May 3, 2011

• To all you readers who have reliable, consistent, dependable, reasonably-fast internet service, may I just say this? Do not take your good fortune for granted. Ever.

  I live in a place where internet access is limited. Out here in my country-world, we choose between dial-up (yes, they still have it, and it still makes that little splish-splashy, ding-ding noise when it is connecting), something from a satellite (if you don’t have too many trees to block the signal or if you have too many trees you must cut them down, only not me!), or using our phones as modems. Since those first two options are rife with problems, I choose the third, with the first as a permanent backup. This is not to say that the third option is without problems. It has many, not the least of which is that when it rains, the signal becomes very weak or non-existent. Usually the latter.

  So, when we get a lovely rainy spell such as the one we’ve just come through, I just have to go back to living without internet, just like the good old days. It rained for forty days and forty nights. You think not? Well, it seemed like that. In reality, it was about 10 days of non-stop rain, during which time more than 20 inches of rain fell. I could rarely connect, and when it did stop pouring for a minute, I’d run to the computer, go through the motions of connecting, and then it would wickedly drop me at the most inopportune times, such as when I was in the middle of sending an important email or had just written a nice, entertaining blog post and was ready to SAVE….and then…fizzzzzle. Out it went. It was a good test of patience. And a reality check. How soon we forget.

  Today has been simply beautiful! Blue skies, no wind, no rain, no serious clouds….my connection has been flawless. I smile, and all is forgiven.

  On a cold, wintry April night last week, I was knitting away while the Farmboy was watching television, and I looked down at my work….a darling little baby hat, similar to hundreds of others I’ve made in the last couple of years….and I suddenly needed a change. I laid the little hat aside with no guilt; there are, after all, six finished little hats on the closet shelf, and every little person I know is well-hatted right now, anyway. So I went to my knitting closet and pulled out this:

                      

  a red shawl that I began two years ago (at least…let’s not count), a project I haven’t touched in a long time. Suddenly it became very appealing to me. This is a pattern that requires my concentration, but I’ve enjoyed reacquainting myself with it. I can do about two inches a night, and since I have about 16 inches to go (I’ve done about six since pulling it back out) I calculate that I’ll finish this project before winter, which is when it can be worn, since it is a nice, soft merino wool. If I don’t get tired of it before then….

                      

  This is a little baby hat I finished last week. No, we do not have another new grandbaby. My lovely model is Mi Bebe, Sus’s baby doll, brought by Santa one Christmas long ago. This baby has also been loved by all three little granddaughters. I love her, too, and am glad she is ageless.

  Last weekend we visited our daughter,

                       

   

  son-in-law, and their two little girls. We went to a soccer game,

                        

  cheered this little monkey on the monkey bars,

                    

  cheered some old guys playing b-ball,

                    

  chatted up these pigs on the way home,

                    

  bought this bull,

                 

  and met this sweet little real baby.

                  

                             

  Doesn’t he look like a little man? Better than a doll, any day. HIs cousin is so proud of him! Technically, we’re not related to this little guy, but we claim him as part of our family. You can do that with babies, you know….

  I’ll leave you with a parting shot of our alarm clock.

                   

  That’s D.T., already in his roost in the dogwood tree. This chicken gives new meaning to the phrase, “bird brain.” All winter, in the absolute WORST weather, he has roosted in this tree, refusing to enter the henhouse. It’s getting to be a little tiresome when he crows at 4:30 a.m. Delbert the Third may not be long for this world, so I thought you should see him now. Look quickly.

  Sweet dreams…and to all, a good night.

  • 9:22 pm
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