Ten Questions

There is a website that sends out a link to a question each day (except I don't get them - not even in my junk/SPAM folder, so have to remember to look) during the High Holy Days.  Ten questions, for you to think about how the past year affected you, and what is to come next year.  Reflections.

If you want to try it:  https://www.doyou10q.com/question/2025/1

You can opt to share your answers or keep them private.

I had a busy week and next one will be also.  The first three days I am in a CISSP exam writing workshop for ISC2, and then it is Yom Kippur.  Luckily my junior attorney returns on Monday and hopefully it will not take her too long to catch up so I can start giving projects to her.  At some point, my mother and I are going to the early voting; my father votes absentee and we'll deliver his ballot.

I'm back to making hats for the various collections:

It looks like I will get a fourth, if small (child, not teen/adult, sized), hat out of the ball of Bernat Forever Fleece.  Each one is a different pattern, including the Flight Formation Beanie that still has sticks in the top.  The ones unfinished will be worked on during tonight's fiber group meeting.  Four of these were knitted in the last week, the three with sticks in the top (and there is probably enough of the pink/grey boucle for another hat) and the striped one at the bottom.

I want to make other things, especially from yarn I purchased last weekend, but I am dutifully working on hats.

Taking care of business.

Leaving in a few hours, and my laptop was approved to travel outside our geo-blocking, so I can keep up with work.  Yes, it's a vacation, and I won't stress to participate in meetings while gone, but tracking through email and not returning to an overfull inbox and missed deadlines can be restful.

Of course I made sure to vote before I leave.

The other night I took a quick break from work and delivered nine hats plus one hat-and-scarf set, plus a scarf a friend had knitted, to the Twisted Knitter collection point at our community center:

Some of these are in acrylics, others are sock yarn leftovers, and others are hand-dyed yarn from Always Be Kind Yarn, Forbidden Fiber Co., and UP North Yarns.  While it may seem absurd to use an expensive yarn for this purpose, the dyers are paid and appreciated; I get the fun of using the yarn; and somebody gets a nice warm hat!  I tag them with washing instructions, of course.

Off to the airport in an hour, for my next adventure.  I've packed yarn for more hats and a scarf.

Yep, I did.

First time voting in the new place I live.  I had to confirm that I am over 18 years old and have lived here for more than thirty days, and that I can understand the ballot.  It's the first time I have lived in a place with early voting, so there wasn't a line and it was very quick.  Also, only two questions on the ballot.

This weekend is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and when I was in Dallas I picked up a box of mooncakes.  So I have been happily eating them for breakfast this weekend.

Buying six scored a box for gifting or displaying the mooncakes.  I gave one to the friend with whom I stayed that week, ate one because I couldn't resist, so used the two open spaces to transport two of the Dragon Boat Decorations I made.

I also knitted two hats this week:

The one on the left is made of sock yarn leftovers, plus a ball of Kroy Sock that I purchased with a coupon, so inexpensively.  The other is Wool-Ease Thick & Quick.  Both patterns mostly made-up, although I based the righthand one on a pattern that came with the yarn.

Work was busy, especially the last couple of days, as it was not just monthend but end-of-quarter, and for some reason it seemed people forgot until Thursday that the last business day was Friday.  So all of a sudden, everything was escalating and documents were flying around for signatures.

So naturally on Thursday I had to attend a donor thank-you and fundraiser for the North Carolina Opera.  Luckily they had food and drink which served as dinner, and I could handle a couple easy things on my phone, then got back to work as soon as I returned home.

And the House of Representatives decided that they needed to stop their playground squabbles and agree on a budget measure to keep the government running for the next 45 days.  Rather a near thing.  Let's hope they decide to be more collaborative and get a final budget put together before time runs out.

Thankfuls, Part 1

I was busy enough with things last weekend (including enjoying some surprise summery weather) that I didn't remember to post.  Then we had the last few days before the midterm elections, and work has been scrambling to meet some deadlines.

I did start posting Thankfuls on Facebook, thanks to a friend's reminder, and here is what I have so far:

1: A good meeting of the leadership for the Association of Corporate Counsel's Intellectual Property Network. I enjoy working with these colleagues, they are bright and energetic and we accomplish wonderful things for the IPN members.

2: Attending Robert C Fullerton's monthly concert with my grandmother. She really enjoys his music.

3: Thankful for local farms such as Clatter Ridge Farm, which delivered many yummy things for me today from their "online farmer's market", and The Farm Truck at Hein Farm, whose 2023 CSA has just opened for registration. I look forward to their farmstand being open for the holidays, so I can get some goodies as gifts, and a few treats to tide me over until they reopen in the spring.

4: Thankful that I found out in time that my local pharmacy closes on Sunday and I'll need to find another if I have a prescription. This one was conveniently within walking distance from the post office I use, so I will definitely miss the convenience.

5: Thankful to be able to celebrate with others at Congregation Beth Israel for the 18th anniversary of our Rabbi Pincus' arrival. It was good to see Rabbi Dena Shaffer, if briefly, as she joined the festivities.

6: Thankful for technology that allows me to hang out virtually with people I never would have gotten to meet in the Before Times. Today it included people from all over the world who are Franklin Habit's Patreon subscribers, for his weekly "From the Workroom", then the KnitTalk group which is mostly a dozen or so regulars. While a few of us had met one or two others in the past (including with some only-fiber-people-understand stories), and some of us have supported others through group gifts or gift swaps, we likely wouldn't have seen each other's faces.

7: Thankful for lovely weather (unusually summery for the start of November, mid-70's F) and not having early meetings so I got in a nice walk before the work week began. I remember a couple years with major blizzards at the end of October, this is really quite a contrast.

8: Whatever the outcomes (and I am sure some will be unpleasant, given allegations and comments made in the last few months), thankful to be in a country where I have a right to vote as I choose.

9: Glad to have the opportunity to join people in online theatre! I started performing with Plague Mask Players after enjoying a number of their productions. I had a small part in last night's production of Sophocles' Antigone, and ten minutes before we began was asked if I would also take another role, filling in for a performer who had an emergency. It's slightly less nerve-wracking to do it when online, but not by much! I joked about how both of my characters (Haemon and Eurydice) ended up dead - as did most of that family.

I also stepped in to take minutes for the Illinois State Bar Association's Intellectual Property Section Council meeting, because the secretary couldn't attend.  I am glad that the secretary for the Association of Corporate Counsel's Intellectual Property Network attended and took minutes for that meeting. Doing chair and secretary at the same time is quite a task, although I did it for much of last year. Later in the day we had a planning meeting for the ACC IPN so it was quite a day of non-work meetings. I very much appreciate that my job allows me to do these extracurricular activities. Maybe that should be my next Thankful?

Genesis 1:3

I am slightly chuffed about this morning's accomplishment, imperfect though it is.

Yesterday morning, when I went for a glass of tea, the refrigerator was dark.  Cold, but dark.  A quick check of the freezer showed everything was still frozen, and I noticed a hum, so the machine was overall working.  Thus, the light in the refrigerator had burned out.

My parents made sure I could do basic repairs, including changing light bulbs.  Of course, appliances use a certain size and I didn't have one in stock.  And on Saturday I do a yoga class, then Torah Study, and I had a Stitches@Home class, so it would be afternoon before I had time to go to the store.  I decided that unless I had a reason, I could get a new lightbulb first thing on Sunday.

Plus, on Sunday there is free parking in the center, where the local hardware store resides.  Then I realized that the grocery store probably also carries the lights, and I could pick up a couple other items.  An online check, I made a shopping list, and this morning headed over at the time it would be first open to get the items I wanted.

I didn't find the package I'd identified online, so a bit of study of the options (LOTS of options, for all kinds of lights) I selected a package that I decided would work, remembering that I probably should have removed and brought with me one of the bulbs.  One had always been dark; it was the second that died on Saturday.

At home, I got to work.  Quickly I realized I needed a work light, and luckily have those handy.  A bit of study, and it turns out the light cover is held by four plastic-headed screws, one of which is a bit stripped.  I could not move them by hand, so pulled out my power screwdriver, which required removing the top shelf for it to fit.  So I washed the shelf.

Three screws removed, I could remove the light cover, and after a bit of trial one of the bulbs loosened.  This may be why only one has worked for as long as I have been here.  I replaced it with one of the new ones - and light!

It's not as bright as the old one, but I didn't think I needed a high-intensity light.  Maybe someday I'll get the other light replaced, but there's enough light for now.  Cover back on, top shelf replaced, most of the items returned (some were questionable and have been relegated to the compost bucket), and all is well again.  As I said, not perfect because only one bulb was replaced, but I see the refrigerator contents again, it's good enough for now.

Two other things I did this week.  On Wednesday, I participated in an online play, and I had a somewhat large role, of friend-of a couple of the leads.  I needed costume changes, background changes, props, and watching entrances and exits.  So of course I rehearsed, and panicked, and all the usual.  But it went off as well as could be, and was fun when I got to watch the other performers.

On Tuesday I voted.  My primary had only two items on the ballot, which still seems odd to me after years of voting a lengthy booklet in Chicago, but I wouldn't miss the opportunity.

And yes, like a good Chicagoan, I went early.

This is some of what I picked up in my CSA share on Thursday:

Not shown are cherry and regular tomatoes (I also picked up a few 'seconds' to use in sauce), eggplant, and okra.  It's a delicious summer so far.

Those who came before.

I voted early this morning.  They were giving out great stickers at my polling location; after I read the fine print at the bottom to the poll watcher at the exit, she said I could take as many as I wanted.  I decided to be polite and just took the biographical ones:

As I left one of the candidate representatives outside called out "Thank you for voting!"  It always surprises me to hear it because I know what a privilege this is.  As the great-great-granddaughter of people who fled their country (think Fiddler on the Roof without the production values) to come here, I cannot imagine why I wouldn't vote.  Especially because these women had to fight for it on my behalf, even though they were fighting before I was born, and gained the right 101 years ago.

For me.  For us.