Welcome and Introduction

I went and saw the Yarn Harlot today! Yea! I got totally overheated (damn it’s hot today) and may have to spend some time lying down tomorrow to pay for it, but it was totally worth it! And since I haven’t blogged in a while and since there’s a chance I might appear in her blog, I thought I’d do an introduction.

My name is DianeS and I’m a knitter. Mostly I knit socks. Several reasons for that: I’m pretty slow, so it’s good to have small projects that can be finished. Also, I live in Central Texas. A Civil War and Mexican War General (Sheridan) once famously said of this blessed state that “If I owned Texas and Hell, I’d rent out Texas and live in Hell.” While there could be other reasons, most of us figure it had to do with the weather. We don’t even have a winter every year – didn’t have one in 2005, for example. Here a sweater is a lifetime commitment. It’s also heavy to have sitting in your lap in the summer, which lasts from about the beginning of April till the end of October. (Except when it starts earlier.) So I don’t need sweaters, but socks are useful. Also cheaper and I really like most of the yarn.

I nearly forgot to mention that I ran into a blogging friend of mine, Half a Sheep, with whom I have corresponded before. She got a picture of the two of us and promised to send me a copy. In fact, I got a lot of pictures, which I’ll post of the best of when I can.

I am middle-aged (52, to be exact), going through menopause (thus the aging part). I have one husband, the original model, and one son, who is 23. He bids fair to actually become an adult one day soon! We currently have three permanent owners (cats, for the unowned), Wilma (16 or 17 years old), also known as the Crotchety Old Lady, Angel (about 10), a beautiful but airheaded Birman purebreed, and Simba, nearly two years old and nearly 15 pounds, a very sweet, laid-back cat (except when insists his Mommy be awake in the middle of the night). We also have two grandbabies, two of a set of triplets; the third went home with someone else. Before you call Child Protective Service on me, these grandbabies are furry and have four legs and a tail. (Also a tale!) They’re gray/brown tabbies and nearly a year old. They also have the Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV), which is somewhat like HIV, but for cats. Ray and Temperance are adorable and loving and you’d never know they were born feral. My son, DS, rescued them last year when they had nearly starved to death. When he gets his own place (and I have started nagging!), they will go with him. It is my hope after that to be able to foster kittens from the local no-kill shelter. (For pictures, go looking through the archives. I take lots of pictures of all the cats, but especially the grandbabies.)

I was born with a chemical imbalance in the brain, which results in depression. I am well-medicated and counseled, but it always gets worse in the summer. This year hasn’t been too bad, but I haven’t blogged much. I think it has to do with slowing down and becoming a bit of a hermit crab when the temperatures go up. But I’ll try to do better!

My main community is my church, Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church in Cedar Park, Texas. If you’re not familiar with the denomination, I urge you to check out the website www.uua.org. I am in the choir there and a women’s group. I’m also the newsletter editor and I do the Order of Service (the church bulletin). Which is what I should be doing now and will be doing shortly! Our little community has been going through some trials and tribulations for the past couple of years, but the problems have moved on to bother others and I believe we’re in a healing time now. For which I’m very grateful!

I am also teaching a class in Tarot reading this summer at the church. I’ve been enjoying that very much and have made new friends and gotten to know other people much better. And I also sing in a group called the Tapestry Singers, which I very much enjoy. I didn’t start singing in a group until about six years ago and I feel blessed to be allowed to do so in two groups. I grew up having taken violin lessons and piano lessons and torturing a clarinet in junior high and high school band, but I never took choir or anything. I’ve learned so much from both my church choir and Tapestry!

Finally, I have a new gig. I’m taking pictures of cats for the local no-kill shelter. They have an auxiliary website where they feature plenty of pictures of animals that are hard to place. For the cats, that’s mostly the older, adult cats. Right now the kittens move like little hotcakes. But the older cats, especially those with special needs, tend to take longer. So they’re given a bit more exposure. They’ve had some good luck with the dogs, so they added cats. And were looking for a cat volunteer to take the pictures. Hey, I thought. I’ve got a good camera and I love taking pictures of cats (as regular readers know. Go look at entries in the archives!) So I volunteered.

This means I go in on Fridays. I make a list of the kitties who’ve been there a while and work down it. Some of them I take into a playroom or a visitation room and try to get action shots. Or at least shots from more than one side. Some of them don’t want to leave their cages, so those I take in the cages. Then I bring them home, edit them in PhotoShop Elements, and upload them to a YahooGroup for a nice woman who puts them on the website. If you go look at the auxiliary website, look at the pictures of Sasha and Carmen. Most of those are mine, including the shot of only part of Sasha’s face, which I think is just a wonderful picture! I didn’t go this last Friday, as I didn’t feel well, but I’ll be back next Friday. And I notice we’ve gotten two of our Lonely Hearts Club kitties adopted! Mamma Gaia, a truly huge black and white kitty who is no longer on the website, and Joker, a sweet orange and white tabby boy. Good going!

Anyway, I need to finish this and do my Order of Service for tomorrow before my brain shuts down any further and my body makes me pay for letting it get so overheated today. Welcome to any new people! Grab an easy chair, pull out your knitting, have some iced coffee or hot tea, and sit a spell. Let’s chat! Don’t mind the cats – they have learned (mostly) to leave yarn and knitting alone. Join the fun!