It is raining cats, dogs, and hammerhandles here in Boston because Jeanne is finally saying her goodbye to the East Coast. The trees are shaking, the leaves are blowing and the streets are rivers. Luckily, this storm is going through here now, rather than after the leaves have changed colors. If it rains then, all the leaves fall off the trees and turn to yellow mush and our glorious New England tree-viewing time is mostly ruined.
News radio this morning reported that a woman in New Jersey was killed by a flash flood carrying her off at a bus stop. That hardly seems possible, yet this storm has meant a lot of lives lost. The pond that I mentioned yesterday is up to its banks, and no one is walking around it today. Even the ducks were taking refuge in the bushes. Now we are left from Florida to New Jersey with the washed away homes and the flooded basements and wrecked cars from falling trees. Hopefully this is the last hurricane for this season and maybe even the next. Enough already.
I finished a scarf the last two evenings. It was like knitting with feathers. The yarn is Fun Fur, and it is something I picked up at the hobby store on Sunday. Since I like things luxurious, I bought three skeins instead of the one they recommend, and I made it a little wider and a little longer. It does not shed. It is furry and feathery and luscious, and I have a lot of nerve to wear it. Its saving grace is that it is black and will go with my black coat. If it was red it would be too much, even for me. Even in black, I can't give it away to anyone I know, because they would not like it. Most of my friends are into LL Bean, or something very practical. Ho hum. That is something I think about often. Why do I like the flashy stuff? Oh well, let them wear fleece, I'll wear feathers, thank you.
It is all my mother's fault. When I was five or six, my mother worked, so I think she sometimes felt guilty. She always has loved to shop and took me to "the city" (Oklahoma City, about 35 miles away) and bought me brand new things to wear to play dress up. I have never heard of anyone's mother doing that for them. We would go to the sale racks at the big fancy department store and buy high heels and purses so that I could use them for pretend and parade around the house in them. Since good taste was not a problem, and color and style mattered only to little me, the price was always right for her, and I always felt really important. I wonder what the sales ladies thought? (Remember when there were actual salesladies?) I remember looking in windows of stores in the big city and being so thrilled that my mom was going to help me buy things there for my very own.
So, if I like to shop, it is no wonder. My mom, who is 94, is probably at Wal-Mart (about the only retail store left in Oklahoma) with her walker right now.
Thanks again for those lovely brown high heels and the purple purse, mom. What a great mom!
