And then 5 years go by

I could list all the excuses I have for not posting to this blog FOR FIVE YEARS, but I won't. Ok, so I'll list a few, but not all... 

I've been busy and a lot as changed. 

I met a guy. Actually I met "THE guy"...swoon.

I downsized and sold my house. That was huge. I got rid of PILES of crap and lots of stuff that was weighing me down physically, financially and spiritually.

I moved into a great apartment with a killer view of Nashville's skyline with THE guy who is a super terrific partner and my best friend forever. His name is Chris, which we thought would be weird, but it feels like the most natural thing ever. We laugh. A lot. 

I had open heart surgery to remove a scary tumor near my heart. The tumor wasn't cancerous but the doctors found a different cancer. Surprise! Check out the link on the right for My Caring Bridge page. It helped me document my journey and remain sane. 

Then I became a cancer survivor. 

And now here we are. I've also done a lot of knitting, weaving, spinning, reading, painting, drawing, creating, and most importantly LAUGHING in the past five years. 

I thought about changing the name of this blog, or starting over (again), but why? I'll just keep on with this one and maybe those who followed me years ago (looking at you, Liana) might continue to follow this renewed effort. 

When I was dealing with my cancer diagnosis, surgery recovery, and chemo, I used Caring Bridge to blog about what I was feeling. As I wrote about my challenges I realized that I missed writing, and not the abbreviated style of writing that's so prevalent in social media. Sure, I'll still post photos on Instagram and I have a couple private groups on Facebook where my family gathers to share pictures and other stuff the general public doesn't need to view. 

So with that said, this blog won't be geared toward fiber only, it'll contain all sorts of stuff based on the whim of the moment. 

No fiber, just turtles

I took a break today and strapped my kayak to the roof of my car and went to the lake. Oh...if it was only that simple.

Before I could load up the kayak, it needed to be cleaned, which really means blast all the spiders with the high pressure nozzle on the garden hose. Then I gathered up all the kayaking "stuff" -- cooler of snacks, paddle, towel, dry bag, seat, life preserver, sun screen, hat, etc. That was the easy part. The next step was getting that sucker up on top of my Rav4. Alone. But I told myself from the very beginning that I need to be able to do this on my own.

The trick to hoisting a kayak onto the roof of an SUV is to start from the back. Basically, put the nose of the kayak on the back of the SUV with the stern on the ground. I use a towel between the kayak and the roof so there's no scratching of either the kayak or the car. Then I go to the other end of the kayak and lift and push it onto the top. Ta da! It takes a little wiggling to get it all situated, but it's not too terribly difficult. Then I tie it down and hope like hell that it won't shift during transport.

I decided to go to Montgomery Bell State Park, which is about 40 minutes from here. I wasn't in the mood for a river paddle, nor did I want to deal with all the jet skis and power boats on the bigger lakes. Montgomery Bell has three little lakes that are perfect for paddlers.

I pulled into the Lake Woodhaven boat access and backed my car a little bit down the ramp, hopped out and took the tie downs off the kayak. And the kayak slid right off the car. In slow motion. It bounced and landed right side up in the grass next to the car. Note to self...park the car on level ground before unstrapping kayak. Luckily no damage.

I loaded up my goodies, covered myself in sunscreen and took to the water. A perfect way to spend a Sunday!

Picking up where I left off

I walked away from my computer and another year has gone by...and now I have two cats. What the hell?

I'm also knitting a Christmas stocking. Didn't I say a couple years ago that I'd never knit another Christmas stocking? Ok, so I'm a sucker for Santa.

This one is going to be for my grand niece who is expected to appear on July 4th. (Yeah, that makes my sister a grandma.) The pattern is the same one my mom knit for my sister and me when we were babies. All our kids have the same sock too. This will be the third generation sock and I've done a little tweaking to the pattern.

The pattern is by Mary Maxim and it's well over 50 years old. I still have the original, and I've tucked it safely away.  I'll post photos of the tweaked pattern in a few days, once I get a little further into it. I'll also post the pattern. (I can post it because it's old enough to be in the public domain, so no copyright issues.) For now, here's the same sock that I knit for my brother in law several years ago.

 More to come. This time I mean it.

The glamour of reality

You won't see pictures of me lounging by the pool or at some random festival. Not this girl, and not this weekend! Today is bush trimming day...had to get out the Black and Decker. It's a big job...

Woosh! There goes a year...and then some

Yeah...I've been absent. On purpose.

The past year has been anything but uneventful. It's just that the events haven't been all that great, but they're getting better.

Sometimes people become "someone I used to know." I lost a group of friends and a person who was a significant part of my life because people I used to know made the conscious decision to be hurtful. In hindsight I say good riddance, but at the time it broke my heart.

Deciding whether or not to start blogging again has been a difficult decision. I have missed it tremendously, but privacy and safety are a concern. It may take a few posts for me to find my voice again. Quite honestly, I'm a little afraid to say anything at all because words were used to confuse and hurt me for a long time. But my confidence is returning and my voice is becoming stronger. My fingers are moving faster on the keyboard and I'm not hitting the backspace as much as I did two paragraphs ago. I've kept silent out of fear that I might say something wrong. I've been stomping down that fear every day for over a year and guess what? Today it didn't rise back up and try to take hold of me again.

Ladies and gentlemen, she's back...and she's got stories to tell.

Who doesn't have pita chips, hummus and a vodka tonic for dinner on a Monday? On the patio...