First, the life and death stuff.

  You did all know that today is Hurricane Katrina Blog Relief Day, didn’t you? And not just knitting bloggers, either! See who else is participating here for flood aid. Margene and Susan had excellent timing!

Okay–the looting in New Orleans. Now, I entirely understand that desperate, starving, normally-honest people would steal food, water, and diapers; and so far as I’m concerned, they are more than welcome to them. It’s a survival thing, and . . . well, sure. I understand. You’re trying to stay alive, keep your kids alive, but would normally never do it. Got it. Do what you have to do.

But what kind of people would not only steal anything they can carry (though, where they expect to put anything is beyond me), but would fire guns at rescue helicopters? What kind of sick animal do you have to be to do such a thing? (I say “animal” because that surely isn’t a human thing to do.) Sure, let’s shoot at the people who are trying to evacuate the people from the hospital. Yeah, that will be fun.

Yesterday is the first time I’ve heard anything about reactions or offers of help from the rest of the world. Does that surprise anyone else? And it just makes me sick that the Islam extremists are so happy about this–all this suffering, pain, and disaster, and we can’t blame them for a bit of it. They must be just tickled. But it’s sick that they’re calling it “Corporal Katrina” and claiming her for a soldier in their jihad. Yay . . . death and suffering! Let’s celebrate! Ugh.

And of course, the celebrities are getting involved….

Now for other, normal matters….

I’ve started my second Christmas Tree hat, and this time, am keeping notes. The yarn for this one is still Lorna’s Laces, in the color “Forest.” It’s full of variegated blues, greens and browns and I was a little skeptical, but am very happy with the way the colors are falling. I found beads in my collection that I like quite a bit, although I’m not going to have enough for the whole hat–so I’m inserting some in another color every once in a while.

And yes, I do plan on submitting it to Knitty, though I have no idea if they’ll want it or not. But it’s cute and I’m proud of it, so . . . why not.

Speaking of patterns, look at Marnie‘s very cool scarf in the new Magknits, not at all a fashion crime.

I got a couple comments on yesterday’s entry about gas prices and mileage, saying that too many people consider their cars as necessities rather than luxuries . . . which can certainly be true . . . except that in this country–if you live outside a major city (well, one that’s not underwater)–they are necessities. I live in a nice, suburban area, but it’s 3 miles to the nearest grocery store–and all uphill to come home–making that impractical for anything heavier than a loaf of bread. About the only thing remotely in walking distance is the 1.5 mile (one way) walk for coffee. My sister, just over the border into Pennsylvania, is at least 5 miles to the nearest bus route, and about a 30 minutes’ drive from the grocery store or from the kids’ schools. Her car is absolutely necessary. And our area is jam-packed compared to, say, Texas or Montana. They don’t call them wide-open spaces for nothing!

Let me make clear–just in case “tone of voice” isn’t coming through properly–I’m not disagreeing with those commenters. Using your car for trips of a mile or less is wasteful, and if you have a good public transport system like that in New York or Chicago it’s definitely more practical than trying to drive a car. If I’m not mistaken, those commenters all live in Europe, where the public transportation system is unparallelled–and they should be proud of it. I’m just pointing out that we’re a big, open country and you can really only walk so far.

And anyway, a jump of 50-cents or more in 24-hours is insane. (And, for heavens sake, they were as high as $6/gallon in Georgia today! Now that’s a useful combination of price gauging and driver-panic.) The price hikes just this week are just crazy.

Our house was very confused this morning–the actual house itself. When I woke up, there were no lights in my room. No clock. No running ceiling fan. So, I figured our power had gone out . . . again. But when I opened my door . . . there were my parents, lights on, watching television in their bedroom. Um, huh? Turns out, some things were working, some weren’t. No power in any of the bathrooms or my room. The ceiling lights in the kitchen were working, but none of the outlets. The stove clock was working, but the stove wasn’t (or not at full power). No television in the family room, but the garage doors worked. Weird! We have a temporary fix, courtesy of the electric company, but they’re going to have to do something more permanent . . . and it’s possible that they might have to cut through our brand-new driveway. Uh-oh!

But . . . I’m not complaining. At all. I’m not complaining about anything this week. I’m just glad to have my house, my family . . .

God bless, everyone.

Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning // 3 Comments »