On to happier things.

I finished the Poppy quilt over the weekend:



(This is the best photo I could get of it in my house; it's big, and it's hard to find somewhere large enough to lay it out. When it's totally done, I should hang it up on my backyard fence or something and take a distance-shot).

I also turned the second corner (and thus am on the second short side) of the Hiawatha shawl. No picture; it's kind of an ugly corner turn that I'm hoping will block out.

And Bloom is growing:



This is a really fun project! Part of it is that it's easy to pick up and put down - if there's five or ten minutes free, I can easily do a couple rows. And it's also fun to see the color changes in the Noro yarn. (It's color 10 of "Blossom," the yarn recommended for the pattern. But any color-changing or variegated heavy-worsted yarn would work. Might not look as "rustic" as the Blossom - it's a very "shaggy" yarn, with nubs and hairy bits and it's a little unevenly spun - but I think any color-changing yarn would work more or less.)

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I also had something weird happen yesterday. Mondays are my long day (8 am class, 11 am class, 5-7 pm class, and then last night I had a meeting at 7 that wound up lasting till 9:30. Bleaugh.) So I went home for lunch. And I was craving fried chicken, which, you must understand, I almost never eat, but sometimes, when you're really craving something, you have to give in.

I was going to get chicken strips at one of the local drive-in joints. But noon on Monday at a drive-in joint means there are no slots in the bay. (Or rather, there was ONE, but as I was pulling in aiming to take it, two "Cooters" in a beat up pickup pulled in - going the wrong direction - and aced me out of it. I started to get mad, reminded myself of what day it was, told myself that maybe the two "Cooters" had a very very short lunch break.) So I went somewhere else (ACROSS TOWN which was not fun - it was 12:30 by now and I was beginning to get that shaky-angry feeling I get when I've waited too long to eat). So anyway. I got my takeout piece of chicken and side of corn, and took it home.

And there was a backpack on my lawn. Or rather, a backpack kind of stuck behind one of my small trees.

I looked at it and groaned. What was that? Did some bully take one of the "walker" kids' (the kids who live close and walk to school) backpacks and dump it here? What?

Then again, I remembered what day it was. Could the backpack be something sinister? Should I call the cops?

But then I thought of my rapidly-cooling lunch and said to myself, even if it's a bomb I need to eat. I'll call the cops later.

I also thought of other possibilities: it's stuffed with drugs and my yard has been used as a dealer's drop-point. Or it's full of stolen stuff and the fence is going to pick it up. (Normally I am not this cynical, but several years ago I had those bad neighbors).

Well, as I was eating, a young woman walked into my yard, picked it up, and walked off.

Well, at least that saved me having to call the police. But why did she do that? And could it still have been some kind of a "drop"?

Well, I saw the same woman this morning while driving to work. And I suspect - although I'm not sure - she may be homeless. And she maybe left her backpack in my yard when she was - whatever - trying to find a place to stay?

She must have some kind of place to stay, or at least access to a bathroom, because she looked decently groomed and dressed - almost like she was going off somewhere to work.

So anyway. If she's homeless and trying to get to the point where she can be not-homeless anymore (by working), and if she considers my yard a safe place to leave her stuff during the day, bless her and she is welcome to it.