Horrifying bad weather

I'm watching some of the coverage of the Illinois/Indiana tornadoes with concern and dismay. I used to live in central Illinois, so I know a lot of the locations they're talking about.

(The good news - my mom called to let me know they "only" had hail and high winds at their place, and my sister-in-law's brother - who lives in one of the heavily-affected towns - was okay. But I don't know if any of my old grad-school cohort had problems, or if other people I know from up there suffered).

It seems kind of unreal. A lot of disaster coverage these days seems kind of unreal to me, like, "This can't be happening again." I probably have been to some of the places that are destroyed now. (I wonder how the remnant prairies fared. I suppose better than some of the historic buildings...)

My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected, and with the people who are going to help them recover and rebuild.

***

When my mom called, she prefaced it with "I don't know if you've been watching any of the weather coverage..." and I kind of mentally went OH NO because I had heard there was going to be bad weather that morning, but then after I got home from church, "To Be or Not To Be" (the 1942 version) was on TCM, so I watched that instead, and totally forgot that bad weather was coming to the midwest. (But fortunately for close family at least, everything is fine).

Also, I have to admit some annoyance at (What Used To Be) The Weather Channel. First off - they got rid of any evening weather coverage on "regular" nights, in favor of still more "reality" shows. But when something big and bad happens, of course they are there, reporting the heck out of it. (And breaking in every 7 minutes or so to show ads promoting how "sensitive" and "compassionate" they are for how they reported on Typhoon Haiyin. Hey - unless Jim Cantore and other TWC staff are over there building shelters and distributing water, I don't think you get to talk about how "sensitive" you are to the aftereffects of the disaster)

I GET that "everyone" has smartphones now (except I don't) and "everyone" uses that to look up the weather. But I don't have a smartphone, and sometimes I don't feel like going on the Internet at home just to see the weather.

If I were starting a new cable channel, I'd start one that ONLY broadcast weather. Or, maybe weather and short programs explaining things like cold fronts or hurricane formation. Though I suppose it wouldn't attract much of an audience, being relatively drama-free.

***

I mainly worked on my niece's Christmas present over the weekend. It's a bit more than half done. I'm making something called Some Assembly Required (ravelry link only). Essentially, it's a larger, knitted version of a LEGO minifig. (My brother is a huge LEGO fan; this is being done partly to amuse him).

The pattern-writer warns: "Warning! Some Assembly Required is extreme knitting!"

Heh. While it takes concentration, I certainly didn't find it "hard." It does have some unusual techniques, like slipping stitches every other row to make "corners" on a boxy shape. And it uses a lot of wrap-and-turn short rows on the head and hands. And a provisional cast-on....The pattern is very clearly written so as long as you know the necessary techniques, it's not hard.

I've got the head and torso totally done - I kind of burned out yesterday afternoon and decided I didn't feel like starting the legs. But I don't anticipate them being any harder than what I've done before.

(And I wonder if, based on the designer's assessment, my successful completion of this makes me an Extreme Knitter?)

It's coming out pretty cute and I'm contemplating making one for myself at some point. (Also, there is a free "expansion pack" of fancy clothes - a top hat, cape, and cane - which go over the standard red shirt and blue pants of the LEGO man! I find that amusing, though I might consider making a white shirt and black pants if I'm going to do the fancy-dress clothes)