1/26/2008

Of Primary Importance

"The economy is by far the most important issue facing the country"??? 

Someone on NPR just told me that's what South Carolinians said in exit polls at the primaries today. 

???

The environment. Healthcare.

These are the two most important issues the next president will have to cope with, in that order. The economy is a minor fraction of a footnote. The economy goes up and down. No, it's not good right now. Witness my lack of income for the past several years. But it's a pendulum and it will swing back.

Unless, of course, there is a catastrophic global climate crisis, like Florida being underwater, or honeybees failing to pollinate, oh, say, everything in California. Or unless more millions of American children and old people simply no longer receive health care because it is unavailable and unaffordable. I could see either of those scenarios turning apocalyptic and having a deleterious effect on the economy. 

Jeez, come on people!

1/21/2008

Vacuum

As a single mama, I'm starting to recognize the feeling of not only parenting, but living in a vacuum. There's so little outside interaction in a typical day for me that I begin to feel as though the outer world were not much more than a shadowy dream. It makes it hard to get up a lot of urgency about things like paying bills, accomplishing work, really anything that is not directly and immediately part of getting through the day. 

As I try to express this sensation it's sounding like depression, but that's not how I'm experiencing it. I mean - don't get me wrong, I have periods of depression, and a lot of it stems from my physical and psychological isolation, but that's not what I'm talking about here. It's a sense as I'm turning down the bed for nighttime or folding laundry that oh yeah, there's other stuff out there and I'm supposed to be engaged with it, but damn, what is it? And it doesn't really matter, does it?

I'm sure it's not an entirely unknown feeling to partnered parents of young children, but I'm also sure it's intensified by the lack of other people's face-to-face influence on my daily life. 

Pink Kitty

The cat is turning pink. Have you seen the pictures of that guy who made himself blue? I don't think he looks very blue, actually, more like an indefinable dark, but whatever. The cat is indisputably pink on the back of her neck and her paws. Haven't determined the source yet. I'm a little afraid to find out. 

I have discovered a fault in my cabling in the brim of Coronet. I'm sad, but no way I'm fixing it.

1/20/2008

Steam Heat

It's really cold here. The coldest it's been since I moved back a year and a half ago. I've really thrown caution to the winds and turned up the thermostat to 62˚. 

I do have a woodstove, a space heater under my desk, an electric mattress pad on the bed, and a fan heater in the bathroom, don't feel too sorry for us yet.

Crowned

I finished my Coronet, in Noro Iro, color 60. It's a teensy bit … snug… and the colors are a little blockier and contrastier than I'd envisioned, but overall I love it and my head is warm. I nearly ran out of yarn, which is part of why it's not a little more spacious. 

I'm considering knitting another out of another colorway of Iro, for my aunt, but haven't decided. I don't think she'd be wild about the snugness, but then again I don't know that she's going to be wild about a hat at all. I've knitted one for everyone else in their household though and I'm worried she's going to take it personally if I don't do one for her. Expectations are so f*cked!