A small tragedy occured this morning.

My keychain broke.

Now, I know, this doesn’t SOUND like a tragedy, but still. I absolutely love this keyring. You know how impossible it is to get keys on those usual, circular keyrings? The split-ring kind that you always break your nails trying to open? Yes, well, it’s not one of those. Nor is it a keyCASE, which is completely impractical for car key fobs, and which I’ve never liked anyway.

No, this is a beautiful little piece of engineering. A short length of cable, which feeds through a ring (holding it in a looped-shape, rather than straight, end-to-end). The ends are secured by a bead (holding that ring in place) which is secured by a screw at the very end.

Well, somewhere between leaving the house (I always manually tighten the screw on each as I take my keys out of my purse), and getting to Kohl’s this morning with Mom . . . well . . . the screw and bead disappeared. I didn’t realize until I reached into my pocket at the store check-out line. I’m crushed. Do you know how long I looked for a keychain that I would like that was also functional . . . and easy to get keys on and off??

I wonder if it’s possible to find a screw that will fit? One with thumb-grooves at the end, so you have something to grip to open/close. I wouldn’t mind replacing the bead . . . a little variety is fine, and that’s painless . . . as long as I can still use my key ring! I love this thing, silly though that may sound…. And yes, I know there are the kind that are semi-circles, with ball-screws at the end, but I love the flexibility of THIS. I can’t help it (grin).

Added: Look what I found!

Now, about the electricity issue? Yes, the electician–a really very nice fellow named Jeff–came around 10:00 this morning, went out to look at the circuit breaker panel, flicked the blown circuit and . . . yep. That easy. Apparently, it’s shifted or something, so that it doesn’t reset quite as easily as it used to, but still . . . (Have I ever mentioned that my Dad–admirable in so many ways–isn’t the handiest fellow?) Anyway, we scheduled a date for him to actually replace the circuit, since it’s quite possible it’s about to blow altogether, and now that he knows the type of circuit breaker we need, he’ll be ready at a moment’s notice. But, um, yeah. It was that easy to fix. If only I’d known that BEFORE my candle burned out last night….

Anyway, after he left (about 10 minutes after he arrived . . . and we asked him about our troublesome kitchen light while he was there, too), Mom and I went out. I took my car to the car wash–for the first time in about seven months. We went to a store for a return “Santa” needed to make. And then we drove to Chester to check out a new shopping plaza—including a store named “Acorn,” which we’d never heard of. We had lunch at a tea room (a small pot of tea and a largish blueberry scone for each of us), and then came home to take Chappy for a walk.

Oh yeah, I finished my Christmas knitting this morning. (Woohoo!) I finished my second Fetching for our mail-carrier, which we put out with her Christmas card this morning. I hope she likes them! I also finished my current bobbin of singles on my Little Gem, so the next one? It’ll use my Woolee Winder. Yay!

a more serious note, this was the view in front of our house a little while ago… Our neighbor diagonally across the street being taken away in an ambulance. If you could spare a prayer, it would be appreciated. He’s a 32-year old father of three who has heart problems. In fact, he was in Columbia Presbyterian earlier this week for tests, and was just discharged this morning. Our other neighbor came home tonight and saw him sitting outside–he wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to scare his kids. He was sitting up in the ambulance as they drove away, so hopefully he’ll be okay, but . . . if you could send him some good thoughts, I KNOW his family would appreciate it. Scary stuff at any time, but during the holidays? Scary AND bad timing.

Added: And while thinking good-karma thoughts, go visit Stephanie, who’s trying to double the amount of donations for Knitters Without Borders. Heaven knows it’s a good cause! So . . . head over, huh?

Have a good weekend, everyone, and a Happy Hanukah to those celebrating!

(You know, one thing I was wondering? Our local Lite FM station has been playing Christmas music since the middle of November. Today, in honor of Hanukah, they’ve played a couple Hanukah songs–not that there are many of them, I understand, but a nice gesture, I thought . . . until it occurred to me. How many Jewish people have been LISTENING to this station for the last four weeks to HEAR the Hanukah songs??)

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