Life, As It Is Actually Lived
Dear Blog-
The tricky part about keeping a blog of any sort is that one has to, by definition, have something to say on a fairly frequent basis. Hopefully it is a something that people other than yourself find interesting enough to read regularly. The tricky part about keeping a blog about knitting in particular is that one must do a good deal of knitting in between postings (behind the curtain, as it were) in order to have something worth showing now and then.
To say that our lives here in the Sorenson household have been a bit topsy-turvy in the last week would be the mildest of understatements. Sometimes it can feel as though life is a game played by giants, where some detached and dispassionate observer somewhere off-stage puts all of the elements of your life into a shaker like a set of dice, rattles the cup and spills them out all over the table, just to see what you can make of the new, random arrangements.
As I was posting here on Saturday afternoon, my husband called to tell me that he had just gotten into a car accident. He was minding his own business, driving through a green light, when a driver who had been fully stopped at the red light suddenly started up and drove into the intersection. She herself admitted that she had no idea why it happened, that she suddenly realized what she was doing, and by then it was too late to stop. Graham is fine, thank God. She wasn't going very fast and he saw her out of the corner of his eye, so he braked and swerved. Instead of hitting his door she hit the business end of the front of the car. Her insurance company has decided to total our car rather than repair it.
Monday was spent in getting our rental car, going to see our friend with the car dealership, and tons of phone calls with various insurance agencies. Takes two seconds to write that out, took the entire day to live. Since this is the car I had before we got married, everything is in my name, and requires me running about like the proverbial headless chicken. (Who knew I didn't have my lien release on the title that was paid off seven years ago? Who knew I would need that, desperately, right NOW?) But that is okay, some tasks in marriage, I find, are divided according to who hates what job the least. I fill out forms and make phone calls, G does the things that I hate. It works out.
Tuesday, as I finished teaching my class, Graham calls me to tell me that he had just been fired. He was working for a large software company that makes accounting and tax software You'd know them if I told you who they were. He was one of 90 people fired Tuesday. All this time we have been raving about how well they treat their employees. Great benefits package, huge Holiday party. I'd rather have less of the free pizzas and ice cream, and have him keep his job. You know, stuff your free Thanksgiving turkey! The company is currently hiring fewer people to do the same jobs, and at a lower pay scale. They fired the old employees rather than lay them off so that they didn't have to give severance packages. We are in a right-to-work state, and they can do that. No, I'm not bitter.
So Wednesday was spent in driving G to a job interview for part time work to keep our toes on the planet til something comes along (which he got, again, thank God), running various errands, and taking G to the job fair in the afternoon, where he got several really, really good leads, left with a feeling of confidence about being hired soon, and a pre-interview this morning for something he is uniquely qualified for.
Through all this turmoil, Lynda's sanity has been saved by keeping her knitting in the back seat of the car. Yesterday morning during his interview, I sat and worked on the MS3 for nearly an hour, sitting in the driver's seat with the chart spread out on my lap and people walking by looking at me strangely. I got a lot done on the first chart of Clue 4, which I had worked almost to the end by last evening. There is something so soothing, so seductive about knitting lace from a chart. It requires all of your mind, and yet none of it. And the rhythm of the purl-side rows just lulls me.
At the top you see the photo of the Fair Isle bag I am working on, I got a good deal of that first chart repeat done on Sunday while we waited to hear from the other driver's insurance company as to what they would offer for our car. Let me tell you, if you have to get into a car accident, make sure that the other driver has Progressive insurance. They have treated us so well through all of this, better than our own insurance company has.
Well, I'm sorry that I don't have more to say about knitting this morning. I need to go get ready to drop G off at his interview, then teach this morning, and pick up some extra hours at the shop this afternoon. Keep on knitting, Sisters, it helps.
Lynda
To say that our lives here in the Sorenson household have been a bit topsy-turvy in the last week would be the mildest of understatements. Sometimes it can feel as though life is a game played by giants, where some detached and dispassionate observer somewhere off-stage puts all of the elements of your life into a shaker like a set of dice, rattles the cup and spills them out all over the table, just to see what you can make of the new, random arrangements.
As I was posting here on Saturday afternoon, my husband called to tell me that he had just gotten into a car accident. He was minding his own business, driving through a green light, when a driver who had been fully stopped at the red light suddenly started up and drove into the intersection. She herself admitted that she had no idea why it happened, that she suddenly realized what she was doing, and by then it was too late to stop. Graham is fine, thank God. She wasn't going very fast and he saw her out of the corner of his eye, so he braked and swerved. Instead of hitting his door she hit the business end of the front of the car. Her insurance company has decided to total our car rather than repair it.
Monday was spent in getting our rental car, going to see our friend with the car dealership, and tons of phone calls with various insurance agencies. Takes two seconds to write that out, took the entire day to live. Since this is the car I had before we got married, everything is in my name, and requires me running about like the proverbial headless chicken. (Who knew I didn't have my lien release on the title that was paid off seven years ago? Who knew I would need that, desperately, right NOW?) But that is okay, some tasks in marriage, I find, are divided according to who hates what job the least. I fill out forms and make phone calls, G does the things that I hate. It works out.
Tuesday, as I finished teaching my class, Graham calls me to tell me that he had just been fired. He was working for a large software company that makes accounting and tax software You'd know them if I told you who they were. He was one of 90 people fired Tuesday. All this time we have been raving about how well they treat their employees. Great benefits package, huge Holiday party. I'd rather have less of the free pizzas and ice cream, and have him keep his job. You know, stuff your free Thanksgiving turkey! The company is currently hiring fewer people to do the same jobs, and at a lower pay scale. They fired the old employees rather than lay them off so that they didn't have to give severance packages. We are in a right-to-work state, and they can do that. No, I'm not bitter.
So Wednesday was spent in driving G to a job interview for part time work to keep our toes on the planet til something comes along (which he got, again, thank God), running various errands, and taking G to the job fair in the afternoon, where he got several really, really good leads, left with a feeling of confidence about being hired soon, and a pre-interview this morning for something he is uniquely qualified for.
Through all this turmoil, Lynda's sanity has been saved by keeping her knitting in the back seat of the car. Yesterday morning during his interview, I sat and worked on the MS3 for nearly an hour, sitting in the driver's seat with the chart spread out on my lap and people walking by looking at me strangely. I got a lot done on the first chart of Clue 4, which I had worked almost to the end by last evening. There is something so soothing, so seductive about knitting lace from a chart. It requires all of your mind, and yet none of it. And the rhythm of the purl-side rows just lulls me.
At the top you see the photo of the Fair Isle bag I am working on, I got a good deal of that first chart repeat done on Sunday while we waited to hear from the other driver's insurance company as to what they would offer for our car. Let me tell you, if you have to get into a car accident, make sure that the other driver has Progressive insurance. They have treated us so well through all of this, better than our own insurance company has.
Well, I'm sorry that I don't have more to say about knitting this morning. I need to go get ready to drop G off at his interview, then teach this morning, and pick up some extra hours at the shop this afternoon. Keep on knitting, Sisters, it helps.
Lynda
posted by Lynda Michaluk Sorenson at 7:27 AM
3 Comments:
Boy, when it rains, it pours! I hope things get better for the both of you!
"It requires all of your mind, and yet none of it." That verges on the profound.
What a roller coaster ride you're on - good luck to your Mr. with the (real) job hunt. And what sort of wheels have tickled your fancy so far?
I've got Progressive but please don't crash into me. That would make me and my car sad.
Then I wouldn't be able to give you a hard time at our "Evil Knitting Meetings". We need a name for them...
Sexy Women And Naughty Knitting (SWANK)
??
What do you think?
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