Almost There...

Heleen and I managed to wrestle her boyfriend's Monster Truck (diesel, 4-wheel drive, stick shift) down to Atlanta and back--leaving at 5:30 am and getting back to town around 9 pm. In between, we walked about 20 miles through IKEA, loaded 4 push-pallets with 14 boxes of shelving units (about 67 pounds per box), 15 lighting fixtures and bulbs, display hooks, racks, miscellaneous items like toilet brushes, watering can, S-hooks, and what has become known as "the big-ass clock."

Heleen fell in love with the largest clock on the planet--about 20" in diameter, analog, with numbers about 6" high. I told her it belonged in a lecture hall seating about 4oo people (where every cabbage-head student could watch it from 200 yards away), and I'd be waiting for the bell to ring everytime I looked at it. She was not deterred. She wanted that clock!

I was completely blown away by the lighting department. You have to understand that while I love having light, I despise most lighting fixtures. They are ALL ugly. They cost too much. IKEA's selection was a revelation. I loved almost every one I saw, (and the incredibly low prices!) and the hard part was deciding just how high we wanted our electric bill to go. We bought pole lamps, clamp-on spotlights, table lamps, giant suspended paper-shaded lanterns, and one surprise stunner we are saving for MaryAnn on opening day--it's about the size of the moon, and is covered in paper flowers. (Well, MaryAnn said I needed to get in touch with my whimsical side). It's my justification. Heleen and I are going to put it together this weekend, while M is out of town, attending the Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Prince concert in Greensboro, NC.

And then, there's the YARN! Boxes and boxes of color and texture. We ooh and ahh over every discovery. Then we buckle down and get it listed into the POS computer (that's "Point of Sale" for those of you who thought I was swearing).

It took two days to assemble all the gorgeous white cubicle shelving. Now, we're shoving the finished units around, trying to arrange them in a pleasing and organized manner. Heleen is busily sewing our partition fabric "walls," and I am shampooing rugs and furniture. I donated our original couch from the Vallejo house. I have good memories of that sofa--Bill slept on it with his legs hanging over the sides, we'd prop infant Alex up in the corner so Juli could play with her baby brother)--our first furniture purchase 27 years ago. It belongs in the yarn shop instead of the basement for another 27 years!

One week to go. Whatever will be, will be...

A Good Day

Today was super Sunday. I had planned to go to the shop to work (still sorting, labeling and hanging thousands of knitting needles), but then Bill got up and made me waffles and bacon. Yum! Perhaps I'd just putter about at home for a change?

I noodled around on the computer while drinking coffee, made new wills and set up a trust for Bill and myself, then took a shower, baked biscotti (folding laundry while waiting for the timer), and watched TV. I dipped the biscotti in chocolate (white & dark), put away my clean clothes, sorted my seeds, transplanted the asparagus and tomato seedlings outdoors, seeded chives and cilantro in pots, cleaned the AeroGrow and planted salad greens, sat in the sunshine and planted a seedling tray of cucumbers, eggplant, miniature peppers (the ones they sell for $4.00 a box in the grocery), tiny tomatoes and strawberries, (designed for hanging baskets), filled up 3 window boxes with dirt for lettuce, and put out my birdfeeder that Jean gave me for my birthday. I cleaned off the dining room table and spray-painted a display rack for the store. I made Bill some nachos and did all the mountains of dishes I had created with my morning adventures. Then I made a fresh mango salsa, cooked some brown jasmine rice in orange juice and added some tart dried cherries, sauted some chicken and opened a bottle of champagne. (I needed it for the chicken, and I had to make sure it was tasty, so I tested it by having a glass or two while I was cooking).

Sometimes, I swoon when tasting my own cooking. This was such a moment.

I ate two helpings, had another glass of champagne, and set the pots to soak in the sink.

I didn't worry about anything.

I did all these chores and still felt totally relaxed.

It is good to have a day "off."

Home - On the Road - Home

Bill came home, dragging a cold from his 30-hours in the clutches of the airlines. On Sunday, I deemed him well enough for a quick trip up to Illinois to see how his father was doing. We threw our stuff and the dog in the car, made some ham sandwiches, and hit the road.

We arrived in Illinois around 8 pm, and marvelled at just how COLD the change in latitude made life difficult. It is still winter up there. Bill's dad is terribly thin now, unable to eat any solid food, living on three cans of Ensure per day, and very difficult to understand, as his jaw tumor has distorted his facial features to the point where he cannot enunciate his words coherently. It has to be very frustrating to him, as it is very painful for him to speak -- to go to that effort and not be understood is maddening.

Bill was able to do one nice thing for his father -- get his motor scooter out of winter storage and ride it back to the apartment, so that when warm weather finally comes, he'll be able to go out and ride it. In order to do this, Bill dressed in about 3 layers of clothing and stuck his dad's car floor mats under his shirt for a windbreak. Dad can no longer play the accordion, so he now has an electronic keyboard for entertainment. That and his motor scooter are about the only things he can enjoy in his life right now. Surprisingly, he is cheerful and indefatigable through all of this.

We celebrated my birthday by driving towards home on a gloomy, rainy day. We stopped in Evansville, IN to see LST 325, one of the last surviving LSTs from WWII. We happily scrambled up and down ladders, stepped through watertight doors and explored the ship. Amazingly, 170 of these ships were built in Evansville during the war, but they were not meant to last -- the outer hull is only 3/8" thick steel, and the decks that held 22 Sherman tanks are only 1/4" thick. The flat hull, perfect for running equipment up on beaches, made for what must have been a terrifying rolling voyage across the ocean. This particular ship was found in Greece, and sailed back by U.S. veterans across the Atlantic, before putting into the Mobile, AL shipyard for refurbishing. Amazing!

We then tooled down the road to Cousin Jean's, and went to Holly Hill Inn for dinner. It was "Tapas Tuesday," at the restaurant, so we dined on plates of mussels, pate, olives, almonds, stuffed eggs, croquettes, a divine pot roast, garlic potatoes, all accompanied by various wines. The winemaker stopped by our table to chat, and we found out she had gone to California Maritime Academy for a year (about 10 years after Bill attended) before transferring to UC Davis to become a winemaker. The pastry chef whipped up an impromptu dessert of lemon mousse on sponge cake, topped with a raspberry coulis. Wow. A great birthday dinner!

We arrived home yesterday, and after unloading the car, the three of us napped on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. I had about 47 birthday emails, which cheered me to no end.

Now it's time to get back to work. Back to the shop today to finish up some painting and make more decisions. Time is getting very short now, and the partners are all in a low-grade panic. Me? I'm confident we'll get done what we need to get done, and all will be well. I just want to open the doors and get started!

Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast

...and to what do my wandering eyes appear? Yes, it's long-lost Harry, sitting calmly on the porch, waiting for breakfast! He seemed genuinely happy to see us, racing around the house, stealing Ozzie's toys and gobbling down his kibble.

Then he went out, and hasn't come back.

I am feeling a little like a fair-weather friend here. Oh sure, pop in for a visit and then disappear again. Today was the very day I was going to move the crate down to the basement, sure at last that Harry wasn't coming back. Now he's got me on tinderhooks, waiting for his call. Sheesh.

Bill is due in tomorrow night, after a grueling 26 hours of travel from Singapore-Toyko-Atlanta-Tri-Cities. Luckily, he will be coming in just in time for a light dinner and sleep, all the better to get him started on an Eastern Time Zone schedule. I have a list a mile long for work to be done at the shop. I should let him sleep first, though.

What am I to do with these wandering men?

Country Music

I can always tell when it's time for Bill to come home. I find myself turning off the politics radio and switching over to twangy ballads of heartache and loneliness, toe-tappin' bar songs about strong women and manly men, songs of betrayal, regret, patriotism, arson, double-wide trailers, homesickness, muddy rivers, barbeque, huntin' dogs...well, you get the idea.

Country music covers the whole spectrum of real life, from the humdrum to the profound. Country also has a welcome sense of self-deprecating humor. Hence, the lyrics to "the best country song ever written":

I was drunk the day my mama got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got run over by a God-derned train...

You just can't beat country music for keeping you company in your yearning times. So, now the radios in both the cars are tuned properly, and I want my husband to come home. While this business is always "hurry up and wait," Bill says that he should be on a flight next week.

The other sure bellweather is that Bill's flight will arrive on the absolutely most inconvenient day and time. Next week is full of appointments and "must do" errands. So I'm guessing Tuesday or Thursday, since those days are already shaping up to be long and tiring.

So, come on home, darlin'.

Oh where, oh where?

This morning marks the third day that little Harry has not come home. I fear he may be truly gone this time. He went out as usual before breakfast on Friday, but never returned. As sad as I am, I am hoping this means that he finally found his way home to where he belonged in the first place, before he came to visit on January 18.

Ozzie moped around the house for a day, refused to eat and generally sighed a lot. He's over it now.

I spent yesterday at the shop, painting, painting, painting. It is starting to come together in a swirl of light, bright color! While I lost myself in the meditation of brushstokes, MaryAnn and Chaz moved display cases, Hannah and Maggie cleaned and dusted. Today, we are going to try and finalize some of the yarn orders.

Here's the dilemma: dozens of manufacturers, each carrying 30 different yarns in a multitude of fibers and blends, some of which come in 300 different colors. Then there's the budget, the space, the reviews (some yarns pill, bleed, split, smell bad, according to the online reviews), the Spring/Summer season versus Fall/Winter, trying to put together a good mix of weights, gauges, and fibers. Add to that the patterns, the books, the samples that need to be knitted...my brain hurts!

It's all very fun, very exciting. A new venture!

I'm going to the dump...is there anything you want?

Today was swamp-out-the-garbage day. I had the ton of shredded paper Kellie manufactured from the To Be Shredded Bucket (3 years worth), the five-foot stack of catalogs, magazines, and junk mail that proliferated over the holidays, 3 weeks of kitchen and office and bathroom garbage cans, two giant boxes of flattened cardboard, dirty furnace filters, broken plant pots, 3 dog food bags full of plastic milk jugs for recycling, a broken car window mechanism and a strange collection of foam scraps. I literally had to lean on the rear hatch to stuff it all into the car. It felt like sitting on a bulging suitcase to close it.

When I arrived at the dump and popped the hatch, my detritus spilled out onto the ground, a great lumbering garbage-monster emerging from its den. Our dump has separate dumpsters for paper, plastic, cardboard, metals, construction materials, appliances and just plain old pedestrian trash. So, I traveled the rounds, depositing my various bags and boxes of discards.

But then, what's this? Nice 12-inch ceramic tiles sitting in the construction dumpster? Can I have these? I snagged up about 30 square feet of ceramic tile, it should be good for something around here. Maybe I'll make a mosaic table, or replace the carpet in the entryway with tile, or who knows.

This is why my house is a mess. Even when I go to get rid of stuff, I still come home with more.

Success!

I had a great shopping experience yesterday--just what we needed for just what I was willing to pay! And it all fit in the car! (With some rope to hold the hatch closed, that is). Lunch with Melanie was fun, and the dogs didn't complain too loudly when I finally got home. Life is good.

I woke up this morning thinking it was Friday (it's not), and wondering if I could get to Kingsport to buy dog food and get an acupuncture appointment before the meeting. Once I had my coffee, I realized I am at the library today. This time dislocation is only going to get worse, I fear.

My plan is to cut my library time down to one day per week when March begins. Bill will be coming home, the shop will be in chaos getting ready to open, and once we do open, I will want to spend most of my week there. With three partners and a six-day week, we can split up the time so that none of us has to be there every day. At first though, we will probably want to.

The sun is shining, the bassett is baying--I've got to get moving on my day.

Scavenger Day

I'm off to Mo-Town (Morristown) today, hunting for a kitchen sink base cabinet, pegboard display hooks, any furniture that looks like it would fit aesthetically into the knitting lounge area of the shop, and to have lunch with my friend Melanie.

The doggies will not be happy with me being gone for most of the day (again!), but that's the way it goes--it's a dog's life, right? At least they are getting along with each other better. Ozzie licks Harry's face (leading me to ask, "what has Harry gotten into now?"), Harry runs around Ozzie acting goofy and playful. It's now a house with two dogs, for better or worse.

Tomorrow, Spring is supposed to arrive. No, really! The temp is predicted to be in the mid-to-high 60s. I'm ready. I am SO ready.

Other than that, it's just day-to-day stuff. Working, sleeping, knitting, planning, and keeping the dogs at bay. Waiting for Bill. Sorting through my millions of Post-it notes.

Brrrrrrrr...........

I'm actually COLD. I have spent most of the winter in T-shirts and capris, but it's downright chilly here now. Yesterday, I was snowed in and couldn't get down my driveway to go to work at the library. Luckily, Peggy substituted for me, and today it looks like the sun may get warm enough to melt the ice off the mountain.

My head is spinning from all the details required to get the business going. We've got about six weeks until the opening, and are starting to feel the money pinch as we make up tentative orders of everything we want to carry in the shop. Too many choices! Not enough money!

This weekend, we'll be blanketing the town with our flyers. Next week, we're going to start on painting the bathroom and the following week is our big Kick-off membership meeting. Then the painter and electrician will be coming in to do the big work the last week of February. Then we'll be painting all the display boards, moving the cases, arranging the space, learning the cash register software...well, the details never end. Thankfully, I'm not having any trouble sleeping, though my partners say they are spending their nights tossing and turning.

In the middle of all of this, my hard-working husband is hopefully due off the ship the first week of March. I have really missed him this time, though we talk every morning now, since he's in the shipyard in Singapore). It will be nice to have someone warm to hug when he comes home.

Murphy's Law

I go to the dentist regularly now. Back in my twenties, I thought I had no money to spend on dentists. I am paying for that decision now, thirty years later.

My dentist has mapped my entire mouth and come up with a plan. My insurance will only pay 50% of two crowns per year. So each year, we pick my two "worst" teeth and work on them. This year, I chose #14 and #15, mostly because they were right next to each other and we could get two done with one dose of local anesthetic. I have temps on them now, and the crowns should be back from the elf who is sculpting them sometime next week.

So of course this weekend I broke #31. There isn't a feeling in the world quite like chomping down on your sandwich, then feeling and hearing a giant CRUNCH that sends the brain two simultaneous messages: "WTF?" and "THAT'S MY TOOTH!"

So now I need a repair, and I've used up my insurance for the year.

Sigh.

Sunny's Blog

No sooner do I get back into the swing of blogging here again, I have been assigned to write Sunny's Blog on www.sunnysideyarns.com too!

I'm not sure I have the wherewithal to manage TWO blogs, after my experience with Blogger's Block in December and January, but I'm giving it a go for now.

We are very busy with the store--everything from repairing furniture to planning budgets, agonizing over what to order, writing procedure manuals, trying to think of every little contingency and realizing the futility of that process.

I fall into bed with relief and exhaustion, my head filled with lists and to-do's.

Harry's Home

I let the dogs out for their morning duties yesterday, and Harry never came back. I finally gave up looking for him about midnight. This morning I was trying to get used to the idea that he wouldn't be part of the house anymore, while telling myself that I wasn't really that invested.

About 9 am, there was a scratching at the door, and a sad little floppy-eared dog slunk in. He was cold and hungry, and as soon as I fed him, he climbed wearily up on the futon and went to sleep.

I was surprised that for the 24 hours he was gone, Ozzie seemed quite bereft. He wandered around the house whining and whistling, and wanted to go out more than usual. Now that the bassett is home, Ozzie is content to go back to ignoring him as much as possible.

Dogs. They get into your heart, even when you don't want them to.

Hankering for Spring

While the rest of the country is hunkering down for the Storm of the Century, I've been dreaming about asparagus. While I'm not quite ready to say that our snows are over here in TN, I'm getting ready just in case Spring is around the corner.

Yesterday, I seeded artichokes, asparagus, tomatoes, peppers, and broccoli in the AeroGrow. Starting seeds is my annual personal act of faith -- the cold will end, the darkness will abate, spring will come, and life will go on. Some years, the garden is abundant; in others, the sun doesn't shine and the tomatoes rot on the vine.

But the surety that water, soil, light and seed will result in a green sprout reaching for the sky is my idea of a miracle.

Procrastination

There comes a time in every bloggers life (so I'm told), that a week's hiatus, turns into a month of no-blogging, and then turns into several months of slothful guilt. Then the blog dies. Yes, the silence has been deafening. I have excuses, but they are irrelevant. I got busy, but I'm always busy. I'm over my guilt and am pressing forward as if nothing happened.

So, thanks to the messages from around the world, prodding me into re-starting, and even a call from my husband in Singapore wondering if I was ill or worse because there was no blog to read, I have regained my composure and am ready to tackle the keyboard.

First, there is a new family member. He's on super-secret probation, but it looks as though this stray, found on a rainy night in our dark driveway, may be a keeper. Meet Harry:

Harry appears to be a bassett-beagle mix, about a year old, and just as mellow as can be. Ozzie, who is alternately annoyed and tolerant of Harry's presence, is coming around (though there was a big TO-DO this morning over a stuffed lamb toy's ownership).

Ozzie has turned into quite a good dog after our cross-country adventure and exposure to sister-in-law "Kellie-May." Kellie has a way with animals, so we tease her about being a character in The Beverly Hillbillies. Ozzie is off probation and now that I have his food and flatulence issues resolved, he's my pal.

In other news, a trio of women and I are moving ahead with our plans to open a "Yarn Community," starting April 1 (no fooling!). We'll have a yarn shop, consignment sales of locally handmade goods, a lounge for sitting & knitting, instructional classes, charitable causes to knit and crochet for, plus all the fun, risk and agony of being small business owners. We are hard at work to make it all happen by the deadline.

Check out our website at www.sunnysideyarns.com ! We are so excited. Can you tell?

Today, Heleen and I went on a cross-country secondhand furniture tour and came home with 3 chairs, 3 end tables, 2 lamps, a display rack, a nice ironing board and a side table for the bathroom.

Next week we'll be meeting with vendors, constructing displays, contracting for painting and getting ready for our big membership drive on Feb. 21. The days are busy, the nights full of dreams of things we forgot to do or plan for. Luckily, all four of us have different strengths and weaknesses, and are meshing as a partnership quite well.

Bill is in Singapore again, working on the ship in the Sembawang Shipyard, and sleeping in town at the Copthorne Kings Hotel again. He sounds tired, but only has about 5 weeks to go before he can come home and catch up on his rest.

And for now, I'm blogging again. I'll try to regain the momentum and make it a happy habit.

Today is Baking Day!

Sister-in-law Kellie is coming over today to make candy & cookies with me. I'm planning on Cream Puffs (to be frozen), Chocolate Truffles rolled in festive toppings of nuts, colored sugars or cocoa powder, and chewy Lime Sugar Cookies. We will probably also make some breads to bake in little loaf pans. All this to contribute to our theme of "Homemade Christmas" this year. A minimum of purchased gifts, a lot of DIY goodies.

It seems as though everyone is feeling the pinch this year, and for me, the "joy of the season" is being with, and doing activities, with the family I love. I have no desires for any material goods. I thankfully have all that I need--health for myself, healthy and happy children, a beloved husband who has a job, an active and healthy mom who will have excellent vision again soon (cataract surgery is next week), a treasured brother, sister-in-law, and nieces who are all doing well and who I can have fun with. My bucket is full, and I'm grateful for it.

Hello California!

Five and a half days of driving, 1 new tire in Gallup, NM, and a very exhausted Ozzy-Dog--we're finally here in time for family Thanksgiving! I forget how doggone big this country is until I actually drive the 2,341 miles door-to-door.

Mom has gotten everything ready for a big feast with family and friends. I am catching up on my sleep. Oz seems to be settling in just fine. Bill is at sea and looking forward to his Thanksgiving meal somewhere out on the briny deep. It's all good.

Sunrise -- 2 days to departure

It is so beautiful in the early morning hours in the fall. Ozzy starts whining before it is light out, so I get to be a witness to the lovely fall sunlight lightening the skies through the clouds each day. (Of course, this also means that I am falling asleep on the couch each afternoon around 3 to recharge the mental and physical batteries).

Today is PACK DAY.

But I have a moment to savor the peace and quiet of the new day dawning, listening to the forest coming alive around me with the sound of birds, before I jump up and start running around, tackling the list that has grown to a truly monumental length.

Why am I awake at 5 am?

Things are shaping up. Bill is at sea now, I am slowly working through my list of "To Dos," and even Ozzy is settling down a little bit. So why am I wide awake at 5, thinking of more things to put on the list?

Yesterday, I made hundreds of cookies and scores of chocolate-covered caramels--gifts for my co-workers to give before I leave, lest they think I am getting out of town to avoid them during the holidays. And I rented one of Ray's houses, interviewed the new property manager, and got a line on a tenant for the other house, due to be vacant Dec. 20.

The car is serviced. The house is still a wreck. I am leaving for California a week from today.

All I have left to do is:

Plant 9 trees in the new orchard
Empty the water barrels so they don't freeze
Shut down the house systems
Laundry
Go to the dump (several times)
Pick up my new glasses
Return the plumbing parts to Henard's
Pay bills
Remember what to pack
Pack (for what kind of weather, I wonder?)
Gather Dog stuff
Revise phone list
Don't forget Juli's jam!
Figure out what knitting to take
Christmas gifts!
Rental keys
Work
Forward mail

Not such a bad, long list. So why am I awake at 5 am?

Ack! The Frantic-ness Continues

I got an email from Bill in Illinois last night while I was at work. The powers that be want him on a plane to Japan on Friday.

He had planned on driving home today and getting his shipboard drug test tomorrow morning in Johnson City. (Nothing quite so inconvenient as driving 100 miles to pee in a cup for the Dept. of Transportation). Then a last weekend at home.

Now don't go all misty-eyed on me. The weekend at home would most likely have been Bill sitting in the woods for the opening of muzzleloading deer season, not a romantic dinner for two. But that's all gone anyway, whatever activities WERE planned. Instead, we'll be going to the airport and saying goodbye again.

Rats.