I know, I know, it really is Monday. Whew. What a week. There was a serious wildfire just south of me early in the week and the smoke came my way. I HATE SMOKE!! To be more specific, I go into a flare of my autoimmune diseases every stinking single time there is air pollution due to wildfire smoke. I have trouble breathing, my joints swell, I hurt all over, rashes appear.… you get the picture, huh. By the next day the fire was out, I was drugged up, and by the end of the week I was better. I cleaned the house, worked on projects, and looked forward to a little (I do mean very little) barbeque dinner on the 4th with one of my sons. This was a big deal as I haven’t seen my children since this whole pandemic started since every single one of us is high risk.
It poured rain. Ugh. Refusing to be daunted by a little rain we grilled the steaks in the garage with me carefully sitting upwind. Dinner was wonderful anyway and I was so happy to hang out with my son. He took off right before dark to head home as he had to work the next day and I began to clean up.
Then all hell broke loose! My neighbors, lots of my neighbors, began to set off fireworks. These weren’t innocent little firecrackers, but huge, booming, highly illegal skyrockets, that were being launched from homes all over my neighborhood and my poor little house was kind of in the eye of the storm. After the house was hit by falling debris I went outside to watch for fire. There I was, ash raining down on me, sitting on the driveway, shrouded in smoke, stunned by the deafening booms. Unbelievable. My son texted me later that his drive across the Denver Metro area through the fireworks barrage was an incredible, once in a lifetime, experience.
By midnight a few fireworks were still going off and I was already feeling dizzy and sick. Yesterday I was unable to get up, but today, after prolonged kitten attacks, I’m back on my feet slowly getting some chores done. Hopefully, by this evening I will be able to knit again as the swelling goes down in my arms. Happy Birthday, America. I’m kind of ashamed of you right now… and while I’m wagging my finger at you, let me just add… WEAR A MASK!!! Seriously, you might kill one of my children!! Stop with this “my rights are being violated” nonsense!
There. I feel much better.
Knitting
The accomplishment of the week was getting knitted Maya all fluffed up and finished.
I was going to put more fluff on the back legs that went a little bit into the white socks, but I ran out of yarn and energy as I got down to the tail. Still, this final version looks much, much more like the original cat. My son took this knitted version home with him for the wild ride home under the skyrocket sky. Have a nice life, knitted Maya!
I’m also working on making some fingertipless gloves by adapting my little fingerless mitts pattern that I use to churn out mitts every winter.
Isn’t that yarn cute? It’s from the stash and I started out with 50 gram of it. It remains to be seen if I will have enough yarn to make the second glove, though, but that’s okay. This whole thing is an adventure; when I’m done I’ll have a pattern that fits my hand like… ahem… a glove! The base pattern that I’m adapting is my sweet & simple vanilla mitt pattern, and this yarn is Baah Yarns La Jolla in the January 2018 colorway.
Garden
It’s hot outside. Thunderstorms have blown the petals off most of the roses. Life is hard in the garden right now, but the mini-roses that wintered in the house under grow lights are starting to bloom again.
Books
One thing about taking it easy this week, I got some reading done. I finished another science fiction book and then started Never Have I Ever for the book club (Zoom) meeting this week. If you’re looking for a book with lots of twists and turns that will hold your attention, then this is the book for you! The book is about the members of (get ready for this…) a book club that picks up a new member from a rental home on the block. The new woman in the group is a flaming sociopath who seizes control of the club, starts a game designed to learn secrets and develop leverage that can be used against the other ladies of the group. Not nice! Especially if you have secrets that you need to keep secret!! Thus launches the cat and mouse game between our heroine and this evil interloper as the two women maneuver to secure their advantage over the other. Our girl has to keep her family safe, figure out who this evil monster-of-the-block is, confront her own past, make restitution, deliver retribution, and somehow disarm the monster while saving the day. This really was a twisty book that I devoured in one day.
Have a great week, everyone!!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Knit Maya looks fabulously fluffy! Your son must be thrilled:)
I have to say I was shaking my head in disbelief that your neighbors were setting off fireworks after having a wildfire in the area. That just seems stupid. I was going to say shortsighted but really stupid sums it up.
I’m glad you got a visit with your son. My husband has finally gone to visit his mother after months. She’s on oxygen full time and sits firmly in the highest risk category. We are limiting our contact with folks so he can continue to visit and help her out.
Stay safe!
Missed you last weekend! Hope all settles down and no more fireworks. Pretty noisy here in my Michigan neighborhood as well. Stay safe!
He was really pleased with knitted Maya. He now has three of the knitted cats and I’m done!
Almost all of the fireworks shows were cancelled due to Covid, but we also have a high fire risk that has also limited our shows over the last few years. It would appear that the cancelled shows led to these professional show level fireworks getting sold on the market illegally. There were countless fires and one home near my neighborhood was lost. So insane!! Today it is hot again and the fire danger is really high.
Both my son and I are pretty high risk… it’s hard to know who is at the higher risk at this point. I’m an immunosuppressed senior citizen with lung and kidney disease, and he is a type-1 diabetic who smokes. He has more exposure than I do since he is working, but we finally decided to get together as the case numbers are going up again and I think that things will get tougher again,
Stay safe!
The foolishness of people to be setting of fireworks when there have been local wildfires. This sense of entitlement that so many people seem to have to do what they please regardless of the impact on others health, the wildlife, pets, and houses. How quickly people have forgotten about Australia’s wild fires in January that burnt all those homes and killed thousands on animals. Arrrgghhh! Just when I thought the world couldn’t get any crazier, Kanye West wants to be president…conveniently timed with his new record being released.
Deep breath…Maya looks amazing, I’m sure your son was thrilled to spend time with you on July 4th and with the finished Maya. That book sounds good, we have no date yet for when libraries are going to re-open. I am still struggling to read so just keep reading a book about bonsai, as I’ve started keeping them from some seedlings. I had one I started 31 years ago and killed it 29 years ago…if only I’d taken better care I’d have a decent tree by now 😂
Without a doubt, we are living in the crazy times here. Colorado has had several serious wildfires but somehow that doesn’t seem to sink in. The absolute selfishness and disregard for regulations designed to keep the public safe is stunning. Today Trump withdrew us from the WHO and is holding a conference on opening all of the schools this fall. It’s like he wants to accelerate the pandemic in America…
Thanks for the compliment about knitted Maya. Our libraries just reopened with contact free book pickup. They hold the books in quarantine for 72 hours and then you get a message to come get the book. You pull up at the library, call in, and they take the book out and put it on a table for you. You take the book when they are back inside. It works!! I have been struggling to read, but do better if the book is kind of light hearted. I love bonsai! There was an Asian nursery that I used to go to that had really big ones for sale (for really big prices!). Get started on a new one right away!
I love yellow roses. I have read story after story about fireworks in residential neighborhoods. I am sorry for your experience. Keep wagging your finger at the non-maskers. There is a county in NY that is experiencing another hot spot, and they are contemplating a mandate on masks. We’ll see how that goes.
I am really hoping that my county issues a mask mandate or hopefully the governor. We are slowly creeping up with our cases and the data shows that it is mostly coming from retail shopping at this point. I shop late at night or right before the store closes so that there won’t be many people in there, but I could get out more if people would just put on a mask!!
We have been fortunate in my small community, but as a school employee, I have my doubts as to whether or not we can expect to physically open in the fall.
Maybe this will cheer you up: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-v-back-tee
I looked at that. 🙂
Knitted Maya and your flowers are beautiful! I’m so sorry you had such a tough week with wildfires and the fireworks! Glad you are feeling somewhat better and had such an interesting book to read while you were recovering 🙂 Take care and stay safe!
I am much better! Take care and stay safe too. 😀
Wow- that cat is amazing! So sorry about the fireworks. My puppy would not have been happy! Glad you made it through ok.
She is a great little companion! This week has been peaceful with few fireworks; the poor dog next door is still recovering. The homeowner is going to replace the carpet.