Today I had the privilege of seeing the Son Of Aran sweater knit by Jerry at When Knitting Was A Manly Art. All I can say is that pictures do not do it justice. The yarn is a much darker, yummier green for one thing. And the workmanship that went into it is simply amazing. Kudos to Jerry!

After lunch today I ran down to Oregon City for the 18th Annual Spring Fiber Sale at Abernethy Grange because I really wanted to see that sweater! The Grange has two floors, and both were loaded with vendors selling all kinds of wonderful fibers, fleeces, yarns, spinning supplies, etc. I had promised myself that I would only look for yarn for #1 Son’s socks. He wants seafoam green. There wasn’t a lot of seafoam there. But I did buy a skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ luscious “Soft Rock” handpainted yarn in the “Mermaid” colorway. It’s a blend of soft greens and purples. Yes it has some seafoam green in it. No, it’s not going in #1 Son’s socks. 😀

Jerry turned me on to a great book by Mary Ann Beattie at Queen Kahuna Creations. This is a good-sized, substantial book with lots of color pictures — good for knitters like myself who need to see something to get it. The book is full of all kinds of cool techniques like a long-tail cast-on for toe-up socks that Beattie calls the Aloha Cast On. I ordered the book as soon as I got home, and I can’t wait to get it!

I also saw a pair of blueberry waffle stich socks and I really like the way that pattern knitted up. I’m not that happy with the way the Wildfoote socks are coming out. At the gauge I’m knitting, they are turning out too big for my skinny feet. And the pattern doesn’t show against the multiple bright colors. I’m thinking I’m going to rip it all out and try the Aloha Cast On and the blueberry waffle stitch. Yep… I think that’s what I’ll do.

When I set up the delivery for the new water heater for this morning, I was assured that the plumber could be here by 8:00 AM. I explained that I had a very important appointment at 11:30, and the installation must be complete by that time. No problem, I was told.

My 11:30 AM appointment was lunch with M. We’ve gotten together for a Saturday or Sunday lunch at least every other week for more than 25 years. We’ve missed weeks only for incidentals like marriages, the birth of my son, the birth of her son and funerals. We’ve been known to plan vacations around our lunches. We missed last week, and I didn’t want to miss again.

At 9:50 AM, the plumber called. He was picking up the stuff and he should be there about 10:30. I started twitching a little. Mr. Plumber Man said:

8:00 AM? ha ha ha… That’s about the time I usually roll out of bed on Saturday. No… I don’t know how long it will take. Could be anything between 45 minutes and 2 hours.

I’d been up since 6:00 AM, so I found that less than amusing. I called M but couldn’t reach her. I left her a message asking for a later time in the day and crossed my fingers.

When Mr. Plumber Man arrived at 10:30 AM, I told him if he could be finished by 11:20 he would have my undying gratitude.

Fortunately the new water heater turned out to be exactly the same size as the old water heater. All that had to be done was to pull the old one and install the new one with new fittings. With me lending a hand on the earthquake straps — the only non-technical thing I was qualified to help with — Mr. Plumber Man finished at 11:15 AM sharp!

As I ran back inside to get ready to go, the phone rang and it was M. I told her I was on my way, and she said that she was, too, and we both arrived at about 11:40. Whew.

And the rest of the day was much more fun, but deserving of it’s own entry because it shouldn’t be mixed in with water heaters and plumbers.

Why is it that the battery in the smoke detector always loses its power in the middle of the night?

I find waking up in the wee, dark hours to an incessant CHIRP [pause] CHIRP [pause] to be annoying and not conducive to a restful sleep.

The smoke detector is not far from my bedroom door. The [pause] is just long enough to begin to drift back to sleep… then the next CHIRP sounds. And I lay in bed, trying to ignore the CHIRP, but knowing that the only way to fix the problem is to change the #$@% battery.

CHIRP

Mom crawls out of bed with eyes only half open. Is it really the smoke detector, or maybe something easier to deal with?

CHIRP

It’s really the smoke detector. Do we even have a battery? There’s got to be one here in the kitchen junk drawer. I need a 9-volt…

CHIRP

OK. Battery in hand. Now I need the step ladder.

CHIRP

C’mon detector… come off the ceiling! oh yeah… gotta unplug this doohickey. Open the little door. Old battery out. New battery in. New battery in. New battery in. It came out, it must go back… go back! there.

Now… can I hook the little plug doohikey back up… can I get my bifocals in the right position so I can see the little plug doohickey and where it needs to go while precariously perched on the top of a tippy step ladder? If I could only lean just a little further back…. whew…

attach the thing back to the ceiling, and to bed… c’mon detector, attach already… please… PLEASE!

Now, test. Nothing. [sigh] pull from ceiling, check connections, test

CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP

good enough. attach to ceiling… attach to ceiling… why is this so hard? attach to ceiling…

silence

bed… sleep…

Why is it always in the middle of the night?

Here’s the picture of my completed sock scarf, all washed and blocked. As we all know, it is a blatant rip off of Jerry’s version of the sock scarf.

Except mine doesn’t look anything like his.

For one thing, mine is a lot fatter, and at about 4 feet long (because that was all of the yarn I had) it’s 1/2 the length of Jerry’s at 8 feet. His is striped, mine is ribbed. He worked both sides of his top-down. I started at one toe and worked toe-up and then top-down on the second sock.

It’s all good. 🙂

I’m glad to have mine finished. It was a lot of fun to do, though, and worked really fast. I might make another one some time, if I get ambitious. I like the way that the fish-tail cables turned out.

This is a picture of the Wildfoote socks as of last night. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but there is a fairly subtle lace pattern between the ribbing on the front of the socks.

I’d messed the pattern up at one point and, after unsuccessfully attempting a “fix” with a crochet hook, ended up tinking out about 6 rows.

If the weather holds out the way it’s been so far this March, there won’t be much call for wool socks until next autumn. But if I can get them finished fairly soon, I may get a wearing or two in before summer.

The next planned project is a pair of socks for #1 Son. If he doesn’t decide on a color soon, though, I may knit up some cotton yarn I have laying around. That would be a pair of socks that I could use! I may also knit a second alpaca pair for my friend, who is going to wear out her socks because she refuses to take them off except to wash them!

I admit that I haven’t purchased a water heater before. But I expected it to be something like other major appliance purchase: Pick it out, arrange to have it delivered and installed. It’s not rocket science.

There’s a certain store who I will allow to remain nameless. Since their ads tout themselves as some sort of water heater royalty, that was my first stop. I wandered around the store for a bit, and didn’t really see a lot of water heaters. I went up to the counter, where I found one of those annoying “take a number” machines. I took a number and waited. When my number came up and the counter guy got to me, this is what the conversation went like:

Counter Guy: What can I help you with today?

Mom: I need a new water heater. Mine is leaking.

Counter Guy [writes down number on card]: Go home and call this number. It’s our service department. They can get you set up.

Mom [takes card]: But I don’t know what I want!

Counter Guy: They’ll set you up with one, deliver it and install it, and even haul the old one away. You just pay the driver. He’ll let you know how much it is after it’s installed.

Mom: But how will they know what to bring? I don’t know which one I want.

Counter Guy: They’ll ask you a bunch of questions and then bring one out for you. If you have questions they can answer them.

Mom [beginning to sound like a broken record]: But I don’t know which water heater I want to purchase!

Counter Guy [beginning to sound annoyed]: Look. It’s a lot easier than you buying one here and having to haul it home yourself and then pay for a plumber to come install it. Just call the service department. I could answer your questions, but they can do just as well as I can.

Mom: So, I’m supposed to call this number, and then trust that sight unseen they will bring exactly the water heater I want with exactly the features I need and charge me a reasonable price for both it and the installation, even though I haven’t done any comparison shopping? I think not. [hands card back and leaves store]

And with that I drew a mental black line through the name of prince water heater and headed over to Lowes.

At Lowes, I found a plumbing guy who was happy to provide a little customer service. I got to figuratively kick the tires of all the gas water heaters in stock and compare their features. When I had picked out what I wanted, the plumbing guy set up a delivery and installation and showed me exactly what that will cost, including parts. And they’ll haul away the old one, too.

I still don’t get that first stop. That would be like having bought my new refrigerator by calling up the appliance store delivery service and asking them to bring me a new one. And then trusting that I would somehow get the one I wanted, that it would meet my needs and fit the space available, and that the price would be OK.

Very strange way of doing business.

I’ve never had an ice-maker before. One was available for the 20-year-old, now-defunct fridge, but we didn’t have it installed. I have one now.

Did you know that when ice drops from the ice maker into the bin, it sounds almost exactly like a gun shot?

Can you imagine how three particular cats who are not used to being shot at feel about that, especially when they’ve just settled down for a long, long nap… BANG!

There was lots of hubbub yesterday when the new fridge was delivered. The front door had to be removed from the hinges, so the cats had to be rounded up and stashed in my bedroom. My sideboard (full of antique dishes that belonged to my forebears and some of which are over 100 years old) had to be very quickly unloaded and moved to the side. What little food I had managed to preserve had to be unloaded from the freezer (the only cold place in the old fridge) very quickly.

And then it turned out that one of the delivery guys was allergic to cats.

But now I have coldness available. And my remaining food is at the appropriate temperature. And I have fresh, cold water available via the door of the fridge. And ice. BANG. And unhappy kitties.

Today I go grocery shopping and start looking for a water heater.