Started something new

I did start new socks last night, but went a different direction than I planned. I had spotted my copy of the Jaywalker pattern (one of those famous Internet patterns...don't know if it's currently available anywhere but Ravelry though). And I remembered I had some of the Red Heart sock yarn (yeah, Red Heart makes sock yarn, and it's a lot nicer than the basic-grade worsted-weight acrylic - the sockyarn is actually mostly wool). It comes in candy colors; this one is called Blackjack...the basic color is black (as you might guess) but it's shot through with stripes of white and pink and orange. Kind of a licorice allsorts sort of effect. And I'd been wanting to do a pair of Jaywalkers with this yarn for a while...and I realized that a printout of a paper pattern is a lot more portable than a hard bound book. So I cast on for the socks and did a bit on them.

(I started watching "Arsenic and Old Lace" on TCM last night. Didn't stay up for the end; I've seen it before, but it's one of those movies that's entertaining to rewatch. Funny how mass murder can be made entertaining and how you even forgive the old bats for what they've done...)

Today was the state science fair. I had an alarming last few minutes of the drive up - the Tire Pressure Low! light came on. As I was on State 3, which has nothing between Tupelo and Ada (not even a very safe place to pull off onto the side), I just kept going, gripping the steering wheel, eyeing the ditch on the side of the road to see if I could safely maneuver into it if I had the blowout I was expecting to happen.

Made it safely to my destination; checked the tires. The lowest reading I got was 27; "full inflation" is 34 or 35 on these tires. One of the other people up there checked the tires with his tire gauge (I guess he figured the Slime-brand electronic one I had wasn't accurate, but it gave the same readings as his old-school one). He said it "probably" would be OK, and also that as it was cold I might be getting a lower reading than I might midday.

But I didn't want to trust it. Fortunately, I have a little air compressor that plugs into the cigarette lighter of the car - and since we get a generous lunch break (I think that's so people who don't want to take advantage of the free (and perfectly fine) cafeteria lunch can go to restaurants), I went back to my car after lunch and reinflated the tires as much as I had time to. (I got them up to about 32. It's funny how those last few pounds of pressure take even longer, or at least seem to).

I was greatly gratified when I turned the car on to leave for the day and say the "Tire Pressure Low!" light turn off. (Also, if it had been raining hard like originally predicted - well, I think having low tires is an especially bad idea then.)

I think that's the first time I've used that gadget for its intended purpose; previously I had only used it to blow up my yoga ball or to reinflate basketballs for the youth group kids. (As I said at the time: you can be a real hero to teenaged boys if you can fix their basketball when it goes flat).

I don't think the tires have a leak; I just don't think I'd attended to them recently and possibly the sudden cold snap did affect the pressure readings. But I'll keep an eye on them. (They're still pretty new tires, so I don't think it's time for new ones...and the treads are certainly still in good shape.)

Other than that, I'm tired. In my section there was a total of 31 projects (morning plus afternoon) to judge.