Odd and end

For a news junkie at the end of the political season, it was odd to wake up at 4:40 a.m. yesterday to the sound of no sound. My bedroom, usually humming with the white noise of a fan pointed toward the wall, was eerily quiet. And also eerily dark. The clock on the dresser was black, not red; ditto the green and red power buttons on the satellite receiver, television and DVD player.

That means just one thing here in the Middle of Nowhere: A squirrel has chewed through a power line. Only this time it was a tree that fell over onto a power line, taking out a pole on its way to the ground. Oh, and this particular tree-and-pole combination? On the other side of the river – the side that has no easy access for large trucks full of equipment and repairmen.

How – and more importantly why – did they ever put a power pole there in the first place?

At any rate, I was without electricity all day yesterday. The lights flickered once about 8 a.m., offering a brief, teasing moment of hope, but didn't come back on again until 5:30 or so in the afternoon.

Did you miss me?

I decided I'd probably go crazy crazier sitting around the shanty all day with no access to the news and only the dogs and my knitting to keep me company. [And, since I'm sober, no desire to or possibility of putting a good buzz on. Doncha just love Johnathan Edwards?] When one has no power at Chez Shrinking Knitter, one also has no heat. Also, I don't work out when there's no electricity, because we need electricity to power the water pump. No water equals no shower. So I got dressed and went to the farthest-away, all-day shopping district, feeling that the best thing I could do for my country the day after an historic election would be to boost the economy.

Also, I got to listen to the news on the car radio traveling to and fro.

I bought more jewelry-making supplies. I'm going to have the most expensive collection of costume jewelry in all of West Virginia if I ever turn all these beads and baubles into necklaces and bracelets. While I was out, I was right across the street from a Target, where I intended to pick up a gift but forgot to. Meaning I'll have to go back.

Darn!

I promised my daughter pre- and post-felting photos of the Lucy Bag. Here you go, H:

I should have fiddled around with the image sizes so you could really see the size difference, but that's what the yardstick is for. The pre-felted piece is about 42 inches long – maybe longer. The finished bag is less than 18 inches long. If you're looking for a yarn that felts like a dream, look no further than Patons SWS, which stands for Soy Wool Stripes, available at a Michael's near you. I had hoped that this bag would be bigger – something I could throw everything into and then sling it over my shoulder. My wallet won't even fit into it, so it's destined to be a sock-project bag, I think.

Let's see now, what am I forgetting? Oh, yes. This is a weight-loss blog, and the astute among you [that would be all 17 of you] have surely noticed that I haven't talked about weight loss much lately. Like many in the weight-loss blogging world, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I have lots of thoughts about it, but no time to write more this morning. I hope to do something about that later today, hopefully after the well gets fixed. That's right, boys and girls, the well repairman will be here this morning!

It would truly be Almost Heaven to have good water and electricity and a Democratic congress all on the same day.