Amazing Sunrise

You totally wish you had been on my patio with me this morning just before 6:30. (you know I'm a sky fan) When I stepped out into the not-quite-as-chilly morning the clouds were battleship gray and there was a thin line of peachy-pink at the horizon and barely touching the lowest clouds but as I stood there, snapping away, I saw the colors and light change by the second.  I swear (cross my heart) that I wasn't out for more than five minutes and the sky went from might-be-interesting to KA-POW!  Almost makes it worth getting up in the dark.  To be honest, I've kind of missed the sunrise through the summer since it sneaks in so early when I'm still asleep, now I'll have it to enjoy for months, and months, and months, and... well, you get the idea.  Happy Autumn, y'all.

This morning Durwood and I have an appointment at the bank to move a process forward another inch.  See, about 10 years ago we set up an Equity Line for emergency money and we've used it twice in the ensuing years, and paid it off smartly too, but we like the reassurance that it's available if we need it.  So when we got the letter telling us that it was expiring at the end of the month we made an appointment with a banker (who looks like a toddler playing in a shirt and tie but is very nice and knowledgeable) only to discover that we're starting back at square one with a loan application and all the prying into things that entails.  Honestly!  We thought all we had to do was say "we'd like to keep this in place" and they'd happily roll it over for another 10 years.  More fools us.  Not only has the bank been bought and traded so that the powers that be don't live or work here (our loan officer is in Phoenix, for Pete's sake), the banking regulations have changed so that they are required to set out an even bigger set of hoops for us to jump through even though we have a spotless, even exemplary, record.  I guess we're guilty until proven innocent these days in the banking world anyway.  (A-a-a-a-and the bank guy wasn't there so we met with the manager and got our questions answered and our business conducted, and I was only a teensy-tiny bit late for work.  Whew.)

I finally got to the point of snipping one of the peach yarns and adding in the first orange one on the Comfort baby afghan.  This thing is going slowly, but then it'd probably go faster if I worked on it more.  (ya think?)  I'm making the sections 5" so for the next 5" it'll be peach and orange, then 5" of all orange in the middle of which I'll start decreasing (yay, downhill!) and repeat the color changes on the way to the end.  I love the colors but I'm slow.  To be frank I haven't been feeling very knitty lately but I'm sure that will change once things settle down around here.

We went back to the carpet store after I got home from work yesterday and changed from the tweedy, cocoa colored shaggy stuff to this plush, rich brown.  We're going with the Cappuccino which is the fifth one from the right in the front row.  It's a barely reddish dark brown we both think looks exactly right.  Now all we have to do is get the rooms measured, get the final quote, and set a date in the latter half of October... because I work the first half of the month and need time to move all the stuff (you know the word I really wanted to type, right?) so they can move the furniture and lay the carpet.  I'll be calling in all the muscle and markers I can scare up for hauling help.  Be warned.

September 25--Korea, Three Kingdoms Period, Pensive Bodhisattva.  The little gilt bronze statue had to be grave goods.  There was soil crusted in the lines of the hands and face but the sun still struck sparks from the golden topaz eyes.  In the market stalls in the shadow of an old warehouse in Singapore there was a lot more cheap junk than anything valuable but Beth was sure she had a real find.  None of her American friends were comfortable shopping there but she loved it.  She even ate from the hawkers that each cooked and sold one thing--fried noodles in one, pickled vegetables in another.  She never stopped at the stall selling strips of meat threaded on skewers and then grilled.  The people in Singapore had very different ideas about meat.  Let's just say that there weren't a lot of stray cats and dogs in the neighborhood.

There was a lot more in my head but the Sandman came and swept it away.  Time for going.
--Barbara