Spring Is Sneaking Up On Us

D'you wanna know how I know?  When I went out in the bone-chilling cold to top up the birdbath this morning, the sun was popping through the trees back there, way north of where it has been for months.  That means that the Earth is tilting back so it shows more of the Northern Hemisphere to the sun than the Southern one, which means that Spring, despite all appearances and temperatures to the contrary, is on the way.  It might be ten below zero with blazing sunshine and no clouds to hold in any residual heat, but Spring. Is. On. The. Way.  You can quote me.

Yesterday at work I got a call from a commercial diving service out of Long Beach, CA reserving tanks for pick up today.  That means that a group of men from CALIFORNIA are flying into Green Bay, Wisconsin to rent tanks and take them NORTH to Sturgeon Bay to dive on a hull in a shipyard.  In February.  In Wisconsin.  I asked the guy if he understood how totally SOLID the water is right now and he said, "yeah, I'm not coming, Ray is, and he's excited about it."  Good ol' Ray (whoever he is) thinks it's a kick to go to Wisconsin in the middle of the coldest winter in living memory, cut a hole in the ice, and go scuba diving.  Good ol' Ray just might be Frozen ol' Ray in a day or two unless he's bringing a couple of young (brainless) daredevils along.  Mercy, it's cold under there and it's not like a diver can head straight for the surface if something goes wrong.  They'll have to cut a hole in the ice, push the plug aside under the ice sheet, the diver will swim away on a tether to do the work, and then swim back to the hole to get out.  I did my ice dives years ago when I was younger and had bad companions, you wouldn't catch me out there or under there now.  No, sirree, not this chicken.

Last night I finished up the first of the three chemo hats I want to bang out this month.  It's huge, really huge, almost-too-big-for-Durwood huge.  I contemplated ripping it out and starting over but then I thought there might just be some big-headed veteran needing a chemo hat so I'm leaving it.  I'll use a smaller hook or make the next size down next time, which will be later today.  I think I over-planned for my Olympic knitting too.  For some reason I'm not very zippy in my making lately so maybe having a few chemo hats will be the extent of my Ravellenic Games output, which wouldn't be bad at all, just not as much finishing as I'd hoped.  I should knit more.  I've been kind of slacking off, especially at work, but it's the middle of winter and I kind of have the blahs.  I just had a brainstorm.  I think I'll put aside the cowl I had planned to finish first; I like the yarn but I don't think that cowl is the right project for it.  I've got a striped Christmas stocking OTN that might be more interesting and might pull me along with the striping action faster.  Yeah, good idea, Barbara.  Do that.  Today.  But after you pick up and deliver a tank that needs service, cash your paycheck, buy bananas, and drop off the taxes to be done.

February 11--Goya, Jose Costa y Bonells.  Pepito liked his dark green velvet jacket with its soft feel and gold button.  He hated his white pants.  They were too tight, they didn't have pockets, and they got dirty too easily.  He would be sitting waiting for Mama to come take him out and dirt would just come on him out of the air.  Pedro didn't wear white pants and Papa didn't wear white pants, only Pepito wore white pants and he didn't like it one bit.  Maybe if he got so dirty they'd never come clean... maybe then they'd get him some brown or black pants.  Dirt colored pants would solve a lot of his problems.

Okey-dokey, I have no idea where they came from but I kind of like it.  Don't know where it'd go either but since I won't be taking it anywhere I don't have to worry about it, do I?  You keep warm today and if you're anyplace colder or snowier, I feel sorry for you.
--Barbara