Life as a Spectator Sport

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Saturday, February 17, 2007

A long, long, long, long, week

Back home after six days on the road. The house was still here (I'm always convinced I'm going to come around that last curve in the driveway and find that it burned to the ground while I was gone). The pipes were not frozen, there were only three notices from UPS on the door and a couple of boxes left in the truck. And it doesn't appear that the mice were cavorting too badly while I was gone. So all I have to do now is finish up the rest of the paperwork from this trip, do six days worth of laundry, and get all the paperwork printed out for the next trip. I am so ready for a vacation.

This was the "Oh-oh, I forgot to [insert take a required picture, ask about empty coolers, note the presence of beer or wine or gas or lottery tickets or what have you], and I'll have to go back to that store" week. I'm trying to blame it on stress and sleep deprivation, because otherwise I'll have to accept the fact that my brain is turning to mush. It does not matter how many checklists I make or how painstaking I am. I have left half the stores I inspected this week convinced that I did everything I always do (and after eleven years it's not as though I don't know what to do), only to find as I'm processing the pictures and paperwork later on that I've forgotten something. Fortunately, none of the stores were more than fifty miles away by the time I discovered the problem, and only two of them actually required a return trip. It just made a six day trip out of what would have been only a five day trip otherwise.

I have to do one inspection tomorrow, and then I am going to take a couple of days off and do as close to nothing as possible. Maybe finish the second chain link sock. I have finally managed to turn the heel and knit most of the gusset.

And I did actually finish one side of the not-yet-felted tote bag. The picture doesn't show up well with my living room carpet for a background, since the border yarn is almost the same color, but I didn't have anywhere else big enough to spread it out flat. Now all I have to do is make another piece just like this one, then knit the long strip that forms the sides and bottom, and make 12 feet of i-cord that gets braided to make the handles. Oh yes, and then felt it. Considering that I've been working on this since just after Christmas, it may be sometime after next Christmas before it's finished. But it is a bit closer to useful reality than it was.
posted by Liz @ 7:06 PM     |


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