AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

when a man and a dog go on a walk

They find things like this.

Now in the land of things I would never expect, seeing sex-related paraphenalia in the gutter along the side of the street is pretty high up there. However, this apparently happens. I promise I will not look at all of the people in my neighborhood wondering which one it is with the fetish for firemen. Time to pick a new walking route!

If that weren't bad enough: ad copy.

He's the hero with the 12" hose makes it sound like the worst of trashy romance novels. Can you imagine knitting for that? Especially this pattern. It would take forever unless you used a bulky yarn!

I have to admit that I almost cropped the picture to get the cigarette butt out of the shot. Things like that (and not the happy fireman) make me want to have one of those spikes on a stick to clean up the neighborhood while I am walking Victor. I'm sure we could clean up a few pounds of street trash every week!

So, what is the weirdest thing you've found while walking out and about?

Before this item, for me it was when I was volunteering for a race and while picking up the cups dropped at the water station, that I noticed a lot of syringes. While I know drugs happen (and the race was in Boston rather than a burb), it is still a bit of a shock to see such obvious signs of drug use. Of course, it was more sad than weird.

I finished knitting something last week. Hopefully I will have extra pictures of it soon, so I can share the hilarity and somberness of it all.

rain

After a dry warm winter and a mostly dry spring, yesterday we finally got rain.

It is pouring buckets out there and Mr. Victor is curled up next to the couch. He looks about as inclined to move as I am, though the pee walk has to happen. The rain or something woke me up really early, which was probably for the best. Mr. Victor, who isn't normally freaked out by thunder, was lightly whining in his crate. Poor bug.

Of course, with all of the rain and yuck yesterday, it would be reasonable to think I worked on Cria, my new sweater project, or worked on my mystery project. You'd be mistaken. I watched hockey (sad for the Penguins, but go Bruins!), played some word games and then bemoaned that I wanted to play a jewel game. My hubby pulled out Puzzle Quest, which I played through a movie and just before bed.

Puzzle Quest is a lovely little DS game that has been out for years. Bejeweled with spells and plot and leveling up, Puzzle Quest is the bastard love child of D&D and any other jewel matching game.

Now it is only 4 a.m. I've played my Kingdom of Loathing for the day, have read my web comics, checked G+ and Facebook. It's all very exciting. I should pull out my knitting, but I'll probably just curl up under my blanket with a book. Old school.

talking the p-word

If you don't like politics, then you might want to leave. Even if you do like politics, you might want to leave.

You might want to leave, because I'm angry.

I've been reading more political commentary than is probably truly healthy in the last few months. The war on women, whether or not you believe it is real, has caused a great spewing of vitriol into the internet. I'm sure the vitriol and poor behavior has always been there, but my interest in the issues means I'm seeing it a lot more.

Somewhere along the line it became common to insult people who hold a differing political opinion. Maybe people think they are witty, maybe they think that this is going to convince someone that they are misinformed or wrong, but the answer is generally no. People (and I know these are gross generalizations) do not like being insulted. Insulting a political group isn't an attack on a faceless entity. It is an attack on your friends or neighbors that just have a different opinion.

Really. No one is going to change their opinion because you used a term like Dumbocrat or Repugnican (with usually strategic capitalization). Seemingly harmless throwaway comments like "Pull the other one" or even a "Oh wait" appended to a post does nothing to add to a conversation. They are just other ways of saying that the person you are talking to is dumber than a box of rocks.

Just to be clear here. The trolling that is going on is definitely bipartisan. There are people making as many rude comments about Republicans as there are making similar comments about Democrats.

Can we go back to discussing all of these highly charged issues from a position of respect? We can start off by referring to our presidents (current and former) by their title and last name. Leave off the alterations of the polical party names. Civil discourse might not chaneg anyone's mind either, but as name calling and insults aren't doing the job give it a try. You can even add links to news sites (ones with more facts, so less Huffington Post and Fox News) to bolster your reasoned arguments with facts.

My blood pressure will thank you.

and a month went by

Normally I write at least once a week, but somehow the last month went by. It wasn't a blur, but a slog. I sat, read less than half my normal content on the Internet, played web games, and read books. I slept. Boy, did I sleep. I got sick with the cold that just wouldn't end, and finally started to feel like myself.

In this time, I knit one thing, and the ends still need to be woven in.

In this time I made at least two separate desserts involving caramel and chocolate, though I didn't feel quite as much better as I would like for such fantastic flavors.

I gamed a bit, but at least one of the games was its own slog. Looking at it, I cannot  be sure I actually did anything in any of the sessions. It's probably mostly my own fault, but it still feels odd to look back on something and see mostly a field of grey.

On the other hand, I'm going to yoga tonight for the first time since March. I'm nearly halfway done a knitting project I started on Friday. I have at least two projects swatched for, and more knitting to do once I clean up the mess of a craft room. Life is getting better.