7 Quick Takes (Vol 170)

It’s Summer! Now if I could just chuck all responsibility and release my inner child. Not going to happen I am afraid, I have been trying.

You know the drill. When you are done rolling around in my blather be sure to click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of knitters with a beef firing up social media, over to Conversion Diary to see what’s what.

Remember to Blather responsibly.

1.
The Parental Units were visiting last weekend. We took them to the West Side Market.

I am still detoxing.

The Steve’s Gyros meatapalooza hangover lasted until about Tuesday. And I reeked of garlic for days. No need to worry about an encounter with a vampire. They would have run screaming into the night!

And because Mimi and Papa are such wonderful in-laws they sat through HHBL’s entire baseball game on Sunday afternoon, despite the sputterings of rain. And the game loss.

2.
On Tuesday I was using the leaf blower to clear out the dust and dirt and leaves that seem to be determined to live in the corners of my garage. And I noticed a pile of leaves etc that was, strangely, sitting on top of the large step ladder.

So I took the leaf blower to it to clean everything away and then went on my merry way. I was almost done with the clean up job when I noticed that Max was intently studying something on the ground. He would not be swayed. From a distance it looked like he was contemplating an ovoid acorn without it’s little acorn hat.

But that isn’t what it was.

I strolled over to Max and discovered that what he was so intently looking at was an egg. A bird egg.

OH MY GOSH HAD THAT BEEN A NEST THAT I BLEW AWAY??????

And then I looked even closer and discovered not one egg, not two eggs…but FIVE EGGS. All on the ground and all destroyed in some way.

I was heart sick!

I hadn’t seen any birds flying in and out of the garage and there had never been any indication that the errant pile of leaves and sticks was a nest. It didn’t even occur to me to climb up on another ladder to check.

At first I thought they were eggs from a Tufted Titmouse. But after further searching I think it was a nest of Rose Breasted Grosbeaks.

It just broke my heart and blew my whole day.

3.
We had someone look at the house this week. From the feedback they liked it but there was one thing that they didn’t like and it was something that we cannot change.

The drop off down to the stream.

They have small children. If I had little children our 30 foot drop off to the stream bed below might be a deal breaker as well.

The right person will show up for the house. Until then I will enjoy being here.

4.
My obsession love of hummingbirds continues. They are picky eaters I can tell you. If the food in the feeders is even the slightest bit old they won’t feed.

Not quite in focus but I was at the limit of my telephoto lens and didn’t really have time to steady myself very well.

5.
Remember yesterday’s little rant about the USOC and their insulting C&D letter?

They apologized.

We are all happy.

Now lets get back to working on plans for what we are going to knit during the Olympics and cheering on the athletes.

And if I wasn’t absolutely clear yesterday, the uproar, at least on my part, was NEVER about trademark issues. The USOC has trademark for the “Olympic” brand (crazy as that seems to me). It was the fact that the integrity of knitters and our motives were impugned.

I just wanted to use the word impugned.

And just remember. Do not prod that innocent pile of fiber unless you are sure you know what you are going to get. We are not your grandmothers knitters. And we know how to use Social Media very, very well.

6.
I am trying to live “in the present moment” right now, at least as far as Chez Knit is concerned. There are still work schedules and social schedules and stuff that needs to be planned far ahead. But I am trying to have that NOT be my total focus. I am trying to slow my pace down.

As you know we are trying to sell Chez Knit, she is just too big for us. But I am trying to just spend time sitting in my garden and enjoying it. It is peaceful and happy producing and is finally what I envisioned when I started on it eleven years ago.

 The Lord is giving me another summer to enjoy it and I am trying to take full advantage.

7.
Rejoicing, I can turn the A/C off this morning. HURRAH!!!!!!

HHBL loves hot weather. Me…..not so much. For me the perfect temps would be 72-75F during the day and 55F at night. But neither of us likes air conditioning all that much. We much prefer to have the windows open and the fresh air in.

However this week it has been in the mid 90s during the day and mid 70s at night. There is no way to cool the house down enough to be even half way comfortable at night.

And we all know how much I value a good nights sleep.

But today the high will be only around 80F after a cool front came through.

Ahhhhhh, open windows make me very happy.