Stumbling Through Adulthood

Three, well four, things for Wednesday and Thursday, LOL

2026-05-07T20:24:41Z

1. Finished Hannah Arendt's _The Origins of Totalitarianism_ and oooof. That was not as easy read to be honest or rather listen. I'd love to say that I got a lot out of it, and while I probably did, there is so much more. The parallels to today's world are at times chilling, and there are parts I wish she'd gone more into depth on. A very worthwhile read and I'm glad I spent the time. While I've read other works on the subject, this one is, I believe, seminal and it had been on my tbr list for too many years. So.

2. I just cannot get over the controversy about the helicopters and Seattle Children's Hospital. I remember this issue from 1992 -I was newly arrived in Seattle- and I remember being horrified. I knew the agreement was still in effect since at two separate times I saw a med evac helicopter fly overhead and "followed" it on Flightaware, once to Bellingham then back to the off-site helipad, and once from overhead to the same helipad. So I knew they weren't always landing at the actual hospital, but I honestly thought they were landing more at the hospital than they actually are. Anyhow, rambling. I am absolutely fucking horrified by this. I mean... sick kids. This amount to less than one transport a week that would disturb these rich fucks. Eat the fucking rich. What happens to people with that much money that they lose touch with basic humanity? I can't. I just can't. The guillotine.

3. Still no bites on the job search. Over 100 applications sent. Confirmed with Anne-Chloe that labs aren't hiring over there and that they pull their personal reqs often, which is kinda what I'm seeing from the responses I'm getting from HR. Unemployment runs out in a few weeks so after that it's look for and take anything, I guess. Ugh.

4. I can't even with the horrible series of news from last week. The final gutting of the VRA and the immediate rush to redistrict right away. And of course the SCOTUS scummy six allowing anything that benefits Rs to be implemented immediately, but halting anything that might help Ds and minorities. The ruling, stayed for now, but not for long, about Mifepristone. And the rush of Dems to accept, and endorse, a Nazi for Senate in Maine. Nazy, rape apologist, Blackwater mercenary, racist... But our Nazis are ok, their Nazis are bad? What the fuck, Maine? Bernie is a metastatic cancer that is killing the Democratic party. TBC, it's not the socialism, that's just stupid. I'm for social democracy policies, but this whole socialism rhetoric is stupid and eye-rolly. But what Bernie and the Obama podcast bros have brought into the mix is some hyped up socialist shit with a large heaping of racism, anti-semitism, and misogyny.

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Opening Day

2026-05-03T04:46:00Z

It was Opening Day in Seattle today, the traditional start of the boating season. We usually go, of course, since we usually have at least one kid rowing. That was Perry today, in a four -so sweeping, something he doesn't do much- in the Men's Open 4 with two UW boats and Seattle University.

The plan had been for all of us to take light rail into Seattle. See after the races (which cumulate in UW boats taking on some of the best teams in the world, this year GB and Canada for the women and GB and Northeastern University for the men) the yachts go through the Montlake Cut into Lake Washington, and the bridge is open from noon to 3pm. So light rail. Perry left early and found out that, despite advertising all over about all these events you could get to without driving... they had decided to shut down the light rail, or rather a segment of it, with no information available anywhere in an easy manner. There was supposed to be a shuttle that bridged the gap. Perry and a bunch of people took it, got off at the next station to find... that the station was closed. Note that the idiotic shuttle driver let everyone off his bus and left them at a fucking closed station. By then, Perry was veering on late and there was no info on, well, anything. So he called for an Uber, something we all hate doing, and it cost $30 to get him to UW. We realized that we were going to be caught in this light rail mess as well, so drove into UW. This just pissed me off. I mean, if you are going to advertise that these events are accessible via Sound Transit... they need to be accessible. The real reason we were hoping to take light rail is that getting out of the U District after the races is a pain and can take an hour, just to get the mile or so to the freeway. So grr.

But we got there, found Anne-Chloe and started watching the racing, cheering on various teams.

We almost missed Perry! The wind was picking up so they shorted the centers and he came down the course 5 minutes before he was supposed to have started, and the announcers were taking about a women's race, it was only when we realized that the boat in front of us was not a woman's boat that we paid better attention! The announcers seemed pretty confused as well when they noticed. Anyhow, they came in second, beating a UW boat, which is always a bit deal. They looked good together and Perry is quite pleased with the results. So ya.

Then the row back when all the boats row back through the cut and you get to cheer them one more time as they paddle by.

NExt up... the yacht parade. Normally we stay to watch the Virginia V and the boats with the Husky Marching Band. And we did. Except... Except.

One of the first boats through the Cut had people dancing and drinking and I was filled with such rage. All I could think of is that I wished I'd thought to paint a big banner with a guillotine to display. What had been a fun tradition just made me sick.

We lost the voting rights act. All R states that can -and that's most of them- are scrounging for more seats.

We lost the Boundary Waters. They will be a polluted mess that zillions of taxpayer dollars will never be able to clean up.

We lost access to mifepristone by mail. That's a lot of choice removed for women.

We lost our soul, as the Democratic party nominates a Nazi (*) in Maine, and we will never live that down. Every single D candidate with be tarred by the Nazi brush and will be held responsible for this. This is not going to help in November. Also misogynistic rape apologist and racist. Bernie sure picked a good one here.

And the rich get richer and are plundering the country.

I just can't any longer. Eat the fucking rich. Next year, I'll make the banner.

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Today at the feeders...

2026-04-28T00:00:54Z

Today at my bird feeders, in addition to the usual suspects (finches, redwing blackbirds, cow birds, pine siskins, various sparrows, flickers, junkos, towhees, my beloved chickadees -two kinds- and downy or hairy woodpeckers) I have seen: gold finches (we used to have loads of them, but they've been rarer these past few years), a gros beak, a Western tanager (glorious large yellow bird with a red/pink head) and just now a humongo pileated at the suet feeder.

Needless to say, no photos. I need to set up the camera on a tripod with remote trigger!

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Knitting stuff

2026-04-24T21:57:31Z

Figured I'd put it here rather than in a comment, camelsamba!

Anyhow, I decided I wanted some felted coasters. So I checked to see how I could knit and then felt them. Found a few places that discuss the process or imply that it can be done:

Instructables
Not free pattern from Ravelry with size info.
Circular, free, but not felted

I of course asked my knitting buddy CoPilot. Yeah, AI, but the damn thing helped me figure out so much when I was knitting my slightly complicated beanie, and translated the 'on the round' instructions to flat so I could practice. And it helped decode the knitting instructions which were confusing to me, as a novice. Anyhow I take nothing at 100% face value but. CoPilot sez...

So yeah. I'm pretty much experimenting. I think I'll go for square ones on this first trial.

But. Yarn.

It has to be wool and cannot be 'superwash' because, duh, I want it to felt. As someone who does not have a stash, that meant buying some. I got some Cascade 220 in a shade called 'brueberry (sic) heather'. It's quite pretty.

We shall see. I am planning on double knitting, something one of the sites somewhere suggested. Or I'll try both ways, single and double strand and see.

Aside from that I was looking at yarn to make myself a simple sweater, and OMG, who can afford to knit?

Note: funny thing about CoPilot: not my fave and I pretty much don't use it for anything aside from knitting stuff. But if they'd called it "Cortana", my beloved digital assistant when I had a Windows Phone which was superior to POS Android in all ways, I'd have been all over it. Ah well. Missed opportunity there, Microsoft. CoPilot is stupid. Cortana would have been brilliant. ETA. Oh yeah. First thing I'm going to have to do is make balls with the twisty of yarn. I remember having to sit there helping my grandmother with that.

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And the end of the month...

2026-04-23T03:42:22Z

At the end of the month, I will get all the knitting photos uploaded to Flickr! I did post some up on Instagram, though.

I finished another beanie today. 100% cotton and I am not 100% convinced. The pattern was fantastic, imo: Cotton Hat from Rhea. Cotton proved to be difficult to work with, with much less elasticity than yarn.

The other thing seems to be endemic to all the beanies I have bought or made that are notSmartWool: I find they don't quite fit the way I want and I don't know if they are too big, too small, too short etc. I figure eventually I'll figure it out.

The yarn I ordered for my next project (hey, I have no stash!) won't be here until next Monday. I have to figure out what to do next! I have no idea.

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Three things for Sunday

2026-04-20T03:24:45Z

1. We had a fantastic trip down to California. Trains, caves, a lot of driving, and just a general good time. I'll have to write it all up and post some links to photos and videos. The steam train chase was absolutely wonderful! The only iffy part was almost getting smashed to smithereens by a semi on the way north from Klamath Falls. Thank goodness for wide shoulders and a spouse who didn't panic, and an asshole semi driver who at least kept on doing the murderous thing he was doing rather than deciding to do something random. BTW, had this gone off differently (no shoulder, for example) it would probably have been a 10-12 people fatality crash. So.

2. We have windows. Those windows, on the outside, have tiny little rectangular holes for water to escape from, standard window construction. Those windows? Now also have bees, we think mason bees, living in them. Oooh boy. We don't disturb them, but I hope to hell they aren't honey bees. Also, I don't think those bits of frame connect to anything inside the house because OMG, we'll end up on Instagram as people who find a zillion bees living in their crawl space or some such. BTW, exactly this.. OMG.

3. Feeling very sad and very discouraged and very unhappy with parts of my life.

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Three things for Sunday

2026-04-06T19:01:42Z

1. Dh and I got up early this morning and headed out for a short but steep hike, since we had stuff we needed to do. It was nice, if, um, short and steep. I haven't been using hiking poles for a while, so I didn't have them and I'd have liked them on the way down, though dh claims I do better without them (tbh, he may be right). Anyhow.

And now it's Monday. LOL.

2. Dh and I are headed to California this week, via Bend. My sister is leaving for two weeks on Tuesday, and my mom just had pneumonia and the staff never noticed that she was sick, my sister did. So we'll head down to CA via Bend, visit my mom Wed evening and Thursday, to make sure she's still doing ok, though she's been improving significantly since sis got the MD to prescribe care. Anyhow, Friday, we're headed to Roseville from Bend, Saturday in Roseville, then Sunday we'll take I80 towards Truckee. Following the Big Boy No. 4014. It's on tour for the 250th. Then back to Bend on Monday, visit with my mom again on Tuesday, then drive home. Sis is back on Sunday, so my mom looks ok, she should be good, if she isn't, I figure out how to stay down there for the extra few days. It's kinda scary how bad the memory care place has gotten so fast. We'll move her again, UGH, as soon as we can, with or without her companion. I know she's got dementia, I know she isn't going to live forever, but there are basics that this place is not providing. I mean... temps inside the residents' rooms in the 60s, and they put space heaters into the rooms of elderly people with dementia. All of them? I don't know, I know my mom got one because, well, my sister is there at least three times a week. The lack of food is ongoing. And my sister found out -OMG, this is RIDIC- that they keep the SALADS in the heated boxes. Hello bacterial growth? 🤮 I don't want her die because of neglect in a place that is now miserable. Sigh. Like most places, they're losing staff quickly and can't replace them so conditions are getting worse by the day. Sigh. Anyhow. Perry will be taking care of things, feeding cats and birbs.

3. Artemis II mission. I have it on pretty much non stop and listen constantly. I feel stupidly privledged because I got to hear the term #MoonJoy live, LOL. And just a bit ago, the request to name two lunar features: one Integrity, for their spaceship and one Carroll in memory Reid Wiseman's wife. And everyone was crying up there, and I was here too. And then I lost it again when I read the message Jim Lowell recorded for the crew before he died. The Apollo missions were my childhood. It was so freaking exciting and awe inspiring. Side note: going to try to get an Artemis II mission sticker for my computer, LOL.

4. The 100 Day Project update: did some practicing on the stitch for the next project on Saturday, staying up waaaaaaaay too late (before getting up early to go hiking). It's... complicated. TBH, I asked CoPilot to do help me figure out how to knit a swatch to practice, since the directions are written for knitting on the round. Yesterday I cast the project on and I hope to get some work done this afternoon. If I can fear myself away from Artemis, LOL.

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Three things at the start of the weekend

2026-04-03T21:10:44Z

1. Knitting status: let's see. Yesterday I spent some time speccing out my next project. I wanted to make some knitted then felted coasters, but I don't have a "stash" so would need to buy yarn and finding a yarn that didn't cost an arm and a leg and that would also felt (ie wool, but not superwash) proved too stressful so I am going to try to make a summer pattern beanie, I ordered the yarn and the double pointed needles, they should be here tomorrow. Today I wrote up the last project so there are records, and will practice the pattern I want to do with random yarn and random needles. Whee!

2. I should give this a whole post called "Ode to a Kitchen Scale" because my kitchen scale died. I stood there, trying to make biscuits and realizing first that I was OMG, going to have to use volume on flour and then that when I've weighed out my measured cups, I'm usually within 10 grams so nothing to panic about (the biscuits came out great.). But yeah, I'll miss that scale. I've had it A Long Time, and it's done a great job.

3. If you don't already listen to her, or get her emails, do check out Heather Cox Richardson. I've been reading her stuff for a while, but recently started listening to her youtube videos while knitting or in the car. She's just fabulous.

Do I ever keep these to 3?

4. Artemis. SO freaking exciting. I watched the launch and have the video pretty much running non stop. I love this. I hope the Mango Mussolini doesn't kill this entirely.

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Beanie finished!

2026-04-01T23:59:25Z

Finished it last night, and wove in the ends this morning.

Planning on making another one, I think. With THICKER YARN. Heh.

And on my head.

I still have to block it, but I'm going some more research on that. Also need to write up notes on everything I did, as well as figure out what I did when I tore is 80% apart the first time, since the rows seem to be have changed from a slight diagonal to straight, even before I got to the reducing stiches part. I suspect I changed something but I'm not sure what!

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First trillium

2026-04-01T20:42:47Z

Seen on 31 March at the Redmond Watershed!

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.... And ...

2026-03-31T21:01:01Z

Perry, dh, and I just signed up for the Seattle Summer Half Marathon, day after my birthday, LOL.

Location is gorgeous, so that should be nice, and since it's early morning, it hopefully won't be too hot.

Why did I have to be born in the summer? I fucking hate summer.

Anyhow, should be fun.

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Three things for a last day of March, ok, fine, 3.5

2026-03-31T16:49:54Z

1. Amazon seems to always off me same day delivery for many of my items, but I always tell it to group them in as few shipments as possible, even if it means waiting an extra day or two. But then, the deliveries came in two trips to my place, 15 minutes apart, and in three packages. I'll note that all the items were tiny and would have fit in the smallest of the envelopes they dropped off. This isn't the first time and I'm really starting to wonder if I should bother with the grouping/waiting any longer. Sigh. I wish I didn't have to use Amazon, but I went three different places on Sunday to find 9x12 manilla envelopes in a 12 pack and nobody had them, despite claiming to online. I should have ordered the 25 pack online from amazon (and may yet, if my MIL doesn't have any.)

2. 100 Day Project: UGH, OMG. UGH. I found a dropped stich. Well, that's not true. I never found the dropped stich, just the ladders it left. Not sure how I missed them as I was knitting past them, but I could not figure out how to fix it and had to tear out 2 inches of knitting, grr. But eh, it's all a part of learning. I also ordered craft tweezers, that was one of the things I got from Amazon this morning.

3. I think I've mentioned that I'm having trouble getting back to my slightly lower weight. There is a physician on the Zeppy Reddit board who had some suggestions that they use with both patients and on themselves, and that they know other MDs have tried, but they do involve getting my NP on board with prescribing some other stuff. That's going to be my fallback plan. Someone else suggested -there is loads of good and bad info on that board- upping exercise to see if you can jumpstart weight loss again. I like that idea a lot better than seeing if I can persuade my NP to prescribe something that I don't have data on beyond "a physician on Reddit", LOL (None of the things are dangerous or off label, and I'm sure people are using them already but also, I no longer, even at this higher weight, quite meet the BMI criteria for prescribing them so.), so I decided to do a Couch-to-5k program. I started yesterday. The Seattle Summer Half Marathon is the day after my birthday so I may do that, not running, dear god, no, NOT ME, but a run-walk? Might be fun.

3.5 That way I can leave Tday weekend free because I think that is going to be the ideal time to try for our trip to Japan. Note: if anyone has seen the Instagram and other memes that go along the lines of "In every relationship, there is the person who obsessively plans every detail on a trip down to bathroom breaks and souvenir shopping, and the person who shows up at the airport passport in hand". The problem? In my world, we all -dh, the kids, and me- all want to be the passport in hand people. 🤣 I haven't even been able to get the kids to do enough research to tell me what their absolute must-dos are, beyond the Studio Ghibli Museum! Dh and I want to do a lot of hiking, which in November might be iffy but eh, we'll figure it out. Anyhow.

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Yesterday

2026-03-29T17:35:21Z

Wow. What a day.

I'll be honest. I did not want to go to the No Kings Protest. I hate protests. Hate them. Too many people. Too much shuffle-walking in a crowd. They don't change anything.

They don't change anything, but they still need to be done, en masse.

So I go.

And yes, I went.

But there were some other things that were really cool.

We drove down to Redmond to grab the 2 Line of the light rail that now goes from Redmond all the way into Seattle. We'd have to change to the 1 Line to get to the airport, but we can now go from house to airport on public transit, something we haven't been able to do in the past... oh 20 years, since they'd cut our local buses.

It was kinda cool going over the floating bridge on a rail line. Only place in the world, which should worry me but doesn't. Heh.

From the station, we walked to the park where the march was starting. We'd timed things to get there for the march not the listening to a bunch of people try to rally the crowd for Socialism! which will never fly not because the ideas are bad -they aren't- but because the branding is so toxic in the US it shuts down dialog almost completely. So.

We walked from Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill to the Seattle Center. Shuffling. Some cool signs, my fave was the one suggesting deporting Stephen Miller back to Hell where he came from. Lots of people. Skewed older and whiter. Glad I did it, though as I said, the crowds always freak me out a bit.

And why do people smoke and vape in the middle of crowds like that? 🤮

After we got to Seattle Center, dh and I headed out to walk to the Quad at UW to see the cherry blossoms. It was predictably awesome! LOTS of people there too, OMG. So pretty. Damn, I miss working at the U. 😢

From there, we got a packed train back to Redmond.

It was probably close to 7 miles walked on pavement all said and done. Both of us are sore today: 7 miles on pavement really is different than 7 miles on trail, even if the trail has more ups and downs. When we walk to prep for the half marathon, we walk more on pavement than we do the rest of the year and usually build up to anything more than 5 miles. Also, shuffling, ugh. I only started Strava once we were a bit away from the Seattle Center and did not have it on during the march, so I only have partial data, LOL. I don't know if it's total paranoia, but.

It was nice seeing the light rail packed. People really will use convenient and frequent public transportation. Now we just need to make it free, to push even more people towards it. Making people pay for public transportation is often popular because many see it as something for The Poor who don't have cars, and damned if they should get anything free or cheap. So the framing I try to use is that everyone on public transit is giving their time, because it does take longer than driving, and keeping extra cars off the road, and in exchange for that should not have to pay.

Photos in my March Flickr set at the end.

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That was annoying.

2026-03-27T17:42:46Z

Rowing this morning. I was in an eight, with Coach Marilyn. Dh was in a quad with Coach S.

The weather was cold and clear, just beautiful. No wind, and the water was glass. We had a good boat, well dialed in, and Marilyn decided to take us to Portage Bay, something we don't get to do often, I'm not sure why. The other coach headed to South Lake Union.

We get there and... we stop. Coach S's launch has died. Marilyn tells the cox she'll come with us until we're back under I5 than she has to go rescue the other launch, cutting short our row. Which was sad. Because it was going real well. But important because South Lake Union, where the launch is now drifting is, well, an international airport.

We went back in and the cox decided to have us erg for 10 minutes to work on some of the drills he and Marilyn had planned and we didn't have time to do. We finished those a bit before our usual finish time.

Marilyn comes back and says that she got there, got the bad launch tethered to hers. Coach S decided to try starting her launch again and... it started.

So she continues the row with her boats and keeps them out an extra 15 minutes because they'd sat for so long. 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

I'm sorry but when one group has to go in under these circumstances, everyone should go in. Since dh was in the group that got a full row, I had to wait 30 minutes for him to be off the water and done. Which means I was sitting around the boathouse freezing for 35 minutes. Even standing in front of the fireplace wasn't enough. The issue, for me, was that with the very short very chilly row, I never got to warm up and so got back in colder than I'd started.

I'm even more annoyed because.... this is pretty routine for Coach S. I think she floods the engine and it starts up later once the gas has evaporated a bit. Because it's happened twice when I've been out with her, though they only tried to restart it once we were already at the dock. This is the third time. I should ask dh, since he'd recognize the sounds of a drowned carburetor.

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This, that, and a few other things.

2026-03-27T16:51:43Z

1. Perry had a bit of a day the day before yesterday (Tuesday). He went to the boathouse early for his afternoon session to get a run in and ended up... doing CPR by the side of the trail. Elderly man. Lived in one of the houseboats, I guess. Women walking her dog saw him slumped over in his chair outside, she realized something was BAD, called 911. They told her to get him on the ground and start CPR. Another dude who was passing helped her get him on the ground, and then... neither knew CPR. That's when Perry ran by and they called at him. He does, in fact, know CPR. Checked pulse and respiration and started CPR. He stayed at it until the paramedics got there and took over and did their thing. They eventually did get a pulse back (for whatever that means, ya know?). Perry made his statement to the police when they got there and got to the boathouse just a bit late for his coaching session. He had a bit of a cry and went on to coach, at least they were on land so he didn't have to focus quite as hard. He was a bit shook up. So, yeah.

2. We went up to Vancouver last Saturday. It would have been my aunt's 83rd birthday. We had lunch with her group of close friends, and it was good to see them, catch up, and feel again how much JoAnn was loved. I miss her.

3. Every other time I've looked for a job, I've at least gotten interviews. I've applied for about 50 jobs, probably 40 that I am actually well qualified for and not a single call. Depressing.

4. Going down to California in a few weeks for a quick trip chasing a steam locomotive. It should be fun. Alas, it'll be too early in the year to get to the trail I want to do in Northern CA. Next time, I guess. Or I'll plan another trip.

5. Read a really good book recently: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. Book 2 isn't out yet. WAH. Highly recommend.

6. Weather has been all over the place these past few weeks, with wild swings and major amounts of wind, mostly in the afternoons. Snow, hail, rain, wind, and sunny days. Sometimes all in one day.

7. Because he's popped up on my twitter feed three times this morning, I think Ilia Malinin is one of the least appealing skaters out there. Not personally, just... I find his skating ugly, for lack of a better word.

8. New Harry Potter series, which, no, I won't be watching. But OMG, BLACK Snape? NO NO NO. It completely shifts the dynamics of the whole story, adding racism in a way. I mean, WTF? I never liked Harry himself, but it turns him, and his father (and Sirius Black) into racists/white supremacists in a way the books did not intend. Are there problematic racist things in the books? Oh hail, yes. But not this. Black Hermione? Sure! (My only reservation is my inner child wailing that those of us cursed with curly frizzy hair who cannot use braids to tame in need some representation too, LOL, but I'm not really upset.) But Black Snape changes something fundamental and not in a good way. But whatever.

9. I've been knitting. Haven't gotten back to my beanie, my sister was here and I didn't want to try and concentrate on reductions when I was also talking with someone. So I taught myself to do cables. Still not great at them, but eh.

The beanie with extra rows added since the previous version was ridic small.
I hope it fits this time!

The cables. I hate the color of that yarn. I have no idea where it came from, but it's my scratch yarn.

10. Sunday, we drove out to Snoqualmie Falls for a quick walk with my sister and BIL. The falls were quite impressive. Not the highest I've seen, but.

11. Still struggling to take off the pounds I gained when I was off Zeppy in early December. I just can't seem to get them gone again. I have to say. I never understood people who complained that they were 10 lbs over their preferred weight because eh, I was A LOT MORE over mine, 🤪 , but while I never said it, I now get it a lot better. I mean, this is oodles different from way before, but I certainly felt different 12 lbs ago. I'll figure it out. Even if it means waiting for retatrutide to come on the market if Trump's FDA ever gives its approval.

12. A few weeks ago, I was in a sculling boat. There was someone else in the boat who hadn't sculled much either. We both came off the water looking like we'd murdered someone and dumped their body in South Lake Union. I mean, my right hand was dripping blood, my left palm was smeared with the blood, and the front of my hi-viz yellow jacket was covered. It was... pretty bad. This happens to inexperienced sculler because the nails on your left hand, even if they are short like mine, tear up the back of your right hand. Anyhow, I sculled again a few days after that, and only made a tiny new wound, and took a scar off an old one, but nowhere near as dramatic as the previous week's had been. Then I didn't scull for a few weeks and everything healed. Sculled again Monday. Just as we were about to cross to take it in, I noticed that I had not done further injury to my hands, and I was quite pleased with that. And proceeded to take a chunk out during the last 10 strokes. 🤪 I'm getting better, though.

13. My life feels so very small.

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Happy Spring!

2026-03-21T05:39:57Z

Happy Spring! Or, if app, Happy Autumn!

In either case, Happy Equinox!

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OMG. :-)

2026-03-20T20:36:13Z

Ctrl-Backspace OMG.

I had no idea.

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Fingies crossed

2026-03-17T23:29:56Z

With a bit of luck, Linnea has taken her last final.

OMG. There was a time we weren't sure she'd learn to read or count, let alone graduate from uni with a degree in computer science.

The kid.... is an example of freaking overcoming some pretty icky odds. Stubborn and persistent.

Fun fact: she's going to use my cap from my MS degree. Which she will decorate in pink, with a small bit of purple for me. I'm thrilled with this.

I am so freaking proud of her.

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No luck

2026-03-17T14:13:39Z

Recreation.gov is the place one goes to make outdoors reservations. It's run by a mega scummy AI/surveillance/cybersecurity company (Booz Allen) and overrun by bots.

Which is why you can't get a campsite reservation by 7:00:10 AM on the day they open at 7:00:00. I know. I've tried.

But one thing has been historically fair and that's the lotteries.

Which is why I don't feel cheated that I did not get my Enchantments Permits this year, le sigh. We'd thought about doing a through hike backpack, and Perry was on board.

Three things come to mind:
1. I'll try again next year.
2. I'll try for random permits that come up
3. This gives me another year to figure out how to get down this little bit Gulp. Dh and Perry crossed it and in the direction we'd be coming from all you see is a zillion mile drop, even if there is a flat spot that is the actual drop.
Photo credit: Jan's Jaunts Wordpress

I've got other hiking plans for the summer, but we'll see where they go.

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A negative result is still a result

2026-03-17T03:10:36Z

A negative result is still a result: it gives information, even if it is not the information you wanted.

I stupidly had cut and tried to finish up my knitting project, even though it was pretty obvious there was a problem. So I spent a while this weekend taking out the stitched closure, which took a stupid amount of time. Today I pulled out all the rows where I'd been doing the stitch reductions and put them back on the needle.

Tomorrow I'll try to start knitting again.

Le sigh.

Negative progress is still progress?

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And more problems, sigh

2026-03-14T16:35:37Z

More issues with my mom. My phone was working for calling last week, which was good because I spent a lot of time (for me, I don't usually talk on the phone) on the phone with my sister.

Things are not great at the new memory care place for my mom. Like most places, and the one she was at before, there are staffing issues. The staff is good but overworked.

So. Sis saw when my mom was served for dinner and took a photo of the plate after she'd eaten a few bites. There is maybe 2 oz of meatloaf, some plain iceberg lettuce, some raw onions, and a few chopped up tomatoes. No dressing. No fruit, no starch no dessert. No salt, my poor mother! (Like me, Perry, and my nephew, my mom is a major salt fiend. I mean, my whole family eats saltier than average, but we're the worst of the lot.)

She said Mom's friend, Larry, had a tiny piece of chicken with some icky gravy and about 2 tablespoons of a brown-and-wild-rice mix.

Another time, sis says, "dessert" was brought out. 6 slices of cake for 14 people. They ran out.

When I was there with my brother and his family, Mom said she wasn't feeling well, but perked up nicely when we came in and was fine by the time she left. She hadn't, however, eaten, so I went to ask and they gave me a tray they'd set aside for her: a pb&j and some chips. She ate it happily and while it was about 6pm, and that was dinner, I figured she'd missed "real dinner" and this is what they have for residents when that happens. Now, we're wondering.

My mom has been having some gastro issues for a while, and she's been losing weight over the past few months, since she got to the new place in fact. A lot of testing is being done.

The facility claims that the same dinner is served to the people in memory case and assisted living. However, I've walked by during AL meals and they have more food than that, and more, well, options.

Sis and I talked a lot this week. She'd sent an email to the facility about the inadequate food and was told that dinner was not the main meal of the day, that that was lunch. OK. So she asked for menus and sure enough, dinner is the main meal of the day.

My theory is that they make up the memory care plates after AL has eaten and sometimes they run out of food.

Anyhow, we've been trying to figure out what to do next. My sis is meeting with them on Monday to address this issue.

We'll talk about the fact that her dentures were broken, fixed, and broken again in the 5 months she been there. She's also had three falls, one of them needed an ER visit (she was fine). Yes, there is going to be disease progression, but this all seems like a lot of concentrated badness when she doesn't seem to have slipped disease wise as much when we're around, if that makes sense.

Anyhow. Lots of stress there.

And let's not even talk about Linnea issues, my job search, which is going nowhere, my MIL (OMG, do not want to talk about that!), and the state of the world. I'm not doing well. I really don't want to look into anti-depressants, I tried once years ago and promptly gained like 20 pounds in a month, but I'm seeing some worrisome signs in myself and unlike previous recent bouts, exercise is helping some, but not with my complete inability to focus productively. I dunno. I'll get through it, but right now, I just want to run away from home (with my spouse!) and go someplace beautiful and go hiking. I'm sure hiking would help.

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Finally, snow

2026-03-14T15:38:05Z

Woke up yesterday morning to snow! Not a lot but some, the first snow we've seen this year. On 13 March.

Was not expecting that. Dh says his weather app had predicted it but mine did not so.

I did not end up coxing, we had an indoor workout, which was great because sitting immobile in a boat in 34-degree weather and with wet sloppy snow falling sounded like a recipe for hypothermia.

After, got home. There was a lot of more snow. We had a time getting down our street because some bushes on either side were very low to the ground, creating a very small windy passage. Heavy spring snow. We can see where this is going, right?

Dh got a shower as soon as he got in. I decided to sit down, check Discord, email, Bluesky etc since I'd been pretty much off of devices for the prior two days. Internet still veeeeery slow. I rebooted my machine, since Perry and dh didn't seem to be having problems. But I could still not get pages to load so I went to sit by the fireplace with my knitting, tea, a cat, and an audiobook.

And we lost power.

Dh went into work.

It came back late yesterday evening. And I seem to have reliable internet again, even on my phone. It looks like t-mobile had some problems last week, especially on Wednesday when nothing worked at all. We get our home internet from them too... Anyhow it's been a very disconnected week.

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A dis x 2 day

2026-03-13T05:29:35Z

Disconnected and disappointed.

Internet has been spotty, so say the least, for the past few days. I've been pretty much offline since yesterday morning. In addition, we lost power yesterday evening (wind) and while the power came back on late this afternoon, the internet is still iffy. And btw, by iffy I mean both my phone and the wi-fi. Clearly something off with T-Mobile or/and the local tower.

Every once and a while, the phone would wake up and give me like 10 Discord notifications... but it didn't follow up with actually showing me the posts.

Disappointed in my knitting project. I have no idea what happened. So. I did the swatch thing and was pretty close to the numbers they said I should be getting. I followed the instructions. However, what I ended up with is a hat that is waaaaaay too small. I mean, circumference might be ok, but it's closer to a skullcap than a beanie. I've very disappointed. I suspected something was up when I finished the "regular knitting" section before the reductions, but I counted and decided to trust the process. Obviously, a mistake.

Ah well. I have more yarn. I will do some calculations tomorrow and start over again. Will not unravel this one yet, though.

Photos on Flickr.

Oh man, and the end, working with four double pointed needles? That are pretty awful, LOL.

Anyhow.

In a side note. Looks like the weather might go completely to hell overnight. We were about to sign out of rowing when Marilyn sent out of the line ups. I'm coxing, 😭🤮, which means canceling is not cool. So I guess we get to slog through whatever weather the PNW wants to throw at us tomorrow, followed by freezing my ass in a boat. UGH.

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Three things (and maybe more!) for Wednesday and Thursday

2026-03-06T05:04:25Z

1. The 100 Day Project. Today I successfully (I think) added 6 stiches to my hat and transferred from one set of round needles to a bigger once. I'm annoyed that my knitting is a bit tighter than I'd like. Also, why didn't I pick thicker yarn? 🤪

Anyhow: Photos on Flickr.

I am going to mebbe post 'em on Instagram.

2. This week is the anniversary of my aunt's death. I miss her dreadfully. I'm glad she got out before she lost too many people, too many memories, too much of herself, and I remember how sad I was every time I saw my super intelligent, competent, and independent aunt as vulnerable and scared and I know she made the right choices... but god I miss her.

3. We went hiking on Sunday, on Whidbey Island. Started at West Beach, walked to the bridge, then under it, and around the point on the perimeter. After several large ups and downs, we got to Goose Rock, which is the highest point on Whidbey Island, LOL. Got to see Mt Baker, Glacier Peak (one of my faves), and a shadow in the haze that was Mt Rainier. Beautiful views from the top and it was a sunny PNW winter day. Strava did me a dirty and did not record the hike at all, grr. Anyhow, it was about 6 miles and the summit is at about 500ft, but cumulatively, it was a bit more than that. Loads of fun. Dh got a photo of me taking a photo, those always amuse me. Saw a pileated woodpecker and a bald eagle, some seals, and heard a ruby crowned kinglet, though we did not see it.

Another Flickr link: Goose Rock hike at Deception Pass.

4. Iran thing is making me sick. Don't want to write about it, it's just so upsetting. This is not going to end well, for one, and for two, we just got out of fucking Afghanistan, damn it. Oh, and the media are a bunch of sycophantic assholes. Also in current events, I was hoping Jasmine Crockett would win in TX. I don't think either of them could win the general, but I thought she had a better chance.

5. $40 for Perry to fill up the Prius.

6. I'm having a hard time with everything these days.

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Why hello reading ass being handed to me

2026-02-27T23:25:45Z

Yipes, people.

Recently I listened to the first two books of Aliette de Bodard's _Dominion of the Fallen_ series and absolutely loved them. I was very grumpy to find out that my library does not have the third book of the trilogy, in either audio or e-book. There is one paper copy available but not close by and at this point, I'm all about audio and e-books, to my surprise. E-books especially since I can read when insomnia hits.

Anyhow, grumping, I set about finding something to listen to. Note that POS Libby has changed how hold suspensions work so I can't time things nearly as well as I used it, sigh. So I had nothing on deck (*).

I decided after two easy fantasy that it was time for some non-fic and searched accordingly. And gump, there was _The Origins of Totalitarianism_ sitting right there. It's been on my to-read list for... a very long time. I've worked around it, reading just about every easy access book on the subject but I really wanted to read a book I consider the foundational tome.

So I borrowed it. Audio book, though I did put the e-book on hold to have both if possible.

And I promptly had my sorry reading ass handed to me. OMG.

I'm a fast reader. I read print quicky, and I listen to audio at 1.25 speed. I do other things while reading, either playing Candy Crush Saga, knitting, cooking, walking, driving.

This? Yeah, no. It's dense. The sentences, while clear, are often involved. I often have to stop to think about high school history lessons and I thank my lucky stars that I got a decent grounding in European history, merci M. Malice and M. de Moncuit especially.

So yeah. It's going to take me a while and a lot of attention and no, I can't do my knitting project at the same time. I actually can walk, but that's about it. 🤣

(*) Of course, a book I wanted to read which said two weeks out earlier this week came in this morning and I had to suspend it.

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