Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

I had kind of a creepy day today. It was the 8th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. I remember when I found out. I was at home working, and I had called a supervisor for a question and he broke the news about the first plane hitting the first tower. I Turned on my TV and watched with disbelief. While I was finishing up with my customer, the second plane hit the second tower. The world stopped and the rest is history. A moment we should never forget.

Fast forward to today. I woke up at 2:00am with a panic attack, which I rarely get anymore. It was a bad one. I was uncontrollabley shaking and my heart was beating out of my body. I was drenched in a feeling of sadness and dread and felt like I wanted to climb out of my skin. I could best describe it as the feeling of being on a roller coaster when you don't like roller coasters. The feeling of hurling through space with no control. This feeling lasted all day and into the night. It's calmed down a little thanks to my friends on the online game I play. They made me laugh (LOL) and made me forget how I was feeling for a while.

Now here I am 24 hours later still buzzing with unwanted energy. I picked up the new issue of Spin-Off (the magazine for hand spinners ... but if you didn't know that why are you reading my blog??) In the back there was an artical written by my favorite fiber author, Stephanie Pearl McPhee, about a friend of hers (Denny McMillan) who made her own personal souvenier of S.O.A.R. 2008 by gathering all of the wool left behind by the participants in the classes and the spin-ins. She ended up with several skeins of yarn and knit a couple of items including a neck warmer. Having attended that S.O.A.R., and taken Robin Russo's exotic fiber class, I had contributed to her project. I was always embarassed to leave at the end of the day with a large pile of fluff under my chair. After all this was an exotic fiber class and that stuff ain't cheap!! I'm glad that the fiber found a home and a purpose. I cried a little at the end looking back on my memories from last October. And looking forward to spending tomorrow uncovering my fiber stash that has been packed away for a few months as we move into our latest dwelling.

This house has been a Godsend. While not perfect and it would be nice to have the septic system working correctly, we really like it here. The sound of the creek is soothing and the trees and wildlife are ever entertaining. It is as relaxing as our house in California was. That is the best excuse for not being unpacked yet. But as of last weekend I started to set my shop up again to work on jewelery projects and felting projects and hopefully this weekend I can find my fiber and yarn and start my spinning and knitting projects.

I need to get my website back up and my web store and move that in a forward direction. Holiday shopping season is rapidly approching. It's time I caught that wave and rode it for all it's worth. And as winter approches, settle in for a while.

When Winter does arrive I will have plenty of time to spin and knit, plenty of time to shape metal and blow glass, and plenty of time to spend with my friends online building cities and conquering barbarian cities and laughing. However one of my online friends won't have all that time to spend with us. He will be in harms way defending Democracy on the other side of the world. Cleaning up what was started 8 years ago on a sunny September morning. My thoughts will be with you. God Speed and come home safely.

Story Days

Recently I moved to a little town called Story. Population 650 and I think a lot of those are seasonal residents. It's a cute town. EVERYONE wants to live here. We have a creek running along the property and the sound of the rushing water has lowered my blood pressure way down to where I am probably normal.

This weekend is Story Days. The whole town gets together and puts on a shindig. All of the locals do something. There is even a parade. Now if you live in a large metropolitan area and have the occasional parade you ain't seen nothin' like this! Although not as Norman Rockwell as the ones I saw in small town Wisconsin, this one was truly a delight.

It started before it started. First there was gunfire followed by sirens. Then some Civil War troops marched down the street.... then the sirens got louder and then they announced the parade.

First in line were the Fire department and rescue squad followed by the sheriff, highway patrol and National Guard. Thank goodness nothing ever happens here as all of the protection services were in the parade.

There were cowboys and Indians. There were Masons and Shriners (including the contingent in go carts weaving around in their Fezzes. There were clowns with pitchforks (yes clowns with weapons very scary) There was a few floats. I think the most confusing one was the kid in the wire pen and a guy in a chicken outfit dancing and there was a tipi on the back. There was a pipe and drum band and later on a lone piper. The local radio station had a boom box van playing classic rock and there was a showing from both the Big Horn Model A club and another classic car group who had not only the usual 1930's and 40's souped up cars but a large group of high end muscle cars squealing their wheels and revving up their engines plus a viper a prowler and several model years of corvettes and mustangs.

The whole thing was so cute I cried. Now my neighbors think I'm nuts.

Currently outside ...probably in front of my house is an Indian Dance performance.

And a fun highlight that I enjoyed was the kid who walked over to my fence and tried to dump trash nonchalantly on the ground. He saw me see him and he gave me the "what are you going to do about it" look. I gave him the "pick it up or I will jump this fence and rip your head off and use you as a garbage can" look. He picked it up and put it back in his pocket. Justice prevails.

Well as non social as I am, I am a prisoner in my home this weekend. The street is parked up with visitors and crowds of people. But I'm fine. I still have unpacking and cleaning to do.

Next year will be different. I want to enter my Lamb Tagine in the dutch oven cook off. I also want to set up a booth at the bazaar and sell some yarn and jewelry. Had I known about this a few weeks earlier I would have done it this year. Day late dollar short... story of my life.

I know I know it's been over a month!

So when I last blogged I was hopelessly addicted to a stupid computer game that was holding me captive. Well now I have 5 cities not one, I have prestige reaching 140000, I have been promoted to General and Earl. I'm still addicted but I can put the computer down.

Also since I last blogged the house we were living in sold so we had to find a place to live. Hubbins was out of town still (since March) I was freaking out and got totally depressed to the point of no longer functioning. It's been almost 20 years since I have been like that. Things turned around in the weirdest way.

I had put in an application for a house on a quiet street in town. I went to the grocery store to get some comfort food. As I was leaving the store I stopped at the gumball machines and put my 50 cents in for a Santo. Yes tiny plastic saint statues from vending machines. I received a Saint Jude. Patron Saint of hopeless causes. My next day at work I placed the little Santo on my computer monitor. Later in the morning I got a call from the potential landlord saying I didn't get the house. My boss's wife at that point, sent me a list of a few places for rent. One was already rented, one was too expensive, one was way too small and I called the third. The owner said it was a "very rustic" cabin in a cute little town. It took me three tries to find it. Once I found it I fell in love. We moved in this week.

It's right on the creek and I sleep like a rock and my blood pressure has gone down enough were I almost had silence one morning. My tenitis had quieted down to where it wasn't like walking through a field of cicadas.

Well Les Stroud is on Craig Ferguson tonight ... I will try to say awake an watch.

Back to basics

For the past week I have been held captive by stupid online computer game. The two weeks before that I was held captive by an even more stupid computer game. Today I am trying to get back on track. I started spinning again. I received my copy of Maggie Casey's new spinning DVD. It inspired me to get my wheel spinning. I must say my spinning is loftier and more even. I knitted up a sample with Polwarth and it's soft and lovely.

I put together a necklace last night. It is sterling silver bead and waxed linen thread. It's very delicate. I would do it again with heavier cord but it's very wearable.

I am going to spend a chunk of my day photographing my new pieces for my webstore and I really need to update my website. I really should finish that felted purse and get that up on the store.

If I can stay off the computer and stay awake.

Well yes it snowed

This past weekend, I saw more of my new state than I had before. Previously I had seen Yellowstone,and out east to Cody. On the way out here from California, we saw the road from Evanston to Casper and up to Buffalo and from Buffalo to Sheridan. Last week I had to drive out to Gillette with my boss and that expanded my horizons a little. I also drove up to Billings, Montana which took me through Ranchester. This weekend we went through Gillette and all the way to Devils Tower. That was cool. Made me crave mashed potatoes. This means something!

Sunday the weather forecast was for fun, a.k.a. snow. So we loaded up the car and drove over the mountain to Winchester, a little town south west of Worland has my name all over it. It's funny, my sister says they aren't relatives, however we do have relatives in the Neighboring town of Worland. We went looking for the Cemetery but couldn't find it so we turned around and went home. Maybe next time we'll go north and go to Medicine Lodge Archaeological park or maybe down south a little more to Thermopolis. Eventually I want to see the whole state.

On the fiber front, I finished the first of the Woodsy socks. I'll start the send one after dinner ... after I harvest my crops on Farm Town (a facebook app) I am not addicted to Farm town.. I know because I took the "Are you addicted to Farm Town" quiz.

June 07,2009 The weather report said snow

Snow? Snow!! We drove to Devils Tower today and looked around. We hiked a little on the trails, hung out with the prairie dogs and got rained on. I took some great pictures of everything from trees and rocks to prairie dogs and wild turkeys. Tomorrow we are going out to Winchester (just past Worland) to visit the family cemetery. I think I'll knit in the evening. I want to finish the first of the Woodsy socks. I am doing the gusset so it's not really that much to go!

A quick update

I am still knitting the first sock of the Woodsy socks. I haven't done much because I have been held captive in facebook. It's more than an social networking site- its got to be a scientific experiment and it's like a 2nd job. Between that and twitter and my blog I haven't had time. To do anything. I need to catch up with my Etsy site.

I had an adventure at work today. I got my lesson in Coal Bed Methane wells and local geology.

Finally a Man vs Wild worth watching. But it took Will Ferrel to do it.

Back to knitting