Whew! It is just hot and the air is stagnant and brown. It is interesting that there was an article in the the paper this morning about how in the 1800's this area was like this most of the time. California is built to burn, unfortunately, and with that totally freakish dry lightening storm a couple of weeks ago, what can burn is burning. I think that mother nature is really really pissed off at the lot of us.
Speaking of that...has anyone seen Pixar's Wall-E? I have to admit to having an uncontrollable leakage from my tear ducts as the credits were rolling to the sound of Peter Gabriel's raspy voice. This may be a G rated movie but the message is hardly G rated. We's the problem, McGee.
Problems...will anyone on a Mac please tell me whether you can see the pictures from this and the last post? We can't see them here and I know that folks on Window's machines can get the pictures with no problems. A certain someone told me that Uranus is screwing our technology and what can I say about that? Check, please!
It has been quite a long while since I talked about my mother. She is sitting in her bed at the Placerville Pines, kind of like a Chinese Empress but without the bound feet and fancy duds. I go there once a week to talk about mostly nothing that she cares about, hoping that I can have the distraction of our daughter or someone else there to deflect the energy. A couple of weeks ago she announced that she figured that she would never come "home". I said, why do you think that and she pierced me with that "I'll get you my pretty" look and said, because I am not wanted. I blushed a deep crimson and could not do more than stammer around. I told her over and over again that she had to be able to get up and out of bed unaided for us to have her back at the house. The other alternative was to bring in a full time aid to live in. She says, Oh no...I don't want anyone there and I said that we could not give her the full time nursing that she needs. She told me to Quit Talking. SLAP. Rod kept talking about how if she is not happy where she is, he could look for another place and she told HIM to Quit Talking. I was flummoxed enough to just turn into that 16 year old again...Mama ain't happy. We left her to run an errand for her and when I came back alone, to bring her the things that she asked for, she took my hand and said...Lisa? You know that I love you, don't you? Sure mom, sure...the kiss of the abuser. So, I keep a buffer between me and her. It is too painful, otherwise. The therapist that visited today said that she seems very happy and not depressed one bit. The Chinese Empress. I think that she is only unhappy when I show up.
I think back to her birthday, last August, when her best friend from the Opera days called to wish her a happy birthday. Mom listened and then just put the phone down on the bed. I thought that she was talking all of the time that I left her alone but realized that she had just laid the phone down without hanging up. Her friend called back, horrified. She told me to put my mother in a home. I laughed it off at that time, figuring that this was my lot in life. She put HERSELF in a home. She was never a warm fuzzy woman. She would get perturbed at the kids because they did not fawn all over her but they were scared to death of her. I was the only one that could be Cinderella. They are polite but only see her as a kindness to me. Sad, isn't it? This woman created this life and is now happy enough with strangers changing her diapers and bringing her food. I never thought that I would see the day that the Steel Trap Mind would allow this. There you have it but there is still enough of My Mother in there to scare the crap out of me.
On to nicer things. I took a new shot of the fabulous Ultrafine Merino handspun that was in the last post. This is the fiber that goes directly to Italy for the mills over there and my friend Melissa scores an itty bitty amount of it for we spinners. It is unbelievably soft and that is that. Oh yeah and this fiber costs almost 4 times as much as plain old superfine merino but who's counting? :o)
I have a Guest Spinner now. Christine the Cheeky Redhead has finished a second project for me and so it is about time I showed you what she did with the first Superwash Merino in the Evah-glade colorway. I am going to have Holly put this and the other yarn up on the site very soon. Most of the skeins that Christine spun are about 100 grams and 205 yards,at what I would call a sport to DK weight. A couple of them are a bit more dramatic in their coloring, like the one at the top, but the rest are pretty much the same look. This will give you an idea of how this fiber spins up, if you have been staring at it in the unspun form.
Sorry about your mother, but no guilt trips allowed. You've done more that most.
As to the photos, all are showing on both my Intel iMac and my iPod touch. The yarn is gorgeous and Schnickle is growing like crazy.
Hugs and good wishes,
Phyl
Posted by: RedfordPhyl | July 08, 2008 at 03:57 PM
Lisa, your pictures are showing up beautifully on my G4 iMac -- great yarn.
Posted by: Merna | July 08, 2008 at 04:42 PM
Well, that means that it is JUST US. Phooey. Now Rod has to figure out what is stinky on our two computers. Thanks to my Mac Users!
Posted by: Lisa Souza | July 08, 2008 at 05:04 PM
Sometimes I think one of the valuable things abusive people do is teach us how kind we are just in the fact that we keep trying.
Posted by: AlisonH | July 10, 2008 at 05:04 PM
I should add, but sometimes there must be limits. For their sake as well as ours.
Posted by: AlisonH | July 10, 2008 at 05:05 PM
Hi Lisa
I also have a MAC with OS10.4 and I see the pictures just fine.
Glad to hear that you are safe hopefully the fires aren't too close to you.
Take care
Posted by: Lyle Rice | July 11, 2008 at 12:48 PM
Been thinking of you, wondering how you were making out with the CA wildfires. Hope that you are still okay.
Just hang on. That goes for both home and the Placerville fronts.
Posted by: junieann | July 11, 2008 at 01:30 PM
Sorry about the double post. This laptop is weird. Please delete the extra post for me and this one too. Thanks
Posted by: junieann | July 11, 2008 at 01:33 PM
Beautiful yarns!! I have to confess - the Bachelorette sucked me in, too! Wonder if she and Jessie have broken up yet? Poor Jason! Every first show, I swear I am NOT going to watch.
Posted by: Robin | July 16, 2008 at 05:19 PM
Oh Lisa, you are singing my song about mothers. I bet we're related. We must be.
My mom died in July, unexpectedly, and I am left with so many conflicting feelings about her death and our relationship.
That's why I bought some of your "Wild Things" at OFFF... have kinda been feeling like one lately.
Posted by: Mokihana | November 17, 2008 at 09:19 PM