Heat Wave Has Broken

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass
- Cat Stevens "Morning Has Broken"
Lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon


Ah! Refreshing change finally happened, a storm last night pushed out that hot, muggy air we've been plagued with these past two weeks. I woke up this morning feeling refreshed. Got up early, sat out on my deck and enjoyed the cool(er) air. It's not really cool but much better than it has been. Our high temp today should "only" reach 85, but that's lovely as compared to the steady stream of 100 degree days we've had for way too long. I know we're not alone in our suffering. Temps across the whole country have been way above normal and even the usually cooler places have been hit by this heat.

Some still insist there's no such thing as global warming? Ah, yeah right. But anyhow . . . . .

Yesterday, I hauled 9 huge trashbags of clothes to the donation center (as well as many boxes of assorted household items and many loads of books). And there must be a LOT of people holed up in their air-conditioned houses doing some decluttering, because let me tell you, giving away your stuff is a challenge right now! I went on a field trip to several charity centers before being able to unload all my stuff. They are all being very picky about what items they accept! I learned that Bean Bag chairs are now considered a safety hazard for kids, so that was a tough one, even though it was in great condition.

Laura's husband often says, "You have to make a big mess to clean up a big mess." Well, he's right! My house looks messier now than it did when I started! And I've barely made a dent in it. We're going to have Grand Chaos around here for a while until it gets better. The piles are just never-ending, especially since we have so much of "other people's things" in our basement. Need I say more? Ughh! And getting various family members to part with their things isn't easy. It's like prying pieces of their hearts out through their fingernails. I never realized that there was so much emotion attached to mere STUFF. Yikes.

On the knitting front, I haven't done much, believe it or not. I've been decluttering (as mentioned), studying for my new job (I've been given some training material to review prior to starting). I've been working on that Simply Lovely sock that is lovely, but is slow. And on top of all that, somewhere along the line, I lost my original pattern copy with detailed notes on the pattern. I treasure those notes and am really bummed that I lost them, especially since I'd written down some notes about converting the pattern from 4 needles to 2 circs and turning the sock to profile mode and back again. Oh well. I'm on the second sock, about halfway through the lace cuff.