Category Archives: Knitting

Tiling in the New Year

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

The break is over. Today we have workman on the foundation downstairs.

getting ready to pour again

Yes the foundation is complete, but they are adding the steps/skirting at the entrances. We looked at ramps, and they can still be added in the future but at this point would take up so much ground space as to eliminate all the green outside the kids front door.

with dump truck out on the main road

At the same time, the large pile of slippery clay is being removed and tile is being laid in the downstairs. I think I mentioned that we put in radiant heat? The subfloor is finished and the gentlemen who did the tiling upstairs in the 2014 renovations are doing the downstairs. Their tile work is amazing.

Back to the floor. We are being simple, attractive and extremely easy to clean. The tiles when laid give you the appearance of a wooded plank floor without the upkeep or scratching that is going to occur with two rather good size dogs living in the place. Not quite drain in the floor – hose it down, but easy to sweep, mop or vacuum.

looking like aged wooden planks

 

meanwhile, today has been busy – Dani to work at 0500 and bailed out at 1230 – Alex dropped off at 1300, run to the lighting store for a fixture for the front entry and cabinet hardware. Dani had asked a reasonable question this morning – how am I going to get the drawers open. Answer? We need to by handles. Only took two stops – those at the first were lovely but extremely overpriced so we went to the main hardware store used by our contractor, found something just as nice and 1/2 the price (before builder’s discount.)

otherwise, I am cranking away on my version of Illumine knit from two alternating balls of Katia Infinity

up to row 78

Palma

Holly Doyne Posted on by 2

No, I didn’t bother to take the tour today. I figured it out. Instead I went for a short walk.

Well, not so short.

a lovely day for a walk

Instead of heading directly into town I went left to the old Navy port and where the Tui (Mein Schiff whatever) was docked. Turns out the old weapons are inside the current naval base, so no tour of those…). Then back to Port Pi (shopping center) and down Joan Miro all the way into town.

Would you believe that I found a yarn store? (duh you are probably thinking)

Katia yarn

You have to understand, I have drifted through Palma half a dozen times over the last six years and haven’t struck gold. This place was packed with yarn floor to ceiling. Also Anchor crochet cotton and a full range of embroidery floss. The lovely owner didn’t speak any English, my Spanish is close to non-existant. But I received help from a lovely English woman who has lived there for close to 50 years. She is originally from Camberley but moved to Palma when her mother remarried. She has extended family now in the area (sisters, stepsisters, daughter, granddaughter…) which is good since she has just started her second bout with chemo therapy, the last being a couple of years ago. She mentioned not having a lot of energy, obviously no hair and misses her eyelashes the most. Ruling out experimental therapy (and trips to Barcelona) she has decided that knitting would be better than crochet for now and is embarking on a sweater for the granddaughter.

We talked for a while, then each went our separate way. Me thinking that I have had it easy compared to her: chemo made me crabby and tired but not all that sick. I, hopefully have bought a few years before I have to make any more decisions. She is facing those decisions now: but more than two years with pancreatic cancer is quite amazing. Life is precious, but not at any cost.

From there I went on a hunt for hand lotion. No the ship doesn’t provide it. And a bit through the old city.

On the way back I walked through the start of a holiday market before braving what seems like the endless pier to get back to the ship…

MSC Seaside

 

all told I probably put in about 30k worth of steps (according to a fellow passenger who recorded over 15k walking just one way….

Projects update

Holly Doyne Posted on by 4

It seems much more reasonable to update you on my fiber projects than to discuss the As horrible performance in Texas last night. It takes some kind of talent to lose a game 10:5. Obviously the pitchers weren’t doing well as the home runs added up. The only positive I can draw is that the Giants also lost (Schadenfreude).

It also avoids me having to talk about not sleeping much last night so that staggering out of bed around 0330 this morning was less that thrilling. There is a reason that the early morning flights are cheap. Even Southwest had 40 empty seats on the plane. It also avoids the entertainment of getting through TSA. I went through the PreCheck lane which didn’t help at all when they looked at my cooler bag containing five pre-filled syringes which need to stay cold.

Is it gel?

No, ice. Spent the night in my freezer. You are welcome to look inside or feel around, but I can’t afford to have the meds warm up. Five minutes of fishing around and I think the guy finally figured out that I was harmless. Meanwhile, Noah asked about security measures and was ignored in a different lane. Then they got all upset when he hadn’t taken off his shoes or taken out his laptop. Please note the complete absence of signage….

I hates needles.

Anyway – on the needles –

More importantly – tomorrow I get back to Fractured Time – since I now have all the colors and didn’t want to take the Flower Spray off the floor stand

26 March 2017

 

After listening to the game through the bottom of the 9th, we went downstairs to grab a sandwich. A’s won; the Giants didn’t.

Down memory lane

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

last night I finally downloaded the 2007-2015 content from proseknitic.de in preparation for cancelling the site.  Should I bother to tell you how many spam comments I had to kill. I found them, of course after I had done the import so I am hoping that most fell outside the import windows.

Then I took a look at comments from way back when and started following links from all the knitters.

Should I not have been surprised to find most of the blogs inactive for years or that I have lost track of a number of people? Part of it makes sense. The blog[s] drifted away from pretty solidly knitting content only to being more about travel with the occasional opinion rant more than fiber. In other cases, I think various people found that Ravelry was easier to use than posting on a blog where few people ever commented. Feedback is important unless your soul is basically that of a writer, in which case you just need to express yourself and the h* with anyone who can’t take a joke.

Thinking back – April 1998-March 2007 – email list. March 2007 (ten years – that is quite scary in some ways) to the present with more or less consistency running both the blog and an email list that varies in size depending on the subject, the year and the drop of those not interested. The last has been balanced by the gain of new friends.

 
My first mailing lists actually went out from my laptop but through a military server. Use of that server lasted till ~2000 when it finally quit tossing outside emails and implemented some security procedures. After that it was min.net for 10 years till the guys got bored and went out of business. Then there was YahooGroups which I think lasted almost until the UK. At some point the restriction on number of addresses was lifted and I went back to emailing straight. Now? Gmail doesn’t have a problem with a serious number of addressees and cross posting from the blog is pretty much cut and paste along with the occasional editing.
 

At the end of my session with the computer I verified that those pictures which were still on the old blog transferred to the new. Those which seem to have disappeared off that site won’t be found till I dig through my photo archives at home. I knew there was a reason that I backed up everything. I’ll finish PDFing the archives and pages just to have them before pulling the plug on the last three sites hosted in Germany.

 

Clock Fractal

I am making progress

15 March 2017

Hatter up!

Holly Doyne Posted on by 2

Now, as you have probably figured, I ride BART regularly. But as it turns out, I am really only familiar with a couple of routes. I go into SF or to SFO or to the Coliseum/OAK and from any of them to home. What I don’t do is travel from downtown SF to OAK.  So there I am, after an interminable bus ride on the #38 from the SFVA back to the BART. Getting on at Powell, I grab the first train going in the right direction figuring I can change at either Embarcadero or West Oakland. It isn’t till I am sitting there staring at the route map on the inside wall that I finally twig to what would have been obvious to anyone else. I got on the Dublin/Pleasanton line. I can change trains, but there really wouldn’t be much point to it, the branching off from the Freemont line happens AFTER the Coliseum. Duh!

So I listened to an audiobook and continued to knit till my stop.

The reason for doing this detour? Picking up an extra ticket for both the As vs Giants Game  1 April and opening night 3 April. Did I mention that paying the extra BART fare and walking around the entire freaking stadium was cheaper than buying the tickets on line?  No service charge when purchasing in person and I get my season ticket holder discount…..

just a stray end or two but –

the blue hat is done

the small glittery beret with circles is also finished

and I’ve a good start

on what I am now calling the safari hat.

All of this is to take my mind off now having antibiotics to take on a daily basis (something about not too many white cells left) which might be balanced out by at least a bit of progress on tumor reduction. Back again for chemo next Wed.

Not 500 hats but…..

Holly Doyne Posted on by 9

of hats – I had this sudden thought today – I have too many hats in progress.

hats x 4

I have this blue watch cap which will have a fold up brim. It is long, striped and I worked on it at a sales pitch the other day. I need to swap over to double points and just finish it up.

There is a version of the circle beret which now needs to go to double points – it is knit out of yarn with glitter.

There is the second hat for Bill which I started when I though the first one was lost. And then there is the start of a dark red beret because someone I know said she thought it was a fabulous color.

and then there is the cross-stitch which I think I failed to show a completed picture

Fractal 363 – finished 6 Feb

 

which leaves me to the last note of the day. It was raining off and on. There was plenty of mud in the parks. Dani cleaned this one up – before letting her into the house –

Gwen likes mud

 

 

The hat saga

Holly Doyne Posted on by 8

talking about the Exeter Hat for Bill took me back to when I started this whole, perhaps has not silly, knitting hats for fellow cruisers. The year was 2013 and I had been back cruising on Royal Caribbean for a couple of years. The ship was the Radiance and I was going to be leaving the ship at the end of the cruise after doing a number of back to back to back cruises and headed home to Germany. Early in this last cruise, I was talking to the hotel director who mentioned going on vacation (New York) at the end of the cruise and how he wasn’t going to be prepared for the cold. I looked at him – would you like a hat so at least your head would be warm?

he was pleased. In return, he mailed (it must have been hats) to Maus who was going to school in NYC.  Then someone else asked for a hat –

which I knit the next day because it was easy.

and didn’t think any thing more about it.

Fall of 2014 rolled around and it was cold on the North Atlantic

easy stripes

then there was the Splendour in fall of 2015 where there were several people headed back to places seriously colder than Venice or Dubai

since England can get cold

I didn’t capture Egbert or Tony in their hats –

But I still think this one is the cutest.

Baby hitchhiker hat with baby

The five year hat

Holly Doyne Posted on by 8

Since it was raining, I had the perfect excuse to stay home. My prednisone is done, there were some scones that wanted to be baked and that cross-stitch to be finished. So, I got to be the one watching everyone else come and go all day; to meetings, to work, to run errands, to check on the Eldest (no I didn’t go see which virus she has..) to BART etc, etc. Instead – yes, I read, spent time in the hot tub and otherwise didn’t push it.

Remember me talking about running away from home in Fall of 2011? When I took the Grandeur of the Seas that November I met a number of incredibly interesting people, Bill & Jo being among them. I first met them on a sea day about day out on the pool deck drinking coffee with a few others. We chatted a bit, traded emails and have just stayed in contact for what I realize is now more than five years. Bill was the one who was in Colorado and needed a hat. After knitting the hat, I sent it off, but to his postal forwarding, not current address. It finally caught up with him this weekend. He will now have a warm head for the next snow storm.

Bill R & hat

Tomorrow

Holly Doyne Posted on by 16

I have to be over at the VA in the morning to start my next round of fun. Since Bauer has changed the shuttle  schedule, I don’t have quite the flexibility of before. Instead of 0915, the last one heads to the VA just after eight.  Since I finished up the last remaining testing on Monday and had blood drawn then I can jump in with a bang (or something) as soon as I get there.  That is probably ok considering I am facing several infusions plus liters of hydration. And non-excitement, boredom and a rapid decent into crabbiness.

Oh, doesn’t that sound like just so much fun?

Not. But since I’m not interested in joining the ranks of palliation, I’m going with the best presented alternative. Surgery, as in tumor de-bulking, still isn’t an option. Not that I am in love with surgeon’s or their trade mind you, I was just looking alternatives. I like the option of radiation even less. So here I am contemplating nausea, hair loss and at least a few days every three weeks of total disagreeable nastiness. Not the effects from the chemo directly, mind you, but my likely effect on the rest of the family. Prednisone is so not my friend. Unfortunately, it isn’t just in the line up as a blunter of side effects but as an active contributor to the program I can’t just skip it. Some people it makes depressed, others it turns into homicidal maniacs. Be glad I don’t do fire arms…..

I managed to run a few errands today, pretty much ignored the garage, knit for a while and made a bit more progress on the cross-stitch in-progress.

I’m thinking a good nights sleep tonight wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.

St Kitts x ?

Holly Doyne Posted on by 10

I think this might have been my fourth, more likely the fifth time I have docked in St Kitts. Since I decided the price to ride the train was outrageous, I elected to do nothing. The train dates from those days when almost the entirety of the island’s  680 acres was planted in sugar cane. Up to 68 plantations, of course with the slave trade having provided all those whose manual labor would serve to make the owners, now good English one and all, quite wealthy.

In my case doing nothing entailed another lovely day spent on ship with very few other’s about. I spent time in the lounge. Snagged the rare and hidden mint tea bag for my afternoon refreshment and spent a bit of time knitting on Bonnie’s Shawl. I wasn’t happy with a couple areas the first time – so took the time today to restart.

 

and checking the schedule for tomorrow –

the benefit of magnetic clips

 

 

While I was at it, I packed up my towels and tote bags

the new tote bag design

 

into the duffle I brought for just in case along with extra shoes and dirty clothes. Ought to take me all of 10 minutes to pack on that last evening.

I did mention chocolate covered strawberries didn’t I?

even if they aren’t exactly ripe

 

Just three hours

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

is all there is in time difference from California to Florida. So why do I feel like I have been through the wringer and don’t have a clue about the time? I really can’t blame Saturday with it’s two flights since I didn’t leave home at dawn and neither of the flights topped four hours. In fact, it was literally walk from one gate to the next in Houston with only twenty minutes to board the second flight. My luggage showed up and the hotel van was less than 20 minutes.

Having a lovely lunch with Lynne gave me enough enough energy to get on the ship, and after that I sort of wiped out. Till bed time. Then the lack of sleep has made today a bit of a challenge. It was a day of “feed the Crown & Anchor” folks with a reception and a luncheon. I had forgotten about both when I went to breakfast.

Took the rest of the day to do absolutely nothing useful – except that I finished two hats –

and started a different version of Fractal 363 as a travel project

started 16 Jan 2017 – to be 80×200

No news

Holly Doyne Posted on by 2

I’m sitting here thinking about heading to bed. I have heard nothing out of the VA today which actually doesn’t bother me a bit. Bad news travels rather rapidly. Stable conditions and good new take a bit longer especially when one is dealing with results from a radiology department study. So I am assuming that everything is ok unless I hear otherwise.

No, I don’t consider this being an ostrich. Or chicken.

So instead, I had a chance to talk to the EBMUD (East Bay Municiple District) men working in front of our drive. They have been dealing with emergencies secondary to all the rain. Since the next four days are supposed to be clear, they are trying to proceed as fast as they can. What is important is that they should be finished in front of our garage by the end of today. After that, it won’t be making my life hard since I will be able to get in and out of the drive way again.

Tower in the full moon

A friend with a scheduling conflict gave us his tickets to the Cal Men’s Basketball Game tonight.  We parked and walked across campus.

They won. But still, I think I prefer the women’s game. There was just too much hype, replay camera work and glitzy type of competitions. Plus, I am sorry, but “media breaks” which stop play because the TV folks need to stick in a commercial or three really disrupt momentum. Plus there were twice as many cheerleaders. Seriously, how much hair flipping do I really need to see?

Haven’t done a whole lot more on the cross stitch.

12 Jan 17

 

But did manage to get the band finished on the beret and most of the crown.

Communications mismatch

Holly Doyne Posted on by 5

When I moved out at the advanced age of 17 to go to University communications were simple. You wrote and put your missive in the mail or, alternatively, you arranged a standing short phone call. This was in the days of Ma Bell and significant charges for toll and long distance calls. If you happened to be calling to a location where they were on a party line – all the more reason to keep your communications short.

Besides, part of becoming independent and figuring out who you were and what you wanted to become was distancing yourself from your previous location/personal ties.

Not so today as evidenced by how closely most of us have become electronically tied to people and places at a distance. Or how having a phone with you is taken for granted in most of the Old & New World.

This is not a random discussion – rather it is background to what happens when the party of the first part (DH aka George) finds he doesn’t have his phone when already having boarded BART. The party of the second part (yours truly) is headed to the VA for testing and needs to be able to meet up at the end of the day as the first person above has the car keys in his pocket.

And then chaos ensues. I easily make the Bauer shuttle to the VA. I check in early because I am there. My favorite nurse is on duty and connects a power injector to my port. I traipse down to Nuc Med about 2 1/2 hours prior to my appointment. They have comfortable chairs; I sit and knit. Their in-service ends early so the tech comes to get me.  What is my blood sugar? I don’t have a clue. Didn’t they test you? No, why? Well didn’t you give them the slip? What slip?

Turns out that the RN is on duty M,T,Th in Nuc Med. The other days they don’t have a nurse. No nurse, no onsite finger sticks or med pushes or port flushes or…. You get the idea. I go back upstairs. The Infusion Center nurses borrow the glucometer from the Ward and test me. No, I most assuredly do not have an elevated blood sugar. (trust me 76 is not elevated but explains why I was cranky). I go back down. Get injected. Hang out. Get scanned. Am excused.

Along the way I have an interesting discussion about the diet. It is set up to insure that no one winds up being turned down. There are diabetics, pre-diabetics and those who don’t know they have a problem.  Meanwhile – I could have had breakfast (or normal food for the last several days) since my blood sugar is totally normal by 90 minutes after eating. The no coffee? Too many people just add sugar and cream without thinking about it…..

Anyway – there I was, done by 1400 and no way to reach George. Except my email – which I did to tell him that I was done early. I spent the next hour talking to an extremely interesting fellow patient who has been a customer for over 10 years now. For the rest of his time – he does advocacy and housing organizing for the county in which he lives (being one of those who is about 6 hours out).

Since I have a lot of time – I take the shuttle to the Embarcadero and wander around. There is coffee, there are pastries. I am in a better mood. Txt from George – he can be done early. Ok – I tell him I am at the Embarcadero and head on foot to our meeting place @ Powell BART station. He takes my information as a directive to come to me (he is at Powell). Meanwhile, I have hiked to Powell. At this point, I lose it and email him that I will meet him at North Berkeley (aka the car).*

Obviously, I am in a horrible mood by this point. None of it could be my fault, now could it? I simply tried to provide him status updates. I did NOT tell him to change his schedule.  Meanwhile, he is worried because I am out early and assumes that I need to get home. He is trying to save me time and travel. And if we had not had the modern electronic conveniences, we would have simply met in the designated place at the proper time.

Sticking a needle in Aida cloth is really good for getting rid of irritation.

11 Jan 17 – 70/150 squares completed

 

He still loves me, which is really cool.

Since cross stitch isn’t that portable, I started another hat.

 

* He has email in coffee shops and some of the meeting rooms which is how we managed to foul this whole thing up.

Oregon State 66, Cal 56

Holly Doyne Posted on by 20

It was not a great night for the Cal Women’s Basketball team. It wasn’t that they weren’t active and out on that court. It was more that they just weren’t sinking the baskets.

Why am I telling you this? Senior tickets (when they are available) to the men’s games are ~$18. It cost $5 to buy a ticket to the women’s game. Besides, to be honest, the women look like they are having more fun. Yes, the game is taken seriously but there isn’t some announcer talking potential and scouting and distracting all of us from watching the play on the floor.

With tickets in general admission, our choices were wide open on either end of the arena. I could have easily lived without the cheerleaders. I mean, really. What in the world does one need with six (yep, 6) skinny long haired girls wiggling around with pom-pons. On the floor are two teams of serious athletes while on the sideline are ladies specializing in hair twirling… The half-time entertainment consisted of dancing out on the court by just about any one (mostly kids) who wanted to be there.

kids doing their own dance thing

But I digress. The other fun thing was the Cal Straw Hat Band. Yes, as you guessed it – they wear straw hats along with vests covered in pins and buttons.

The Straw Hat Band

and some of the hats – which are obviously personal choice

George and I had a good time and probably will go to more of the home games. I’m thinking the only game where the attendance will be significant would be the Cal-Stanford game later this year. Sorry to say, but I think there will probably be more Stanford supporters than Cal.

On the other fronts – the Klimt Virgins is done

the last 18 rows

and the final with my choosing to replace a few of the original color choices

As is Bill’s Hat.

warm hat knit of merino sock wool. Goes in the mail tomorrow….

Wednesday – check, infusion – check, home – check

Holly Doyne Posted on by 7

And infusion #4 is now history. Or rather, the rutaximab has been successfully transferred from the pharmacy to the infusion center and into my body via that all so convenient access port. I am focusing on the time as several hours of uninterrupted knitting.

It was a completely different set of characters today. Not the nurses mind you, just the random players dropping through for the special of the day, week, month or – in the case of my next chair buddy – q8 weeks for his Crohn’s.  Like most other medical organizations, it makes sense to consolidate the infusion service (regardless of what needs to be infused) to one location with experienced nursing staff. I think many of us forget that it isn’t just the cancer/lymphoma crew that winds up visiting their friendly medical staff and hanging out for several hours attached to an infusion pump. There are also the rheumatoid arthritis sufferers, those with auto-immune diseases, a gastro-intestinal issue or two.

In any case, the chocolate chip cookies Shana baked were greatly appreciated by both patients and staff.  She and College Guy (on a rare day off and the semester hasn’t started) bailed me out. In return I took them for lunch on the way home.

So knitting update –

 

Bill’s Hat – just starting the crown

 

And the cross-stitch

4 Jan 2017 – 8 more rows

or under 1000 stitches to go. I counted – partial and full rows left =  21 rows.

The year – 2016 – in Review

Holly Doyne Posted on by 16

The Eighth Night

 

In which I will say that a year that started out fine became a lot more challenging. And, to misquote Connie Willis – “To say nothing of the dog[politic]”

January saw a vain attempt on my part to pretend that Berkeley was now home. Other than move all the clutter from storage into the garage, much of my month was spent in that wonderful state of denial. The one where I was still living the good life in Europe and traveling. To confirm that day dream, I managed to get my India Visa on the first go-round.

February

The early part of the month had to do with fractals, Ducky getting friends and continuing to try recipes in the tangine. The second half of the month was all about India. The massive numbers of people, the incredibly poor quality of the air balanced by the history, amazing buildings and the lovely people in my tour group. I did wind up getting a real feel for how the cast system worked (if you aren’t male and upper cast you have issues) and an appreciation of being from a country where what you accomplish is more important than the identity of your parents. I took a lot of photos…

March

I started in Kathmandu at a Regional Travel Medicine meeting with side bars into Altitude Medicine. The meeting was great, I was able to see some of the city and meet my tour guide for my upcoming tour. But first I had a detour back to New Dehli to join with the rest of the group and visit Bhutan prior to my return to Nepal. I appreciated both countries a lot more than India, the scenery was incredible in both locations (but the air in Bhutan was clean).  Again, there were great people in my tour group which over all was a bit younger than some of the other tours I have taken.

April –

Ethiad to Australia where I was able to spend time in Adelaide with friends before traveling on to New Zealand to meet up with George. We spent time on both North and South Island. I discovered that the NZ answer to vegetarian was “something in a pastry shell.” Afterwards, while George headed back home I went on to the Gold Coast and visited friends before heading to Sydney. Taking the Explorer of the Seas back to the US pretty much used up the rest of the month

May

and a fair amount of time into May. By the time I got home I was tired. Not too tired to attend some Oakland A’s games, mind you. Just enjoying a respite from travel. For a few days anyway.

June –

was a month in which I appreciated home and baseball games more than an alumni sponsored trip called “In the Wake of the Vikings.”  It turns out that I have an allergy to French run cruise ships (they don’t label the food and the idea of vegetarian meals seemed beyond them most of the time.  I love Scotland and was able to have lunch with a delightful colleague from my UK days, but didn’t appreciate the tour aspects. I think if I can talk to people on my own and can read the signs, I probably would be happier staying away from the tours…

July –

Westercon in Portland over the 4th of July weekend. Hadn’t been in Portland except for a few hours in over five years.  I rediscovered my love of white water rafting and my dislike for long car rides. I was able to spend time in Colorado with a good friend (who is about to permanently return to Germany) and also see friends who I have known since my first (1981-84) tour in Germany. Once home- I attended a lot of baseball games.

August –

Being a puzzle addict, and mind you only the expensive wooden ones, it was a delight to visit Liberty Puzzles in Boulder. World Con was in Kansas City this year with the Iron Throne once more in attendance. Paul & Storm were in concert as were PDX Broadsides.  I managed a quick return to a ship (The Grandeur) with Carmen when we sailed out of Baltimore to Bermuda and back.  Oh, yes and more than a couple of baseball games.

Sept –

Baseball, house guests and an escape to Venice and the Rhapsody of the Seas. Oh, and we celebrated our 38th anniversary, moved Daughter #2 and SIL to Berkeley from Chicago and otherwise had a memorable month. I needed a vacation… from parenthood? retirement? the US?

Oct –

spent on trips around the Eastern Med, the Middle Med and finally the Western Med.

Nov –

Attended the IMED meeting in Vienna where the key topic was now Zika (as apposed to Ebola) and the discussions were around sourcing for surveillance and better integration of the marine, plant, wildlife, livestock and human health people. It was also about then when I admitted to myself that something was not right with my health and it was time to go home. Skipped the Navigator, flew back to SFO. Rest of the month was spent doing tests, appointments and not liking any of the answers.

Dec –

which is where we are now. Like Fenton – my long ago and mostly forgotten NHL decided to come back and make my life a bit more challenging. Both family and friends have been extra-ordinarily supportive and understanding of me, my attitude and the occasional meltdown (sounds better than saying temper tantrum now doesn’t it). I have been lucky enough to have all four adult children in town for the past week. I’ve three (Noah, Dani & Alex) who I see on essentially a daily basis and Shana almost as much. The Maus has been terrific about checking in. George has been a rock.

I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed my overnights in the hospital (in fact, I can’t remember the previous time I stayed overnight in a hospital, might have been about 1981) but have managed to get through the first three rounds of immunotherapy without major difficulty. One more round and follow up testing to decided where we go next.

Meanwhile, I am sewing, cross-stitching, reading a lot of books and promising myself to catch up on all the things on my “when I get around to it list.”

This past year was interesting, exciting and followed by challenging. This coming year I can do with a bit less challenging and more family and friends. Travel is still in my plans, tho I may have to limit myself to less than 28 day jaunts.

This past year – ~ 23 countries, 53k air miles, 7 cruises, 3 ground based tours and endless enjoyment of family and friends. Next year – it will be even better.

 

and it is Five Candles

Holly Doyne Posted on by 6

now at the fifth night

I easily completed the trip to the SFVA this morning by taking the BART from Berkeley and the free Bauer shuttle from 5th & Mission. I love the shuttle which is really a large, comfortable coach bus with seat belts if one is so inclined.  In fact, the connections were good enough that I managed to arrive significantly early for my appointment which was to precede infusion #3.

Didn’t seem to faze the screening nurse or either of the chemo nurses. The first did the quick screen, the later two just hauled me in, drew the lab and let me sit in one of their comfortable chairs which I waited on both the results and my doc. We agreed on this week, next week and a repeat scan the following week before determining if I need more weekly therapy or can go to q4 week maintenance.

While I was waiting, I started on Bill R’s hat. Why not, thought I, it lets me observe without being obvious.

my yarn choice

There is a moderate amount of turnover during the day as some patients have more and others less meds to infuse. Some chemo takes 10 minutes, others take hours. Part protocol, part science and part art I think.  I had a chance to talk to several of my compatriots. Today I was the only one in the room who was both a vet and a retiree from which I am assuming that just about everyone else met the means test for care. Home location ranged from Santa Rosa to Oakland to Alameda (+ my Berkeley) in addition to several who were local to SF.

I promised to bring cookies next week (at least two of the guys are going to be hanging out as well) so now I will just have to see which one of my lovely daughters in town will bake them for me. I can do breads and scones but can’t seem to manage anything other than the “slice & bake” you can find in the grocery store cool case.

Everything went well and I was done by 1400, caught the 1440 Bauer Bus, the BART and was at North Berkeley less than an hour later. All of which was much easier than dealing with traffic and the Bay Bridge.

I mentioned the hat –

the first 8-9 cm of the hat

The pattern is Exeter, the yarn is STR in fingering weight with 160 stitches on 2.25mm needles (details for those who knit).

Cross-Stitch

I didn’t get a chance to work on this till evening when George and I listened to NPR and chatted.  We stayed with the radio programs through Market Place and into Fresh Air. There was an excellent set of interviews with Carrie Fisher which had been set to air and now served as a retrospective.

28 Dec – another 11 rows

and the second face close to complete. I still am being driven nuts by all the fussy flower hair stuff which necessitate color change after color change. If I was as disciplined as my friend Jill who completes 10×10 sections in order and whose work always looks neat, I might not have all those stray colors out there… But this really isn’t bad for 4 days…

(4400 – (11×44)) = 3916 to go….

or 132 – (3+15+17+11) = 86 rows to go. So I am about 1/3 of the way done….

 

Three Candles

Holly Doyne Posted on by 19

and left over latkes for supper.

I had a lovely and pleasant day. I spent some of it reading, some listening to an audiobook (Cast in Flight by Michele Sagara) and the rest of the time completing another 12 rows on the cross-stitch.

15/132 rows completed.

which leaves me with my fun calculations of 5148 stitches to go.

My last decision of the evening is this –

which color should I pick?

I’ve promised Bill a hat to protect his bald head. Rather than go wandering into the garage, I just hit the drawer in my studio and came up with four skeins of STR. The first is warm grays and browns, the second a rather hot set of reds. The third combines fall greens, oranges, and leaf browns and the last shades of chocolates and creams. All of them would make a good hat. I love this yarn; it is by far better for hats and scarves than socks due to the lack of nylon. I’m going to go with my standard Exeter Hat pattern which means ribbing all the way up. Radical color changes will get smoothed out.

And the ongoing Augsburger Saga

Holly Doyne Posted on by 13

For almost everyone of us who were ever stationed in Germany, Augsburg is at least a bit familiar. Located along the A8 Autobahn between Stuttgart and Munich it was an easy stop on the way to the mountains, Oktoberfest or Austria if you had a car full of bored children. Obviously, there was also an American military presence, so many of us called it home for three years.

That bomb, now lying in isolated splendor on the grounds of a future underground parking garage is covered by a white tent. Both to protect it from the elements and, I seriously think, stupid people who might just think tossing things or attempting drone fly-byes would be interesting. Not.

It is thin skinned, and is mostly the 1.5 ton of explosive with a more than adequate central well to make the maximum distribution of force. I’m following the story both from emails and The Augsburger Allgemeine on line. The information being provided is amazingly complete. Some of the questions being posed by the public are not so…. I can’t help but wonder about some of the people.

Why would they want to put this off for a week so that it doesn’t disturb your visiting relatives? It was one thing the bomb was buried and not disturbed, another when it is sitting on the surface. Yes, there are people in the 1.5 km radius who don’t have Internet. So what? Do you really think the Police and Fire Departments don’t have the location of everyone legally in the area? This is Germany; everyone has to be registered. Do you really think “we” never had to plan evacuations in the era before the Internet? How about Storms and Floods? Locating everyone is part of standard emergency planning; it is part of what the Emergency Response people do for a living. It is why Sunday’s are better than weekdays for such operations: fewer people, less economic impact.

Never mind this is the single largest evacuation in the country since WWII. Can 2500 emergency response professionals handle 65000? Probably. Unlike a certain segment of the US population, Germans have lived through wars/bombings in their home cities (or their parents/grandparents have). They are not going to claim a right to die in place defending “their stuff.” The city officials are also making it clear that not leaving risks life, limb, and 1000€. I would doubt that riots and looters are going to be a significant issue.

Part of my update comes from our intrepid on-scene reporter (and responder), the rest from on-line news.

Compared to all of that, my life is calm. Some of the day was spent in the car. Dental care for one of mine. Ransoming sewing machines that were in for service. The first involved driving to Walnut Creek, the second to Dublin (not Ireland).

Otherwise – in a surprise move – you are getting a 2 for 1 picture. I finished another Exeter Hat and have just the last few rows to go the cross stitch