Haggard Hawks, voting and other important things

Are you up for a puzzle? I haven't offered one in a while, one thing and another. I did this one last night, and was pleased to be able to.

The letters provided are each used once.

And my PT has been pressing me to drive. I think he's concerned that I might get too nervous if I don't just go ahead and try it. We already established that I can get in on the driver's side.

So I decided to make a destination drive, to the voting dropbox to cast my ballot, thereby getting two birds.

We're voting in the primary for Governor and various county and local offices 

I did other administrivia, too, voting for Board members of my HOA, donation to local rescue squad, studying yet another increase in my gap health insurance before sighing and filing.  All my civic duties done.

I read this yesterday 

Chick lit, I guess - a romance and a puzzle and very readable to the end, with surprises, which I hadn't suspected.

Then I found this, at no cost, so why not, I've never read it, just seen the video version.

Another classic to explore. I do like Kindle reading as much as audiobooks.

And just for the halibut

Happy day everyone, what's your stretch goal, if any, today? Mine is the short drive, doesn't sound like much, but it's looming.

Ted sez 

 

Chipmunk capers, Misfits box, and Mrs Gaskell

Chipmunks in various blogs lately and why I look askance at the cute little critters.

To wit: library friend reported a chipmunk got in through an open patio door after she'd repeatedly reminded her husband to shut it every time because of chipmunks and squirrels on the patio. 

She thought she saw something flittering across the living room to the kitchen where the dishwasher was running. Couple of minutes later, explosion in kitchen, flames and water together shooting about,  fire fighters cut water and power to extinguish the fire and found a tiny charred body in the wiring. I don't know what she said to her husband.

To second wit: pet supply store friends came home from vacation, to find water running down the driveway, discovered the basement was full, couple of inches throughout the ground floor, and many tiny toothmarks in the pvc basement water supply pipes,  through which water had evidently been jetting while they were away. 

Also a drowned chipmunk. And all appliances drowned and needing replacement. Serious furnace damage.

On a cheerier note, I have added to my classic Kindle library a complete Mrs Gaskell, and I'm currently rereading Cranford with much more appreciation than when it was a school set book. 

While I'm stitching, I also found a good audio version, so my FOMO is satisfied.

Before the pink Misfits van arrived, I fitted in a walk to admire late patio flowers, natural color combos and fall colors at the pond, little wind coming and going 

Misfits day

Great deal on white sweet potatoes, which will be roasted, baked, souped, various meals.

The yogurt front needed a boost from Nancy after several weeks of homemade. The flour may become bread. The big size seen here isn't often available. Cooking with Will Yeung uses up rice, so there's reinforcements. 

The ground turkey will be burgers soon, and spaghetti sauce, and the chicken will be in the depths of the freezer till I need chicken again.  Mozzarella because it's a melting change from cheddar. Future toasted cheese sandwiches.

I also found a good chickpea pasta dish which I'll try with the fettuccine currently in the freezer. It can work with my other favorite, cannellini beans, too. Hummus because it's been a while since I had any I hadn't made. And I've been out of vanilla forever, high time.

Nice haul, and as usual, great quality.

Early voting in North Carolina is booming. Huge turnout. Many anecdotal reports of GOP voting Harris, had it with the wannabe dictator. They may split their ticket, so we can't count on their Senate yet, but we'll see. 

Ticket-splitting, for blogistas in furrin parts,  unfamiliar, is where you vote one party for one or more offices, another for other positions. 

There are usually a lot of offices up for voting in a Presidential year because they seize on voters who don't turn out for the midterms and other elections. Unlike immigrants who make sure they're heard in everyone election no matter what's up for decision.  President or dog warden, hear our voices.

In primaries many states only permit registered party affiliates to vote, in their own party primary, some variation across states. 

But in Presidential elections you vote freely any candidate, any party,  you choose. And you can usually, in any election, write in the name of someone not on the printed ballot.

Tuesday knitting group, Textiles and Tea

 Tuesday I dropped off my ballot in the dropbox 

Then on to the knitting group nearby in the library, only two today, but here's the table set up with books to borrow.

Talk ranged over making hats, embroidery, Maryland Sheep and Wool last weekend, freezing weather, gardening, Misfits market, local farm CSA and more.

Home to Textiles and Tea with a spinning wheel restorer, John Sturtevant. Not being at all into spinning wheels, I was surprised at how interesting I found it, largely because of his love for what he does and his love of learning. And what a range of wheel designs.

this is his wife Kathy, testing restored wheels before they go back to their owners. She originally got him interested in wheels repair and restoration.

Here's a trolley wheel, really unusual, which he demonstrated on video.

His website is on the id slide, for more info.

Then I got back to my embroidery, which is my happy place just now 

A range of stitches, some improvised, and I'm starting to see what I'm doing here.,and what needs to happen next. Wednesday is always quiet, so it may be a stitching day.

Happy day everyone, do your own happy stuff if you can. Sometimes in hard times it can be only a fleeting experience, but worth looking for. I know this is true right now for some blogistas. I see you. Been there too.

Stitching plain and fancy, voting

 I finally got around to repairing Gary's window sail. It's silk and a bit fragile, probably because it's been in the sun,  so it was tricky. 

I restitched one end to cover the tear along the fold, then reinforced it with lace and turned the end over so it's  only about half an inch shorter, won't affect the drape. 

That should work fine.

Warmer today but I was tired, doesn't often happen, but I lay like a sack of sand in the lounge chair on the patio, may have slept, read some of the migration book, and finally got around this evening to some stitching.

The tree is under way, a lot more to happen around the roots, and there will be foliage. I can add to the length of the roots with direct stitching, likewise change the branches. Quite a lot more to do now that it's starting to get going. 

The fluffy mossy stuff is a soft thread, unplied and sort of shredded, then couched down. I discovered it by accident when I unplied the yarn at another point, and the single ply disintegrated, so that was an idea to use here. No idea goes unused. 

I'm working with a piece of glass slid under the page so I don't accidentally stitch it to the next one.  And I notice I'm stitching with either hand, depending on which is best, a bit tricky navigating this piece with two pages done and needing protection, and a length of unworked pages getting in the way.  Mixed dominance is very useful when you're doing things like this, or drawing and painting, switch hands as needed.

Also the other important thing I did was, drumroll, vote! 

Here's the newly designed ballot that the lawsuit was about, candidates in alpha order, no special favored positioning, the abolished County Line now gone. Ding, dong, the line is dead.

The municipal dropbox is close to the Tuesday Knitting Group location, so I'll vote on the way there.

Happy day everyone, I did good things today, as you did too, I expect.

Small stuff, but vital

Yesterday was a day of small, but important, things. You know how some of us are always nagging on about voting, usually to people who always do, quoting instances of close elections?

Here's one from this year

This is a North Jersey affluent region, where Mofos for Liberty have been trying to get onto school boards, and local councils, though that wasn't an issue here. What is an issue is that we are all the more anxious to prevent a Republican clean sweep. And here you see one single vote did that.

No doubt there'll be a recount, as there was locally several years ago, when a school board member lost by four votes. He demanded a recount, got it, and now lost by eight votes!

And this week's Misfits was a small box

Seen here with the freecycle bag of bags, later picked up by a happy freecycler.

Nice artisanal cheddar cheese to go with the havarti for the Thanksgiving cheese and cracker appetizer.

And I have had ongoing struggles to get shoes that fit, my longtime style having changed its manufacturer, become heavy, clunky and twice as expensive.  Local stores have almost nothing in size wide, and usually only a couple of pairs in my size at all nowadays.  So for a while it's been online. 

 There are no athletic shoes  I've found and can afford,  that don't have a seam right across the toe box, right where I can't tolerate it. So that's a whole area taken care of.

After trying and having to send back two lots of nice looking walking shoes, with seams where I can wear them, supposedly sized wide but in fact not, I came across a note on a shoe fitting site that suggested buying a size larger. Hm. I'd already tried a man's canvas shoe in the size equivalent to mine, with only fair success, so why not.

So when Zappos had a great clearance offer of Tretorns, the shoe cut the way that works for me, I thought why not, very much marked down, worth a try. Success! These I can walk in, yay. Here's me modeling them this morning, still in night gear.

Those seams are in the right place for my bumpy old feet. 

I have a long history with Tretorns, back to the seventies,  when I could buy them easily, very cheap considering, reliable, nice looking. 

Then they were bought out by Puma. Then they vanished from the market. Then they reappeared but only in sizes they had,  I supposed, lying around the warehouse, twos and elevens. 

Then they reappeared in the whole range at four times the price I used to pay, now way out of my budget.  So these, though they're faux leather, not canvas, are like a stroll down memory lane.

Small things sometimes matter quite a bit. Happy day everyone, and I hope today's small things for you are welcome.

Prequel, US election day, Pink Rabbit demands her due

 To get a good hold on the rise of Nazism and fascism in the US and elsewhere, I hugely recommend

Her research is impeccable, and she narrates with such good humor that this heavy scholarly work is very accessible. It's an important and timely backstory to what's going on.

It also has some surprises to me -- I never knew architect Philip Johnson was a keen fascist. I only knew of his IMHO rather silly, gimmicky buildings. And Huey Long did good works as well as developing the iron grip of a Louisiana dictator.

It's good to be reading this today, election day in the US.

So yesterday, I finished, pretty much, the wall hanging, which I've changed in progress. 

Now it's trimmed around, and, unless I get more ideas, it's done. I have spare applique blocks which still need a home, but no rush.

And I cast on a sock for me.

Because I'm listening to Rachel Maddow, when I'm not listening to 

A rattlin' good story, and a change of pace, to France and cultures and tourism and women's rugby and mysterious death and great regional food.

Pink Rabbit, known to new friends Fred and Ursula as PR, had a word, pointing out that Ursie has a custom hat and Fred's scarf, Fred has boots, and PR has nothing, sigh. 

So she now has a silk scarf which she wears with panache. She can wear it like a hat when she wants a change of pace. 

Happy day, everyone! Let's hope for the best today.