Tomorrow's the day

 Yeah, I'm planning on going. It's going to be hot, but at least not "heat advisory" hot. I got gas in the car and I have some cash in my purse, though for yarn shops, I tend to pay with credit card because I usually go over any "budget" I might set.

 I have both the "long" circular sized 3 and 4, and the "short" one in 4, so I will just have to look if they have the short 3s. And if they have the Cuyahoga Valley hat kit from that book, I'm getting it. 

And if anything else catches my fancy. Though in a lot of cases - and really what I have to learn - is that sometimes going somewhere *for the going* is what's important, not showing the trip had "purpose" by obtaining things. 

Oh, like I said, if I see the couple things I am looking for I will get them, and if I see something else that appeals I will. But mostly I just need to get out of town and see a new place. I keep talking about, and thinking, how I "need to move away" when I retire because this town is so small, but on the other hand, if there are a bunch of decent places within a not-too-long drive (provided my vision stays good and the other things I need to drive safely stay good) wouldn't be an issue.

I *might* bring a project with me - I pulled out the "Alive" mitts and restarted the second mitt - the owner has on her website that she invites people to sit and knit, and I don't know? Maybe I consider it? 

I do probably need to stop at Albertson's on the way home, though, so I shouldn't stay *all* day.

My plan now is to go to the bigger store, probably also the second store, get lunch there, and if there's another place I see that seems interesting I might visit them too. 

But yeah. I need to work in occasional breaks where I do something *really* different for me, not just another "well maybe I'll go look at the yarn at Michael's even though they probably won't have anything new in" or "go to a grocery store a little different from the ones in town"

And admit, and this is horrible, but I am slightly apprehensive (!) about it. Because I've had enough bad surprises in the past few years that I admit I'm primed for disappointment - I'll get down there and for some reason the shop will be closed, or it won't be as nice as I hope, or something. And maybe I've had this for a while, and it's kept me from doing some new things, because weathering the disappointment feels to me worse than maybe the benefit of things being good?

Anyway, I hope the shop is good. And I hope it - like Quixotic Fibers - manages somehow to hang on through the tariff mess (Prices will go up at least 15% I assume, at least for UK yarns) and I'm hoping that in some future time trade will become freer again. I really hope that this didn't do what COVID tried to do - kill off small businesses (and for different reasons, restaurants). Because for singletons like me it's very hard to make your own fun all alone, and again, I'm seeing more ads suggesting nuclear families just kind of lock down at home....which means people like me are left out in the cold, the spare giraffe waiting for the Ark....