Yesterday was a stellar day, folks. (Looking up, I see yesterday was Monday. Another reason to love forced retirement - when was the last time YOU had a good Monday at work? I certainly never did.) Yesterday I took Squeak to the doctor to check his recovery progress and my beloved pediatrician said his condition showed "remarkable improvement" and told me to go away until my next well-baby check up. I puttered on the computer, I tidied the kitchen and the living areas of the house, I planted flowers, I sat outside and knit with my Squeak.
It's hard to tell, but he's holding my knitting - that's the first photo of my progress on Mary Jane, which has been chugging along slowly for the better part of this month. (Since shortly after this post, in fact.) I'm using the gold soy yarn, and knitting top down. I am thisclose to putting the sleeves on waste yarn, which means each row is about 400 stitches long and takes about half an hour at least. The body, when I finally get to it, will simply fly, I think.
The weekend looked much like this:
That's our back yard, which DH spent much time cleaning. (I only pointed out once that it wouldn't take all weekend plus if he did it more often than once a year. Look at me! A model of restraint.) That's the Bug revelling in the ability to see the dirt and dig in it, instead of playing in dead leaves, sticks, and destroyed toys. That's the Bug wearing a sleeveless shirt outside in January and being perfectly comfortable.
In other news, I found this interesting little website, walkscore.com. It rates the neighborhood around an address in terms of "walkability", which I believe depends on the number of goods and services that can be had within a reasonable walk. It also serves to show one's prejudices when it comes to walking. When my cousin lived in Santa Monica and I'd visit, we'd walk everywhere. It was a mile to the beach and less than that to grocery stores, restaurants, shops and movie theaters. Here in my neighborhood, there is no beach (alas) but it's still less than a mile to grocery stores, restaurants, shops and movie theaters. (Okay, it's a little further to the theater, but not by much.) And yet, it feels like it might as well be 20 miles away for all I think about walking to any of those things. A few years ago I noticed (as I was driving by, natch) my neighbors walking to the mall at Christmas time. The mall that is about 1.3 miles from our houses - the mall that would require parking ALMOST that far away at Christmas time - and I thought they were nuts. But are they really? This whole time have I been holding on to the myth that out in the west a car is NECESSARY in life to get anywhere, when in reality I rarely go farther than 2 miles from my home in any one trip anyway?
Years ago I remember my father commenting, upon seeing a young woman pushing a stroller along the road in Phoenix, how sad it was that "young people today" have babies before they were financially ready. I am starting to see that I took away from that single comment the idea that walking was for poor people and that she must have been poor, instead of either out walking her kid for enjoyment, or making an environmental choice, or any other number of reasons. (I'm pretty sure that was how my dad meant for me to interpret it.) In the past if the family walked to a restaurant or the drug store, I'd feel all self-congratulatory and smug because I'd done something "green" and "exercise-y". I'm coming to the conclusion (slowly, cuz dammit I loves me some misconceptions) that I should in fact feel slightly ashamed when I DON'T walk to these places.
And now that I have finished navel-gazing, I will leave you with a photo from Friday's doctor visit - Squeak had a diaper blowout (no, there's no picture of that, I have SOME standards) and "got" his blankie, so the nurse gave me a bag to put it in for the ride home. I am DEEPLY entertained by her selection.
