People and Places and Things, Oh My!

Today I did my civic duty and voted. They recently redistricted our area, and in the process merged several smaller polling places into one huge one. Unlikely Lass and I got there at eleven thirty and we didn't get done until one thirty. At the end of those two hours of waiting in line and then filling out my ballot, I got to the machine that is supposed to read and store the ballots, and it wasn't working. The guy standing next to it directed me to slide my ballot into a drawer in the machine where I could see lots of other ballots sitting. The whole situation was problematic. There weren't enough poll workers to keep the registration and check in processes moving smoothly. The lines were long and a good chunk of the waiting time was outside. I sort of expected this in my big, urban, underfunded, much maligned neighborhood these days (as sad as that is), and I went prepared to wait for several hours. I knit several rows on my current sock project while waiting. Unlikely Lass was on her cell phone putting out fires at work. But the machine not working really bothered me. That and the election judge acting like it was par for the course. First I got grumpy about it on the way home. Then I called around until I found someone who could give me the right government number to call to report the problem. I have no idea if it will make a difference, but it felt important. I want those votes to get counted. It's important.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.

It's been brain-meltingly hot here.

This post is brought to you by the reprieve brought to me by being awake at seven in the morning and having a lot of fans.

I woke up this morning and actually got up, did a few dishes, started a load of laundry (the set up in our house is such that laundry cannot be done if there isn't at least one clear sink in the kitchen) so I'll have clean clothes I can stand to be out in the world in today, made myself some breakfast (gf instant oatmeal with fresh local blueberries), and then found myself a place to sit in the coolest room in the house, in front of a fan.

Yesterday A came over and knit with me in what we were somewhat fondly calling the attic sauna. She worked on the scarf of eternity (as in it is taking that long for her to make it) and I got out the stash of knitting needles I scored from a friend's garage sale and we found her a couple of pairs of bigger ones so she could start some new projects with thicker yarn. she started another scarf. I was lobbying for a hat, but she likes scarves, so we went with that. I showed her the long tail cast on and how to twist your yarn up the back when you're striping something in rib. It feels a little weird to realize that I actually know things i can teach other people about knitting. I guess I'm not a beginning knitter anymore. I suppose that finishing 31 pairs of mittens since the middle of May plus the ten pairs of socks (in worsted weight yarn) since the end of July should have clued me in, but I am often slow to give myself credit for acquired skill sets.

Today we go to brunch with friends of Unlikely Lass and then head over to [Unknown LJ tag]'s place for movies in the late afternoon.

I have hit the wall where all the theater I wanted to see is greater than the theater I planned to see is still greater than the theater I have the energy to see. So this afternoon I am surrendering to a nap in hopes of enjoying the show I absolutely have to see this evening. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

I always miss the finale of So You Think You Can Dance because it falls in the middle of Fringe Festival, and even after investing a summer if Wednesdays and Thursdays in the season I can't justify dance on television over live dance and theater I've saved time and money for all year. That is how much I love the Fringe.

I finally got my car to a mechanic. It needs a new alternator and battery. It's a good thing I have a dog sitting job this week, and some savings, and my mom wants to help with some of it. I'm still so used to being in a place where a $500 repair was a major crisis complete with no money for rent or food (as opposed to the current state where I'm doing some rearrangement and temporary deferment of some plans) that it discombobulates me a bit for problems to be solvable without major sacrifice. Over and over I realize how being that desperately poor impacted (and still does) how I function in the world.

The show I'm directing for Fringe, Other Than Tragedy, is looking good. She's been working really hard and it shows. I love this kind of work.

Also, the dog sitting got easier. one of the dogs is spending the summer with his grandparents, so it will just be the hound dog puppy. Here's hoping I can keep her from eating any knitting needles this time.

The next two weeks will be whirlwind, which I'm both dreading and looking forward to. No wonder I never remember the last two weeks of August; I'm always recovering from the first two.

today I managed to, in the words of the Unlikely Lass, level up in socks.

over the last week or two I have steadily plodded through the cuffs and heels and feet and toe decreases of three entire pairs of socks (in worsted weight, just in case you were thinking I somehow became a superhumanly fast knitter as well) only to get overwhelmed by the mere idea of the toe grafting and leave them sitting there, forlornly open at the toes, the last sixteen stitches on stitch holders, hoping they weren't destined for a long sit in the unfinished object banker box of doom.
tonight, halfway through the second sock of the blue pair (there is a blue pair, a charcoal/eggplant pair, and a two tone brown stripy pair) put it down to see if i could get the grafting to work or needed to start saving up to have my mother come visit and finish a mountain of sad open-toed socks for me (she knows how to do this stitch; i have a pair of socks she knit just for me as proof).
and i did it. there was swearing and much doubt in midstream, and there is one toe that probably has a mistake in it, but all of them are holding together and look surprisingly good.
Now that i can make socks and mittens and hats, all the appendages will be covered come winter.
and now I must really go to bed.

Sorry I haven't posted in ages.
The still mysterious shoulder/clavicle thing keeps hurting. And the awesome doctor I found closed his practice ( heard a rumor it's just temporary but that doesn't solve the right now).
And now I have the kind of sick where you cough up a lung.
Happier things:
I'm last minute directing a show in the Fringe Festival. Wishing for an extra week or two but she will do fine (it's a solo show).
Oh and I learned how to knit socks. Except for the pesky toe grafting part. That is the next thing I need to figure out (the otherwise finished socks are piling up). Socks have distracted me from mittens a bit, but since I managed twenty-five pairs between May 1 and the first week of July, I'm not worried about getting fifty done in a year. I'll just have to figure out how to get reobsessed.
And I still need to get my car fixed. And Unlikely Lass is doing fine.

today's lesson: accidental natural gas exposures suck, so don't leave water to boil on the stove in the other room unless you know for sure it won't boil over and extinguish the flame, leaving the stove to fill the room with poison. and natural gas kicks my ass. so yeah, woozy from keeping that from becoming an even worse situation. air filters, fans, all that. and now consuming fats, starches and water to mitigate what i got hit with. potatoes save the day. haven't had one this bad for quite a while. makes me feel a little stupid but that is as much the brain fog as actual truth.

Unlikely Lass and I have been watching myriad episodes of Batman the Brave and the Bold. It's kind of brilliant, and it makes her so happy. She had a birthday this weekend so there was also cupcake and cinnamon roll (for her; thank you Wedge bakery for allowing me to serve gluten without contaminating my kitchen).

it's just too hot to be working with worsted weight wool, so mittens and sweaters have been (temporarily) set aside and i'm working with sock yarn. but i don't know how to make socks, so i'm making a couple of little blankets. surprisingly pleasant, actually, and now i want to see if i can figure out how to make a hexagon at some point (rather than the squares i have now), 'cause Unlikely Lass would love a hexagon blanket.

oh, and i'm a last minute pinch hit director for a Fringe festival show. wasn't the original plan, but hey, i like the work and now i can use the money i'd saved for an ultra pass for yarn (or probably, actually, fixing my car, but hey).

../

The sun is very bright through the sky light and my brain is playing its migrain game. Not an awesome combo, so I used a clothes drying rack, two chairs, a bed sheet and some of those black and wire binder clips to make a fort/cave over the bed. Have a fan for ventilation and a window flap for television viewing. Hard to knit in here but I can read, or sleep off the ow, or, hey, post on LJ with my iPod. Certainly better than feeling like stompy little men in spiked boots are tromping around in my head. So, yeah, spending daylight in the cave.

Hey local folks, can you recommend a good auto mechanic?
best option would be somewhere in south Minneapolis, but if you know somebody who is ace with older Honda (1990) electrical issues, I'll figure out how to get it there. Added bonus if they can also do exhaust systems (since no reputable mechanic would let my car go without repairing that, too, in its current state).
I need a functional car and right now, good old Dorin doesn't fit that bill (and the friend who used to help with car repair can't really help with these particular issues these days).