Like The Queen
Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content.

2 Comments:

Aw shucks. Truck won't start. Doggone. I can just feel your disappointment. ;-)

Enjoy your extra day at home!

By Blogger Mary, at 3:21 PM  

An extra day at home sounds wonderful to me. I was just glad to have that one day off. Thank goodness for libraries being official "government" buildings, so that we can have the day off.

I know what you mean by the excitement for you knitting almanac. My new excitement for all things knitting is very refreshing and I feel like I have a plan that will keep the year exciting.

By Blogger erica, at 10:44 AM  

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Tuesday, January 16, 2007  

Talk about getting what you ask for. I was walking with the dogs this a.m., wishing and wishing and wishing I could stay home today. Of course, I often wish I could stay home, but today I reeeeealy wanted to stay home. But there was no compelling reason to stay home. Days off are precious and I hate to use one up when I don’t need it, either for a real mental health break, a family emergency or for a special treat. There isn’t anything special about today other than it is today. Another wonderful today.

But the universe heard me. I leave for work at 9:30, after everyone else down here on the flats has long gone. BD had to go to the city today, though and he took the car around 8:30. When I went out to the truck, the battery was dead. The battery starter is in my car - so that if I leave the lights on or whatever, I can get my car going again. Only - of course, I didn't have the car. SomebodyElse had left the key turned half way on - sometime last Friday. There’s nobody within 5 or 10 miles who could take me into town. I haven’t any idea when BD will be coming back tonight. I don’t particularly want to scrounge around for a ride home. Best of all - although it felt like I goofed off all last week, I actually got everything ready for this week, all right and tight. My staff may be a little busy today because our 4th person is on extended leave - but there are still 2 of them. Each can get a lunch break. When no other options are available, they can just check books in and out and put them away. They know I don’t scold about back room tasks. There are no deadlines looming that haven’t already been prepared for. Even though I was never a scout, evidently I’d adopted the code of readiness.

I’m home for the day!

Which means no photos, though I’ve done a lot of KipFee knitting. I’ll post them tomorrow afternoon. But here is the rest of my morning’s musings, written earlier, with the intention of posting it with the pictures.

(wee a.m. hours writing)
M’s comment about all the goal setting around here got me to thinking yesterday. Of course, right now it’s all January, a time of NYR’s and Good Ideas for A Better Life. But there is something endemic about that goal setting stuff - something that runs through my whole life, that lasts the entire year. I certainly grew up in a busy household. We were always doing stuff. My dad held down a full time job, and 2 part time jobs throughout my life. And believe me, we were glad of it - not for the money, though I realize that made a difference. It’s just that, kids never really understand how money works in a household. Parents are always saying "you’re too young to understand that." But Dad’s intense drive meant that he was out 3 blissful, un-monitored and quasi free, nights a week! When he was in the house he was constantly riding herd on us, making sure we were "doing something productive". My older sister once said she could never settle down and read anything more engaging than Glamour Magazine because reading anything that wasn’t schoolwork was Goofing Off, Wasting Time, Unproductive. Perhaps my process knitting comes from that - it wasn’t all that important that we finished stuff - but we sure had to be doing something. We all learned how to look busy while doing nothing. We also learned how to make things and do things and we’ve all filled our lives with that doing.

But I can’t just blame my folks. That busy-ness suits fine, and would have even without that early imprinting. I love doing things. I like to knit and spin. I love dyeing fiber, growing flowers, painting, writing. I like to cook, I like to talk, I like to sing in choirs. I adore exercise, I love teaching and absolutely delight in reading out loud. Gaaa! There are so many things I want to do I am always feeling like I’m running late. I even like working, though it’s beginning to really interfere with important things, like petting dogs.

All kidding aside, there are so many things I would like to try, to experiment, to do, that the overstimulation of options constantly streaming into my consciousness can cause a mental crash - and then I do nothing. Or I never leave the thinking about it stage. The actual doing becomes daunting instead. And that’s where the magic of external structure comes in to play.

I know that an outline, a list, a plan ... a Knitters Almanac, can help me get going, can snap me out of my daydream and into action. The fun of it all is that, now I am a grown up, all this structure is mine; created by me, erected by me, and if I so choose, discarded by me. I don’t have to follow the outline, check off the list, or knit by the almanac. Daddy isn’t there to make me do anything anymore, but the fact that he was all those years ago taught me that the doing was a lot of fun. The happy joy of having this wonderful tool means that - if I so choose - I can try out all the things I think I might like to do.

Yes, M, I suppose there are a lot of goals floating around TheCastle. Probably always will be. In fact, one of the Things I Might Like To Do is that half-marathon training written up in the January Weight Watcher’s Magazine. I’m walking with the pups every day. Here at Champlain, South Carolina, where it is 70* in mid-January, I actually took my shoes of and got into Jacob’s Gut. Not to swim, of course, but to wash marsh mud off Jack so he could come into the Clean House. That is a new activity. I have never stepped into any of our streams or creeks or rivers before April. But if I’m to get my walk in before work today, I’d best be off. Ta!


posted by Bess | 6:28 AM
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