Almost. I almost got up to the toe decreases (which I'm going to have to fiddle a bit with, as I have 39 instep stitches and 32 bottom-of-foot stitches) on the Horseshoe Crab sock.

I'm very pleased with how they are turning out. The pattern is pleasing, and the yarn - which I was always kind of disappointed with in the skein - is actually quite a pretty, neutral, golden-green.

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I didn't do a whole lot last night. I think I HAVE figured out one of the sources of my summer unhappiness. (For years, I've suffered from something that's like a borderline case of reverse SAD - not bad enough to go and get medicated-up for, but bad enough that I really truly don't like summer that much).

It's the humidity.

I got up this morning and thought, "I feel anxious. Why do I feel anxious? I shouldn't feel anxious - I'm prepared for teaching today, I know what I need to do, I don't have anything pressing."

Then I realized my chest felt tight and it was hard to breathe. (It was about 76* out and almost 100% humidity).

And then it hit me - my brain interprets "tight chest and difficulty breathing" as "anxiety," whether the tightness has a psychological or physiological cause.

Thanks, brain. Thanks a lot. And even though I've figured out my brain's game on that point, it's still not helping any - I feel a little distressed when my breathing is tight. (I wonder - in "true" asthmatics, and not self-diagnosing, "I have borderline asthma" types like me, if they also feel an anxiety caused by that tightness...and it feeds into a sort of feedback loop, where they get anxious about being able to breathe, and it makes their chests tighten up more...)

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Tomorrow I get the day off for Independence Day. I don't have any plans but that's okay; I do need to pack and do a little pre-emptive cleaning.

(I will also add: I so do not get the attraction of things that make a loud boom. Real fireworks, yes: there is pretty with the boom. But M-80s and their ilk [some of which you can buy if you know the right people around here, or so I've been told] just don't seem to have the right fun to danger ratio. For me, the fun to danger ratio has to be pretty high, which is why I like professional fireworks displays but never got into shooting off bottle rockets myself.

I also am not crazy about whoever it is in my neighborhood who seems to enjoy shooting those off all through the night. {And I think the neighborhood dogs agree with me on that.) At least this year I won't feel like I have to sleep with one eye open, speed-dial for the fire department programmed into my phone, and the hose half turned-on. The rain has taken care of most of the fears I have of some fool igniting my roof with a stray bottle rocket or other incendiary.)


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I did have errands to run yesterday - having the mail held, getting money, getting a new car tag. I will say my trip to the tag office was easier than any I've ever had. Even though tag offices 'round here are known for closing up unpredictably for long lunches, even though the tag office is basically the attitude of the DMV crossed with the imperiousness of the IRS...it still went surprisingly smoothly. And Eggbert is legal for another year.

(I will say I'm not so much looking forward to renewing my driver's license next spring...isn't the new law about having to have oodles of information to prove you're not some kind of undocumented immigrant coming into force? I must try to locate my social security card (I think it's in my safety deposit box) and get a copy of my birth certificate. One of the things that frustrates me is that criminals are just going to find ways around that kind of thing, while those of us who are lawabiding citizens wind up having to jump through increasing series of hoops....)