Grapes In The Snow

 I started another grape doily for myself this weekend. Thanksgiving is less than a week away and Christmas season is sneaking up on me way too fast. As I've mentioned before, I don't crochet much for myself. I mostly do it for others. But I'm at a place where making doilies for me is a fun thing. I want two or three in traditional Christmas colors. One is for the dining table, another for the coffee table, and another for an end table in the livingroom. I have loads of Christmas decorations but nothing in the way of doilies or anything similar in holiday colors. I figured it was about time to remedy that. 

I love white, especially with tradional holiday colors. These doilies will be all white with the grape clusters in the variegated red, green, white thread...and I have two different shades of red, green, white. The other is a little darker with some chartreuse thrown in...both still very traditional color-wise. I've previously made the grape doily in the traditional sense - white center, colored grape clusters and green leaves...and I may make one for myself before it's all said and done, but for now the all white just really floats my boat.

It was a very quiet weekend at work and it gave me a good opportunity to get the first one pretty much knocked out. The weather has been cold and wet for several days now...and that in itself triggers the itch to do holiday-type crocheting. It's been pretty perfect. Tomorrow is my day off and it's my only shot this week to get a lot of stuff done here at home to get ready for some changes happening in my home life this week, and to prep for Thanksgiving. I'm actually cooking for the first time in seven years. I hope to be able to use the four day holiday weekend to make at least one more doily. Every time I make a plan like that, it typically doesn't work out. Sometimes my brain says "nope, lazy is better." We'll see how it goes. 

In the meantime, looking forward to this week and hopefully a little brighter future. I can already smell the turkey in the oven!

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Keychains Are Still Cool

A couple of posts ago I mentioned my Sonic Keychain order which makes any Route 44 drink 99 cents. This memory popped up on my Facebook page today. It's been exactly two years since I was dubbed a Sonic preferred customer.

A photo sitting in my car on that day sporting the new hardware. While it ain't exactly the Queen's jewelled crown, it's saved me a buttload of money since then. I have spent my whole life loving drinks from Sonic. Always will. It's a simple pleasure, but a big one to me. 

Getcha one. Keychains are still cool. 😎

Turkeying Around With Autumn

I did a thing this past week. I haven't crocheted in quite awhile. Been hooked on the cross stitch since early summer. When I put the Halloween decor away and dragged out the Autumn stuff, I decided the dining table needed a little something. I don't crochet much for myself. Am always doing it for others. But I decided I wanted a fall-ish doily for the table.

I used thread I had on hand instead of trying to buy more. I didn't have any of the traditional rust/burnt orange/reddish colors. I looked at what I did have and decided that the colors you see here are perfect Texas fall colors. Texas stays green well into December, especially this far south. Mostly what you see in this part of the world in the fall is brown. Leaves go from green to brown with a few days of yellow while transitioning. Texas Autumns aren't traditional picturesque colorful. So the olive green, bronze, yellow, and maize colors I have were perfect. I used an antique white for the center. The old tried and true grape doily pattern was the only choice for this.

I played around with Autumn decor I have and settled on the glittered Turkey. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love glitter, mostly at Christmas time. I found the glittered turkey at HEB a few years ago and couldn't pass it up. This was a fun project...something I'll enjoy for many years to come. 

~ Happy Fall, y'all!🍁🍃🍂

And The Wheels Go Round

 

This is a story of good . I promise. 😊

I've mentioned more than a few times that I don't have a car. The one I had bit the dust last January. It was irrepairable and sold for junk in April. I'm constantly looking for something I can buy for very small monthly payments with little to nothing down. Dealerships are out. I do not have $5k - $6k to put down and pushing a $500 monthly payment...and that's for something a few years/a lot of years used. I'm at that point where what I'm hoping to find is something an elderly person/couple has sitting in their garage that doesn't get driven anymore and doesn't mind letting it go for cheap with small payments. Alas, that kind of stuff isn't out there anymore...at least not where I live.

I've spent the past 10 months being 100% dependent on others for rides to and from work. I'm 100% dependent on online shopping and delivery services for the necessities. It's not fun, but it gets the job done. It's costly and prohibitive. It costs me WAY more to be without my own wheels. It's tough to bug people for rides to get out to do other things besides work. I need to do it often and I need to do most of it on my schedule.

Life all these months has been strongly similar to being a prisoner on a jail work release program. I only get to to leave my house to go to work and then come straight home at the end of the work day. I do not get to get out for other things. I'm stuck at home when I'm not working. I'm still not used to it. While I don't do a lot of running around when I do have my own car, I do like being able to hop in the car when I need or want to and do things on my time. Being pent up without that freedom is tough. It's not normal.

Being without wheels has had an intense domino effect in every aspect of my life. It even affected my pets and caused dramatic behavioral changes in them because suddenly I couldn't get home for lunch every day. The change was drastic for them...and not good. Yes, I know, most who work don't get go home on their lunch hour every day. But it has been my choice for practical purposes and I have been fortunate enough to be able to do that for 8 of the past nearly 9 years. I've always lived within a few blocks of my work place. It allowed me to be able to take the dogs out to do their business, not have them feel abandoned for 10 hours everyday, check on things at home otherwise, and get that much relished break away from the work place for a few minutes. When I was fostering cats and kittens a few years ago, that check-in in the middle of the day was crucial. Sometimes it meant the difference between life and death in their tiny little lives.

Fast forward to last Friday. I was facing not being able to get work last weekend. The coworker who brings me home from work every evening and takes me to and from work on my weekends to work, her weekends off, was out sick all that week with pneumonia. Another coworker who pinch hits when my regular ride can't do it was tied up for the weekend and couldn't do it either. Uber or something similar has never been an option. It's cost prohibitive - up to $16 per day depending on gas prices, even for as close as I live to work. It's also difficult for them to get on campus without an employee in the vehicle, which would leave me stuck trying to get home in the evenings.

The coworker who steps in when my regular ride can't do it stopped by my office last Friday for some work business. She asked me how I was getting to work for the weekend since my regular ride couldn't do it. I told her I was facing not being able to get there and home again (for as long as I've been working there, I have NEVER called out on my weekends to work). That's when she told me she was tied up all weekend and couldn't do it. As she left she said she'd call me a little later.

She did call me later and said she'd pick me up after work, take me to her house and let me pick up her other car to use for the weekend. WHAT????? I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I'd get to drive again, just me, all by myself! I nearly peed myself. We did just that. She lives a good half hour away from me and work, which is why she is just the substitute when I need a ride on the weekends. It's way out of her way. What a joyous drive home that was that evening. Hear that? Drive. Myself. Freedom.

That next morning I was facing not having to leave for work until 7:45. On weekdays, I get to work an hour early because my morning ride has a long commute to her job. On the weekends, I get there at 7:30 because that ride likes to hit HEB early to get the good deals and before it gets crowded...and I don't blame her. I used to do that, too. All this time I've been locked in to their schedules, so it plays on me...a lot. Please don't misunderstand. I am SO thankful for these rides. Without them, I'd have lost my job months ago and be homeless today. That is NOT an exaggeration. But being gone nearly 12 hours every day with no way to get to and from home at lunch has been tough to deal with. But I've come to terms with it and do what I have to do just to keep working.

So, I have my friends' car for the weekend. It didn't dawn on me until I was packing my lunch for work Saturday morning that I COULD COME HOME FOR LUNCH!!! I shoved the lunch I just packed in the fridge and just took my drinks with me...and I came home for lunch. And I came for lunch on Sunday. And I drove myself to and from work both days. Because I'm old, tired, and crippeled up I didn't use the car for anything over the weekend but round trips to work. Even when I had my own car, it was rare I went to the store or did anything else after work. I haven't been able to handle it for a couple of years. I always saved shopping and running errands for my days off...and it's always worked out well.

Monday, my day off rolls around and I'm expecting my friend to call to say she and her boyfriend would be by sometime that day to pick up the car. In the meantime, at 7 that morning I'm up, dressed and on my to the grocery store...DRIVING MYSELF TO THE GROCERY STORE!...to shop, MYSELF, to pick out things from the shelves MYSELF. It had been sooooooo long since I could do that. The cherry on top of that trip was a visit to Sonic afterward for my "key chain order" of a Route 44 Diet Cherry Coke that is 99 cents (1.23 with extra flavor charge and tax) when I order with my Sonic key chain, instead of $3+ regular price. It was a short but glorious outing, something I hadn't been able to do since the first week in January.

Monday is waning and my friend finally calls and she says it "might be Wednesday" when she comes by. Woah, was I looking at wagging myself back and forth to work for a couple more days? Yes! All this time I'm texting my morning ride every evening that I have the car for at least another day "but I may need you the next day". Poor girl! My friend was not in a hurry to get her car back. That couple of days turned into a whole week. Yesterday evening at 5:30 after I'd pulled into my parking space here at home after work, I said goodbye to a glorious week of freedom. My friends' older Volkswagon Jetta was the most beautiful thing on the planet for a whole week. I've been trying to get her to sell me that car for months but she keeps saying it's for her kids in Colorado if they ever come get it. They've cancelled trips here four times this year.

While this story is not about me finally getting my own vehicle again, it is about joy. It is about feeling grateful for the small blessings. It is about knowing what I used to take for granted somewhat (I always knew my old car wasn't gonna last for the duration and kept that tucked in the back of my mind) can disappear in an instant, maybe never to be recovered again. It's about taking each day, making the best of it and relishing the joy when something extra comes along. It is about being thankful for those few who do look out for me when they don't have to. It's about joy in the small moments to some, but are absolutely huge to me. It's about freedom in that joy. It's about joy in the independence for a week. It's even about joy in being able to take my trash out everyday with a car instead of having to wait until my day off, pile it all on my walker and hike it down to the other end of the property. Yes, sometimes there's even joy in garbage. It's about joy. Period.

I sit at at home today on the first day off of the three day weekend and can see my empty parking space just outside my back door window. I sit here today stuck again, unable to take advantage of the the time off to run errands, swing by Sonic for that mid morning key chain soda...and maybe sit there for a half hour enjoying the time away from home for something other than work, and maybe even hit the Whataburger for lunch one of these days off. I sit here today sunk into prisoner feeling again. I sit here today playing all this out on paper, as it were, sounding like I'm wallowing in self pity here at the end. But I really sit here today soooooo happy for the opportunity I had this past week and how that feeling still lingers...knowing how it's been a very long time since I've felt real happiness. I sit here knowing that maybe this sparks some hope for the future. After all, I haven't ditched my Sonic key chain all this time.

~ There may still be key chain drinks in my future - that I drive myself to get. 

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