H is for Handwriting, but this is not my H. This is as seen on Cara’s beautiful post the other day, and at Mim’s, and linky-poo all over the place.
Edited to add: In true skimmer form, I skimmed right over the part about signing this piece…
Category: Meme
About-face
This post could go south so easily. I’m in a mood, a funk; I’ve got the blahs and I’m blue; it’s like someone has stepped on my rose-colored glasses. So let’s just turn around and go north, shall we?
My brother, Michael, lives north and I talked to him last night! I wanted to know how his first weekend at home went; I hoped that he was entertained by visitors, but not overwhelmed by them. Sounds like it went pretty well and they’re getting used to things, figuring out ways for him to be more comfortable, working on remembering and thinking, learning more about what happened to him, playing with the dog. He gets so emotional sometimes — and I do, too; we all do! It’s amazing, after all these weeks, how the gravity of it all can sometimes still sneak up and bowl you right over; and maybe even more surprising is that you’d think, being bowled over a few times already, that it wouldn’t seem so grave or amazing or surprising anymore — after all, he is recovering so very well! Well, it is grave and amazing and surprising… it’s also humbling and scary and heart-wrenching and joyful… still. I find I’m given reason to think of his ordeal nearly every single day on my way to work, when I am unwilling witness to bone-headed motor vehicle moves. Why, yes, there was a particularly frightful one this morning. Makes me want to put a sign on my car: "Pay attention, people. Be aware! And don’t drive stupid around me!"
Anyway, physically, Michael can stand being upright — sitting, walking, standing — in the brace for about two hours, max, then he’s just got to get it off; he’s feeling the pain of broken ribs and shoulder blade more acutely and the brace adds to the discomfort. Fingers and toes are crossed for the next 30 days, when he’ll have his next appointment with the neurosurgeon, that the fractured vertebra have all been knitting together nicely on their own all these weeks and that he’ll be able to start losing the brace a little each day.
Lifted from Nathania, a meme. Do a Wikipedia search of your birthdate, minus the year; list three interesting events, three people who were born, and three people who died on that day. Here’s mine:
EVENTS:
- 1860 – U.S. presidential election, 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th President of the United States, the first Republican to hold that office.
- 1939 – The Hedda Hopper Show debuts with Hollywood gossip Hedda Hopper as host. The show would run until 1951, making Hopper a powerful figure in the Hollywood elite.
- 1975 – The Sex Pistols play their first concert at St. Martin’s School of Art in London.
BORN:
- 1946 – Sally Field, American actress
- 1948 – Glenn Frey, American singer (Eagles)
- 1949 – Brad Davis, American actor (d. 1991)
- 1949 – Arturo Sandoval, Cuban-born trumpeter
This is just the ’40s! Also born on this day: Charles Dow (of the Dow Jones), John Philip Sousa, Ray Coniff, Mike Nichols, Maria Shriver, Ethan Hawke…
DIED:
- 1406 – Pope Innocent VII
- 1796 – Catherine II of Russia (b. 1729)
- 1991 – Gene Tierney, American actress (b. 1920)
Tomorrow: A very good chance for a completed Fibonacci back and the start of the fronts!
Also: Please notice the new ClustrMap on the sidebar. It’s pretty cool! Found at VeryOtterly and thought I’d give it a whirl.
And: Check it out: 91 knitters in the pink. How utterly cool is that?
Life’s a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!
*Auntie Meme Mame!
1. A blog which you think people have not discovered.
Just a few, new to me and maybe to you, by no means a complete list: if we shadows, Oiyi’s Crafts (bonus: one of the cutest pup pics I’ve ever come across), Po Mo Golightly — my list is always changing!
2. A blog whose author lives close to you physically. Just get as close as you can, it’s all relative.
Amy Lu! I was lucky enough to meet her last April at the Midwest Masters Seminar (no, I haven’t signed up for this year’s and yes, I’ll probably be kicking myself next month), and I played "Where in WI is Amy Lu?" last September — that was a really fun day, by the way. ; )
3. An unusual or weird animal picture.
Surely there’s something at Ann’s… Pug on a Rug? It’s not a weird or unusual picture, but the title makes me giggle.
4. An entry that made you laugh and got strange looks from family or co-workers.
JenLa Jenifleur’s Stash Wars — That was a challenging morning at work! I laughed ’til I cried — in a very business-like way, of course. So funny.
5. An idea you wish you’d thought of.
Bagged salad. Or Post-its.
6. Something you’d like to knit.
That darn Rogue, some blasted Latvian Mittens
7. A picture of something you consider beautiful.
Katie has shared only a fraction of the pictures she’s taken in the U.K. — and a quick tour of the continent (France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany) is still ahead — and I am so looking forward to seeing them all. I am preparing to be verklempt. This is a favorite among favorites so far: Tintern Abbey in Wales.
8. A blog whose author you would like to someday meet in person.
9. A blog of someone you have already met in person.
So lucky to have met so many already.
* * * * * *
When I arrived at the hospital last night, my brother Michael was in a wheelchair, all his stuff was on a cart or in someone’s hand, my SIL and uncle were there, various nurses and aides… they were movin’ on up — to a de-luxe apartment in the sky! Heh, pretty darn close — a 6th floor room with a westerly view (and a private bath) of the river, the teensy city skyline, sunsets, and lots of activity! He was being moved out of Neuro and into Rehab! Yahoo!!!
The #1 really huge thing that I noticed new yesterday was that he was asking questions and initiating conversation (okay, maybe that’s TWO!) — "Hey Vick, whatcha doin’ here?" He is wondering about the brace and collar (and when some of that can come off), and how things work. He is still mighty confused and befuddled — he answered "June" when asked which month it is, and he didn’t know the name of the hospital, even though he’s been asked and told these things 10,000 times. But get this… My SIL had explained to him that he’d be moving to Rehab and that they’d be working with him in different ways, asking him questions to get him thinking more, and he smiled and said, "Yeah, like what day it is?" HILARIOUS!! He’s asked that question 50,000 times a day! He may not remember what frickin’ day it is, but he remembers being asked and that’s HUGE (at least to my reasoning)!
Having finished the gusset and made progress on the foot of the sock yesterday, I celebrated Michael’s progress by casting on Trellis last night. This is a sleeve, one repeat — LOVE the School Products wool-cotton yarn from NYC that I mentioned a few days ago. I am so happy, I might even cast on something else tonight. ; )
Thank you all, again and again and again and again, for your amazing support, words of wisdom and kindness and encouragement these past few weeks. I’ve really sucked at writing back, and I’m sorry about that. Please know that every single word has been a huge help.
Field Trip!
There’s a path behind my house that is often used by kids from a nearby elementary school when they are on their way to a nearby nature center or the creek for a field trip. I am always delighted to hear their chatter and giggles and watch them (they usually don’t notice me) as they make their way.
_ _ _ _ _
Today, it’s a field trip to my back yard from the comfort of your own computer desk!
On the left is the view with my back to the back door — and it’s actually on the east side of the house. Yes, we’re livin’ on the edge! On the very bottom left you see a corner of the house — there’s a window on that wall into the living room. Down two steps to the path which leads to the garage that DH and I built a few years ago and there’s the “deck” we built even fewer years ago — I’m going to a pergola over that thing this summer if it kills me! See the plates along the edge of the deck? You also see the roof of a playhouse that DH built for the girls when they were little — it used to sit where the corner of the garage is now (when we had a yard and no garage) before it was displaced. Beyond that is “over the river and through the woods” to the great beyond. My location is one of the very best things about where I live and in the summer, when there are leaves on those trees, you can hardly see any of that — it is very private.
To the right, you see down my back porch. It used to be a big, L-shaped enclosed porch, but we did some remodeling and reclaimed some of it for use in the house (kitchen table) and opened up the rest. I stripped at least 10 coats of paint off of each of those pillars with a putty knife and heat gun; they were reclaimed from a house that was being demolished. I had a really good right pec that summer! The birdfeeder used to be at the far corner of the deck, but it was also displaced. You also see the top of a set of handrails for the stairway that leads to my literal back yard, a.k.a. “the lower yard.” There’s a perennial garden down there.
That’s a view from the end of the porch back toward the playhouse/deck/garage. We have done a lot of work on that yard in the 19 years we’ve lived here — including a rebuild of that retaining wall practically from scratch. There used to be an iron railing affixed to a concrete cap at the top of that wall — I can barely remember it — and the first spring we were here, DH, acting like a 12-year-old (it happens), went out and started pulling/pushing on it in a “I wonder what would happen…” kind of way. Well, guess what happened? The railing broke apart and the whole thing went tumbling down the ravine! He could do nothing but watch those big rocks tumble and roll at the bottom of the hill. He had to bring every single one of them back up again, too.
* * * * * *
I saw Michael only briefly yesterday, but he was off the ventilator at the time and the nurse was “jazzed” at how well he was doing. I don’t know how long he was off, but they’re working up to an hour on, an hour off at this point — and they’d like him to be resting comfortably during that hour off. That’s a goal. He’s not really there yet. I think they’d also like to do surgery to fix that C7 as soon as they can, too. I made him a card, using that picture of us that I posted the other day, and read it to him before tacking it up on the small bulletin board in his room; it said, “I can be the boss of you! Get better — fast!” He tries to open his eyes and his wife said that they maintained eye contact for a short while yesterday — he’s so drugged up, though, it’s really hard to know whether things register. I hope so. I think he has a sense of all the people who get “jazzed” about him.
There is an enclosed mall in our area, one of the first enclosed malls in the country — it recently closed and will likely be razed, likely replaced by condos or something. When we first moved to the area, that mall was thriving. There were restaurants, specialty shops, clothing stores, a grocery store at one end (Kroger’s!), a drug store, barber and beauty shops, and our dentist (ick). Mom always had Mike’s hair cut in an “English school boy” style and, with red hair and freckles on that round face, he was adorable. When he was about 8, Mom decided that he was old enough to go to the barber by himself while she did some other shopping, assuming the barber would take his cue from Michael’s current style. What she didn’t count on was Michael ordering up something completely different! She didn’t even recognize him with his new “buzz” when they passed each other in the mall.
Take note
Remember The View last month? Well, tomorrow it’s a Field Trip — I absolutely LOVE this idea. I think it was just last week (or maybe the week before) that I was email-dreaming with Carole, imagining a bus full of knit-bloggers on tour, touring each other’s homes (show me the yarn — and the antiques — and then let’s have cake and cookies), stopping at LYSs and fiber shops along the way, spotting farms with sheep, knitting… Anyway, I’ll be participating in "The Knit-bloggers’ Back Yard Field Trip," and I hope you will, too. (Y’all know who has one of the best "back yards" around, don’t you? And the best pictures of it, too!)
I’d also like to point you in the direction of Christine — here, here (adorable picture alert!), and here, and finally, here. She is collecting blue knitted squares to make into a blanket for her brother, Jef; in fact, the project is called "Comforting Jef" (see the snazzy button?). In that last entry, she wrote that she hoped to have too many squares — enough to perhaps make a second blanket for my brother; that would be "Comforting Mike." She didn’t tell me about that, though she has been leaving me comments, so I ran across it in my regular blog reading and… Wow, Christine, I am verklempt. Just when I think I’m verklempt enough, I get verklempter. Christine and I are fairly new to each other’s blogs, I think it’s likely a happy (and hopefully lasting) side effect of the Knitting Olympics. Thank you, Christine, for such a sweet thought. I’ll definitely be knitting blue for your brother. Comfort.
I’m really torn about the blogging, blogging about my brother, specifically. His recovery could be very, very, v.e.r.y. long — he could be in ICU for a long time, with no real change. Or he could wake up tomorrow. His wonderful p.m. nurse of the last few days gave us a bit of a reality check yesterday, and I’m glad. The bottom line is, there is no "timeline," everything is dependent on something else; there is a process to recovering from major head trauma and he has to work his way through it; he hasn’t responded to commands the past few days, but it’s hard to draw any conclusions about anything right now — No One Knows. It is very scary. And maybe I should just not be blogging about him. I don’t want to be the Bummer Blog, I want you all to come and visit me over here (because, really, I am all about the comments and the visiting), I don’t want you all to not know what to say or to feel uncomfortable, I don’t want to make you sad, but I know, too, that a lot of you are enjoying my little stories. Maybe I should put that part in "extended entry" or something, or not do it everyday. I don’t know.
When Michael was on the cusp of adolescense, our then single-mother struggled with how to talk to him about the facts of life.* Right about then, she came home with the book, "Where Did I Come From?" and sat us all down to read it to us. I was 16 at the time (yeah), so Mike was 12. When she got to the part about men having er*ctions, he innocently and enthusiastically blurted out, "Hey, that happens to me!!" Naturally, we all responded with fits of giggles. The poor, poor kid… it’s a wonder he turned out at all.
*We were really a family of innocents. Just a few years earlier, the older sister and brother of a friend of mine actually had me believing that every night before bed their mother told them one fact of life, as if there was some master checklist somewhere.