Got the painting

 I DID need to go out yesterday, I needed a day away from the stuff that had been worrying me and a day looking at other things. 

The first thing I did was go to Michael's. I asked the young man at the door and as I was explaining about the painting a woman walked over and said, "I'll walk back with you and see if it's done" (I had explained I knew the framer wasn't in yet for the day, but "it was supposed to be done and I never got a call...")

She apologetically said - after looking my name up - "oh, we marked down we had called...but it was the day our phone system was messed up so likely you didn't get it." It was the 15th, so I would have been sitting on a train, anyway (probably stuck in Poplar Bluff). So no harm, no foul.

 They did a good job. It's something to see the art you did professionally framed. I had to take a peek when I got it back to the car

 

I'm glad I chose that frame, not only is it a good color match but stylistically it works; it looks like weathered board-fence wood for a picture that could be West Texas.

After I got it home I took down the old reprint of a Pathe records poster I had up next to my piano, and hung it.

 Originally that was going to be a temporary home, but I like it there. And it's really nice to be able to see it in the room where I spend most of my waking hours. 

Here's another view, you can see it's next to the little shelves I have up, one is where I keep my Mirabel doll

 I also bought a book of simple cardigan patterns; I have some stash yarn I could eventually turn into cardigans. I'm also more and more feeling like "physical copies of things like patterns are good to have" 

I also went to Ulta - I needed more of the concealer I use and I wanted a new lipstick. I didn't go into JoAnn's but they do have a STORE CLOSING banner up and yeah, I'm still sad about that. (I admit the best case scenario might be Ulta moving into that space and expanding; the store near me is smaller than some I've been in). Or if we could get a  Barnes and Noble, that would be a little consolation. (There's a Books A Million in the same strip mall as the Michael's, but it's really gone downhill in the past year)

On my way out, I contemplated: grab lunch now, or try to get through the Albertson's and then eat at home. I decided to get lunch, since then I'd be able to go to the yarn shop, too, and I want to support them even if I have waaaaaay more yarn than I need (then again: yarn brings joy and I've dug out a few skeins recently from deep in the stash and planned projects with them)

I decided to try Cracker Barrel but when I went in there was already a MINIMUM 25 minute wait, and, ugh.

Going out - driving on a surface street that was basically two lanes each way, not an interstate, just a regular road going between shopping areas - I was nearly sideswiped not once, but twice, by large pickups (two different ones). First, they were going 10-15 miles per hour faster than the flow of traffic (I was in the righthand, "slower traffic" lane; they were in the lefthand one). And then they seemed to swerve over even closer to me,, like practically on the paint line dividing the lanes.

So I wonder: just really lousy impatient drivers, or is this a new person-in-a-giant-pickup-decides-to-act-like-a-jerk-to-people-in-slightly-smaller-vehicles behavior? I'm hoping it's just the first but it's hard to know; you see more instances of unpleasant behavior out in public now. 

Anyway. I got safely to Denison. Got to the Katy Depot where the knit shop is. I spotted this on a siding next to the building and thought it was nice, so I grabbed a photo:

 Yeah, I kind of like trains, and the old ones are interesting to see. I don't think this one actively runs; it looks like the windows are painted out. And few real trains use cabooses anymore; I assume it's there for the nearby railroad museum. 

The owner of the shop was in; she knows me by name, which is somehow a comforting thing. I decided to get yarn for a pair of the Huldre Socks (Ravelry link). I thought I MIGHT have had a dark brown or dark green for the background; I wanted to get the cream for the colorwork and the braid. I asked about the cream yarn; she showed me a couple choices including a West Yorkshire Spinners' yarn, which is both pretty affordable and well-made, so I grabbed that, and then saw a dark forest green in the same line, so once I finish one of the sock pairs I'm working on, I can start those. I also bought a skein of the special "limited edition" Dream in Color colorways - one called Kiss Me which is various shades of turquoise (from very dark to very light) with some reddish pink. I had seen it in the e-mails that the shop sends out (and mentioned it to the owner when I paid for the yarn) so yeah, I guess those e-mails work as advertising. 

Then I went to CJ's, which is a little coffee place that does a few sandwiches, including  a "breakfast sandwich" that is a croissant with scrambled eggs and cheese and meat if you want it, and it's surprisingly good for something so simple, so I had that and a hot tea and felt a little better after the upset of the bad drivers.

And then I got to Albertson's and got supplies ahead (including blueberry pie filling for a simple cake I made for today's potluck), and then home. 

But it's really nice to have my painting back and have it up on the wall. (I admit to vacillating between being kind of proud that even as a rank amateur I could do something that good, and feeling like "yeah it's not really very good at all" but that's how I am about EVERYTHING I do)