Sorry, Jerry Garcia...

"What a long, strange road it's been." 

The last two days have been... Well, they have been a royal pain in the butt.  Interesting in only the Chinese curse sense of the word. 

I had a performance at a school almost on the border between Oregon and Washington.  (I do Renaissance history performaces for schools.)  This is about a 3 hour drive, give or take.  I did manage to con, uh, vince the other performer to drive through the metro areas, I don't do that well... 

We did the performance all right, except that about halfway through, I choked on my own saliva, and had to leave the poor guy all alone for a bit, while I tried to regain my breathing skills.  Somehow, sounding like I am going to hack up a hairball, and turning purple, wasn't part of my agenda.  He did alright, and after a glass of water and a cough drop, I managed to get through the rest of the performance unscathed... 

Until I got back to my truck, and realized I'd left my cell phone somewhere.  I searched, the guy I was with searched, we tried calling my cell phone.

Nothing. 

I borrowed his phone, and promptly figured out I am stuck in the late 90's.  It was an Android.  I didn't even know how to start it.  Once it was on, I think I managed to have it turn to 'sleep' mode because I took so long to work out what to do.  I managed to make a call to Husband, to call Mom, and let them both know I was okay, just couldn't find the blasted phone. 

Or...

I thought I had.

I checked in the Starbucky's that we'd been by, they hadn't had one turned in.  (They also have extremely limited tea selections.  I guess that's why it's a coffee house, huh?)  I thanked them, and after convincing the guy I was with I needed to leave, (he'd forgotten I still had about 2 hours left to get home), I took off. 

It rained buckets.  I was behind a semi.  At Rush Hour.  I 'ate soup' for most of the trip home.  And decided to skip the rest areas so I didn't have to try getting on and off the freeway.  So I stopped at Mom's, as I really had to pee.  She hadn't received the message, and was worried.  I told her that Husband should have called, I had left him a message.  Called Husband from Mom's, and he was worried, he hadn't received the message. 

Joy of technology.  May it long receive a one finger salute...

I managed to get home, and at the door, Husband told me the message that I had left AT 4:30 had just arrived at 6 or a little after, right after my call.  That helped. Yeeeaaah...

I was so tired and furious, and just generally wound up, that I couldn't settle down.  The head of the group I perform for called by the end of the evening to let me know the school called, they had my phone.  (I still can't figure out why they didn't call with my phone, I have several things titled "Mom" "Home", etc, that they could have more directly contacted me.  Eh.)  So, with the help of the guy I performed with, and the group head, I may get my phone back Saturday or Monday. 

So I went to bed disgusted, and woke up the next morning.  And felt like my head was going to blow off.  I had a sinus headache as big as the national debt, and twice as ugly.  I didn't exercise.  Even putting on my shoes was a challenge, because when my head went as low as my shoulders, my brain pulsed.  And not in a good way.  So my usual Wednesday blog was a non-starter.  I did not do a whole bunch.  I even had to fight with the copier at the substation.  I just figured I must have had really, REALLY bad tech karma, for some reason.

On the bright side, I did end up losing .6 of a pound.  That was about the only real big plus for the day. 

When I worked at the substation on Wednesday, there was a call out for ambulance and deputies at a road near my house. One of the deputies was filling out paperwork, and was called directly from dispatch, please go help, it's a mess.  After a quick "be safe" from me, he went out. 

I came home without incident.  Husband met me at the door, "Did you hear about the big accident at Xity-x Road?"  I told him I had, and saw a deputy have to leave quick time to help. 

"I'll bet.  The chippers that we have been getting truckloads from?  One of the guys had just gotten down from the bucket truck, when a dually truck hit the chip truck from behind, doing about 55."  (Nothing like 1 degree of separation!) 

It was a mess, the dually driver had to go to the hospital.  None of the chipper guys were hurt. Badly shaken, but not hurt.  The truck was a mess, the trailer was pushed in almost 2 feet.  They still don't know if the guy had fallen asleep, drunk, what have you, but they did know he is a local, and had passed the chippers several times in the last few days, so he was (or should have been) aware of them being there. 

Wow.

Well, here is the fruits of the chipper's labor (Rudee in picture for scale.)  This isn't even all of it, we used a big bit for the chicken house.  So they have been busy.  ( I don't know if the broken truck was able to unload, but it sounded like it was pretty much a mess, might not even have been drivable, from what I heard, so I never was able to see the end result.  Which probably was a good thing, all things considered.)

And see?  All the chips have made the chicken house great to walk through, and all the chickens have nice, clean feet again!  (They don't seem really impressed.  The llamas, either.  I don't care.  They look better, I am not tracking mud so much, and it's much dryer in the hen house.

So I am desperately hoping that the next few days are without incident.  I am laying low, knitting a bunting for a friend that is preggers. (Yeah, I started a new project, this one doesn't count.  Grin.)  So I will show you pictures once I am beyond 12 rows of stockinette stitch. 

Oh, and my Mom has started reading my blog pretty regularly, and loves to read all your comments, as well as my musings.  So, (blatant beg) leave a comment!  Say hi, even!  ; ) 

I hope to catch up on everyone's blogs, now that it doesn't feel like someone stuck a blow torch in my ear...

Getting back to posting...

I took a bit of time off.  I had family that was coming out to our house (to see the cat).  That stupid cat has a better social life than most PEOPLE that I know!  So I spent some time making sure the house was presentable, we had enough seats.  (This is something I have to do.  A flat surface, such as the area beside me on the couch, becomes a makeshift knitting table with amazing swiftness.)  Then making sure that it was as baby safe as I could make it. (Family brought... I think she is two years old, and she is a wonderful little umpty umpth cousin to me...) 

And I have changed my blog icon to reflect the cougar that seems to want all the attention.  I am going to try and get photos on the sides of my animals, so no one forgets old Tux, but I figure, with that cat, I can decorate for the holidays and such.  (Now how am I going to get rabbit ears on that thing?)

So, that was taken care of, and now that I am finally, but finally over that cold, (I had a nagging cough for over two weeks!), I went back to my spinning class.  Then some catch up on all the 'stuff' that I needed.  Let's just say, I am glad llamas and chickens eat more or less the same food, as I was feeding everyone the same thing for a day or two until I could get to the feed store.  I suppose I could have asked Husband, but he is busy with work, so I figured,well, cracked corn seems to fill up everyone.  And with the llamas being somewhat sloppy eaters, it gives the chickens "leftovers"...  (Re reading this, I might mention that Husband and Rudee did NOT have to eat cracked corn.  Though Rudee would, if I would let him...)

Fixed the fence.  You will notice there is no picture.  I did a hideous job that I am not proud of, but it does keep Rudee from going into the neighbor's field.  It did not, however, keep that little PITA dog of the neighbors for managing to nose UNDER the thing again, so I am going to get land mines heavy fencing, and some hog rings, and see if I can defeat the little monster that way. 

This is becoming personal...

I came home to the smell of fir trees.  I wondered what that was all about, when Husband told me we had a load of chips delivered from the power company.  In this area, if you let the company know that you would be willing to take them, they will give you the chips from clearing the right of way. (Otherwise they have to take it to the dump and pay for it.)  This is mostly pine, fir, and occasional other stuff.  But mostly fir, it smells like, this round.  We want to put a bunch of it on some of the sinking areas where the llamas walk from the back field to the front.  Also, my chicken yard could use a good going over, since the rainy season has floated away a lot of our work, leaving a mud ball out in front...

I am knitting a baby blanket.  I said it was a baby boy's blanket, as I am making it in blue with a "diamond plate" pattern.  Well, Husband disagrees, saying that the diamonds are all connected, and big. Diamond plate is tiny, and not connected.  Hmph.  Well, just so happens, I have a pattern for small, non-connected solid diamonds.  The gauntlet has been dropped, and so I know what I will be working on NEXT blanket! 

Speaking of Husband. You remember, the guy who doesn't like cats?  He was so disappointed, he'd tried to get me a Maine Coon, ahem, for ME, that someone was getting rid of on Craig's List. 

He hates cats.  My Aunt Fanny, he hates cats...

And I said that I would get some pictures of the tree that fell?  Here is the root ball. I can't reach the top well, so it's a bit tall taller than 8 feet (about 2.5 meters).

And the tree itself? I am guessing 30 to 40 feet or more (9 to 12 meters), probably more.  It knocked down a smaller tree nearby.  But, again, no one hurt, no fences down.  No llamas squished.  And we will have more firewood.  I guess it's all good.  So far. 

But I am not hauling firewood yet, mid August, either...