I've Been Renovicted!

A year ago my landlord died suddenly & left his wife with no pension, no insurance, two kids in university & two kids still at home. At the time I wondered how she would survive. I helped with some paperwork, gave her the best advice I could & started to think about moving. I hate moving!!! I should've could've moved several times over the last years but was too comfortable in my spot. I've been in the basement suite for almost 20 years. I've watched the kids grow up, the neighbors move in & out. In all that time the furnace has never been serviced nor the ducts cleaned. I've had a stove replaced only when it became a fire hazard, bought my own fridge, had three major floods from failing pipes, installed my own kitchen hardware & made do. I've been cold in the winter, listened to screaming & fighting upstairs, been refuge & go-between in marital disputes & put up with her cheap & chintzy ways - she unscrews my patio light if I leave it on. But I could afford it, it's good most of the time, he didn't raise the rent for years, I had two bedrooms, I had my own drive & patio just outside my door, pretty convenient to buses, shopping, the hospital & three coffee shops!! But, times have changed & I've often wondered how she makes ends meet without his paycheck.

Two scared 20-something kids came to talk to me yesterday with papers that say I have 4 months to move. I wasn't surprised to see them. The kids told me that their mother refuses to sell the house but she's willing to use some of the equity to do some major repairs & upgrade the basement suite. We all know the plumbing & wiring was bad when I moved in. I suspect they talked about doing some work when I moved out but I never did. I had a very frank talk with the boy a couple of months ago about a lot of other problems in the suite that will need fixing as well. If they do gut it & do all the things they're supposed to, there should be no problem getting $2500 or more a month for it in the current Vancouver rental crunch. And that's totally out of my league.

I must be getting really old but I decided to stay home & let others enjoy the snow this year!! I didn't even go out to empty the GREEN recycling container. I had almost 9.5 inches of snow on my car hood by Monday evening & I decided I didn't really want to plow through the snowy side yard to dump a bucket. The landlord's kid shoveled my patio & a path to my car for me Monday morning but you could barely see it by Monday night. No one in my alley got out on Monday. After dark, the guy at the end of the alley snuck in his tandem tractor & made a path in & out which helped a couple of neighbors but mostly everyone stayed home & dug out drives on Tuesday. I think we were all waiting for the garbage trucks to come & mow down the snow but no one came. By Thursday some people were able to get out & today it rained all day dissolving some of it, washing some off the car & leaving huge puddles where drains might be .   .   .   .   

I don't shovel any more. My hands & wrists hurt too much to shovel so I gave my big shovel to the landlord's kid. He's 15 & healthy enough to keep his mom's drive & mine clean!!! And there's no place I have to go where I have to drive in the snow even though I have winter tires on. I don't worry much about getting out but more about getting back in since I have to back in over a hump & up a slope.
There's enough food in my cupboards to feed me for a couple of months since I still buy in bulk so I don't NEED anything except fresh milk, fruit & some veggies. Today I made a big pot of chicken & turkey soup - I found legs & a big thigh in the freezer! I peeled a butternut squash getting soft & tossed in celery, baby spuds, garlic & onions after browning the meat & let the whole thing simmer on very low for several hours. It was soooooo good. Perfect snowy day food. Since the rain has washed my car almost clean, I'll be heading out tomorrow to Hen Long to buy roast pork, sausages, fried bananas, egg tarts, baby bok choy, broccoli, dried noodles, fish balls, fish sauce, cherry tomatoes & fruit.

Yes, I do a lot of my shopping at the Chinese grocery store! They have the freshest fruits & veggies. And absolutely the best roast & BBQ pork. Milk is expensive but everything else is less than half the Safeway price.

On the needles - I am fixing the last pair of socks that I put my finger through trying to pull them on my right foot when my knee wouldn't bend. What a pain in the butt. A lot of them are old socks so I am thinking of making new ones - most of the old ones are more than 10 years old with partially felted feet & thinning everywhere else so I'm not losing much.
While rooting through my sock yarn bins - I had to buy another one & organize a little - I found I could knit myself another two dozen socks easily & still have yarn left over .  .  .  .   And while rooting around, I found several balls of Cascade Wool in neon colors.  There's not enough to make a sweater & I was warned that the stuff felts like crazy but it should be great for slippers & hats. Did I mention that I now freeze rather quickly with my new crew cut???? A hat is next on the list of things I need NOW.
By the way, to all you Sock Knitters out there - Yarn Canada is having a sale on sock yarns. There's Arne & Carlos, several OPAL lines, some Patons and a couple of others that I've forgotten already. I will admit I slipped & fell & bought a couple of OPAL Rainforest colorways .   .   .   .

Snow for Valentines Day

It seems we get winter in February nowadays. Usually just in time for Valentine's Day. And it  looks like this year won't be an exception. I remember working in West Vancouver years ago & spending 7 hours getting home to a new husband over 2 bridges & a freeway in the days BEFORE cell phones. There was no way to call for help or let anyone at home know what was going on. You just geared down & kept moving around all the abandoned cars. If they didn't close the bridges before you got there, you usually got home or shared a hotel room with several other stranded people. Luckily I don't have to travel to & from work when it snows anymore & get to watch it from my home office windows. I was actually on the phone to friends Sunday afternoon when it started to snow like crazy & we all opted to stay home instead of meeting for coffee. Even a couple of inches can close down the Vancouver burbs in a hurry & I'll bet we have between 4 & 6 inches out there as I type. Good thing I went out on Friday & picked up bread, TP & a latte. Should be some fun in the morning!!!

I haven't been too ambitious lately, I've barely knit anything, nor sewed a thing although I have been working on a top-down raglan garter sweater in Briggs & Little 'Hertiage'. It's just a simple top-down that will be garter to the top of the arm & then plain knit when I close the deep V front. Haven't decided to put sleeves on it or leave it as a simple Cap sleeve vest. It's for my niece who spends a lot of time shoveling on her hobby farm & must dress in layers. I'm thinking it may be more useful as a vest that she can wear under a jacket or over a long sleeve shirt when she's doing chores. Sometimes it's all you need to keep you warm when you're working hard. I thought about making myself one for the winter but most of my shirts are short sleeved. But, who knows, I may yet finish one for myself - maybe it's just the sleeves that keep me from finishing anything. Then I can go back to Paleontology. And spinning. And making good bread & tasty soups.

First up - I need to make myself a touque - got my hair all cut off again because of the eczema in my scalp - and my head is freezing!! Not a good time of the year to have hair a half inch long! haha  And I have the sweater in handspun to finish although I've just about finished - still have a ball or two left - that giant triangular blanket I knit in all those odd fall colored balls. It's huge & I wish I'd made a rectangular blanket instead!!! I've been spending too much time lost on YouTube watching the Fat Ladies Cook & The Time Team dig up Britain to finish anything. Time, I guess, to get my TV back in order so I have a comfortable place to sit & knit.