A Drop in the Box

 

We voted yesterday. It was a big relief. We waited forever for The Mister's ballot to show up. We were really getting worried. Our county has closed most of its usual polling places for Nov. 3 and are only using the four high schools for in person voting and we definitely wanted to avoid that if at all possible. The drop off box is in the rec center parking lot where we walk the dog everyday so you can't get more convenient than that. 

We also hit the local box at town hall after spending the morning trying to figure out who the folks were that were running for town things and what to answer for the referendum questions. That was the hard ballot to fill out. We had a lot of homework to do. 

Our reward for doing our civic duty? A quick stop at the little ice cream shop on the boardwalk. It's the first time either of us have been in the little shops at the beach. Since their numbers have been excellent I thought it was a risk worth taking. I wish I could say the same for the rest of our little county. They've had a terrible week with around 15 new cases a day luckily, most of them south of us.

TNT: Halloween Edition

 

I finished another row of the lawn this week. Yippee. Three more rows to go. I wanted it done by the end of the year but that's not going to happen. It's slow going. 

I also finished my sprig of...whatever that is. It's a bit sloppy. My satin stitch needs work so it's a good thing I've got plenty more sprigs left to do. 

But..I am putting both of those projects on hold so I can put a few stitches on my Halloween projects even though I am not feeling very Halloweeny. Fall really hasn't shown up here yet and of course all the things we look forward to like the dog costume parade is cancelled. We haven't had any trick or treaters in years but it was always fun to have a bowl of candy by the door and light up a Jack O Lantern-just in case one wandered by.

The Hows and the Whys

 

I got a lot of comments on why I would need to do so much laundry by hand when my washer broke. Here's why. I am terribly, terribly allergic to cats and keep my furniture covered when I am not sitting on it so when I do want to sit down it is not covered in cat dander.

I use a lot of this. I discovered that hand sanitizer on a damp washcloth works just as well to clean allergens from kitty surfaces but hand sanitizer is hard to come by. This pricey stuff is not. 

We have a large corner couch in the downstairs and a small one upstairs so it's a lot of sheets that have to be changed and washed every day. We also have towels in all the pets beds that are picked up and washed daily too. It's not a big deal when you have a working washer and  dryer but when you don't it looks like this.  I think my new ladder clothesline was quite clever of me. The yard is too muddy to put up a rope.

At least the weather cleared up so I could move all the dripping to the outside. My little Ikea drying rack is more precious to me now than ever. I went online to look for another and they want a small fortune for these things. This one is $9.99. Amazon wants anywhere from $20-50 for one. If I ever do get to Ikea again I am picking up a bunch of these. I always seem to have it in use for something or other. 

Speaking of Ikea, this is a reminder that I am still living in this horror. I had just come to the conclusion that my dream Ikea kitchen was not going to happen so we had started to do research on places that would deliver our cabinets and counter top without us having to go in and work with a designer for hours. That would mean just literally replacing the cabinets we have for size and placement. At this point I was okay with that. A pandemic really puts things into perspective. If I could deal with this mess for 7 months now who needs a bigger, fancier kitchen? Not me. Then Pup got sick and the washer broke and it's all cost us a fortune so now we are back to just looking at it all in amazement and wondering what the heck to do-again. 

My Rhinebeck Sweater

 

No. I am not at Rhinebeck this year. No one is but I thought a lot about it yesterday as I was hand washing loads of laundry-again. I sure was wishing I was there sprawled out on the lawn knitting like I was in 2013.

It was my last trip to Rhinebeck and I was wearing a sweater that I had started right after my first visit in 2009. It took me four years to finish it. I saw someone walk by in one and knew I had to have one. It's Lillehammer by Dale of Norway and it was an epic achievement. I took its mugshot laying in the leaves outside one of the little vendor sheds in the fairgrounds. 

My very first Rhinebeck sweater was this one in 2009. It's a Lopi and it was a good choice. It was cold that year. There was ice and snow on the ground. I was freezing and also coming down with what would turn out to be H1N1. I had taken the train up with Daughter and I was so sick by the time my train arrived back home I could barely walk. The Mister had to carry me to the car. Swine flu was no Covid but it was pretty bad. It was the sickest I had ever been and for the longest time. 

My second Rhinebeck sweater was Inishturk. That was 2012 and it was too hot for it that year. It was also too big. I gifted it to Son. 

The Rhinebeck sweater that never was is White Pine. I made it for a year that I didn't get to go because Daddio had started to become an issue. 

Here is a photo from that Rhinebeck weekend in 2014. It's from a post where I was moaning about missing the festival because Dad was in the hospital with pneumonia. It all seems pretty silly of me now. In only four years he would be gone. 

I just told The Mister come hell or high water, as soon as this pandemic thing is over I will be there again some day. 

I could care less about the yarn or the fiber or the other woolly things. Rhinebeck is always such a crazy crowded mess it is hard to shop there. I just want to sit on a hill and knit with strangers. I also want some apples. I always bought some for the ride home whether it was by train or car and they were always the best thing you ever ate. 

2021 people. I'm already knitting next year's sweater.  

It's a date. 

I hope.

Wash Day

 

Guess what we did yesterday? Laundry. All day. It was raining again so there wasn't much else to do. We started out by moving it all downstairs into the lower level tub so I could get my pretty new bathroom back. We had a system and we got through quite a lot once we set up the dehumidifier to speed the drip drying up. We went ahead and ordered the matching dryer to the washer-just in case. Who wants to go through this again anytime soon? Not me. 

And we've got something new to wash. Little lambies on a pink......

....pair of jammies for Pup. That's the best photo I could get. After three weeks of wearing the cone of shame she really wasn't in the mood for any modeling. Daughter found them at Home Good-which makes me not happy she was in Home Goods but they really are nice jammies. They are very soft and surprisingly sturdy. They will be nice and warm for a winter walk. I wish I had a pair like that. 

Less is More

 

I had a day to myself yesterday while The Mister golfed. I decided not to do much of anything again. I did get my new Halloween puzzle started. 

I found another one that I liked and it arrived a few days ago. I think this one will be perfect for November.

Here are this week's Inktober projects. I have a HOPE floating bear (that I made of mess of when I painted it), a jar of DISGUSTING apple butter (not a fan), a SLIPPERY when wet sign (that was a total cop out), the cover of the book DUNE (because I can't draw an actual dune), a suit of ARMOR (that was a lot of fun to draw) and an OUTPOST (that didn't turn out as bad as I thought). The one thing I learned this week is to walk away from the project before you think you should. I was having way too much fun with some of them this week and they were NOT the better for it. 

Speaking of NOT better. Now my new washer won't be delivered until NEXT Friday. Ugh. Nine days without a washer? I was already up to my ears in laundry. Oh, well....the off the grid folks do this crazy stuff all the time. I can manage. 

At least the dryer is working. I can drip dry a load overnight and then toss it in the dryer in the morning. Sounds like a plan. And btw...that cheap little drying rack I bought from Ikea a few years ago was worth every penny. I wish I had two of them. One for each tub.

Closet Knitting

 

Who knew that sitting on the floor of your closet could be so relaxing? It's my new after dinner habit. I hide away from the critters and The Mister, turn on my audio book and get a few rows put on Altheda. She is starting to finally look like something. I was getting worried.

I've been taking Pimpeliesse in there too when I haven't had any other time to work on it. I'm on the downhill side now. 

'

The one thing I didn't want to think about when I was in my knitting hideaway last night is that my wash machine is sitting in the driveway. It finally...went. We just got finished replacing the band on the dryer and were in no mood to take this thing apart and fix whatever made it go sproing so out it went. My new one is being delivered tomorrow and they'll be taking the old one away. I know it's crazy but it makes me sad. Poor old thing.