And there was debris everywhere

Well. After such a long break my poppets, I owe you some sort of explanation, but the only thing I’ve got that make sense comes from Inigo Montoya, “Let me explain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”

To say that I landed hard here at home last week would be an understatment of an epic nature. I didn’t just land, I crash landed. I knew when I committed to two weeks away that when I walked in the door I’d be somewhat A) Behind and B) In demand. I was down with that. (When I say I was down with it, I mean more that I’d accepted it in the general way that you accept that someday you’ll have to clean the basement. You know it’s going to be crappy, but there’s no way out of it.) Coming home after a long trip is always rough – people and messes to catch up on, figuring out everything you’ve missed, finding out all that went on (putting the coffee cups right way around in the cupboard for the love of all things woolly can we not agree on this after this many years) unpacking all your scrambled stuff… reentry’s always a crap scene, and over the years I’ve gotten way, way better at it. Part of it is acceptance, and part of it is taking it easy on the way home so that I arrive well rested, and ready to fork over whatever’s needed. (Speaking of forks, what sort of person changes the order you keep the cutlery while his wife is away? A wild man. He’s a lunatic.)

muststashstripes 2015-11-23

(I’m just randomly going to show you some finished knitted stuff from the last few weeks. Here pictured a finished pair of sock for yours truly, knit from a skein of Must Stash perfect sock self-striping in “Chocolate Bunny Cake #2”)

muststashstripespicot 2015-11-23

muststashstripespicotcat 2015-11-23

This time though, that didn’t work out.  The Strung Along November Retreat (was lovely, thanks for asking) wrapped up Monday night, and Debbi and I had a day of meetings and tidying up to do on Tuesday, and then we’d both get home on Wednesday. That’s not really what happened though.  What happened was that the weather turned foul, a huge storm started to blow through, things got a little complicated for knitters heading home, and Debbi and I were extra busy that evening after everything was over, and I went to bed extra early feeling totally wiped out – with a half glass of wine undrunk on the table. (That should have been the first sign things weren’t right.)

watermellon 2015-11-23

(Look! Another pair. These are the cool watermelon pair – all done. Opal Sweet and Spicy in “Wassermelone”. My classic top down pattern.)

Things got rapidly not right after that. I woke up around midnight feeling very poorly indeed, and minutes later had installed myself in the hotel bathroom, living through the beginning of the most epic round of a stomach bug I’ve ever had. I spent the next 20 hours… well. Let’s just say that I never again want to live through the indignity of viral gastroenteritis in a shared hotel room. It was nothing short of dreadful, and I’m sure Debbi never wants to live through it either. She made it to the meetings on my behalf, and helped Judith pack up and get gone, all while a crazy storm raged outside.   Judith didn’t get very far – about 20 minutes into her drive home, the roads were closing, trees were falling, and back she came. As soon as she arrived at the hotel, the power went out – and candlelight did nothing to add romance to my stomach bug. (By way of illustration, I was so sick that for that 24 hours, I neither drank coffee nor knit. i can’t remember the last time that happened.)

 

All of us went to bed at 8:30 that night, and my last thoughts were that I hoped I was well enough to navigate a 3 hour car trip followed by two flights. (Neither are places that have readily accessible bathrooms, and I didn’t want to be Typhoid Mary either.) I  woke up feeling fragile, but okay – and decided to give it a go.  I slept most of the way home, waking up just long enough to take the antibiotics for this stupid infection I have in my foot (What… I didn’t mention that? It’s fine – but added a layer of misery to the whole thing) and arrived gratefully home at midnight on Wednesday.

mensstripes 2015-11-23

(Another pair, these are in my favourite yarn “I can’t remember” in the colourway “I lost the ball band.)

Thursday was a blur, Friday was much better, but I never did make it to my desk, and then… well here we are. Monday. I spent the weekend finally getting caught up, and doing laundry, blocking a little sweater I finished (I’ll show you tomorrow) and now the rest of the week can be spent pulling the pieces back together. As the fog clears, I had just the briefest thought about how close I was to Christmas, and how I should really be doing something about that, but then I knit until the feeling went away. I’ll think about it tomorrow.

There’s lots of time. Lots.