Minutiae

I had a perfectly brilliant reasonably coherent blog post vanish night before last. And last night, all I wanted to do was knit. Went to bed somewhat earlier than usual because I'd made an appointment for a spa day for the Tardis. It was time for her 125K mile checkup, and she needed an oil change, and the indicator for battery strength has been running a little low, and then there was that ladder I ran over two or three weeks ago.

So she got an oil change, new plugs and wires, tires rotated, battery checked (normal), and her front end aligned. As that was nearing completion, the mechanic popped his head into the waiting room to ask if I'd been having any trouble with the A/C lately. No, not trouble exactly, but it's been a little slow to cool off when I first turn it on. Yes, please, check that for me. Eight gulps of freon (I don't remember how they measure it, and I'm not at all interested in getting up and going into my room where I tossed the receipt on my bed to find out).

It was a seriously spendy morning, but the first blessing is that there was room for that expense on my credit card, and I have the means to pay it off. The second blessing is that I spent roughly five hours at the shop, and in that time I nearly finished the front to Justice's vest while having great conversations with the other customers and the shop's general manager.

I came home and took quite a lengthy nap after inhaling my lunch. Then I drove to the grocery store, reminding myself to tank the Tardis before buying any food, because I know how I am. Once the food is in the truck, I am beelining it for home, and any thought of gasoline has long since vanished. I wanted a full tank for the Sabbath and for taking Fourthborn to her surgery early Monday morning.

Here's where the next blessing kicks in. I have a shopper's card for that store, and I get fuel points. Today my card told me I could redeem up to 90 cents per gallon. Did I want to? You bet I did! (As you can imagine, gas prices in North Texas have risen dramatically over the past several days due to Hurricane Harvey and the shutdown of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.)

So I'm home, and the food is put away, and I'm enjoying Greek yogurt with mango salsa stirred in, which is a relatively healthy way to have chips and salsa. I double-dip like crazy, minimizing the number of chips consumed and completely eliminating any sense of guilt about the endeavor. (I also had mango salsa on top of an otherwise naked salmon burger recently, and it was amazing as well ~ and part of the blog post that vanished.)

I present for your amusement an exchange a few minutes ago between Fourthborn and me. I thought I heard water running out in the kitchen, where she was microwaving a snack.

Me: Are you running water in there?
4B: Yes???
Me: OK, I thought I was hearing things.
*Pause*
Me: Oh. You were washing the thing I asked you to wash.
4B: What were you expecting me to wash it with? Unicorn tears?
Me: It all makes sense now.
4B: They're stoic lately.
Me: What???
4B: They're stoic lately.
Me: Ah.

This is the part where I hit "post" and go knit some more.

P.S. I bought a Clay Matthews jersey and a more girly Packers t-shirt on Thursday. Can you hear Beloved grinning up there in heaven? We have a tradition in our office that from the beginning of college football season through the Superbowl, we can wear college or team jerseys and t-shirts to work on Fridays, with jeans and tennis shoes. I have Beloved's nearly loved to death Packers sweatshirt and his Superbowl 25 t-shirt, which may or may not fit around my tummy the way I'd like after the stress eating of this summer, so I decided to splurge on the jersey I've wanted for five years. Yesterday I wore his BYU t-shirt, which sometimes doubles as a sleep shirt, so it will probably be in the hamper most Fridays. And besides, Clay Matthews, who won my heart as much as anyone who was not Beloved could, five years ago with his smartphone commercial.