I have been traveling during the past two weeks: a few days
in Portland (unexpectedly) to help my parents (my Dad had some sudden health
issues), then home for about 12 hours before flying to Spokane with daughter
Sonja and son-in-law Jordan to see son Geoff in Urinetown.  Back home for about a day, then back to Portland.  Some knitting along the way (of course), but
no blogging (which you may have noticed!).

Sarah was on a road-trip to California the whole time I was
gone-and-back-and-gone-again.  So, I
taught our knitting class on my own and also took on several individual
sessions during the few daylight hours that I was in town.  It has been a crazy couple of weeks!  We did stay in touch by phone – and she would
send me text messages, such as: Went to yarn store.  Bought yarn for baby hats.  (Sarah is obsessed with baby hats these days
– making several for her baby which is due in May, as well as for the babies of
all her pregnant friends.  I think she is
stocking up on them for friends who are not yet pregnant, but might be
someday.  It is, one can only suppose,
her nesting instinct kicking in!)

I have 3 little vignettes from the crazy-couple-of-weeks.

The first was the most satisfying experience of sitting with
my Mother in her house and knitting a soft wooly peachy sweater for my
grandbaby.  My Mother told me how she
herself learned to knit when my Dad was in college and the other wives in
student housing were all knitting and helping each other learn.  Her own Mother (a Finnish immigrant) knit, of
course, but did so when the older brothers and sisters were young (my Mother
was 8^th of 9 children).  My
Mother said:  but if something went
wrong, she knew how to fix it.  I could
feel the flow of family through the generations.

The second was an irritating and awkward situation with a
flight attendant on the plane back from Spokane.  She leaned over me while I was knitting and,
as smiling and cheerful as can be launched into a tirade that went something like
this:

You don’t know how WHAT YOU ARE DOING makes us sooo
nervous!  All of us flight
attendants.  Now, you don’t have to stop
WHAT YOU ARE DOING.  You aren’t doing
anything wrong.  But it makes us sooo
worried, especially during take-off and landing. The FAA says WHAT YOU ARE
DOING it is okay and you don’t have to stop, but, WHAT YOU ARE DOING, it makes
us sooo nervous…..

It went on like that for quite a while.  And I just kept smiling and knitting and did
not say a thing.  I was working on the
peachy baby sweater using size 2 circular wooden needles – pretty much
glorified toothpicks – and George was sitting right next to me writing with a
pencil that was about 5 times their size. 
The woman next to me was holding a sturdy book and there were others with
lap-top computers that would make a lot more of a dent if thrown through the
air.  Good heavens, one woman was holding
a baby….

Anyhow, a family member who works for the same airline said
that this flight attendant’s attitude was not common and that her statements
were inappropriate.  So, I feel a bit
vindicated.

The final vignette is a dream segment. First, you will
recall that I have been handling our knitting students on my own while Sarah
was traveling.  And that I have been on
the crisis committee regarding my parents. 
So here’s the dream segment from last night:

You know how firefighters run in a line carrying a hose to
the fire?  Well, I was in a configuration
like that, except that the “hose” was a giant circular knitting needle and we
were all carrying the cable and rushing off to fix something!