With Some Difficulty

1. This morning when we got up the brand spanking new coffee maker was broken- and yielded only beige hot water that smelled slightly of coffee… as though it had considered it’s intention to become coffee and thought better of it.

2. This was evidenced in the worse possible way, as the coffee maker made all the coffee maker sounds, and then brightly announced that coffee was ready – when in reality it was all a lie.

3. That felt dishonest.

4. I am less than three weeks from a book deadline, which means that I am pretty much a total crazy person. I am not sure that books can be finished with out coffee, and I don’t think I’m a strong enough person to find out.

5. I feel proud that the people around me yet live.

6. When I had recovered from the shock and gotten coffee from the shop nearby, my next door neighbour phoned me from my attic. It is disconcerting to have someone call from your attic.

7. We live in a semi-detached, but our attics are fully attached. This makes it only slightly less disconcerting to be called from your attic.

8. It turns out that there our squirrels living in our joint attic. This surprised me less than it would someone who does not have a longstanding antagonistic relationship with squirrels. 

9.  I went outside, and he waved at me through the hole in our roof that is the point of invasion.

10. I thought about switching from coffee to scotch.

11. I didn’t. 

12. Instead I cast on for something out of a nice pile of chunky baby alpaca.

13.  I cast on more than 200 stitches.

14. I knit about six rounds.  That’s about 1200 stitches.

15.  That’s relevant because it is about the point at which I noticed that while I had joined, being very careful not to twist, the alpaca was twisted anyway.

16.  I am still not drinking scotch, but I did consider gnawing the snot out of the stupid dishonest alpaca.

17.  Didn’t. Still proud.

18. Happy Thanksgiving weekend to my American friends. 

19. I am glad it’s not Thanksgiving here, so I can get a coffee maker and get someone to fix the hole without contending with even the idea of "Black Friday" which sounds like a nightmare for those who are forced to shop in it by circumstances involving coffee, squirrels and duplicity.

20. I forgot to ask my neighbour if – while he was up in the attic,  he saw any of the yarn and fleece that #$%^&*%ing squirrel was stealing from me a few years ago.

21. I hate squirrels.

22. I am none too fond of alpaca at the moment either.

23. Sadly, still love coffee.

24. Happy weekend.