I love Tax Season

Yeah baby, it's Tax Season again!! I like this time of year. I make the annual rounds of all my shut-ins & elderly folks - I've been doing some of their taxes for 30 years - to see what's going on in their lives & letting them know about mine. I really DO enjoy the tax thing. I like the puzzle of it all because an expense is not necessarily what it appears to be, it's what you CALL it that counts. I know I'm a little odd but I truly like the tax stuff. It's the data entry that I'm not really fond of but that's where the bread & butter work is most of the time.  

I like working out of my home office. I've been pounding away till 5 AM most weekends & sleeping in till noon. Not a bad schedule when the weather's bad & you don't want to commute anyway. But as soon as it starts getting light at 5 AM, I'll be sleeping at night & getting up earlier. Now that I'm back in the home office, I can plan on spinning in the early morning all summer this year for a change. I think it's the best time of the day when it's light outside, the hanging baskets are all planted & the birds are raising families. It's the worst time of day when it's dark & cold. According to some mystics, the hours between 3 & 5 AM are  the lowest part of the bodily cycle & the time when the spirit goes wandering. I wonder .  .  .  .  .

 The Chicken project bag above was sewed by a knitting friend named Dotty. I won it in a draw a couple of years ago. Isn't it great??? It's lined with barbed wire fabric & easily holds a sock project.

Meanwhile, in the Chicken bag - I have one sock finished & the next one started in the 4ply Kroy. They've been traveling in my bag lately so I only work on them

while I'm out & about waiting somewhere. They're nothing too spectacular in color but they are thick & warm. They're going to a new home of a commuter who stands at SkyTrain freezing her feet on a daily basis. She won a pair of my hand knit socks in the office draw & has worn them to & from work ever since. I'm taking pity on her frozen feet by supplying a second pair before the first wear out.

There's even an order for new Frankensocks that I want to get out of the way quickly. These ones are to be in Blues. I have a lot of blue leftovers in the box & the bag. And I'm sure there's another damned box around here somewhere but it's buried under something I guess. I have several old yarn end balls
located already & will probably find more as I go  .  .  .  Luckily for me, these socks will be a ladies large so I won't be knitting for weeks on end. I found several different solid colors in the bottom of the box as well. In the olden days, I used to knit men's socks in the wonderful blue & grey speckled Confetti yarns & put solid toes on every pair so that they could be matched up more easily. I had great fun putting wild colored toes on each & every pair. When the owner wore them to work, everyone in the office had to see which color the toes were THIS time around. I just can't stand a plain sock!!!!

Is it spring yet??

I'm not as exciting as I used to be. I used to be able to sing & roller-skate & play tennis at 5:30 in the morning. I ran everywhere I could & hiked for miles when I was young. My mother used to beg me to slow down because I walked too fast everywhere we went. I wanted to do everything NOW. Well, almost everything. I was in no hurry to have a husband & kids. As the oldest of 3, I became the oldest of 6 at 13. I loved my little brothers - I helped pick them out - but everywhere I went for the next year, I had a baby on my hip. My mother & I shared their upbringing. And I discovered how much I like part time parenting. I think we should practice part time parenting a whole lot more than we do. I don't see why two or even three people can't share the raising of common children. I'm not advocating plural marriage here, just sharing kids. Mind you, plural marriage has it's advantages too BUT, if I'm gonna do it, I want multiple wives & husbands. Not one guy hogging several wives!! Why not Line Marriage?? Add a spouse of either sex now & then. Have you read Heinlein?? "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" talks about Line Marriage & it's advantages. Some of us like babies, some of us don't. I prefer them when they can walk & talk but before they rant & swear. Stuff them into a barrel at 15!!! I like teaching independence & life skills at an early age. And I love them when they're still not too big to cuddle or climb into your lap in the big chair when they're tired.

I was flirting with a little guy about 3 yesterday while I tried to catch up with my Botony homework at Starbucks. I may not be too exciting but, damn, I can still pick up the little boys .  .  .  . 

And what am I working on these days??? Kroy socks of course. The current ones are a little dull but they're thick & warm & will keep my old dawgs comfy in my cold basement office. Even though the sun is now beaming in the window, the cement floor is icy & I need a wool sweater & wool socks to keep me warm as I work. I just love this 4ply Kroy which I knit up with two Chiagoo 2.75mm circs. My favorite 2.25 ones are just a tad too small for 4ply but perfect for the 3ply. This picture is a little old since I'm now decreasing for the toe. But, it's the best your gonna get right now.

I Finally Did It

Yes, by gawd, I finally did it. I finished those socks. You know the ones, they're for the Dental Assistant with the big feet. And the only one, other than the Dentist himself, who doesn't give me galvanic shocks when I'm in the Dental Chair. Now, most of us aren't too happy to be in that chair in the first place but just try it out when you get shocks from everything they shove in your mouth. So, I'm very fond of my Dental Assistant despite the time she overfilled the impression tray with pink gunk & choked me with semi-solid goop. But, I still like her a lot.

The socks are Frankensocks - made up of leftovers from other socks. Lara wanted PINK socks but I didn't have enough in one color to make her size so I thought I'd haul out the box of leftovers to see what I could do. And tada - here they are. You know?? They kind of remind me of Spring & flowers just bursting into bloom.

The Next Day

Well! The test turned out to be as simple & boring as an X-ray in the end. Stripped to the waist, got TWO gowns too small - they only come in two sizes, too big or too small - & climbed onto an apparatus that looked like a counter attached to a huge hair drier. The Technician was a whiz at inserting IVs & zipped it into the back of my hand like she'd done 10,000 of them before mine. She probably had!!! I never even got to say anything other than "WOW, you're a Pro." So, if anyone tells you horror stories about the CAT Scan, throw your arms in the air &
laugh out loud. I never felt anything other than the tiny prick of the IV. Never noticed the dye other than a faint feeling of heat in my groin. And that might've been my imagination. I did my deep breathing & hummed my Ohmmmms softly as it banged away. The only real problem I had was a muscle spasm between my shoulder blades from the hard, flat surface when I sat up. Hopefully the results will be as uninteresting as the test .  .  .  .  Mind you, I wouldn't say NO to being able to sing along to my radio once more.

One More Test

Tomorrow I head to the hospital for the next test in the series to find out why one of my vocal chords is paralyzed. I've never had a CAT scan before & I understand I get to shove my head & upper chest into a medical contraption that's supposed to reveal all the secrets of my inner workings in that area. I'm secretly scared to death - I hate needles - I understand they're gonna shoot me full of some dye that will make me want to throw up & pee my pants at the same time. What a thrill .  .  .  .  I suppose its time I got some of those services I've been paying for all my life but I'd rather be looking over someone else's shoulder while they get the needle full of dye, thank you. I'd donate to somebody else right about now. I'm supposed to be drinking tons of fluid to plump up my veins for tapping but they've already decided to send the fluid directly to my bladder instead. All I've done all day is pee. It should be fun tomorrow. By the time I get there, I'll be in a sweat, the blood vessels will shrink down to nothing & I'll spend all my time in the washroom, peeing. Sigh. I'd rather be knitting.

I'm taking the latest sock with me. I only have a toe to finish & then it's done. My Dental Assistant Lara will be thrilled with her new socks. And I'll make sure I take one last photo before she gets them. It's usually the part I forget.

And it's tax season folks. Get your paperwork out & get it in gear. Don't be like the fellow who's taxes I worked on all day yesterday - he hadn't filed in 7 years. And you can just imagine what his bill is like today. I wish I could get a wool deduction - wouldn't that be grand??? If & when it happens, I'll let you all know.

Suddenly it's March

I woke up the other morning & discovered it was March. Working from a Home Office has that effect on you when you don't commute or see people from day to day. Sometimes I don't turn on the radio or television for days because I'm working a job with a lot of data entry & I get lost in audio books instead. This week I've listened to Dana Stabenow's first two books in the Liam Campbell series. Alaska again, but from a white State Trooper's view. Entertaining, still the world of Kate Shugak - I love that series -  but from the Townie perspective instead of the Homesteader. Shhhh, I snuck in a Star Wars novel just for fun, a new Han Solo offshoot called 'Scoundrels' where he's young, single & still dodging Jabba the Hutt. And I just bought a new addition to the "Private" series by James Patterson. Private is where you go when no one else can help you. It's a combination of Detective/Spy/Mission Impossible/security in a chain of establishments that seem to have popped up in all major cities of the world .  .  .  .

As a result, I haven't done a lot of knitting although I finished the Hoodies & sent them on their way. I forgot to take a photo but will ask for one of the two boys in their new hoodies. Apparently they look cute, fit just fine & are already loved by both boys. Not bad for never having seen the boys!!!  Now the big brothers want hoodies too but in solid colors. I don't mind - sewing in all those ends in the striped sleeves was a real pain in the ass.

The Dental Frankensocks are almost finished. Since they've become car knitting, I don't get a lot of time to work on them. But the first one is done & I just have to finish the toe decreases on the second to finish them off .  .  .  .  well, there are all those ends to sew in. But, Pink is definitely the dominant color. I should knit a few more pairs of Frankensocks while I'm at it because the leftovers box grew by 50% when I organized them all & put them in one spot. I'm really not interested in a blanket of any sort so maybe it's time to knit gloves for next winter instead.