I Must Have Something to Say?

Civil War Shawl, Week 1

One of my good webfriends has given me a gentle nudge, noting that I have two blogs and I rarely update either one. Alas, how true! I am always promising to be better about that, and always falling on my face on that score, too. So, no more promises to be better about updates, and maybe that will work in some sort of strange way, and I will find myself writing more often. Lord knows I am going to need an outlet in the coming months.

As Bob Dylan says in a favorite song of mine, "Blame it all on a simple twist of fate."



As if it isn't enough that I am trying to balance work, family, choir, and some rare time for myself, almost two weeks ago, my mother had a Health Crisis. What I at first believed to be hypochondria -- she DOES have that kind of track record after all -- turned out to be a lot more serious. REAL, in fact. Within a week of me leaving work to take her to the doctor to address some vague symptoms, she underwent a double bypass. Turned out that sometime in the past three years she had a silent heart attack and some major blood vessels were too far blocked to be repaired with stents and angioplasty. Yikes!

Last Tuesday was the operation. It was successful, but she still feels nauseated at the mere sight of food and is sinking into depression due to being able to do nothing at all for herself yet. Being a person who tends to depression myself, I'm more than a bit daunted by suddenly being elected Head Cheerleader. My own spirits are none so good, and I have to try to elevate hers? Double Yikes!!!

I do not want to go the antidepressant route again, so am planning to do holistic sorts of things to help myself along. Reiki will help. I may arrange for more frequent sessions if I don't have the energy to treat myself at the end of the day. And already -- you knew it was going to come in here somewhere, didn't you? -- knitting has been a great friend. So has drop-spindling, and both activities are great conversation ice breakers with doctors and nurses.

Civil War Shawl, Week 2

Usually I work on socks, as they are portable and fairly mindless. But on the day of the surgery, I arrived in the waiting room with my Civil War Shawl in hand. The waiting room was huge and well-appointed, so I carried my half-the-house to a quiet corner and settled in for the duration. Turned on my audio book, started knitting, and with a couple of stretch/bathroom breaks, the time pretty well flew. 7:30 AM to 1PM. No anxiety whatsoever, and then the doctor came out to tell me about how things went. He spoke of that oh-so-briefly and started asking questions about my shawl. Then he offered to help me with some of my belongings and escorted me upstairs to the ICU waiting room. I did not expect that "help you carry some of that" meant that he would then pick up every single bag and box, but that was what happened. So, not just a skilled surgeon, but a courteous human being as well. I was mightily impressed.

Civil War Shawl, Week 4

Now I am off to tackle my day again, which includes running some errands for Ma first, then going up to the hospital to spend some time with her. She may or may not be transferred to rehab this afternoon, so I have to find out what the current plan is. If it turns out that she must stay in the hospital a few more days, I will not be surprised.

The latest socks are coming with me. They are plain stockinette in a nice hand-painted colorway. Superwash merino. Supersoft for a nice foot treat when all is said and done. The shawl is my morning Quiet Time. Maybe it's meditation time, too, but it's hard to say, since I am usually counting along pretty intensively as I work.

Am taking a leave of absence from my job until the end of May, and hope to ease my way back part-time, with a possible drift back to full-time. However, if I can make my Yarn Thing fly...

Guess who is vending at NH Sheep & Wool this year?????