A big storm knocked it over
Although yesterday was downright pleasant, the weekend brought us some truly horrific weather in the form of the tail end of a hurricane. Those tails still have some lash left in them, I’ll tell you.
Results, regrettably, all too typical.
In one case a whole, mature tree was cut down in its prime. My attempts to photograph it on Saturday morning were foiled by—and I know you’re not going to believe me at first—the humidity. Yes, it’s true. There was so much humidity in the wake of the storm that the felled tree was barely visible through a nimbus of suspended moisture.
There were reports of 197% humidity.
Yeah, yeah, I know. But it felt true.
Fortunately, I had read an article earlier in the week about running the marathon in adverse conditions of high humidity, so I was able to explain to Alex what happens to your body when you force it to perform in 197% humidity.
Me: “Your body produces sweat, but then when it doesn’t evaporate, your body produces more sweat. And then do you know what happens?”
Alex: “No.”
Me: “Your blood volume drops!”
Alex: (Pause.) “That doesn’t sound good. That doesn’t sound good at all. (Pause.) How about if we go to the museum today? Where the lights are low and the AC is set to 78 degrees?”
Note that I did not emphasize (a) that, unlike the people described in the article, we would not be running 26.2 miles that day, or (b) that I have no clear idea what the medical ramifications of a blood volume drop are. But who cares? It sounds absolutely dire. And I wanted air conditioning.
Others had the same idea:
On a brief break from the galleries, I enjoy a contemplative and civilized knitting moment with my Regia bamboo sock yarn:
Knitting, the “new yoga,” can be practiced virtually anywhere with little or no risk of public humiliation. The old yoga, with its undignified poses and unfortunate insistence on bare feet, often proved socially devastating to its public practitioners.
Still working on the bamboo sock under the watchful and slightly disapproving eye of a 19th-century Boston socialite:
“My dear woman, it is hardly as though I approved of the old yoga, either.”
The bamboo sock relaxing with a book in a quiet corner of the museum:
“Oh, thank God we didn’t go to the zoo! I would have been forced to spend the entire day fending off pandas.”
And thus was a cool afternoon spent and normal blood volume preserved.
Just for the record, after admitting to you all last Friday that I had a Sleeve Problem, a magical thing occurred: I started one of Rogue’s sleeves. From the top down, of course. Because I would rather go to a quadruple root canal appointment at the All-Night Dentist than set in a sleeve.
But the real fun is gonna happen when I get to that complex Celtic cable on the lower part of the arm. The one that is charted going the other way? Assuming that you would knit the sleeves from the bottom up instead of the top down? Uh huh. That one.
Stick around. Things could get very interesting…
July 25th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Thanks for chatting me up in the Harlot’s comment section! My 15 seconds of fame will pass all too quickly, so I won’t let my head swell. How do you live with yourself being able to drop words like “nimbus” and “blood volume” into a conversation? If I were you (and could knit like you) I wouldn’t sleep.
Cool museum pics, but MOM! Alex and Ellen were taking pictures in the museum, I’m telling! Was it without flash so it was allowed, or did you snap them and then look around as though blaming someone else?
LOVE the bamboo! Can’t wait for the final pic and review of the yarn. I laughed at loud at the panda comment.
Yay to starting your Roguish sleeves!
I’m noodling on two things. 1) If you have to knit the Rogue pattern backward, can you hold it up to a mirror? and 2) I can’t get out of my mind your comment about LOTR being unintentionally funny. I confess to having an IQ somewhere between eggplant and educable, so I missed the joke. Care to explain in small words so I can understand?
July 25th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Oh, Lorinda, Ellen thinks that LOTR (and other fantasy/science fiction films) takes itself too seriously and so she finds it amusing. (She can’t suspend her disbelief at all.) I myself think that she is just unable to get into the spirit of the thing. In this she and I differ very greatly. I own the boxed set of the director’s cut DVDs and watch them regularly.
July 25th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Lorinda. Now, then. I am not buying that a woman who could make that hilarious remark yesterday about the lime (fiber) belonging with the coconut (not to mention plenty of other witty and trenchant comments) has “an IQ somewhere between eggplant and educable.” I just don’t buy it.
And now you float this great idea about putting the chart up to a mirror. I never thought of that!
I loved seeing the picture of you on YH’s site today! Very lovely!
And I swear now, before God and everybody, that we did not use flash in the MFA. Our digital camera is very good at using the light available, although I have to admit that I fiddled with the settings a lot to get the best pics I could.
I’ll report back on the bamboo sock yarn more extensively, but the short version is that it is a great yarn. Splits a bit as you would expect, but the wool blend keeps that to a minimum.
My sister pretty much has me dead to rights on the LOTR deal. That’s the problem with sisters. They know you too well.
July 25th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Yikes, at least all we got was a rainy day from the “tail”.
Bamboo sock yarn…interesting, do report more as you go along.
Lovely stash enhancement; I’m looking forward to our Fiber Fest (Fingerlakes Fiber Fest), followed after by Rhinebeck. Not that I really need anything, but a girl’s gotta leave her options open!
July 26th, 2006 at 8:43 am
I was just teasing about telling on you to the MFA (I just won’t answer the phone when they call back). I loved the ambient light in your photos; the warm tone was evocative of another era. The pic with the lady looking down her nose at your knitting was too funny. And thanks for the compliments *blush*
About LOTR, I can see your point about movies being too self important. If I like something, I can usually suspend my disbelief, and I was predisposed to love Peter Jackson’s movies because I loved the books. Normally, though, I am like you Ellen in that any lapse of logic drives me nuts. Just saw Lady in the Water. Way too many stretches that irked me (like “how does she know to wear clothes? she’s a water nymph”). So I focussed instead on the wonderful cinematography and the humor. And, Sarah, I’m guessing you are like I am in that you’ll love the movies but draw the line at appearing anywhere with prosthetic elf ears.
Now may I make a request? Will you ladies blog on movies/books that you like? It’s not knitting and spinning but it’s fun to get to know you better.
July 26th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Ellen – thanks so much for your comments on my Rogue- I just LOVE mine. It was such a fun knit, and I wore it like crazy until it just got too hot! Your homespun yarn is GORGEOUS and perfect for it!
July 26th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
Actually Lorinda, despite Ellen’s denials, I actually did use the flash ONCE in the MFA trying to get that shot, and she was complicit in it.
The lighting was so lousy (for a camera, that is) that everything kept coming out really blurry (too long of an exposure time). I decided to try it once with the flash, so I mumbled out something like, “Gee, what does this setting do? (FLASH) Oh my, what an accident!” In any case, the flash didn’t help any — the final picture just looked washed out. I just tried to take it at a very high resolution and stay verwy, verwy still. If someone figured out an easy way to stabilize a camera without the bulkiness of a tripod, they could make a mint…
July 26th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
I deny complicity. The action was his and his alone.