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Somewhere there is an energy leak
2 Sep 2015 12:24 amThe summer finally made it to "hot and stupid" weather. I was doing good up until that point. It was nice and cool. Weeded the garden, dried tomatoes, shipped orders, made cookies, did dishes, even started working on a shawl again. Ppfft. Energy gone. The computer and studio are in the attic. Guess who has no AC? Not that it would matter. Cold air never made it that far even when we did have AC. I got a little bookkeeping done today. Mostly I am winding yarn, restocking items that were sold on etsy or at Pennsic.
It appears I started this shawl last December. I have about seven more rows to do. Too hot right now. So I was getting ready for a show that traditionally is on Labor Day weekend. Thinking I'm leaving on Friday, and need to pack the van in the heat. I looked up the show. Another ppfft! They changed the date! http://www.pafiberfestival.com/#!
I have another week. Glad I didn't drive 8 hours for nothing! That gives me more time to finish dye baths and winding yarn.
It's after midnight. Still around 90° in here on the second floor. Although it feels humid, we've had no rain in a long time. The local lake still has fairly high water from all the rain earlier this year. My rain barrel is running low. Eggplant, sunflowers, and Swiss Chard are happy.
For my own reference, recipes:
Laura Calder: http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/laura-calder/tomato-and-aubergine-gratin.html
Pickled Eggplant http://turmericsaffron.blogspot.com/2014/05/torshi-liteh-persian-pickled-eggplant.html
Baba Ghanoush https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AQYfLVu6OYA
Swiss Chard and Corn http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/balsamic-chicken-with-corn-and-swiss-chard.html
Every evening I make the journey through downtown with its permanent traffic snarl. Downtown runs all of three blocks. A small town with florists' loading trucks, antique dealers' loading trucks, a City Mission thrift store with a very large truck, and going the opposite direction, our town's other mainstay, cement trucks. The concept of a rubber band style double yellow centerline has developed. The street is narrow. There is no parking on Pike Street but loading is another matter. Backroads can be your friend sometimes. It depends on the time of day and the direction of the school buses. My journey takes me to the edge of town, past the strange intersection leading to the interstate. I-79 runs parallel to Pike Street. The food court resides there. Along Bobby Vinton Blvd, you will find Wendy's, McDonalds, a Chinese buffet, submarine sandwiches, KFC/Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks. I continue on by. Now comes the hard part. Southpointe just let out of work. An industrial park that houses big pharma along with the natural gas headquarters where all the executives work, oh yeah, and Ansys, the computer firm that helped us get into space, remember them? Lots of traffic leaving through a bottleneck. The road was here long before they were. In the other direction, traffic from Pittsburgh itself is trying to get off the interstate without a traffic light. They must cross the steady stream from Southpointe. Traffic backs up more than a half a mile onto the interstate itself. Meanwhile, I pull through all of it, over the interstate and onto a side road that leads over a mountain. Then down through the trees and over a one lane bridge across Lake Canonsburg.
I reach Peters Township on US 19. Another very busy road. Here there are traffic lights and a series of plazas that all look alike. This is suburbia. I turn into the first plaza on the right. It also has a Starbucks along with Aladdins Eatery, a Lebanese restaurant. It's here that I stop to pickup my coffee grounds. The staff is friendly. They know me and wave me on through to pickup coffee grounds in my container under their sink. We exchange pleasantries and I'm on my way. This time circling around down route 19. Turning onto McClelland where the apple orchard used to be. Up over the mountain I go. The traffic has dispersed. I weave my way back through the food court, turning left onto Pike where a giant sign reads, "Got Drugs?" The town is collecting medication so it isn't flushed into the water stream. The treatment plant can't handle it. Save the date, Sept. 12th at the Shop n Save. They will collect the drugs. Down Pike I go. No need of backroads now, but sometimes I take them anyway. On up the hill toward town park. The hill is steep. It keeps transmission shops in business. I reach my drive way. Down goes my window. My long van must go up the steep driveway backwards or else I bottom out. Grass grows on a strip down the center of the drive. The wheels must not touch the grass or I won't get up the hill. I carefully line up my tires with the narrow track of cement. I stick my head out the window, looking back to drive straight, following the edge of the track, watching my tires. Just as I near the top, I jerk my head in and push the lilac branch away from my side mirror, driving straight past it so I don't hit the awning over the side door. Onward, backwards, reaching the bottleneck where some idiot years ago poured excess cement, then up an even steeper rise to line up my vehicle so I can curb the tires right next to my herb spiral. I do this every time I drive the van. I am home. Dusk arrives earlier each evening. Coffee grounds can get unloaded tomorrow. Now that rennovations are complete, I hope to work out a deal with the Starbucks closer to me. They are closer and have more grounds because they have a drive-through. I still like the smaller Starbucks better though. I want to keep going there. The people are like family.
It appears I started this shawl last December. I have about seven more rows to do. Too hot right now. So I was getting ready for a show that traditionally is on Labor Day weekend. Thinking I'm leaving on Friday, and need to pack the van in the heat. I looked up the show. Another ppfft! They changed the date! http://www.pafiberfestival.com/#!
I have another week. Glad I didn't drive 8 hours for nothing! That gives me more time to finish dye baths and winding yarn.
It's after midnight. Still around 90° in here on the second floor. Although it feels humid, we've had no rain in a long time. The local lake still has fairly high water from all the rain earlier this year. My rain barrel is running low. Eggplant, sunflowers, and Swiss Chard are happy.
For my own reference, recipes:
Laura Calder: http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/laura-calder/tomato-and-aubergine-gratin.html
Pickled Eggplant http://turmericsaffron.blogspot.com/2014/05/torshi-liteh-persian-pickled-eggplant.html
Baba Ghanoush https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AQYfLVu6OYA
Swiss Chard and Corn http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/balsamic-chicken-with-corn-and-swiss-chard.html
Every evening I make the journey through downtown with its permanent traffic snarl. Downtown runs all of three blocks. A small town with florists' loading trucks, antique dealers' loading trucks, a City Mission thrift store with a very large truck, and going the opposite direction, our town's other mainstay, cement trucks. The concept of a rubber band style double yellow centerline has developed. The street is narrow. There is no parking on Pike Street but loading is another matter. Backroads can be your friend sometimes. It depends on the time of day and the direction of the school buses. My journey takes me to the edge of town, past the strange intersection leading to the interstate. I-79 runs parallel to Pike Street. The food court resides there. Along Bobby Vinton Blvd, you will find Wendy's, McDonalds, a Chinese buffet, submarine sandwiches, KFC/Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks. I continue on by. Now comes the hard part. Southpointe just let out of work. An industrial park that houses big pharma along with the natural gas headquarters where all the executives work, oh yeah, and Ansys, the computer firm that helped us get into space, remember them? Lots of traffic leaving through a bottleneck. The road was here long before they were. In the other direction, traffic from Pittsburgh itself is trying to get off the interstate without a traffic light. They must cross the steady stream from Southpointe. Traffic backs up more than a half a mile onto the interstate itself. Meanwhile, I pull through all of it, over the interstate and onto a side road that leads over a mountain. Then down through the trees and over a one lane bridge across Lake Canonsburg.
I reach Peters Township on US 19. Another very busy road. Here there are traffic lights and a series of plazas that all look alike. This is suburbia. I turn into the first plaza on the right. It also has a Starbucks along with Aladdins Eatery, a Lebanese restaurant. It's here that I stop to pickup my coffee grounds. The staff is friendly. They know me and wave me on through to pickup coffee grounds in my container under their sink. We exchange pleasantries and I'm on my way. This time circling around down route 19. Turning onto McClelland where the apple orchard used to be. Up over the mountain I go. The traffic has dispersed. I weave my way back through the food court, turning left onto Pike where a giant sign reads, "Got Drugs?" The town is collecting medication so it isn't flushed into the water stream. The treatment plant can't handle it. Save the date, Sept. 12th at the Shop n Save. They will collect the drugs. Down Pike I go. No need of backroads now, but sometimes I take them anyway. On up the hill toward town park. The hill is steep. It keeps transmission shops in business. I reach my drive way. Down goes my window. My long van must go up the steep driveway backwards or else I bottom out. Grass grows on a strip down the center of the drive. The wheels must not touch the grass or I won't get up the hill. I carefully line up my tires with the narrow track of cement. I stick my head out the window, looking back to drive straight, following the edge of the track, watching my tires. Just as I near the top, I jerk my head in and push the lilac branch away from my side mirror, driving straight past it so I don't hit the awning over the side door. Onward, backwards, reaching the bottleneck where some idiot years ago poured excess cement, then up an even steeper rise to line up my vehicle so I can curb the tires right next to my herb spiral. I do this every time I drive the van. I am home. Dusk arrives earlier each evening. Coffee grounds can get unloaded tomorrow. Now that rennovations are complete, I hope to work out a deal with the Starbucks closer to me. They are closer and have more grounds because they have a drive-through. I still like the smaller Starbucks better though. I want to keep going there. The people are like family.
