Midway through break

(This is a real-time post).

Today wound up being slightly stressful. I was thinking, as I waited on both things we had to wait on, of the time when I was standing in the back of the church, waiting to go up to Elder, and how I felt like that moment could last forever, and I was content, because I was in the place I was supposed to be and was doing the thing I was supposed to do. I suppose also that I had control over the situation and that helped me feel happier about it.

Well, today, two things happened: my father has an appointment to do something about the leaky (?) veins in his legs - things have gotten fairly bad, he has a hard time standing now. And additionally, the air conditioner here pooped out. That would not be such an issue except that it's been extremely humid here - the heat hasn't been too bad, but dewpoints have been in the 70s some days, and that makes me feel fairly miserable. We had put the air conditioning on a day or so after I got here, and it was fine for a while, and then there were a couple nights when it seemed awfully stuffy in the house. (I thought nothing of it; because of my dad's poor circulation, the fact that the room I sleep in is on the upper floor which is always the hot part of the house, and my parents are generally more frugal than I am...and anyway, it's a house twice the size of mine, so more expensive to cool). But. Yesterday, my mom walked by the thermostat and said "Why is it 78 in here if it's set on 75?"

Yeah, something was wrong. I did what I knew how to do (throwing a breaker, waiting five minutes, throwing it back, reprogramming the thermostat which had blinked off during a brief power outage) and that didn't fix it. And OF COURSE it was a federal holiday. So early this morning my mom called The Place (the place the fixes air conditioning) and remarkably, they had a tech free for mid morning. So he came out. Diagnosis: frozen coil. I had to do most of the negotiating/point person things with him, despite not living here (so: not knowing the history of the system) because my mom was helping my dad get ready for his appointment. I had to try to remember where the cold-air returns were, things like that. Finally, dude went out to clean the coils and do the "routine maintenance" part of the visit (Which turned out to be fortunate: they just moved up the date of the yearly checkup, for which my parents have already paid, so there was no charge today).

It took forever. And during that time we were waiting on the EMTs (long story but: My dad is big, my mom is small, she worries about him falling getting into the car, and they're willing to help. I suspect EMTs, if they have the time, are happy to go out on a run where they know (a) there will not be a combative and possibly drug-overdosed person, (b) the person is not likely to die on them, (c) there's no serious injury to deal with).

So I wound up at about half past noon, leaning over the porch railing, wondering if the A/C guy would finish up first, or if the EMTs would get there first, and feeling kind of jangled and unhappy and that things were Not Right. (No harm if the EMTs got there first - my parents left a credit card, and as it turned out, there was no charge for today). At one point, I worried - could Dude have electrocuted himself out there at the A/C unit and be lying on the grass? (I peeked out the living room window and saw his elbow, and figured he had to be OK. He was).

Anyway. The air conditioning is fixed, hopefully my dad's veins will get fixed without too much trouble, I have to put a roast in the crock pot in a few minutes for dinner.

And I'm worrying about my home state. El Reno had a bad tornado; it took out a motel and a trailer park, it looks like, and a couple people were killed and lots were injured. (To tell the truth: I don't remember staying in a motel that had clear instructions of what to do to be safe in a tornado. Fires, yes, but I don't remember a "hey go to this inner hallway on the ground floor" sort of thing. I mean, I probably have sufficient common sense I could quickly figure it out, but a lot of people come from places where tornadoes are uncommon). And there's bad flooding throughout the state, apparently the worst near Muskogee. (A couple at my church has requested prayers for one of their adult kids who lives near there and apparently can't get in or out of their town)

I'm also anticipating riding home on a bus rather than a train, womp womp. No news to that effect yet but seeing as the Mississippi flows *southward*, I expect the bad flooding will probably wind up in and around St. Louis in the next week. (And Arkansas is also an issue). If it does happen, I don't know whether to just tough out a bad trip, or whether to delay my return home....I do have a dentist checkup and the consult with the GI doctor* week after next and I'd have to reschedule those.

(*I'm still holding out a probably-vain hope he'll take my medical history and go "oh, you have such a healthy lifestyle, let's try Colaguard first rather than the full procedure...")

I am getting some knitting done. I also finished the Stitch nightshirt (really, t-shirts and nightshirts, provided you can find material you like, are probably one of the most cost-effective things to make yourself...better quality than commercial and you can find fun fabric). I donated the leftover fabric to my mom; she thinks there's enough to make a simple dress for my niece.

I started the Mary Quant dress. Actually, I have the hardest bits done - the collar and facing are on, the pockets are on; all that remains is one side seam, the sleeves (attaching a facing that takes the place of a hem, sewing the seam, setting them in) and then hemming it. (I always let finished dresses hang for 24 hours to "relax" before hemming). I'm pretty happy with it so far but am holding out final judgement until I am sure it fits - we had to do a fair amount of alteration because my arms are bigger than those of the standard model, and also, I have, ahem, huge tracts of land and these dresses tend to be more Twiggy style...

I'm using a fabric that isn't the vintage I'd hoped for, but was the vintage we'd got - a big piece of Jinny Beyer quilting cotton, probably from the late 80s (at the earliest) or the mid-90s (more likely). I don't remember buying it so maybe it was a sale end-of-bolt piece. It's mostly peacock-blue with some teal and turquoise and a little purple, in a dark print that's ALMOST paisley. (Paisley counts as "mod," right?). At any rate: free fabric (well, free to me, at least now). And there was enough of it that I could make the pockets pattern-match, which on a big, somewhat-directional pattern matters. So the WORK on it is good; I just hope the fit is equally good. (If not, maybe my sister-in-law, who is a tiny bit slimmer than I am, gets a new dress....)

I've also been trying to walk 45 minutes to an hour every day....the neighborhoods around my parents' house are interesting to walk in, they have good sidewalks, people are friendly. (though I suppose my complexion, my gender, and the fact that I'm indistinctly middle-aged means people might be more predisposed to be friendly towards me). I don't see a LOT of people - mostly dogwalkers or other people out walking/jogging, or sometimes people working in their yards. But it's a different feeling than my town, where walking is more difficult. Ironically, even though my parents' city is about four times the size of the one where I live, their neighborhood area feels more....small town-ish, in the sense that I imagine small towns. (And yes, I know people hate on suburbs a lot, but there's something to be said for having a place where someone like me feels safe walking alone early in the morning....)