I’ve probably made it clear over these last months that I’m generally a pretty happy, content, easy-going kind of person. An optimist. Which makes my state of mind the last few days unusual. Part of it is my own fault. I’ve been watching the news. Gloom and doom everywhere you look. Last night, between 7:00 and 9:00, they had three major news stories–Hurricane Rita, which had just been upgraded to the 3rd worst hurricane ever on record, and had winds of 175 mph; a big tornado sighted heading towards downtown Minneapolis; and an airplane trying to make an emergency landing because of faulty landing gear. The news anchors didn’t know which way to go, they were trying to cover so much, so many different stories at once. And not a one of them was good news.

Though, thank heaven that plane landed safely! Pretty impressive to watch, too. And, thankfully, Rita has been downgraded to a category 4 storm–still huge, still a monster, but at least a little better. Except, of course, it’s heading north–closer to Louisiana all the time. This is better for Galveston. (I’m sure my cousin–who’s safely evacuated to Austin–is relieved.) It’s worse for Houston. But it’s worst for New Orleans and the other places on the west side of Louisiana, who are still trying to put the pieces back together after Katrina. Let’s think–which would be worse? For this hurricane to decimate an untouched piece of coast that’s standing strong but may be reduced to the condition of the Mississippi coast? Or for the hurricane to hit the areas that have already been reduced to rubble and, well, ruin the clean-up, but not really do any more damage? Um . . . they sound about equally bad to me! The only blessing is that people have learned some hard lessons from Katrina and are paying attention to the evacuation orders, thinking ahead, planning for the worst (and with a whole, new benchmark for “worst”).

Is there any good news? The evacuation in Texas has turned the interstates into parking lots. Gas prices are probably going to skyrocket again. And another monster storm is about to hit a whole new section of the Gulf coast with devastation. What fun!

Still–there’s this article about a bill that would let people bring their pets with them when they evacuate. Not surprisingly, I’m all for that. A lot of people stayed behind during Katrina because of their pets, and, well, I entirely understand. I have a hard time leaving Chappy to go to work in the morning–how could I possibly desert him with a massive, life-threatening storm barrelling toward us?

And–you want to see something silly? How about this article about a giant, pink bunny rabbit. And I do mean giant.

Or, for a little fun, this site will tell you what song was Number One on the charts when you were born. (Well, from 1952 and later–if born earlier, the site suggests picking your “life theme song” by selecting your 18th birthday.) For the record, on the US charts on my birthday: “Poor Side of Town” by Johnny River. On the UK charts: “Reach Out I’ll Be There” by the Four Tops. Oh, and my life theme song would be “Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)” by Billy Ocean. I’m sure you’re all as fascinated as I am.

  But my best reason to smile? Chappy, of course. Last night, after I finally came upstairs and stopped watching the news, I had some . . . disagreements . . . with my computer. I was trying to draw a schematic of my Christmas Tree hat for my Knitty submission, but Illustrator wasn’t cooperating, and on top of my general feeling of stress, well, I was getting frustrated. Muttering “What? What!” under my breath . . . and sometimes not so much under my breath . . . and then my submission to Knitty wouldn’t go through–it bounced back as a bad e-mail address (even though I clicked on the mail link on the site).

But every time I’d get really frustrated, Chappy would wake up, climb out of his crate, and come over to give me a hug. Literally–front paws on my shoulders, tail wagging, and a “Don’t be sad, Mom!” look on his face . . . and really, after five or six of these hugs, you really can’t help but smile . . . especially when he finally lies down right next to you to save himself the trip for the next burst of frustration! (Which helped, too, because he was right there, in petting range–much more soothing.) But that’s Chappy for you–he can always make me smile.

My e-mail to Knitty, incidentally, is still bouncing back “Service Unavailable.” I can’t get logged into the Knitty Coffeehouse to try to post a question, because it won’t recognize my password–even when I asked for a “I forgot my password” replacement (even though I was using the same password I had been and it was working fine a few days ago). And when they sent me an e-mail with my “new” password, that still won’t work. So now I can’t reach the Submissions e-mail OR the message boards where I’d at least be able to post a “Help!” message. Does anyone else think that this is maybe a sign and I should just give up on the idea of trying to get this pattern into Knitty? And maybe should just publish it to a PDF myself?

And, darn it, I finished “The Yarn Harlot,” too . . . it was such a nice [mostly] happy book! All my other, current books are a lot more serious and portentious. So, to what did I turn? P.G. Wodehouse. Bertie Wooster. Jeeves. In “Jeeves in the Morning.” If light and funny is what you’re looking for, he’s got it. (Silly, fluffy, classic British comedy. A joy.)

• Tags: Chappy, General, Weather • Permalink:Gloom and Doom // 9 Comments »