Putting the suitcase away....

The last road trip of the year...so far as I know, anyway.

Drove myself to a large cabin in the mountains of North Carolina...taking a very roundabout route to avoid all of the 'essential travel only' areas that are marked in both North Carolina and Tennessee.  I decided I'd talk about the trip itself here...and the reason for the trip (a small writer's conference) over on the other blog, once I get it processed enough down to coherency.

I will just say that the willingness to make the 7ish hour drive by myself, in completely unfamiliar territory, is evidence that I REALLY, REALLY wanted to go.

I had obsessed over Google maps for the previous, like, month, trying to figure out the best way to go.  I had a plan, including a stop on the way back to visit with a friend in East Tennessee, then Helene tore through and wrecked all those plans.

My friend lives in the 'essential travel only' (henceforth ETO) area.  We discussed meeting up on the edge of said area for a bit as I went by, but she ultimately decided it was going to be too tough to get in and out.  We were sad to not get together (it's been 5 years since we last met up) but...too hard is too hard.

And google maps played with me.  I had planned one route out;  based on what I saw on the North Carolina maps, it looked like the route was good east bound, with some lane closures west bound, so I was going to take the longer route home, with a stop on the way (which I had planned before it became obvious I couldn't meet up with my friend.  Just decided to keep the overnight west of Knoxville to make the trip home easier).  But when I actually tried to bring up the route on my aging tablet  in the driveway before pulling out, the North Carolina route didn't even show up.  Instead, I had the option of going through the ETO area in Tennessee, or driving down to Atlanta and then back North.  And my tablet kept losing the GPS signal; that worried me.

I decided I'd stop for coffee in Starbucks in Chattanooga and check the map again and see what I got.

Then had problems with a tire pressure light about 8 miles from the house.  Not going into the details; turns out it was a problem with the sensor but I lost nearly half an hour dealing with it.  Worth noting that the problem never showed up again on the entire trip.

So, a potty break being a necessity, I stopped at a McDonalds about 1/2 of the way to Chattanooga, scrapping the Sbux plan, got a biscuit, hit the bathroom, and looked at the routes again.  I gave up on the tablet and pulled GM up on the phone.  Still wanted me to go to Atlanta or through the ETO area of Tennessee. I figured there was a problem on the North Carolina route, so  I manually selected the all-interstate route that went up into Virginia to connect with the ONLY interstate that currently crosses North Carolina, the route I planned to use coming back, and got back on the road.

As I approached where I would have headed East, had I been given the option of the NC route, Google suddenly says 'We've found a faster route that will save you 14 minutes'  At that point, I was a little weirded out..  Was there or was there not a problem on that route?  Heading towards the exit, I decided to stick with my (only 14 minutes, right?) longer route as a Sure Thing and kept going.  I assumed Google would revert back to my route choice, my phone screen being too small to quickly see where it was heading.  I relied on the voice directions, but I had a basic idea of where I was going.

Wrong.  I kept an eye on the ETA (we had been asked to be there between 4 and 5 Eastern) and I was looking pretty good.  Until I got the 'In two miles, take the exit to I 26/ Johnson City' alert.  Apparently, somewhere it had defaulted back to that ETO route  (why, Google??  Why???) and THAT was the '14 minutes longer' one...not the route through VA that I had selected.  It kept trying to reroute me that way at every exit I encountered until I got to Virginia.  Where I discovered that the I-77 exit wasn't around 40-50 miles in, as I had kinda rough estimated from looking at the maps, it was EIGHTY miles in.

I was going to be a bit late.

I knew the 4 - 5 o'clock time recommendation was a  bit ahead of the actual start of the event, but still, it put some stress on me at that point.

There was, however, a real treat going that way.

Virginia. Was. GORGEOUS.

ALL the trees were in full fall color.  One specific tree made a big impression...about 25 miles in, in the middle of the median (which was pretty wide at that point) was a huge, full, rounded maple tree on which all the leaves were a vibrant orange.  The sunlight lit it up so that it almost looked as if it were glowing.  None of the branch tips were bare yet; I'm telling you, it was magnificent.  Took my breath away.

The whole corridor was just brilliant with golds, yellows, reds, oranges..  It was hard to pay attention to the traffic, which was pretty heavy and needed attention. I stole glances as best I could at the display as I passed through.

But there was another treat.  Almost immediately upon getting on I77, which was nearly bumper to bumper in places and running 30 - 40 mph (I did say it is the only interstate that crosses NC right now...), there was a sign warning of an over 7-mile-long descent ahead.  The road literally ran down the bluff and the view off to the left was just unbelievable.  It was a bit hazy, but I could see for miles and miles.  I was glad we were going slow, it gave me the chance to look over at it three or four times on the way down.

It was not really visible on the way back, being over my shoulder as I went up the hill.  If I had come the other way, I wouldn't have seen it.

I got to my destination at about 5:30, with half an hour to get situated in my room before the event began with dinner. Just enough time to shake off the road stress, lol.

I was a bit bummed on both the trip out and the return trip that I couldn't share the beauty;  no one was with me to see it.  I couldn't take photos while I was driving.  It was a purely transitory experience.

Sunrise from the deck of the lodge on Saturday morning....

I will say the conference was worth the trip.  And I will also say that I'm glad I can collect all my travel gear and put it back in its storage spot for the foreseeable future.

And get back into creative mode again.

Everything BUT sewing...

 Good Grief.  How has it been two months since I last posted?  

Things have been ...busy... of late.

I have chipped away at a couple of projects in the sewing room but there's nothing really worth talking about in there.  Which is disappointing.

But, since I last stopped by,  we have had a trip to celebrate our anniversary, I made a spur-of-the-moment drive up to Indiana to help freeze sweet corn, driving up and back by myself,  we've had a holiday and a women's conference and a 10 day trip to Florida, where we spent a large portion of time with all the kids at Disney World.  

I had a button that read : "I am celebrating a New Hip!"...and got wished 'Happy Birthday' SEVERAL times.

Of course, we all did the Halloween Party in Magic Kingdom...and I pulled out the Edna costume for the 3rd time. 

Knowing how these things go now, I got a quick picture in the mirror before we left our (not on Disney property) resort, lol.  Good thing; I didn't get a chance to get a good pic of it later.

I got more reaction to it this year than I got last year; one of the cast members at the entrance told me I was the first Edna Mode he'd seen.  Which surprised me, because you can BUY an Edna Mode costume on Amazon.  But I heard 'No capes!' over and over again all night, lol.

If I could by chance meet up with the actual official Edna character for a picture I could retire the outfit and plan a different one.  I'm thinking Roz from Monsters, Inc, but we'll see.  

 I did NOT get the costumes done for the Florida kids' church wardrobe.  I got a good start on cutting one out, but that was it.  

I'm still working on a massive data repair project that is taking up days off.  I was planning to go in on Friday (our offices are closed on Fridays) for the 3rd time since we found the problem, but...I have laundry from the trip piled up, and we're supposed to have the remnants of a hurricane in our neighborhood on Friday...I may just stay home and do laundry.

And, dare I hope, spend some time in the sewing room?

Healing up...

Yesterday, I actually sat down to the sewing machine and did some sewing whilst having a zoom chat with a number of sewing buddies who all used to be part of the now-defunct Stitcher's Guild (Dragon Lady, I do hope you are doing ok...).

That was the first sewing of any kind that I've done since I whacked my right pinky finger on the mandoline on July 2.  Unfortunately, I can't share what it was because of the nature of the thing.  Sometimes things have to be...secrets.

I will talk about it...eventually, lol.

Actually, quite a lot of my sewing over the next  2- 3 months will be of the 'I can't talk about it on my blog'  ilk.  It will all make sense at the end.

I will take pictures, lol.

But...what I *can* talk about is costuming.  We did a first pass at sorting through the costumes...at least, getting like items all on a rack together instead of spread out over all the racks willy-nilly, which is how they were done.  We are, I am told, getting some additional industrial z-racks so we can refine the sorting somewhat once those come in and are assembled.

Then, perhaps, we can do some sort of inventory and see what we actually have now...which will give us a better idea of what we will need in the future.

I wish I had better organizational skills.  Maybe this will force me to learn some, lol.

On another note, the Great British Sewing Bee finale was last week.  Was anyone watching?  We had a discussion about it on the zoom call this morning and lamented that the quality of sewing just isn't up there ...due mostly to the ridiculous time restraints.  But, also, earlier in the series when the choice was between a fantastic vision/ design that isn't fantastically sewn and a well-sewn but less adventurous design that wasn't quite finished, the not went to the design and the person who had executed well but bitten off more than she could chew in the time allotted went home, I found myself wondering if they were looking for 'Britain's best amateur sewer' or 'Britain's best amateur designer'. I think that subtle shift happened when May Martin (a sewing educator) stepped down as one of the judges and Esme Young ( a fashion designer) took her place. In the final pattern challenge of this series, Patrick emphasized 'We have given you PLENTY  of time' to sew a pair of very fiddly opera gloves.  Looking at how everyone faired...I'd say they gave them plenty of time to sew it perfectly but no extra time to go back and fix mistakes that are likely to be made by someone who's never tackled something like opera gloves.  Of course, the winner of that challenge was the one person who had actually made gloves before.  The other two made mistakes they didn't have time to fix, which was sad.  I am not sure the best skilled sewer is one who never makes mistakes...or one who has the determination and wherewithal to undo and correct a mistake.

 I know  I am never the first type but hopefully the second, lol.

Back to Work

 ...an update of sorts.  I returned to my normal work hours last week so I guess I'm almost restored, lol.

My hip continues to improve; I've been released from physical therapy as they said I had improved enough.  I'm supposed to keep walking and do some strengthening exercises about three times a week.

Um.  yeah, sure...meant to do that...

But I am walking.  I've hit 7K steps pretty regularly and have even made it up to 10 k once or twice.  I'm at 8K right now and am planning to do some laps around the house to get up to 10 before I head to bed tonight.

The foot is still swelling slightly...more if I don't wear the compression socks.  At my post op visit a couple of weeks ago, I told the surgeon what was going on with my foot, and commented that it felt like a bad sprain.  I actually sprained that ankle really bad back in 2001, and it was very similar both in how it felt and how it was restricted.  He got kind of a funny look on his face and said, 'You know, sprains don't  really ever go away...in the course of the surgery we clamped your foot in a big boot-like stirrup and manipulated it pretty aggressively.  It's entirely possible we have aggravated that old injury.'

Well that would explain a LOT, lol.

But I can put on shoes and socks unassisted again, so that's a gain.   I feel like I'm about where I was a year ago, before the situation began to deteriorate at a faster pace.  I should continue to improve, so long as I keep moving, lol.

The finger is still bandaged.  It's extremely tender and I keep it bundled more to insulate it against bumps than to bandage the wound.  It is closing but it's slow.  And I'm making much use of the backspace as I'm posting because...9 finger typing...

On a whole 'nuther topic...We have gotten a dedicated room at church for costuming; a crew actually began the process of sorting and organizing the costumes last week; I'm going to stay late a couple of nights this week to do some as well. I'm told we'll need Bible costumes and some Dickens costumes for the Christmas production this year...not sure what else. Maybe we can get a jump on it and get some things created ahead of time; I'm thinking men's Bible costume vests/over coats, for sure. We seem to have developed a real shortage there... 

Not sure how well I can wrangle hangers with a bummed hand but we'll see....

...and the klutz is at it again...

 Got a mandoline (the slicer, not the instrument, lol) around Christmas last year; finally pulled it out to slice cucumbers for salad on Tuesday.

It was a fairly large cucumber, and I thought, 'My hand is a good 3" above that blade, I'll whittle it down a bit and then use the guard."

Stupid.  Stupid. Stupid.

I did fine for about the first dozen passes, then something happened...still don't know what....and the cuke twisted and threw my pinkie finger right down on the blade.

Y'all.  I was still on aspirin to avoid clots, post surgery.  That thing bled and bled and bled...we went to urgent care, where I went when I stupidly cut my index finger last year, but when I told them I was on aspirin they said I had to go to the ER.

So off we went...to the pricier (and closer) of the two hospitals.  It wasn't stitchable, so they put a compression bandage on it but it was still bleeding profusely after about a half hour (at this point I'd been squeezing my pinkie for about an hour and a half to two hours; my left hand was cramping) so they put some stuff on it to help the blood coagulate, wrapped it up tightly and told me to leave it for 48 hours. 'If it's still bleeding when you change the bandage, come back.'

It hurts worse than last year's injury.  Probably because my finger was twisting as it hit the blade.  I actually went looking for my post surgery pain meds  middle of the night on Tuesday, it hurt that badly.  But I had stashed them so well (didn't actually take them after surgery; it was never that bad) I couldn't find them.  I took an ice pack back to bed and managed to get back to sleep.

Well, not going into gross detail but the non-stick dressing completely adhered to the booboo so when we tried to take it off on Thursday...it pulled on the injury and it started bleeding again.

So we went back.  Following directions.  Was SO excited to go to the ER in the evening on July 4th, but they were surprisingly not busy, at least while we were there.

A soak in a sterile saline bath and the old dressing came free with minimal bleeding so I got bandaged back up and sent home with instructions to change it after another 48 hours.

Just changed the bandage again and that puppy is still oozing when disturbed. And it still hurts, although not so badly as earlier in the week.

Stupid. Stupid.  Been saying that a lot.

So much for getting back in the sewing room.

Sigh.

I am going to get myself some of those chain-mail gloves, lol.

I lost my blogroll...

 This hurts...

I had a long list of blogs that I followed from back in the day.  Unfortunately, some of them have fallen into ...other hands?...and were now being updated with non-sewing material, to put it mildly.

I repeatedly tried to edit out the blogs that were now talking about stuff other than sewing, or that set off my Unsafe Site alert when clicked, or that were now just filled with crazy asian script, but I could. not. get. Blogger to save updates.  The Save button just would NOT activate.  I tried over and over, over several months.

Then I hit on an idea...what if I just made a new blog list widget, with the bloggers that I could remember who were still publishing?  I could copy and paste from the old list pretty easily.  Then I could delete the old one and hopefully not get those random non- sewing links showing up

It was sad to go through the list and see all the fine folks who were no longer blogging.  And, it's true, some had even reactivated after several years of being dormant...that was exciting to see.  But truth was...any non- active blog seems to be subject to being hijacked and used for other purposes so I took a deep breath and just listed the ones I thought were active, as best I could remember.

It saved it...in the wrong place.  I tried to move it, but no dice, so I did a new one...again...

It saved, I thought, but all I managed to do was get rid of both the old list and the list in the wrong place.  The list in the right place, for whatever reason, didn't save.

So I will likely have to reconstruct it all from scratch again and that will take some time.

Bummer.

I guess this is the kind of thing that happens when I can't actually sew, lol.

I will say I am recovering from the hip surgery slowly.  It's one week out today and I actually managed to lift my foot high enough to get over the edge of the bathtub, so I could take a real shower.  Hooray for small victories...

New Parts....

 Specifically, a new right hip.  Installed on Thursday...and I'm really amazed at how little pain I have today.  And today is worse than yesterday, lol.  I figure tomorrow will be about the same and then we should start seeing improvement.  I hope to be consistently walking without the walker in a week.  I can do it a little now...but I'm trying to be good....

Incredible what new tecniques are out there for these things.  That surgery took 30 minutes.  

Maybe in a few weeks I can actually put on my own socks and tie my shoes again....

And get back into the sewing room.  I'm behind. ;-)