This has been a very distressful twenty-four hours. To know that something so horrendous could happen in a place that your children and grandchild should have been, but weren’t, is indeed a scary thing. All in favor of them moving back to the states to live in my spare room where I can take care of them forever, please raise your hand. Ah well, I know that is not very practical, but at this point it has a certain appeal. In some ways this has been more distressing to us than 9-11. New York seemed so far away – we have never been there and don’t know anyone there. However, we have been in and out of London multiple times – our last trip just in May. And my children go in and out on a regular basis. They had planned to go into London yesterday to turn in Abby’s immigration paperwork, but for whatever reason changed their mind. They would have gotten off at Kings Cross station to catch the underground from there. They have decided at this point to mail the paperwork and hope for the best.
To add to the general bizarreness of the day – we had a 10-inch water main break at work. We looked up to find a torrential river flowing down our parking lot. I was able to get my little car out – I was parked at the high end of the lot, but a couple of others weren’t so lucky and their cars got flooded. We actually had fireman diving in our parking lot trying to find the drain! Normally this would have been disastrous because yesterday was our day for general anesthesia cases. We should have been right in the middle of one, but the anesthesiologist showed up and discovered that he was missing a vital piece of equipment. It would have been a four-hour drive for him to go get it, so we had to cancel the entire day. Who knew that would have been a good thing? Since there was no water or suction, we closed the office for the rest of the day.
We used the “found” day to take a drive over to the mainland. My best friend gave me a gift certificate to the yarn shop with the provision that I had to use it to buy yarn to make something for Izzy – a difficult task, don’t you know. I won’t show the yarn here because some was out of stock – I’ll wait to have it all in one place. However I did buy Fiber Trends Estonian Garden shawl and scarf pattern. Wednesday night at our knitting group a lovely lady named Rachel and I were talking. Rachel is European and she and I have often discussed our love for the “old ways” of traditional knitting and she has been very appreciative of my lace knitting. She asked if I had the book “Heirloom Knitting” by Sharon Miller. I told her that I didn’t, but it was on my wish list. But it wasn’t something I’d be able to get any time soon because of the price. She mentioned that she had the book and had enjoyed looking through it, but didn’t think it was anything she’d pursue. She wondered if I’d like to have the book. I told her yes, of course and asked how much she wanted for it, hoping to get a good deal. She said, “You don’t understand, I want you to have the book. I want to give it to you.” She went on to say that she feels I am a very talented lace knitter and it makes her happy to encourage that talent. I almost burst into tears on the spot. What a kind and thoughtful thing to do. So, I think the Estonian scarf will be an appropriate, “Thank you,” don’t you think?