The foliage is peaking, the air conditioners are out of the windows, and the heat is on at night. The fireplace mantle is decorated for fall, and we’ve made our annual pilgrimage to the local apple orchard for apples, cider donuts, fruit turnovers, mums for the porch, and pumpkins. We’ve been to the county fair, and done the corn maze at the farm. There is a giant inflatable Bluey in a spider costume on our porch. Halloween outfits are being planned, and I am doing mom math in my head trying to guesstimate how many trick-or-treaters we will get seeing as Halloween is on a Saturday this year. It’s fall, y’all.
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We live quite close to the LL Bean mothership, which recently re-opened after a couple years of renovations. My social media feeds are full of their Boat and Totes, which I find simultaneously funny and annoying – I was lugging my school lunch in the small-sized ones 45 years ago, and these influencers act like they’ve just discovered them. What is new is the trendy embroidered phrases people are having stitched on their bags, and I have spent an embarrassing amount of time thinking about what I wanted on my next bag. We went to check out the new fish pond and children’s area, and I wandered down to the bottom floor which has been turned into one big space for Boat and Totes. I really wanted a fig-colored one, a sort of brownish-plum color perfect for fall, but alas they were long sold out. I wound up getting an XL light blue one — but after all my pondering I couldn’t make up my mind on what to have embroidered on it. I wanted some sort of Swiftie saying, or a Noah Kahan lyric….but nothing fit the 10-character limit (including the word “shenanigans”). Technically it’s 10 characters per line, but I didn’t feel like spending another $10 or $20 more. But I knew that this tote would be mostly used in the summer, and goodness knows I like to spend my summers on porches, so this bag wound up with “Porch Life” embroidered on it. While not an exact Noah Kahan lyric per se, he mentions porches a lot on his last album so, you know, close enough.
Speaking of Noah Kahan, I’ve avoided the Hunger Games franchise entirely but he released a new song from the latest movie’s soundtrack. If it doesn’t resonate with you, then no one you have ever loved has died. “I carry you on with me, I promised you I would and I do…It feels good to say your name, it’s all I have now and a wonderful sound it makes”. Ooof. Last night our power went out for a little bit, and the little guy curled up with me and my flashlight asking all sorts of questions. “My daddy’s name is Erik, whats your daddy’s name?” I said Jeffrey and got tears in my eyes. “My Daddy would have ADORED you”, I told him. “He liked bulldozers and excavators and tractor rides too”.
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Meanwhile there has been knitting! I finished the little guy’s Mithril sweater. “Mithril” is a fictitious notion from the Lord of the Rings and is a special type of metal, used as armor in a way? At any rate, this sweater is in fact like armor. I knit it in Peace Fleece, an aran-weight wool, and it is dense. I don’t think you could wear it under a winter coat without sweating to death. I washed and blocked it, and the yarn opened up a lot (also, this yarn has lots of detritus in it, tiny little sticks and pieces of hay, which also came out easily in the bath). It is too big — he’s just into size 3 and I knit a size 4, but he will get a couple of years use out of it. It will be perfect for wearing in the car, it’s not puffy or thick like a coat is and won’t interfere with his carseat straps.
As per usual, the minute I finally finished something I got a terrible case of start-itis (I want to knit ALL the things simultaneously). I immediately bought more yarn and cast on multiple things. Currently on the needles include a Sophie scarf, a roll-neck sweater for the little guy that will have a fire truck design knit into it, and another sweater for him that has some snowflake-ish designs around the yoke. I also unearthed striped sweater with an alligator on it that I originally started for my cousin’s son two years ago, just missing one sleeve, but if I finish it soon the little guy can wear it this winter. I also found no less than three shawls started and abandoned, another striped cardigan I started for my cousin’s little girl, and two baby blankets — all in various stages. But hey, I haven’t knit O anything in years and I’ve never knit D anything, and I have at least four abandoned carts with online yarn retailers full of yarn combos for them. I am going to give myself carpal tunnel again if I’m not careful.
My English paper piecing project got put down while I finished the sweater, but I picked it up again this past weekend. I like to bring this project to the girls’ tumbling classes as it keeps me focused on something other than them potentially breaking their necks. Don’t get me wrong, I am THRILLED that they have found something physical that they enjoy, but I find myself flinching a lot.
Finally, I found out that I do not actually have an extra gallbladder! It’s a long story, but I met with the surgeon and after much discussion I decided I would prefer to have a CT scan before going straight to surgery. Turns out that was 100% the right decision, because what I *actually* have is a cystic duct with some stones in it. Since I have no symptoms, we do nothing right now – but if it starts to become problematic then rather than surgery, they will deal with it endoscopically and laser the stones into bits. I am still convinced they sent the wrong ultrasound pictures to the surgeon, though, as there was clearly a gallbladder on them. This short paragraph does not accurately convey the week of confusion and rage I experienced between seeing the CT report say “no evidence of gallbladder or gallbladder remnant” and a phone call from the gastroenterologist insisting the CT was wrong. I wanted to say, “dude, if I had a nickel for every time a man insisted he was right about something…” but I refrained. At some point I will have a long conversation with my PCP about getting referred to a different gastroenterologist, but that’s for another day. The point of joy being, no surgery!
