Welcome...

... to the new normal. Again. Every time I say what ELSE can happen, I find out. And it is never good. I cannot describe what it feels like for an entire community to be hit in the belly over and over. This new normal sucks. Really sucks. And I fear it is only just beginning.

Paterno was a good man, some will tell you great. He put his money and actions where his mouth was. He was smart, sarcastic, competitive, and meant what he said. He was also "untouchable"... until November. I won't rehash, or take back, what I've already written. I still think it's valid. However, he built something here that will not be replaced, and should be acknowledged. Many times I've attended sessions and meetings in the high tech auditorium and reading rooms in the Paterno Library. It is gorgeous. Many students are benefiting from the Paterno Fellowships, in Liberal Arts. My spidey sense tells me that there will be a cancer wing with the Paterno name on it at the medical center in the near future. (A wing is already under construction.) And most certainly the new Penn State Catholic Center and Chapel, also under construction with a large gift already from the Paternos, will be similarly titled. And this does not account for all their contributions to Special Olympics, THON, etc. There is no other athletic coach in history who has contributed this much for the greater good outside his/her sport. None.

So I fervently wish that the coach who, by all accounts went the "extra mile" for his players, staff, students and university, had also gone the extra mile back in 2002. Realistically, I understand why he probably didn't. One just wants to put something so heinous away from themselves as fast as possible. Do the appropriate thing and move on, fast - but it wasn't enough. The beleaguered board of trustees, did the right thing, in a ham fisted way. I can't blame them either, considering the circumstances of that week. 

 I have one memory of running into him, many years ago, after a football game. He was walking home from the locker rooms. DH and I just said "Hi, Coach", he said, "Howya' doin'?" No biggie, and I hadn't thought of it in years, until you start hearing the stories of the students who were thrilled when he barked at them "Get to class!", when they greeted him.

So the era ends. We knew it would. I wish the circumstances were different.

And so it goes...

...the services over the weekend were exhausting. Larry always marched to a different drummer than the rest of us, and the gathering of friends and acquaintances and all the "Dead" and "rock and roll" T-shirts in evidence, attested to this fact. I've now been to two services where not only did friends say good things about the deceased, they cried as they did it. People wrote music and played, wrote and read poems, it was quite the gathering. And though Larry requested a closed casket for the viewing (he felt it would be too hard on his beloved wife because of his debilitated condition), the funeral director did such a good job he looked wonderful...Really. Very handsome. So his wife went against his wishes and had an open casket. She felt he would forgive her. Frankly, knowing Larry, he'd have been ticked if he looked this good, and didn't get to be seen. So now his family must pick up the pieces and be gentle with themselves. I hope they are.

Meanwhile remember the Kauni sweater? Well, enroute to the weekend it made a trip to the frog pond. I pulled it out down to the ribbing, and am now reknitting with at #2 (3 mm) needle. I didn't have time to take another photo, but picture it pulled to the ribbing. (I liked the ribbing because it has a purple cast on...very pretty.) I showed it to the LYS owner (read: yarn source), and she thought it looked OK, and that I had three options: 1) forge ahead, and we could make the steek a little larger....2) gradually move down to a smaller needle; or 3) frog and reknit. My decision was made when she said...hummm the fabric seems a little looser that I've seen. So I'm getting a firmer fabric now. It took over an hour all told to pull and rewind the yarn. Longer than I had anticipated. Then again, because I had steamed it some to check my gauge, I was a little worried that I was not going to be able to pull it out at all. But it worked out fine. So I'm back to the beginning again. I only had to pull out between 30 & 40 rows, but it took a long time. Especially since I didn't want the yarn to tangle.

So maybe I'll get something done over the holiday. What I really want to do, though, is finish that damn Cozy.

Everyone have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. I'm going to visit my mom...I'm taking the wine. Lots of wine.

Famous Last Words.

My words were that we weren't expecting much snow. And while we didn't get what my sister and bro, to the east, got, 24+ inches, we did get 15. We were so certain that this "storm" wasn't going to live up to the billing we, and 4,500 other crazy people went to the wrestling meet on Friday night. We went to have a little toddy, and left for home about 10:30 pm. We could see that it was still snowing, however, it didn't look that "serious"....until you got on the roads.

Now, we have an interesting snow removal system around here. Meaning, it's hard to see that there is any. I often say that the town has one truck, two guys, and one shovel. It really looked that way on Friday. The roads were so bad, we couldn't see where our driveway was, and passed it up. This is not true of the smaller neighboring municipalities, so it is odd.

Saturday morning, when I looked for the paper, I only saw snow (and this was after DH shoveled the patio at 11:00pm when we got home).

I couldn't find the paper. When I called the delivery person he said that he started to deliver papers, but there was so much snow that he couldn't even get to the doors/driveways to deliver them. So he stopped. He also had the horrors of tossing a paper, having it get obscured by snow, and sucked into a snow blower.

Don't blame him a bit. So we got Saturday's and Sunday's papers together.....











This was the view out the front door. Yup, a 15 inch wall of
snow. I quickly shut the door.















That brings us to today, we have the second major snow fall in a week, and this one did not live up to the hype. We're going to end up with about 5 [more] inches, but the roads are horrible. To add insult to injury, our campus and the campus in Erie, are the ONLY TWO who are open in the whole state and everyone is ticked off. Really, ticked off. I was so looking forward to catching up on the laundry. Even a two hour delay would have helped. I lead such an exciting life.

Anyway, here are some pre and post felting photos of another pair of French Press Slippers. I think the pattern is pretty amazing. It felts down exactly right.














This pair was a mix of black and gray wool held together. The buttons are ceramic and I don't know how well they'll hold up, but we'll see.

Just because I can't let it go.....

I was embarrassed by the bru ha ha that the Women's Media Center, NOW, and other groups made about the Tebow ad. The fact that they were apoplectic about an ad that they HADN'T seen was the first hint. Then Monday when the president of NOW declared that CBS was endorsing violence against women (paraphrase), because the ad NEVER directly mentioned abortion, or even pregnancy, I realized how inconsequential these groups have REALLY become. They are now meaningless groups of fools. It worries me in a way, because there may yet come a time that they really do need to stand up for something important, and they have diminished themselves completely. On the other hand, it's gratifying to see them "outed" and for others to see what some of us have known or suspected for years. (I had this vision of a "war room" at NOW or WMC and them wringing their hands over the fact that there was nothing for them to criticize. "What can we say that won't sound stupid?" Ummm...bad choice.)

Rest in peace John Murtha. I think you had honorable intentions in the beginning. I also think you got too big for your britches. (Yeah, it's me the "racist".) Now Altoona/Johnstown need to step up and do what's right for the state and the country.

Farewell, goodby!

I can only hope that I can inspire someone .0001% of this!



Randy Pausch Memorial

They can put little skeins of sock yarn on the seats at my memorial.