Saturday, July 08, 2017

And I'm home

Something I've noticed: either there are more poor drivers on the road, traffic in the Sherman/Denison area has gotten worse, or (and?) I've become less tolerant* of traffic.

(*In the sense of not being frightened/freaked out by things that happen, not in the sense of getting angry - I'm pretty good at keeping my temper under control, though I do feel my frustration rising when, for example, there's someone going 20 mph below the speed limit without good cause (like, if they had a trailer they were towing, that might be good cause) but with a phone mashed to their ear. But even that, I can take a deep breath and tell myself remaining calm means I'm more likely to get whereever safely)

But yeah. And also, in Sherman (just like here), there are a few cases of construction on streets I need to use, and as a result, there are truly inelegant detours I have to take. (I joked the other day that maybe the road-construction companies were in cahoots with the gas stations, and all the detours made people burn more gas, so they had to buy more gas).

And I do think there are more bad/aggressive drivers out there. Today, driving down, there was someone in one of those big-jacked-up-suspension-so-they-can-go-mudding pickup trucks weaving in and out of lanes of traffic with nary a turn signal. (I don't like lane jockeys to begin with, but it's worse when they won't signal). The truck had "BIG SEXY" stenciled on the back window so it's not like they would be un-obvious if they committed an actual lawbreaking infraction....

But I got it done.

It was nice to get to Home A La Mode again. They were out of the Meow or Never fabric (that was the line the charm packs were from) but I think now I'll just dig something out of the stash and use it. I did find some other fabric I wanted, though, and also a very large quilt stencil that might work for a quilt top in my to-be-quilted pile. And the people there are just nice and it's nice to be fussed over a little, which is a big feature of why I like small businesses instead of megastores.

(And yes, I realize that it's slightly pathetic that I look to the people working in a shop to fuss over me, but - I'm usually the one in my friend-group who does the fussing-over people, and I also have a hard time asking for that sort of thing, and as I said a while back: when you've projected an image of yourself for so long as The Strong Tough Independent One, it's kind of hard to walk that back)

And I went to Kaboodles. Bought another one of the lemongrass candles I liked. (So many scents bother my allergies that when I find one that doesn't, I like to have multiples of it). And a bar of that "Monk Soap" (Made by Benedictine monks in Louisiana). It's called "Solemn Vespers" and is a strong spicy scent - I think there's perhaps cinnamon in it. I'm thinking it will be a good soap to use in the summer - I, ahem, have to use very strong deodorizing soap when it's this hot and I'm working outside. And anyway, good smelling soap is just one of the small pleasures of life, and I tend to feel that if you can afford the small pleasures like that (I can), it's worth taking them.

I also found a book by Clare Boothe (before she was Luce, apparently, and apparently also before she became quite so political) called Europe in the Spring that purports to be an eyewitness account of what was happening in the late 30s there. I don't know. It was $5, it looked kind of interesting, and it also has all kinds of bits of paper inserted in it and I admit part of the fun of used books is seeing what stuff people have left in their old books - if there's anything really cool, I'll post a photo. (I once found some Confederate scrip - I am pretty sure it was real - in an old book I bought at a used book sale)

Also got barbecue for lunch. And went to JoAnn's. It's kind of a crapshoot these days with the coupons; you might have a really good one but then everything you want is on sale for a considerably lower percent than the coupon offers (and you can't use the coupon on on-sale things), but I did manage to get a big chunk of cream-colored Kona cotton (for a future quilt using one of my 1930s reproduction fabric Jelly Rolls) for 50% off.  Also the new issue of Quilty is out, which pleases me (I should subscribe as soon as they start taking subscribers).

And I got food, including some prosciutto, for my plan of trying a pasta with prosciutto, lightly-cooked spinach, and a garlic/oil sauce.

But yeah - I like getting out, I enjoy being able to go to do fun shopping, but crikey, the drive isn't fun any more. (I know people who are saying that Dallas is gradually creeping north and perhaps they're correct; perhaps my reduced tolerance of the traffic is because it's gotten heavier and some of the drivers are more aggressive).

Though next time I do this, it will be going earlier in the morning (so: at a time of lesser traffic) and I will quickly be getting off 75 and on to 69 - my trip in 2 weeks to Longview to meet up with Laura.


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