Sheep Shots

Warning! The author of this entry is not a doctor, nor does she play one on TV!

You might be a caffeine addict and not know it! If you, like me, are a closet caffeine addict (36 cans of caffinated diet soda a week, plus chocolate, plus the occasional cup of coffee, heed this advice!

Withdrawal from caffeine is ugly! I draw your attention here and say in small words (difficulty concentrating): I have it! One of the "doctor's orders" I got on Tuesday was to lay off the caffeine (soda, coffee, chocolate) and other stimulants (including street drugs--damn! I was just heading out for a fix!) until I all the evaluations were complete.

So, I found myself, several times yesterday, lingering with my hand on the "soda fridge" in the basement and not indulging. :sigh: Today, the smell of brewing coffee was enough to bring tears to my eyes.

I know where we keep the chocolate. And I want some! Now!

Seriously, though, the symptoms were/are severe. But they are fading. Two to nine days, huh? Shoot me now!

Thoughts on an ER visit:

1) I know we knitters always have an emergency (room) project on the needles and ready to grab at a moment's notice. Would you believe that I stood in my crafts "studio" trying to figure out what to grab and finally grabbed the book from my nightstand instead of knitting?

There's a simple explanation. Every single project I had going at that very moment was too fiddly, would require too much extra equipment (extra needles, pattern book, etc.) or simply required too many brain cells. I couldn't even look at my "community knitting" yarn basket and grab a ball and a circular needle and just Start Another Hat. I couldn't.

So I grabbed my book. It's a good thing, too, because there was Nothing To Read in the waiting room (except for the posters about HIV/AIDS and TB, and when you've seen one. . .I guess I could have attempted a self-taught lesson in Spanish. (The signage is all bilingual.)

2) Hospitals seem to color-code emergency ailments. My wristband was purple. Other folks had other colors. (The red one was an "allergy alert.")

3) The bigger the hospital, presumably the better the care (and often, the longer the wait). Yes, I was there for nearly 4 hours. But I was first seen within minutes of arrival.

4) The strangest people populate ERs. Like the really big guy with the 2 gallon Ziploc full of pill bottles. I don't know if he was selling them. He didn't offer me any. He seemed to be chatting up the little kids.



I finished my first Dulaan hat. This one is made of homespun (handspun?) wool that I have had a really long time. It was given to me by a friend who did re-enactments at a living history farm. At the time, she was learning to spin, but did not knit, so I was her grateful recipient.

I used some of it for a toy sheep, and the rest, I dyed with ammonia and pennies. That's the green part. The color is pretty true, a soft celery. The yarn in the purple stripe was also a gift. I used every inch I had.

This hat that will warm an Asian child is the gift of three different U.S. crafters.





The Dulaan hat is Number 11 for October. The other 10 are shown left.

Some will go to Vancouver (Rabbitch is collecting them there), some to Ship Support (they'll be mailed November 1), and some will go to Cheyenne River Reservation.

Will I stop when I reach a dozen? Not likely.



But I might take a break and move back to Selfish September knitting. I'd really like to wear those sweaters this winter.