Miscellaneous Ramblings

Topic the First

According to the 2005 Urban Mobility Report of the Federal Highway Administration, the Dallas/Fort Worth area where I live experienced the fifth-highest economic impact from congested roadways for a “very large urban area”, which the report defined as having a population greater than 3 million. “Congestion costs include value of travel time delay (estimated at $13.45 per hour of person travel and $71.05 per hour of truck time) and excess fuel consumption (estimated using state average cost per gallon).” The cost for our area in 2005 was estimated to be $2,545,000,000). [And gas was considerably cheaper then.]

Based on what I earned when I first went to work 35 years ago, that would keep LittleBit and me in Nutella for nearly 606,000 years! Based on what I earn now, which is considerably more than when I first stepped out of secretarial school, I would nevertheless be older than Methuselah before the money ran out. [There are some who say I already *am* older than Methuselah. We shall poke them with our knitting needles until they desist.]

Topic the Second

After a hiatus of nearly two months, LittleBit and I worked out at dark-thirty on Wednesday morning. I did about two and a half miles in twenty minutes on the recumbent bike, without breaking a sweat or re-injuring myself. She pedaled to Oklahoma City and back and then ran halfway to Houston in the same time frame. My mother was right: youth is entirely wasted on the young!

Topic the Third

I have quieter noisy neighbors than I did last summer. Last year, it was Mardi Gras 24/7 upstairs: loud music inside and out, insistent bass percolating down the walls, drumming on countertops in their kitchen that likewise echoed down through the walls, people coming and going at all hours, and loud happy voices on the balcony at 2:30am. And the occasional miasma of funny tobacco.

Yesterday morning, I was awakened a little before 3:00am by several annoying but harmless physical symptoms that threaten to be “the new normal”. After I’d sorted them all out and gone back to bed, I became aware of two female voices conversing a few feet away from my bedroom window. They weren’t arguing. They weren’t any louder than a normal daylight conversation between two friends. But they were just sufficiently audible that I couldn’t go back to sleep. After ten or fifteen minutes, I got up again, put on my robe and my glasses, turned on the porch light, and opened the door. I asked them politely, and quietly, “Ladies, please take it inside.” They apologized profusely. I locked the door and turned off the porch light. Poured myself a mug of milk. They continued to talk for another *five minutes* before one of them got in her car and left.

I think there’s an excellent chance that I’m going to turn into one of those cranky old ladies who has 911 tattooed on her fingertips.

Topic the Fifth

I tried on Monkey 1 yesterday morning [since I was already up], and it fits like a champ! On my breaks at work yesterday, I completed the gusset on Monkey 2. I figure that three more rounds of pattern will get me to where the toe decreases begin. The socks were just long enough that the needles hit squarely in the middle of my arches.

Topic the Sixth

Remember my saying yesterday that there are some color clashes that make my fillings hurt? I took back the wonderfully brassy green yarn after work and brought home the bluer green, which works with the new green top. I was not, however, wearing the dark green pants with which the first yarn more or less coordinated when I did so.

You guessed her, Chester, the bluer green yarn does not work with the pants. The top reads slightly-blue; the pants read slightly-yellow. They look terrific together, an example of that rich monochromatic color scheme that I love so well. The yarns are significantly more blue and significantly more yellow.

I think the solution is to go back and buy the original two hanks, because I am not sure that even I have sufficient chutzpah to go in and ask if I can re-exchange one skein, and because with four skeins I'll have about 1100 yards, which should make a pretty impressive shawl and maybe a pair of coordinating anklet socks. I think if I do stranded color-work, but on a lacy scale where you see the carrying threads looping and swirling, or perhaps something Bohus-inspired with the occasional purl stitch, I can get these two sisters to play nicely together.

Or at least speak civilly to one another.