Sophie's Story

           A few years ago a friend gave me a two pound cake of chunky yarn for my birthday.  It is lovely yarn with shades of purple and lavender running to white and then a pale green. The problem was I had no idea what to do with it. It was too much yarn for some projects and not enough yarn for other projects. It sat in the bag it came in for months while I waited for inspiration.           One day scrolling aimlessly though patterns, I found the right one. It was a blanket. This was perfect because, in this case, size does not matter. The stitch pattern was easy and would look good with the varied colours in the yarn. The only thing I needed was the correct size and type of needles.           I wanted to make the blanket a size in between the choices offered in the pattern so I deliberately cast on the wrong number of stitches. It took me while to figure out the pattern as I wasn't follow...

           I think several of my friends are either hurt, puzzled or upset with me. I've had several offers to talk and got some really good chocolate and bouquets of flowers. I enjoy the flowers and the chocolate, but haven't taken up anyone on the offer to talk. This really baffles some people because I lost my Mom, the woman who gave birth to me and the person who took care of me when I was younger. The fact that I'm not devastated is something they don't understand.          What most of the people in my life don't know is that my mother had Alzheimer's Disease. Most people know what that is. It means that someone who has it loses their memory. What they may not understand is that it is degenerative. That's a fancy way for saying that a person with this condition is going to get worse. The decline may be slow or fast, but it is a decline and nothing is going to stop it. (Although there are a few drugs with more on the horizon th...

           The snow is falling softly outside. I am nice and warm inside with a fresh cup of tea.  The brisket is in the crockpot. C and the cats are sleeping.           Normally I would be going around the house taking down the old calendars and putting new ones up. Between work and and all the other things going on during the holidays, we never got around to buying new ones. I had already decided to stop buying page a day calendars. There aren't any new ones that interest me.          I haven't even written down the things I want to do in the new year yet. The time that I would have spent on this task was devoted to writing my mom's obituary and answering condolence messages. I'm honestly not sure if I want to write a "resolution list" this year. Last year I did pretty good starting out and then all the good habits that I wanted to get into fell by the wayside.  The planner I bought to track...