(me nuts?). I can’t say that I really enjoy driving anymore. Perhaps it is that the roads are more crowded or the drivers are bad or…. anyway – I use the car when I have to but not usually on a voluntary basis. And going for a drive, which was a “thing” when I was a child (but that was also in the pre-seat belt era….) just to go and …

Anyway – I have been doing more driving since spring of 2019 than I did in the previous 10 years. Of course, those ten years included a fair amount of time deployed or on a ship. Today became another of those days. The youngest and her guy wanted a ride to SFO. It isn’t all that far, but since it involves the Bay Bridge and traversing downtown San Francisco on the freeway, there is time involved. About an hour as a matter of fact to cover the 26 miles…(right now MAPs claims it would take 33 minutes). On BART it is about an hour, including a line change as needed. 

Since I was that far, why not keep going? My friend Alison lives in Palo Alto and we haven’t seen each other in person since before the pandemic. It is another ~23 miles to her house – which took 45 minutes due to accidents on the freeway…(note – right now Maps says 26 minutes).  Anyway – you get the idea. We headed out to lunch so as not to disturb the two “work from home” individuals on computers in her household. 

Getting back to her house after lunch, we had a chance to visit. Originally meeting through knitting, she is still creating the most amazing afghans, finger puppets,

along with enough scarves and hats to keep everyone she knows warm. I pulled out my portable stitching – two designs from SilverCreek Samplers featuring cats and bad puns.

Sadly, I had to keep  an eye on the time. By 14xx my choices were 1 hr 25 minutes via the East Bay (44 miles)  and 1 hr 45 through San Francisco (48 miles).  I arrived at home just after 1600. If you are tired just reading this, imagine me being tired from driving all of it. I would much rather drive to Portland than deal with local traffic…

The Brown Bat (Oct from The Year in the Woods by Carriage House Samplings) is at 75% and is at a decision point – do I wait till StitchCon, purchase another skein of WDW Kohl and finish it there, or pull the skein I have set aside for The Woodpecker (same series) and replace that at StitchCon. I have the rest of the wing in that color, plus 4 ½ leaves and a couple of trees….

(note, I won’t be sending them out, but I will be releasing most of the last couple of weeks posts in the next couple of days as I have time to upload the pix)