Riding To A Crisp

This morning's commute was a bit "crispy". But it was great. The clear crisp air. The crisp leaves already on the roads. The crisp leaves as they're falling and they hit you in the face. Getting hit in the face with a leaf and saying "ouch" to yourself before realizing that being hit in the face with a leaf shouldn't really elicit that sort of response is something best kept to yourself.

Blondie came up this weekend from The Big City Where She Lives And Works. But she had to go back early before the hurricane hit. Seriously, that's what she said. (N. Mich is our locale, just for reference here). I was a bit stunned by her response when I asked her how long she was going to stay. Stunned enough to say something to the effect of "Just what do you think is gonna happen when the hurricane hits?" (again, N. Mich). She said she didn't know, but didn't want to be on the road when "it" happened (in N. Mich). It happened to be raining, quite a bit actually, so I told her to look outside. The hurricane has hit. This is it. This is all you get. You'll have to find your drama somewhere else, sorry.

No lack of respect intended to those who have really faced the hurricane, I understand they can be quite the deal. But up here, we get the air pressure changes, and some rain, equal to a good 2 day, well, rain storm. Usually without the thunder and lightening, just damp, rainy and yucky. But we have withstood it and will see another day.

Yesterday I took half a day off to wander out into my hurricane devastated garden (it rained, a lot). And pick a 5 gal bucket full of tomatoes. And can them. Yummy.
Today I will walk the same walk in search of jalapenos, and I will slice, dice and freeze them. Tomorrow, it's a crap shoot, all I know at this point is I'm getting my hair cut again. And then there's the obligatory food fest at work, so I won't be able to ride my bike, crock pot being breakable and rather large and all. (My stylist appreciates it when I don't show up with my helmet tucked under my arm). I think she likes to think I appreciate her skills for at least a little while before I subject the hair to the helmet.

Hubby picked up some of these really cool head sets that attach to your helmet and then with wires, attach to the walkie talkie on the handlebars. This is too cool. It will be even cooler when he takes it all out of the bag and gets the whole system set up. No more wireless bike riding for me, nope! We're wired for sound now! Look out baby bros #2 and 4. October will find us out riding, and, able to bull %&^*(* each other at the same time. A talent we have all but perfected!

On my current knitting project, The Sunrise Circle Jacket, I'm finding that I will run out of yarn. Yay. Do I try to find a close substitute to finish it off (hand-dyed, purchased a year ago, not much chance of locating the same thing), or do I go all bold and daring and knit 1/2 of it in a totally different color.

I'll ask the girls at work. And The Mouth, they'll set me straight. I have 5 different yarns to choose from that I have enough of to finish this project.

Stay tuned, now that the hurricane is over we'll resume our regularly scheduled routine!

The Evil Curling Iron Strikes Again!

About a year and a half ago, I cut my hair, well, actually, had it cut for me, since I know nothing at all about cutting hair other than that it involves cutting and scissors and stuff. Turns out I was wrong about that too, but.... let's start again. A year and a half ago, the hair was cut. For the first time since 5th grade. That's a long time. It was technically down to my waist, 10 or so strands of it, the other 60 or so strands were anywhere between my shoulder length and the waist. Not that it was supposed to be layered like that, but it was close to 40 yrs old, the longest hair, and very thin, and kind of straggly. So one day I decided that enough was enough and went to get it cut. Since then I've been introduced to the world of hair spray, blow dryers and even a curling iron of all things.

These things are evil, but necessary to maintain The Short Cute Cut that was imposed on me. Who'da thunk it? Long hair was much much easier to maintain than The Short Cute Cut. The only stipulation was that The Short Cute Cut was still long enough to pull back into a ponytail, for barn and haying purposes. Also it had to still look like The Short Cute Cut when I pulled off my motorcycle helmet. Again, enter the curling iron from hell!

This implement of torture is capable of curling as well as straightening! Who knew?? It could also deliver a neck or forehead burn in short order. It also shuts itself off, but mostly when I don't want it to, like when I plug it in, go out to the barn while it's heating up, forget about it and then 3 hours later remember that I wanted to use it. Took me awhile to figure out that one, like, why when I plug it in, it gets hot enough to boil water in 2 minutes flat, yet cold in 3 hours, hmmm, that one took some figuring out. Actually, that one took reading the destructions that plainly stated "safety auto shut off feature".

Safety Auto Shut Off Feature aside, after about a year and a half, I'm starting to get kind of good with the thing, while still maintaining a healthy respect for it's ability to deliver a 5th degree burn if it even suspects that I'm not paying attention.

We won't even go into the heat settings and cool vs hot features. That will take another year or so. Then we'll start to figure out the blow dryer! And hair spray. And gel. And Mud? What's that about? Mud for hair? I'm afraid my daughters and nieces are gonna have to bail me out on this one! Lisa? Alex? Samm? Erin? Where are you when I need you?????

I'm expecting full out lessons when we hit the family reunion this year! And just so you know what to expect? I plan to spend lots of time in the water, so we're either gonna have to come up with a way to maintain The Short Cute Cut while wet, or get some of that mud stuff.

My Wings lost last night, so the series is tied at 2 and 2. Come on boys, I know you can play better than that. Friday night, watch out Nashville!
hee heeeee, I love hockey, almost as much as baby birdies, which are also eluding me this year. Keep layin' them eggs girls, and I'll keep sticking them in the incubator, eventually, the weather will be warm enough and we'll get baby birdies!



Tonight is Knit Night, still working on Granddaughter's cable sweater, I'll take a picture and post it when I find my camera and have batteries that are charged, both at the same time and in the same place.

Go Wings. Go Baby Birdies! Go Mud!