-house doormat (there is a very small white ghost peeking out the door, waving. It's very cute and reminds me of a vintage children's book illustration)

 

I also got out the thumbs-up skeleton hand and stuck it out in my front garden. This was another JoAnn's purchase, either in 2022 or 23. 

 It sure hits different now, I'm putting it out a lot less ironically and a lot more "not great, Bob"

 There's a Spirit Halloween in town now (I know! We don't have a bookstore or a craft store or much of a supermarket, but we have this, at least for the season). I finally got out there this afternoon. Mostly costumes, and mostly kid costumes (I think it's smaller than most Spirits) but they had some of the anatomically-improbably skeleton things (I already had a spider, and the octopus was too large) but I did buy another "My Little Bony" in a gold finish to match the black with iridescence one I already had:

And I got this skeleton thing to hang up on the inside of my door. Both I and the checkout person thought it was a Mothman skeleton (and I think that works better!) but it rang up as an "angel skeleton"

I don't know. For one thing, theologically dodgy, for another, it lacks a halo. Anyway, I'm thinking of it as a Mothman skeleton

 

'least it's over...

 Today wasn't a great day. 

For one thing, I slept badly last night, had one of those distressing dreams where I'm driving and then can't see where I'm going (this time: the windshield fogged up and also there was fog all around outside the car). I relate these to when I'm worried about something in the future; my subconscious is as literal minded as my conscious mind is ("you LITERALLY canNOT see the ROAD AHEAD" yeah thanks brain)

Then, when getting dressed, first, I couldn't get my hair to look okay (it's been very dry, I don't know why, I think it's the extended hot/no rain/but humid weather and I'd been putting a "curl serum" in it to try to control it, and I think there was too much from when I washed it the previous night; it was kind of "clumpy" and acted like my hair had really thinned badly). No time to rewash it, I literally had 20 minutes to finish dressing and get out the door to be prepped in time for my class. 

And I opened the new replacement-foundation (couldn't find the Benefit product I'd been using so subbed in another one) and found that the color I had matched to my wrist was way too light for my face, and I wound up wiping most of it off and using a tiny bit of the usual stuff I had left (I might have another small tube of it squirreled away to fill in, and I mailordered more that should be here next week).

But I wound up crying at myself in the mirror - why am I so ugly? and why can't I look like a normal woman? Why does my hair always have to be weird and why doesn't my complexion match and why, why, why

Made it through the day, including ALL THE GRADING (because I volunteered to help some students in the field tomorrow afternoon, sigh, so basically giving up a big chunk of my weekend) 

Left campus around 5 pm. Got home, was walking up to my house from the garage when one of the local Yahoos drove by. And he barked at me and I think he yelled "piggie!"

 

Yeah dude, I'm fat. Thanks for reminding me, I might have forgotten I am unacceptable to your eyes and I don't belong.

I didn't react; years of being bullied in school taught me to walk tall, act fine, and never look back (or never look at your tormentor). Just. Keep. Walking.

So I did. But I did hear it, and it did affect me, and it reminded me: this is why you're fundamentally a hermit. People can be awful and a lot of the time it's not worth whatever small benefit you might get from an interaction. (I wish that my interactions were not mostly negative, but often they seem to be)

 

At least I got a little more done on the chicken, and if I can get up early enough and get the groceries I need, I might have an hour or two before I have to go out in the field to work on it. 

I could really use a couple days off, though, to do what I *want* to do instead of what I feel like I *must* do. 

some more progress

 I've been working on the chicken; once the tail part is done it moves a little faster to work on, because the short rows are more logical. 

 here it is with the first half of the back done; then I knit back over to the other edge and do the shortrowing again on the other side. Then there's some curved bits to form the breast, and then you decrease for it to get smaller for the neck and head.

So maybe hopefully I can get it almost finished tomorrow evening, if I can get home at a decent hour. Saturday, unless it rains, I'm going to help on a field research project so there will be minimal time to work on it then. 

 I'll be glad to finish this and move on to another project. I have a couple ongoing ones to finish but my yarn for the "Campus Cardigan" came today - I ordered a dark green called something like Midnight Forest. I like the idea of a big heavy sweater; those take less time to knit because the yarn is bigger. 

I do need to finish the mitts, and some socks I have on the needles, and I've got a vest and the Moon Moth sweater to work on and the Syyslaulu shawl  - which is my current invigilating project.  

I will say, ordering from Lion Brand (directly) is sort of a replacement for JoAnn's, a lot of the yarn I used to buy from them was Lion Brand. (Michael's has SOME, but not a big selection). And yeah, I am still looking for "replacements" for things I've lost. Mail ordering is quite not the same; there's not the serendipity of getting to see (and feel) the yarn in person, and you have to wait (and with Lion Brand, it can take a while) for it to arrive. 

And yes, at some point I may need to shift over to Brown Sheep, given that it's made here and less likely to be affected by tariffs and shortages....

 

At any rate, this was another week that felt months long. I do kind of wish I didn't have the commitment on Saturday, though it will be good experience and it'll help students, but I'd rather stay home.... 

something very weird

 ....but weird in a good way

This was mentioned on Metafilter today (there's also an interesting short article on the "making of")

But it reminded me - I had all but forgotten this - but I have seen the video I linked below. Way back in, as far as I can remember, fall 1989, when I took Biochemistry. 

I took it through the med school at Michigan; we needed it for graduation with a BS in Biology, and our choice was a so-described "Keller Plan" version or taking it through the med school. 

Because I was busy (taking 16 credit hours, as I remember), I thought a self-paced class might be a bad idea - I'd get busy and put off doing units of it, and then have to be scrambling at the end of the semester to catch up. ("Keller Plan" is apparently a grown-up version of the old SRA reading plan that my teachers used when I was a kid in the 70s, and while I LOVED it then (and blew through the whole box before Thanksgiving in fifth grade), I knew I'd not be organized enough to learn biochem that way.

 So, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I trucked off (about a fifteen minute walk, as I remember it) to the Medical Campus, and sat in a big lecture room with people planning on going to medical or dental school, and took notes from four different profs, including one who brought in a roll of that acetate overhead-projector film - literally on a roller - and wrote with one hand and scrolled it with the other, and God help you if you couldn't write fast enough to keep up.

And then when we did protein synthesis, one day, the prof wheeled in a 16 mm projector and set up a film

And it was this.

Sit through the first three minutes of a very square 1970s era chemistry prof talking, then it gets freaky. 

 

 I'm not sure I could have learned protein synthesis JUST from this (I had already done the relevant reading). But,wow. Just wow. I rewatched it just now and sat there with my mouth open and a big stupid grin. It's so SILLY. And yet it works.And there's a joy there. (I'm not sure I accept the claim "I have to tell you, none of us were high for this" but maybe not everyone was....)

I sent it on to my (nearly 30 years my junior) genetics colleague to see how she reacts. I'm not sure if some of the stuff in that is regarded as inaccurate now (now that we've learned more). But it's definitely, as the kids say, a vibe. 

Tuesday evening things

 * I got the stitches picked up and the stripe of green done on the chicken. Now it's ten rows of orange, and then I start the shortrows to shape the body

I am ready to be done with this. I want to work on one of MY projects, or start something new

* Like the National Park hat (Cuyahoga Valley version) that I bought a kit for from Yarns and You when i went there. I thought of it again today when I got their newsletter in my mailbox. The good: apparently they are going to Rhinebeck*

the not so great for me personally: that weekend they will be closed while they're out of town, and that was my mid-fall break day, and I HAD considered going back down there. Oh well. Maybe I find something else. I HAVE to do something fun. (I don't know what, now. If the weather's OK I could go to Chickasaw but often it's rainy here in October)

(*A friend said they weren't on the list. But A Chick that Knitz is, and she's one of their dyers - so maybe they're buddying up with her for their stall. And I'm glad to see A Chick that Knitz having a broader reach; I remember ordering from her on Etsy shortly after she opened in 2019.)

* Even though Math for Knitters will be considerably delayed, I (perhaps foolhardily) decided to try ordering a book from the UK - Folio Society is republishing a replica (I guess) of the original Paddington Bear book, with the Peggy Fortnum illustrations, and I wanted one. The order went through, I hope a place as large and generally-respected as Folio has figured it out, but we'll see.

I'm tired of the chaos, and I admit I'm also worried about being able to get things like yarn (almost entirely made overseas; even the stuff dyers here dye is mostly spun in Peru or Turkey or elsewhere, and there's not a LOT of stateside spinning capacity; I think Brown Sheep may be the largest remaining yarn producer that spins here)

* I got a call from the textbook rep for the company that does our intro class book (that's the one that the students have the greatest involvement with - there are online exercises they get access too in addition to the textbook and she wanted to be sure they weren't having any trouble in accessing it) and in the course of the discussion we got onto other classes and when I mentioned I taught environmental policy, she asked if I also covered environmental impact statements as a class (I don't; we used to offer it but the guy who did it retired) and I admitted regretfully I didn't have the background for it. And as we continued to talk, I mentioned I had taught myself what I needed for policy and law, one summer, by reading a lot of books and also going through the various government and policy-wonk group websites. And then I sighed and said "That was back before the pandemic. I'm not sure I have the capacity now to do that kind of thing again" and she laughed kind of ruefully and said that a lot of people (including her) have found doing new things that require a lot of attention and learning much harder after the pandemic. 

And I felt very "heard" and in a way I rarely seem to be. Everywhere it seems that the expectation is we're back to "normal," and if we didn't have a severe case of covid or long covid (I don't think I ever even had it at all - never tested positive, never had clear symptoms, got vaccinated yearly once the vaccines were out, and am fundamentally a hermit), we're expected to be exactly back as we were before, with no lingering trauma or psychological stuff.

 

But. I notice it in me. I walk into a store and the shelves seem a bit bare, and my mind blips back to the weeks in 2020 where you could only find one kind of milk (Usually whole, which was too rich for me, and a couple times I went with - ugh - oat milk as a replacement) or there were no eggs to be had, and it makes me nervous again. And all the chaos now - this time, entirely human-imposed, entirely imposed by a small group of humans even - it exhausts me and does remind me of 2020. And I admit I worry about things getting worse, and for some reason or other it becoming unsafe to go out much.....and we're back in July 2020 again, when I sat in my house and wondered if there'd be anything much to come out to once the pandemic was over. (And yes, I do feel like a lot of things I saw as Good Things are disappearing now, maybe never to return - we've already lost JoAnn's and some small businesses, what if we lose more small businesses and places like Books a Million, literally the only large shop selling new books within an easy drive of me - well, how do I go on?

And I admit, in all the talk of "social media is a cancer," that some are saying now, rightly or wrongly, I hear a tiny undercurrent of "you losers who don't have a nuclear family or a ton of close friends, and do a lot of socializing online, we want to shut that off, and you can just suffer and be alone because you're weird and wrong."

But also: the fear that if going out much becomes inadvisable again, like it was in much of 2020, how do we make it without people to talk to online? And finding local people......that's hard and scary and I've found some people here really don't understand me and seem not to want to try. 

(So much of my young life was me being told I was weird and wrong by my peers, I have internalized it and kind of believe I AM)

SO anyway - I DO want to go out to places like yarn shops and bookstores *while I still can*

And I know I need to figure out "replacements' if all that goes, and I'm not sure I have the energy to. 

the chicken tail

 I really wanted to be farther on this; I need to have it done by the 28th if I am to get it sent to my niece in time for her birthday. But I made an error on one of the tail halves and had to start over, and had a couple days of feeling meh about it and not wanting to work on it.

At least I got this part done tonight. The tail is a big piece, and it's fiddlier and requires more attention than the other parts. Next step is to pick up stitches (in green; it's one of the stripes) along the long edge, and then with a combination of increases and shortrows you shape the body. 

 the other parts are an "underbelly" and then the wattle and comb. So hopefully I can get a bunch more done tomorrow and Wednesday (thank goodness, no evening meetings this week

 Other than that, it was a challenging day - had to soothe an upset student (exam grade), had to negotiate "how do I protect myself in This Climate and yet also allow folks to record my lectures if they think it helps them" (I fear creative editing, though maybe I don't need to, but I don't want to find out my lectures were posted online; that feels like a violation of my privacy and potentially my intellectual property)

And I got home later than I originally planned; I started moving stuff back to my lab - it's the big soil-analysis lab in ecology this week and there are So. Many. Pieces. Of. Glassware. I need, and it's a good 350 or so steps between my research lab (where it is) and the teaching lab, and so I can't be running that a LOT once the lab is going (I do not have a TA)

Also, they're not done in the building, and the stuff is still occupying my preproom so I can't easily put things away, and that precariously leaning ladder seems like a hazard.

we were all but promised this would be done TODAY. That photo was taken at 4 pm, after the guys had left for the day, so. I'm going to complain if it turns out "yeah this is just where this stuff lives now, deal with it"

It also eats up a LOT of room where I had been storing things. 

There aren't enough labs or preprooms that I could just move. So it's either live with it (hoping it will be done soon) or move to one of the "portable" buildings, which lack climate control, and it's been HOT here again.

It was also loud again this morning and that kind of nerfed my ability to work or concentrate. Loud drilling and using those powered screwdrivers. I am just very tired of everything. 

Another small upset today: I had pre-ordered Kate Atherley's "Math for Knitters," which, yeah, it's partly on me because it comes from CANADA and I should have foreseen this, I guess, but - she currently can't shop here because Canada Post apparently shut down shipping to the US. It "might" restart in October, but then there will probably be more delays because apparently Customs will have to examine every package.

And I know, it's a tiny little thing, and the firstiest of first world problems, but - it's just another reminder of how BROKEN everything is, just like the empty shelves I occasionally run into in the stores here. It's mildly upsetting and given my particular brain-wiring, makes me wonder how much worse the future might be. 

I don't know. If she can't get the book to me before November, maybe I politely request a cancellation of my order? If I'm going to be waiting who-knows-how-long. Because given how the world is know, who even KNOWS if I will be here, like, next year, to use a book. We could all be going together when we go, like Tom Lehrer sang. 

Anyway. there are a lot of things I want (primarily: for the work in my building to be done, the noise to be over, me be able to move all my stuff back to where it belongs) but I'm not going to get ANY of it. And it makes me feel somewhat that I don't matter in all of this; that no one cares about my feelings. I mean, I know they don't and I suppose they shouldn't have to, but it's still an incredibly isolating feeling.
 

Week is over

 Why does every week now feel like it's a month long? I suppose the world is just more chaotic now. 

And there were small tastes of chaos in my own world - the husband of a good friend of my mom's wound up in hospital with an abdominal obstruction; apparently he's going to be okay now but had to have surgery (and it was only his dentist-child who told him he needed to go to the hospital). 

And a school district near me has been shut down for two days because of "threats." Apparently they caught the kids making the threats and they would have amounted to nothing, but that's not cool - it's scary, and it disrupts education (and kids having to stay at home, if they're in single parent homes or one where both parents work, I'm not sure how that's dealt with on short notice)

And finally today, we had an "unwanted guest" in the building. Apparently not *really* a threat, but someone who's not supposed to be here and is apparently known to the campus police (I don't know if he was the one harassing some of the women students in the past) and we've now been told we need to call the police if he shows up again. I saw him; I was talking to my department chair and a grad student who were sitting out in the hall where he was. I am bad at picking up on signals and didn't realize they were out there *watching* him and when I walked out to my car the secretary followed me and told me, and said that if my chair had coughed loudly she was to call the cops. (I later found out via e-mail that he left willingly when the campus police showed up). But now we're supposed to call it in and we're supposed to keep all the rooms locked when we're not in them and that makes more work for us and also, if you're carrying a lot of stuff between rooms? I guess you either get a cart, or make more trips and have to fuss with the door every time.

Life on hard mode. It's been on hard mode really since 2020. 

***

So I needed to get out of town. I had wanted to go to Albertson's for better groceries than I can get locally (more choice, and some brands like the Icelandic style yogurt (less sugar, and I like it better) that nowhere in town sells. 

And honestly? I wanted a lunch out and a trip to the yarn shop. So I got that

I also went to Michael's. Didn't buy much but I saw this and said "that's the silliest thing I've seen in a while"

 And then I laughed and said "I bet that would fit my big Discord plushie I got yesterday" and so I bought it (it was cheap, and I had a money-off coupon, and I figured if it didn't fit I could wear it once or twice myself as a gag).

 

but it does fit. And it amuses me. And you have to take amusement where you can find it now

 I went to the yarn shop partly because it's one place I feel welcomed when I go there (you need that some times). But I also wanted to see if they had a suitable yarn for Again around the Sun from the new Knitty (I sponsor them on Patreon, so I get slightly early access). 

I had remembered they had a worsted-weight color gradient yarn that I thought might work. I did not remember it was *the very yarn the pattern called for* so I got it (but in a different color - this one is called Prismatic Kaleidoscope)

The green yarn is a dk in "Zombie Green," dyed by the original owner (now semi retired). I have a Tin Can Knits knit-purl patterned hat I want it for. 

I've also been working on the Syyslaulu shawl, and I looked the name up and to my delight it means "Autumn Song" in Finnish, and actually references a song based on a Tove Jansson (the Mooomintrolls author). It's not at a photogenic stage right now (it's still the all-garter-stitch part). I'm also working (at home) on the chicken but it's going slowly.

Here's hoping next week is calmer.
 

this sparks joy

 A week or more ago, I spent some "silly money" -I bought an expensive thing I didn't strictly need, which maybe isn't prudent in a time of rising food prices and the possibility of high inflation coming.

 

but it was something I had wanted since I heard it was being made, and anyway....sometimes things that make you happy are good.

 

It's a gigantic (like, 30" tall) plushie of Discord from My Little Pony - officially licensed and all (no fakies!) made by Symbiote Studios. I admit I was leery of ordering having been burned by ANOTHER site selling plushies earlier this year, where I had to do a chargeback on my card after they charged it, never sent the thing, and did not respond to multiple e-mails and FB contacts with them.

But Symbiote is solid, it looks like - acknowledged my order right away, a couple days later said it had shipped. It got hung up a couple days in Dallas, but that's USPS' fault, not Symbiote's

Well, it finally came today, as I was grading exams. I took a break to get up and grab the package off my porch (I was at home)

At first I wondered if if was smaller than I was told because the bag was fairly small, but when I opened it, he was all pretzeled up in there:

 He expands to be BIG. He's made out of minky - not the plushest I've seen, but certainly nice quality - and he has wires inside for posing/to hold him upright. (He's still pretty noodly though)

 He is very cuddly because he's basically a big noodle as I said, and is fairly softly stuffed (also, I look at this photo of me and cringe a bit, I look like my dad in the face more and more every day , it seems. It might be partly the angle making my face look fatter than it actually is)

 And yes, he is nice to hug

 

I had thought while he was still in transit "maybe I should knit a little sweater for him" but it might be hard to make one with sleeves big enough for his lion paw and eagle claw without it being too large (and it would have to be a cardigan, a pullover wouldn't go over his head.

Or maybe I just knit him a scarf as winter gets closer. I think he'd look good in a scarf.

He's also fun to pose - he's big enough he can sit at my piano:

He's large enough that he can sit on the bench and still reach the keys!
 

future project thinking

 Of course, when I have a project with a deadline, and lots of other unfinished stuff, I find myself thinking about new things I want to start. I have a couple sweaters on the needles already, and some socks, and the mitts, and the Syyslaullu shawl. 

But I think about Greenstone, and the big bulky-weight cardigan (the yarn for which was one of my last ever JoAnn's purchases, though I didn't know it at the time), and a couple other things

I had ordered some yarn from a UP dyer (Powers! I know where that is) on Etsy. One of the colors I got was called Hexagonaria, which is the genus name of the fossil coral that makes up Petosky stones. I've always liked those (I even have a pendant that is cut from one) and when I got it, it occurred to me that a hexagon-pattern sock might be nice. I wasn't sure I wanted to do something heavily cabled or like a re-do of the Snicket socks (lots of traveling stitches, and they came out TIGHT). 

But I found a pattern with a simple "small" cable on it, reminiscent of a vest from Knitty I made years ago (Sarah Castor's Honeycomb Vest)

it's called Honeycomb Socks, and is by Studio North. So it maybe even fits with the UP North yarns...

 Also one of my Bluesky friends who knits - I think it was Heather, aka Kitty Furniture, referred to another Knitty pattern, "Wavedock," which is a half-round shawl that takes about 500 yards of yarn (so: a generous single big skein, or 2-3 smaller ones). And I thought "maybe sometime I make that) and hunted about in my stash for yarn* and found a couple balls of a light fingering bordering on lace that I have 600 some yards of, and it's in dark jewel tones. I bought it for a small shawl years ago but never found a pattern I liked. 

I remembered it, and found it

 Yeah, that'll work. That'll work well

I should take everything that I find a pattern for, and put it together in a bag (ideally a clear one because I am very much "out of sight, out of mind" now) and store them somewhere accessible so when I am ready to start something new I can "shop" my "self made up" kits.... 

(*I suspect given tariffs and no more de minimus and everything else, a lot of us with stashes of supplies will be digging in them, and heck, I may even be opening my boxes and sharing with friends who knit or crochet)

And I realized that Syysaula would work as an invigilating project: I'm still on the long "increase every rightside row and knit all in garter stitch" long triangle part (I should wind off the second ball). It won't take a lot of concentration, it's not having to begin something new (I won't have much time tomorrow, and probably won't post an entry because of a full day of teaching and also evening meetings), and it will get some progress on a project that's already going.

I did finish the first section of the chicken's tail tonight and cast on for the second. I need to motor on this a little this weekend so that I can have it done in time to send to my niece before early October when her birthday is. 

out of sorts

 I started the chicken for my niece this weekend. Was motoring away on the tail section and then realized I'd made a mistake, and I couldn't easily how to get back to a spot I could pick back up from, so I ripped the whole thing out and restarted.

 So this is all the further I am:

 I also need to figure out something simple and portable (A simple hat, maybe, as a potential gift) for later this week when I have to give two exams. Nothing I have going on is either simple enough or small enough to be easy to carry (the chicken takes too much attention)

***

I'm trying to the coverage of That Book (you know the one, the birthday book for that guy that That Guy allegedly contributed to). I honestly can't believe how gross some men are, and I'd prefer not to know how fully gross, to keep the illusion that there are some good men still out there (even if probably every one remotely close to my age is partnered up already.)

Just everything feels upsetting and ugly right now.

***

Part of it is being peopled out. Thursday was AAUW, and it was stressful as the original host was awol (I hope she's okay, but I think I'd have heard if it was something bad, I suspect the likely explanation is she forgot, and got invited to the tailgate on campus, and went, and that's why she wasn't home). So there was a lot of shuffling around (another woman was able to host on short notice). 

Then Saturday was a get-together/housewarming party at a colleague's.. It was fine, but it lasted really long - I left after three hours and I was the first one to leave (and I hope that wasn't too unsociable or awkward, but most of the people there were talking college football, which I'm not into and couldn't contribute, and I was tired, and I felt a little uncomfortable, and I didn't want to talk any more)

Tonight was CWF. It was okay at first but the meeting ran kind of long, and I was supposed to do a devotional at the end and I thought I'd picked out a really good one about the restoration of Notre Dame, but at that point everyone was distracted from having had to change plans for a meal we're serving after a choir concert and then one of the women started complaining that the day care that uses our building had blocked one of the storage closets with their stuff, and it needed to be moved so she could get things in there, and then someone else went and looked and they were both unhappy about it (but the problem is? there's nowhere else to store those). And by the time I got to reading what I had everyone was tired and distracted and I felt talked over.

I should be used to it, but.

And Wednesday is Board meeting, so that's more people. 

Maybe tomorrow will be better... 

leaving this here

 for my use when I update the NEPA stuff next week for environmental policy

 

changes to CEQ and NEPA 

changes to OSHA 

 Deregulation, in the EPA's own words

 whole Wikipedia article on what has happened at NOAA 

I also gotta admit, updating some of the stuff about agency/department heads, it really hurt to take Deb Haaland's name out, and sub in Doug Burgum's. 

 

it's been a hard week even if it started with a "vacation" day (which I spent working) and this is not cheerful stuff to read late Friday afternoon. 

a dumb "want"

 Today was kind of a rough day: allergies bad, four classes (one a two hour lab), wrote two exams after all that (so got home LATE), hurting (I hope I didn't injure my knee again, it's been bothering me). Bailed on piano practice because of no time and that makes me sad. 

Thinking about a fad. The Labubu dolls (? or is it animals? mascots? I'm not sure what to call them).

When I first saw them, I immediately thought of the trendy rich girls I went to grade school with and how they'd get all the fad things and then mock and exclude those who didn't have it (which would have included me; we didn't have the money for fads, my parents thought they were foolish, and I had almost no spending money. And I remember the slight displeasure when I spent some of my saved-up allowance on Smurfs; I guess I was supposed to spend it on something more "mature" like a book....)

And so, initially, I kind of got the ick off them. It also doesn't seem to help when you see people (mostly young white women, but not exclusively women) in stores being obnoxious and loud and rude and they have a couple dangling from their purse.

But then. I see them on the doll blogs. And I admit there is something slightly endearing about them. I look at the faces and I think "here is a creature that doesn't give one single damn what everyone thinks of her*" 

(*yes, I see them as female)

And it's that - it's almost like Little My in the Moomin books (which are very popular in their Japanese translation). That almost callousness out the outside (though I think inside, My DOES care, at least about some of the other creatures she shares her life with).

But I like that "not giving a damn." I mean, yes, it can be malignant - like the person who is rude and in everyone's face and disturbs people's peace. But there's another kind of it: being confident, and knowing your own worth, and being able to walk past people excluding you or mocking you with your head held high knowing they don't matter. And that there are people who DO, and they are the ones who care about you and wouldn't treat you like that. 

But that's something I've struggled with my whole life, and I suspect I always will to some extent. I am less that way than I once was, but I do, I admit, at times, still feel that lonely 12 year old eating in a dim corner of the lunchroom because no one wants her at their table, or who feels like everyone is laughing at her. And it would be nice to have some kind of little companion to remind you to keep grinning and keep a sardonic look in your eyes, and just keep going....

Oh no, I am not buying one. Labubus are EXPENSIVE (and surely will become more, given their status as an imported good). I could get a couple Squishamals (like the mothmen I posted the other days) for less than the price of one Labubu. 

But still....as I said there's something endearing about a creature that doesn't listen to the "haters"

(Maybe I see if there's an affordable Little My plushie. Or I already have a mini-Stitch, from Lilo and Stitch, who in his own way is similar...) 

Tuesday afternoon things

 * I had somewhat of a reaction to the vaccine - was okay until about 3:30 pm Saturday, and then started to feel tired, and achy, and cold. I think I ran a fever for a bit. I went to bed for a little while and felt better around dinner time so I made some toast and had a yogurt. I was mostly okay but tired Sunday.

I'm still tired today and do feel slightly like the aftereffects of a virus.

*It's also possible I feel like I do because I started on my "self evaluation" for the fall and also my three-year post tenure review packet (every year we have to do a "what I did last year" and a "what I'm going to do next year," every three years those of us with tenure have to do a big review of the previous three years). And I hate it. And it bums me out every time, because I feel like I never do enough, and it's never good enough (though, objectively, I've not lost my job yet). But also a lot of the stuff I do day to day that's valuable to me, and I presume to the students, is "invisible" on these things - there's no line for "treating the students with kindness" or "helping people solve minor computer problems" and so there's both that sense of "the stuff I'm really good at doesn't get recorded" which can then flip over in my mind into "the stuff I'm really good at doesn't *matter*" and I know it's what we'd call in church a "world vs. Kingdom" problem - in that what the world seems to value (ESPECIALLY now, ESPECIALLY in the US, where having a ton of money but maybe not much sense gets you heard, and being a bully lets you get ahead in a way being a kind person does not) but it's still hard. It's hard to remember that there are valuable things that no one ever "sees," but that they still count. 

And I think of this thing that I saw on a tumblr once, and I hunted it down again:

 It's from a book by Suzanne Rivecca called "Ugly, Bitter, and True." I've never read it but that thing resonates.

 I think that's also why I'm less likely to do things like try to design knitting patterns, partly because of not wanting to sink time into something that might be unsuccessful, but also, yes, the "it has to make up for the fact that it's me."

And that's also probably why I don't play piano for anyone buy myself; the fact that I can almost never play even a simple piece like that Clementi Sonatina in C that every beginning student learns without a mistake in it.  

* I need to get on the chicken for my niece's birthday, I don't know whether to get everything out and start tonight or put it off for another day or so. I admit I'm getting a little bit burnt out on chickens but it's such a perfect thing for her I should still do it. 

* I'm still working on the soil samples. I have three left but couldn't do any more than the two I did today - I stayed home a bit after lunch to practice piano, and I admit to hear what the "big announcement" was (it was dumber than advertised, but at least it wasn't some new horror)

* I watched part of "Ralph Breaks the Internet" again last night. I like it better than the first time I saw it, but I still think "Wreck-it Ralph" is better, partly because it feels more timeless - a lot of the internet stuff in the newer movie has really aged fast in a way the video game stuff did not. (I am also embarrassed to admit that I didn't get the joke being made in the title until last night - I don't think about "breaks the internet" in the Kardashian sense rather than that literal "it got unplugged" sense, but yeah, that's the bit - he briefly breaks the internet with viral videos, as he's trying to earn money to repair Vanellope's game.)

The Princesses bit is moderately cute, though the "We can't understand her, she's from the other studio" (Pixar) bit with Merida speaking in an incomprehensible brogue wasn't all that funny to me for some reason. 

 

and Labor Day

 

it's silly but that's what I think of first with Labor Day - Homestar Runner and his silly song.

It's funny, when I was a kid, Labor Day was never a big day. Part of it may have been my family wasn't exactly a union family - my dad was an academic and wasn't in one (though I think when he worked in a foundry when he was in college, he might have been).

 It was also never really explained in school like, for example, Veteran's Day was. It might be the town where I grew up (which would have been far more "management" than "labor"), or it might have been that Labor Day doesn't have a clear historical hook like "we are remembering the end of World War I, when the Armistice was signed" or "we go and decorate soldier's graves to remember their sacrifice" (for Memorial Day, which also used to sometimes be called Decoration Day). 

But something that popped into my mind this morning when people on Bluesky were talking about trade unions - when I was a kid, some of my clothes (I especially remember Lee jeans had it) had an extra tag in them indicating they were made using union labor.

 I think it was this union, in fact:

I remember seeing either that ad, or the slightly later one that was very like it (using the same song).

And I got to wondering: "huh, I haven't seen that in YEARS"

As it turns out, none of the "big three" (Levi's, Lee, or Wrangler) still makes jeans in the US. Or at least not the kind an ordinary person could afford. (I think Wrangler, which ironically was the brand I got horrible teasing from the stuck up kids at school for wearing, was the last to move production overseas). 

There's actually not much clothing made in the US any more! And certainly not jeans that would be affordable for fieldwork (there are some very high end "fancy denim" ones, but the ones I saw were aimed at men, and if I got men's jeans to fit my hips, they'd be way too big in the waist and too long).

There's relatively little woman's clothing on the "we're a union shop" websites I checked, and it was mostly t-shirts and hoodies. (I do know M Mac is made in the US, so even if they're not union, at least there are SOME worker protections (still)). And Thunderpants, which I have quite a number of, are made in the Pacific Northwest, and they boast of trying to pay a good wage...

But not much IS made here any more, and it would be a challenge to put together even a small wardrobe of US made stuff. (And despite all the talk of "tariffs to bring manufacturing back," I rather doubt that will happen). 

But maybe I'm the last generation that will remember "having looked for the union label" in their clothes - even if I didn't understand its significance then
 

working on mitts

 it's taking a while. But then, it's been a long week and I've had some late days over at work.

I'm almost done with the thumb-gusset part, and that needle's worth of stitches is getting very tight to do. I think I have four more increases to do (about six rounds) and then I can put those on a holder.

Like many "random variegated" yarns the mitts look slightly different but I think the difference in the intensity of colors is a trick of the light there. (Though I will say with some yarns of another brand I had that happen - I had a skein of MadelineTosh where the speckle pattern was much denser on the outside of the ball I wound than when you got deeper in to it. This yarn is a Dream in Color, and I've never noticed that issue with it).

These feel tight to knit because it's a dk weight knit on size 1s, so it's a tight gauge (you usually knit a fingering weight yarn, which is roughly half this thickness, on 1s). But it does make a nice, dense fabric, good for a cold-weather accessory.

***

When I ran home at lunch one of the (I presume) last hatches of the year of luna moths was out

 

I get these fairly often; one of the food plants for the caterpillars is pecan leaves, and I have a pecan tree. (I sometimes see the caterpillars that fall out of the tree. I don't think all of them are doomed; I think they often drop down to pupate).

***

Went and got my pneumococcal vaccine today (my doctor recommended I do it, probably because of my asthma). So far I'm not having bad after effects other than a slightly sore arm, but in my experience, if I'm going to get chills and fatigue they come the next day, so we'll see. I did take a dose of acetaminophen because I was developing the hint of a headache; hopefully that will also help the sore arm. 

The shot-nurse (I assume the people giving the shots have some nurse training? Or maybe the shot technician) said that he expected they'd have updated covid vaccines in a week or two. What he wasn't sure of was if my insurance would be willing to pay (I do have a couple of the conditions they listed though as "The FDA recommends). I hope he wasn't either being overly hopeful or was misinformed; it seems there's a LOT of chaos about these vaccines because of, ahem, Certain People in government who don't have biological or medical training, but seem to think they know better than the people who are experts. 

I hope I can get an updated covid vaccine; it seems to me this operates on the model of the flu and getting an annual booster to cover the new mutant strains is wise. (especially if you're older or have certain health concerns). 

Also I am around a lot of people (students) who don't always take the best care of their health, and some of whom live in crowded dorms, or have small children in school, or work at a place in close quarters with lots of other people, and I would like to do what I can to reduce my risk.  

A little lighter

It's been a bit of a rough week. I don't mean just the turmoil in the CDC (which worries me for future vaccines) and the horrific school shooting, but also a good friend of mine who is in her 70s fell and broke a hip. She had surgery Tuesday but I didn't hear she was okay until Wednesday evening - she's already up doing PT, and is apparently going to get to go home soon, by virtue of having a good, supportive husband, two grown daughters who can help her, and a single-story house that she and her husband live in.  But it did worry me a bit for a while. There are also ongoing IT issues (right now: only one printer is usable by faculty on my floor, and it's almost out of toner. I pulled the cartridge out and shook it today and I think we can squeeze out a few more pages, but...)

Also I scheduled my pneumococcal vaccine for Friday. I was going to do COVID (I am very nervous that they'll be yanked from the market by Mr. Didn't Actually Major In Biology But Now Heads An Agency Where Having Done So Would Be Valuable) but the place I normally get vaccines is dissembling on whether they have it, and if it's a new formulation. I might ask when I go in.... but it's better for me to take one vaccine at a time, as I get chills and sometimes hives from the immune system ramp-up, and I like to have a lighter reaction than what multiple shots would give 

So something a little lighter. I was thinking the other day, "What is the plural of Mothman?" Mothmen seems logical, but then if "Mothman" is a single word and it's not "man" being modified by "moth," the correct plural might be Mothmans. And then I thought of "Batsman" (a cricketing term) and laughed to myself and thought "maybe it's Mothsman" except the plural of batsman turns out to be batsmen

 But I admit I like the idea of "mothsman" as the plural, even if it's probably not correct.

Anyway. I have three plushie Mothsman now - the original "tiny size" "baby Mothman" I bought a few years back as a Halloween decoration. This came from Squishable, which is an excellent source of stuffed animals (I have pretty much only mail ordered, but they do have some stores in bigger cities, and you can very occasionally find them in some shops, like Books-a-Million)

So I get e-mails from Squishable, and I admit more than once it's tempted me into buying one.

Earlier this year, they did "alter egos" (Variant forms") of Mothman, but in a mini size. One of them was "Professor Mothman," which was both funny and cute, and of course, as a professor, I wanted one. So I bought one.

 You can't see it but the outside of his wings are argyle, they match the little embroidered on "breast pocket" he has inside them. And he has a tie and saddle shoes. Recently the name "Dr. Harlan J. Mothman" popped into my mind, so that's his name now. (Harlan sounds like a Southern-professor sort of name)

And then a few weeks ago, on a trip to Books-a-Million, I found their "exclusive" (to that chain) purple Mothman and decided to get it

 so now I have Mothsman:

So: Dr. Harlan J. Mothman, Hyacinth (what I am calling purple Mothman; Hyacinth HAS occasionally been used as a male name; there were a couple male Saints Hyacinth, apparently), and then "Baby Mothman," which is what I always called the original one.

Baby Mothman and Hyacinth have funny, birdlike feet that kind of crack me up, I can imagine them walking and the feet making "plap plap" noises on the floor. 

Hyacinth is nice to hug because he's bigger and round; I keep him on my bed (with many other stuffies, to be honest) and Professor Harlan and Baby Mothman live on my sofa. 

I don't know. I know it's silly and immature but these days you take comfort where you can get it...
 

And Tuesday evening

 I don't know why but this week has felt super long already, and it's only Tuesday. I spent Monday afternoon doing teaching prep for the rest of the week (did so not feel up to working on research, and my allergies were already bad). And then today I did more prep, and in the afternoon went through a few samples. I'm down to a dozen (the last site) now, but really, three in a day is all I can do.

Also, I have to decide whether to push Friday afternoon to do more, or to see if I can make plans to get either the pneumococcal vaccine or a covid booster (if they'll let me have one, if my insurance will pay - there's a scary rumor that RFK jr. and his fellow vaccine-opponents may try to get it pulled from the market, and that could be bad. A booster probably won't be updated for the new variant but at least it might help my immunity a little?) I don't want to get both at once; I often have strong reactions (chills, fever, aches) and want to do one at a time. 
I am trusting flu shots will be readily available this fall and get one later. But I hate how the chaos, and how the fact that people have been installed in high places who don't seem to have our best interests at heart, mean I have to do all this calculating and trying to figure out "what is the most urgent thing to prioritize?"

I'm back to working on the mitts; I'm working on the body of the second mitt and am about midway on making the thumb gusset, so I'll get these done soon. Maybe I focus on these for a couple more days and get the satisfaction of finishing something for me. 

I do want to dig out all my partially done projects and gradually finish them, and I'm thinking again about some fingering weight yarn I bought back in 2020 - early on in the pandemic, when I thought I could just sit at home and knit, and a fingering weight cardigan would be a good choice. But I was too upset and distracted to do anything that complicated, and I put the yarn and pattern away. I think I know where it is....though maybe I start Greenstone first, when I'm ready to start another sweater.

(I joked to a friend who doesn't knit that "buying yarn, and planning projects, are two additional hobbies, quite separate from actually knitting. And that's true. And I think the planning step is my favorite. Though as I noted, I'm also suckered in by the "backstory" of some projects - "this is a sweater I made to be rugged for hiking" for example, and I go "I like to hike! maybe if I knit this I will find time to hike, and maybe even a companion to go with me!" of course it doesn't work that way but maybe sometimes a little....I don't know, it's not quite lying to yourself, but a little fantasy, is maybe a good thing.)

I'm currently reading on SPQR. It's interesting, and yet, I admit there are some eerie parallels with the stage of The American Experiment we're in. (Then again: human nature is always human nature, and there are power hungry types in all times and all places). I'll get back to The Enchanted Greenhouse eventually, and even "All Clear" eventually (but I'm still sad at the Big Event I just hit in it), but for now, maybe a little nonfiction is the best choice.  

Trip to Farmersville

 The drive down wasn't great. I got on the road and got just out of town and my "check tire pressure" light came on. So I sighed, dragged out my little compressor, and offered up a prayer that it wasn't a nail in the tire (a colleague reported a flat on his truck; the roofers on our building were NOT careful about policing the nails and screws they left behind). But all the tires were low; it had just been too long since I checked them. Anyway, that was fine for the rest of the trip. But, I didn't know about construction on 69 and it was horrible - they are tearing up segments of the road just outside of Bells (IIRC) and it's on a flagger system, and you have to sit and wait FOREVER. And once I got past it, I wondered: what happens after the guys are done working for the day, there's no "temporary stoplight" like they sometimes put up, and it's not a stretch of road where you can see the end from the other end. So I decided I'd have to find an alternate route home.

Then I decided to rely on satnav, instead of using the route I had planned out first. Satnav never met a interstate or four-lane that it didn't like, so it tracked me what was a LONGER way so I had to drive on 121, rather than staying on 160, which would have been logical.

But I finally got there.

Farmersville is SMALL. In a way, it reminds me of Whitesboro - there's nothing at all as you drive on the road in, and then suddenly: old brick buildings and a brick street

 That's the view from Main Street, looking down towards McKinney Street

Yarns and You (which abbreviates itself YAY) is on Main:

It's a surprisingly large shop (The white signboard on the yellowish store is the storefront). They say there are no public restrooms but if you are there for a class, or are buying stuff, you can use them (The shop owner, when I asked, said that was try to reduce people coming in and either "showrooming" or just coming through to use the restroom. Once again, people who are a little selfish ruin it for others)

It's BIG as yarn shops go. At least three times the size of the one in Denison

 

They have, I think, every color of Berroco Vintage (A standard, worsted-weight you'd use for sweaters) and some other Berroco yarns, and lots of sock yarn...they have a website that lists many of them by brand.

They had the kit I wanted:

 That's for the Cuyahoga National Park hat - the teal represents the river, the dark one with orange is the foliage of the autumn trees, the brown is tree trunks, and the tan is the background

They also had the short size 3 circular needle I wanted.

Oh, I bought some other things:

 This is an Oklahoma based hand-dyer (A Chick that Knits) that I've bought from on Etsy but it's nice to see her yarn in a shop. This one is called "Tropical Flowers"

And even though I rarely wear these colors, I really like this color combination - it's sockweight yarn and I bought 880 yards of it; I want to make a small, simple shawl (maybe one of the Woolenberry patterns) with it. 

The colorway is called "cornsnake," which kind of delights me

 I didn't buy this big candle (I don't need any more) but it made me chuckle a little:

After checking out, I asked the owner if she could recommend a lunch place. She said if I liked sushi (not really) she'd recommend a place in Prosper (but I really didn't feel like driving to another town anyway) but then she recommended Over Yonder, a short walk from where I had parked - they do all house-made foods, soup and salad and sandwiches and she recommended a sandwich she likes, pulled beef (I think she said brisket, but it's not as dry as much of the brisket I've had) with caramelized pickled onions, horseradish sauce, and cheddar cheese melted on it

 

Oranges were one choice of sides. The only other ones I remember were chips (which I didn't think I wanted) and carrot raisin salad (allergic to carrots). But the oranges were VERY good with it, because they were sweet and juicy and contrasted well with the rich meat and cheese. 

The second yarn shop felt more like a distributor's, with bags and bags of stuff and I couldn't tell if you could buy less than a bag full or not, and I wasn't in the market for a sweater's worth of yarn. It was also a lot dimmer and a lot more crowded with stuff, and at that point I was tired and didn't feel as much like digging. 

I did go to a soap shop that was there (no bookstore, sadly) and bought a couple bars of soap (one called Zen, that has a nice sort of citrusy scent). The owner also pointed out her new line of tallow based soaps (they put tallow in EVERYTHING now) but I just quietly said I preferred the coconut oil (which was the soaps she had in nice scents).

And then home. Where 160 became 69, another road (11) branched off that went up to Sherman, so I took that and got back to the Albertson's that way.

 

It was worth the trip for Yarns and You, and the lunch was good; I will probably go back at some point in the future.