And I'm back

Comments posted during my absence (I moderate comments, given the volume of spam trying to use this blog as free advertising I get) were moderated-into-visibility today. Because I couldn't access the blog from elsewhere - I got the "You are not permitted" message, which scared me just slightly, but then again, it was trying to tell me I had a different e-mail linked to the blog (Blogger used to give a "gtempmail.netcommander.com" address to my old netcommander address until I updated it this fall). I am happy to see the blog is still accessible from home, with no issues. I'd kind of hate to lose the blog or have to start anew under a different address and try to get all my far-flung readers shepherded back in to the new blog. (Some who read here are on Ravelry or Twitter and could learn of a move of the blog from there, but I know there are people who are not on either....)

The trip back was gloriously uneventful given that there is a mini polar vortex going on right now. (It's even cold here in Oklahoma). I admit I was twitching a bit as it got cold...and started to snow heavily (You can't always get what you want: we had a green Christmas) the day before I was due to come back.

But aside from the train being an hour late (I don't know what it is between Pontiac and Bloomington, but it always loses time), everything was good. I was even early getting in at Mineola.

I did have to run one quick errand: the "low tire pressure" light had come on while I was driving to the station, and although I stopped at a gas station that had one of those "feed quarters to it and get compressed air" things, it wasn't working too well, at least, I couldn't fill the tire enough to make the light turn off. (It was the front driver's side tire. I fear it may have a slow leak; this happened once before a couple months ago). Fortunately, the nice volunteer at the train station told me about a tire place a few blocks away. I pulled in, hoping they were open yet (it was not quite 9:30). They were, and they were not busy, so two guys ran out, one on either side of the car, each grabbed an air hose, they checked and filled the tires. No charge, in fact they laughed when I asked them what I owed. (Take that, stupid gas station "you pay, you fill" air compressors).

As it was still so early, and because I wanted to stop and take off my heavy wool coat (I couldn't quite put my arms down, not with the sweater I was wearing, and driving was uncomfortable), I pulled into the lot of Stitchin' Heaven. This is a large quilt shop - they used to advertise as being in Quitman, but either they moved or opened a second store in Mineola, they are right there as you pull off 69 to go into town. I'd seen them many times and said, "I should go in" but never took the time.

I did this time. It was nice - lots of fabric, well set-out, easy to find stuff. As seems to be typical for quilt shops, there was a sizable group of friendly women working there who were happy to point things out or cut fabric for me. (Yes, I bought a couple small pieces). As I was checking out, I commented that I was driving back home to Oklahoma, and one of the women said, "Oh, you better get out after you finish here; it's supposed to get icy."

Well, I interpreted that as "there's an ice storm a-comin'" and I wondered why the lady at the train station hadn't mentioned it. However, the north-Texas news channel only said "colder temperatures and wind," so perhaps the "icy" meant the temperatures (which are not so bad compared to what I just left.) We MIGHT get some ice on Sunday (yup, just in time for students to be moving back to campus, ugh), but right now it's just cold and windy.

So I stopped at the Kroger's on the way back home and bought a bunch of vegetables and stuff, all the "spoilables" that you can't stock up on and then leave home for three weeks. And now I need to take down my Christmas stuff (sigh) and put away my clothes and all that. And probably change the sheets on the bed. At least there's no sign of mice getting in the house while I was gone like there was one year....