Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content.
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| Like The Queen Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content. |
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0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Tuesday, June 26, 2007 Do you feel like you’ve rounded a corner and, though the road ahead may be long, at least you can see it, and where it’s going? Hmmm. That’s what we are all supposed to feel now that Neptune and Saturn have parted ways and the tension between idealism and pragmatism has eased. Let us see, then, if we are so lucky. My tension is certainly cranked down now that I know the performers for today are coming. As for the absolute cock up I made of the QuickBooks program, well. That is just in the accounts receivable chart. It didn’t effect the check register and I can still pay all the bills that have to be paid - and I shall make a call in to the local accountants to see if anybody there wants to do a little moonlighting and clean up our program. If not - I know that J in Northumberland knows someone who does this for a reasonable fee. So, there you have it. I can at least see the road ahead, hmmm? And I contacted Weston Woods, who does those marvelous film versions of children’s books, and charges a foot and a hand for public performance rights, but not the whole arm and leg. They apologized profusely for completely ignoring my 6 week old film order and promised me the Beverly Cleary films would be shipped yesterday, so I am all right and tight for our family film nights for the rest of the summer. Hmmm. Altogether, not a bad Monday at all. Fortylevendyhundred years ago when I first started working at the library I got caught one June with $$$ to spend. This was when I was a simple clerk and the board members responsible for the actual running of the place dropped the ball. Those were the days when there were still some women of substance, who did good works in the community, but who had never written a check or balanced a checkbook. Our board treasurer was such a one and when I found out in mid-June that this was the case and we were about to commit the cardinal sin of bureaucracies - Not Spending The Whole Budget - oh my goodness. I believe that was the moment when I began to take over the duties, and then later the role and title, of library director. I also did a mad dash to a bookstore, probably somebody like Cokesbury’s, and went on a mammoth book buying spree. Since then I have been careful to always spend the whole budget before June is up, of course, but not more than I am likely to spend next year, factoring in the increase in the county budget and using my prognosticating powers to calculate any emergencies and whether they’ll have to come out of the library budget or if they are big enough to come out of general funds. That’s what librarians really do - that, and chase teenage boys off of computers when their turn is up. Alas, that I must burst your bubble. Though it is a fun enough job, we do not read books all day. An awful lot of librarians knit, though. I’m always tickled to see the needles gently dipping whenever I’m at a meeting. For the longest time there was really only one true knitter, and she would pull out the most glorious projects. She knit that British sweater with the grape clusters made of bobbles one year and my mouth fairly watered. There was an embroiderer as well, but she has long since retired. At that time, my passion was my sewing machine, which would not have fit in a meeting room at VLA conferences and would have been too noisy anyway. Now though, you see that scoop and loop movement of tiny needles and hooks at all the meetings. I’m very bold about it and always pull out my stichery, though I keep my hands low and my movements small. And if my neighbor twitches or looks at me from the corner of her eye, I put my knitting away before she feels compelled to speak. But 2 weeks ago, when I was at the meeting in Richmond, after the break, almost every woman at my table slipped back to her room and returned with needles and yarn. At the next break we had a little show and tell. As for what I am knitting now it is ... guess... Yep. Nice striped Regia socks for BD - unless he says they are too loud - which he might. One never knows with him. They are guy colors, but there is a white stripe in them. He might think they are TooBright. They are also guy sized, though, so I can always give them to the other guy I knit socks for. And I’ve pulled out the Regia Silk socks I’m making in a lace pattern, on a long Addi Lace needle, using the magic loop technique. It’s an easy way to knit socks, especially when you have a good pointy tipped needle with a supple cable. And I reeeeeealy love the pattern I’m using, (a BW, upside down) but you have to shift the stitches around from time to time, because of the decreases in the lace pattern - and honestly? I think this pattern would be easier to knit on DP’s. It’s so much easier to just slip one stitch off a short stiff little DP than it is to draw all that cable through one poor helpless little stitch. Of course I didn’t know this when I started the sock and I suffer from a numbed nerve in my ring finger when I knit with DP’s, so, though I can, I rarely do knit with them. Only when I want to intimidate or impress people. I finished the commissioned socks on Sunday night but they were still damp yesterday morning. I’ll ship them out today and pat myself on my back for making my own deadline. I just hope I met my customer’s. I don’t know what sort of weather you might be having, but we are in a serious bad drought. I have seen only one drought worse than this in my life, but we are still early into the summer. There’s time for this year to catch up with 2002. We haven’t yet seen the scorch of a July sun or the crushing Bermuda Highs of August. If we make $400 from the cornfield this year it will be a miracle. The wheat was harvested yesterday and whatever we make from it will be salted away in the cellar to save for taxes in the fall. Because at this rate - no soybean would sprout in the Sahara-in-the-Making that is this sad Virginia farm. And yet - I can’t help but ponder the coincidence of a drought during this, the 400th anniversary of Englishmen in the new world. There was an equal, if not worse, drought occurring here at that time. In fact, that summer, a delegation of Pamunkey Indians came to Jamestown and asked the English, whose god was obviously very powerful, to petition their god for an end to this drought. Sort of makes you feel the bond of kinship to those ancient peoples, all those long years ago. Huh. I didn’t mean to end this on a downer. Obviously the rains did come and they will again. Still and all - maybe I’ll go out and do a little rain dance and see if one of those scattered showers will drift on over my fields. posted by Bess | 7:31 AM |
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