RIP Mayor Ed Lee

Today we said Good-bye to San Francisco's mayor, Ed Lee, who died late Tuesday night while shopping with his wife.

It's so sad. He was an amazing man; the country's first Chinese-American mayor of a major metropolitan city. He loved his City, its people and all that we stand for.

I can't write much thru my tears, but it's all out there if you are interested in reading more about him.

edit-12-18-17

Ed's death really is a huge deal. We have an acting mayor until the special election June 5, 2018-six months after Ed's death. Lots of jockeying for position is in our future as the City sorts itself out and decides in which direction it wants to go under a new administration.

He was a really good man. He had a wife and two grown daughters who are devastated. No one had a bad word to say about him and he never said a bad word about anyone else. Only 65, he had a lot of good life ahead of him but for the heart attack that took him at first strike.

I'm to be found at Instagram.com/Lyndamotvos

So I have gotten addicted to the ease with which I can post a picture and a quick, or lengthy, note about what I'm doing, crocheting, planting, changing a diaper on, or loving today.

Putting up a blog post is not nearly as simple or as quick. If you want to keep up with me I'm at Instagram.com/lyndamotvos.

Life is good with the exception of the right shoulder. And the left forearm. And the right hip. And the left knee. Holy baby cheeses, when I write it down it looks so crappy. Oh well, it'll go on until it doesn't, I guess.

The other problem is that I often cannot find my pictures that I have taken with my phone when I try to post here--like tonight. So no current pics-once again, they're on IG.

Happy December. Maybe 2018 will bring some changes.

How You Can Help the Fire Victims

Serving Special Needs Population are several organizations, all of whom accept financial support through their websites:

* Undocumented Immigrants who are ineligible for FEMA funds, can be helped by https://www.ciyja.org/caliimmfirefunds

* Fire Fund for People with Disabilities aka the Richard Devylder Disaster Relief Fund distributes assistive devices to those who have lost theirs: wheelchairs, scooters, canes, walkers,
hearing aids and other communication devices.

https://cfilc.org/donate/?recipient=Richard+Devylder+Disaster+Relief+Fund

* North Bay IWW Fire Relief Fund contacts homeless people directly and delivers what they need from donations received at evacuation centers.

https://www.generosity.com/emergencies-fundraising/northbay-iww-fire-relief-fund

* Animal Rescue: In Defense of Animals rescues and supports animals displaced by the fires https://www.idausa.org/

A list of East Bay Restaurants, Bars and Food Businesses collecting donations, raising money or sending supplies to people who have been affected:
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/10/10/east-bay-food-businesses-helping-affected-north-bay-fires/

Bay Marin Community Church 160 N San Pedro, San Rafael,  posts an ongoing list of food, clothing, and other types of needs; they also have a fire relief fund:
http://baymarin.org/wildfire-update/

Epworth Methodist Church in Berkeley is accepting financial donations  https://epworthberkeley.org

Redwood Credit Union targets relief funds to Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake Counties: https://www.redwoodcu.org/northbayfirerelief
So far has raised over $2.7 million

United Way of the Wine Country 
https://uwwc.upicsolutions.org/ecommunity/comm/SinglePageRegPledge.jsp

Red Cross always a good bet http://redcross.org

Many thanks for all you do for the ones who need it most. It's heartbreaking and will take years to get back to some semblance of normal for many of these victims.

Fires Destroying Large Sections of my State Not Far from Us

The fires now burning massive acreage just north of here are incredibly destructive and even more frightening.  

We can see and smell the smoke and even the fifteen month old was amazed at the sun yesterday as it burnt an orange hole in the hazy morning sky. He's never been able to look directly at the sun like that and he was astounded, pointing and yelling "Ahh, Ahh, Ooooh".

We are personally aware of two families who have had to evacuate and we don't know yet if their homes are still standing.

Donations to the Red Cross will go a long ways helping the victims. 

As of (Oct 10, 2017) tonight's late news, over 2,000 structures have been destroyed: Hilton Hotel in Santa Rosa, KMart, Kohls, Applebees, many many others.... 

Over 115,000 acres have already burned with virtually no containment anywhere yet.

Bubbling Well Pet Memorial Park in Napa smolders, broken gas lines flaring, the only recognizable pieces its gate and chimney. 

There will be thousands of stories like these as wineries, vineyards, homes, barns, restaurants, retail outlets, service stations, shopping malls, housing developments and hotels are all completely decimated. 

It looks like an apocalypse on our big tv screens.

Give generously please. Red Cross

UPDATE: Thursday Oct 12th midnight.

200,000 acres burned. Calistoga mandatory evacuation of ALL residents. 500 people still unaccounted for and over 100 injured with nearly 40 deaths verified.

Love this Yarn !~!

Scarf for granddaughter's birthday in July.

 Scarf crocheted in a modified v-stitch;
the glasses cases in seed stitch.

Glasses cases for Karen and Jackie, made from the same skein as Madison's scarf, lined with antique linen.

Red Heart makes some of the prettiest acrylic yarns on the market; available at JoAnns, Michaels, often at the consignment shops, this yarn is easy to work with, affordable and gorgeous.

The variegated colorways please most color-lovers from the brights of the sun in the sky to the deep shades of autumn. Colors come off the skein in both long stretches of yarn and short changes. Each type has its uses, applications and aficionados.

This skein is called Ocean E300-995. It's one of my absolute favorite combinations of colors. I hope to crochet an entire afghan with this colorway.

Winnowing the Clothing Pile

My home, which I share with Ormond and a raft of part-time Littles, is less than 600 square feet. Total. In four rooms-living room, kitchen, bedroom and bath.

The home comes with two hanging closets, one linen closet, and a few kitchen cabinets built into the corner. The rest of the house furnishings we accumulate over the fifteen years since we moved in.

Well, clothes seem to multiply in the dark; hangers also. When hubby said to me a couple days ago, "You've filled both closets and I can't find my jacket when I need it", I decided to fill a few bags for Goodwill. Three from the two closets and one additional from my drawers. Atta Grrl. I also found twelve empty matching hangers and bound them with tie wraps and off they went to a new closet somewhere else !~!

Space on the upper shelves is New and exciting. Wonder if we can keep some empty spaces for a while.

At present I have no sewing area set up, so that's a bit of an uproar trying to locate what I need at the correct moment but perhaps now that I have the impetus, I'll get that straightened out as well...

I want to learn to spin yarn so need to get organized for that new adventure.

Happy August, readers. School starts up soon again and the schedule will fill up with after school fun and the baby walking.

Instagram Grabbed Me--Come See !~!

After resisting for many months, I have an Instagram account.

It's been a hoot, taking a picture and having it up online in seconds with a pithy caption and a bunch of hashtags that let others with that interest find the photo.

FUN !~!

Come join me and find some of the little moments that make up the days in LyndaLand.

A taste:

One of the crochet-since-the-surgery pieces. Slightly smaller than my computer I use it as a placemat/armrest. The body is acrylic and the border alpaca. 

Dash tries out the chair that Piper received for a birthday gift
over the past weekend.

Jimmy Beans Subscription Arrives

Six weeks ago I joined Jimmy Beans Wool's subscription service. At the beginning of each month I receive a pkg from JBW and inside is a surprise of yarn and goodies and a pattern-actually two-knitters and crocheters can enjoy this monthly box.

This month my first box contained a cute, logoed project bag, three small balls of neutral-colored yarn-all different from each other, and the pattern for a three-month long hat-making project which I sorta followed but adapted to fit me too.

I'm looking forward to the coming pkg which should arrive late next week or so. I'll post an update when I have completed the work for the month.

My version of this month's piece is shown in the top right, the pattern below it and the bag on the left.

Happy Birthday, Piper Doodles !~!

Piper turned nine over the weekend. I know, I'm having as hard a time believing it as you are !~!

Erica, Piper's Dutch Oma and my dear friend, arrived a week or two back for another of her summer visits. We have so much fun when she is here: thrift store shopping, walks in the woods, crafting with the Littles, discussing the world... sneaking off for a smoke.

The collapsible chair that Oma and I found thrifting-perfect for Piper's bedroom which needed a comfy place to sit and read.
Happy Birthday Doodles !~!

Erica hikes in the woods near the house.

The birthday party attendees the morning after in front of the tv.

Blankets I Made with Bernat Blanket Yarn

The blues and purple is for Lucia-my dearest Little who is now in High School and nearly as tall as I am. When I met her she was unable to sit alone !~! She'll be driving cars before year's end.

The pastels are for Scout. She chose the yarn and watched me make it.

Update on My Thumb

Well.

The original cast-thingy came off Thursday (June 29th-15 days after surgery) and not a day too soon. A decubitus ulcer was forming over the knuckle on my thumb. Another day or two and it would have broken thru the skin and then, boy-howdy! would there have been issues to deal with that might have taken months to resolve.

Doc wanted to put me into a non-removable cast for an additional four weeks. No. Not a chance in hell are we doing that. I just went thru 15 days unable to fix my own problem and my knuckle still barks at me.

So downstairs to the Occupational Therapist, who shall remain nameless, to have her make me a thermoplastic splint that I could take on and off at will.

By ten that night the splint had solidified with one of its sharp edges crossing All. Three. Incision. Lines. WTF ?~!

Off came it. Online went I. Order a brace, await its arrival and use a neoprene dealie that I have had for a while now.

They told me to totally immobilize it for another four weeks. What? No way. It would be A-weak as butterfly; B-stiff like anvil; C-royal inconvenience with no use of it for another month. So I am resuming my regular life activities with As Tolerated and Smart Thoughtfulness about how I do things.

My life is full of lifting babies and groceries and laundry, stripping beds, bathing people who cannot do it themselves, making food, vacuuming, changing diapers and clothing, playing games and pushing strollers, teaching cursive and reading, and helping cut the yard...

Ceasing all of that for some amorphous future benefit--hell, if it hurts ANY LESS than it did before the surgery then that's a plus. And we already have that so ... yeah, let's keep moving forward at our pace and the post-op period will work itself out. I see no need for additional OT in the future with this thumb.

Not too bad, eh ?~! Swelling's going down quickly. 

And that lumpiest, bumpiest, impinging-est bone is gone.

Birthday Scarves for Girls Completed Before Surgery

Projects for Piper, Ginger and Scout that involved handiwork had to be done before the hand surgery on June 14th. All three are summer babies with birthdays in July and August.

Here are their completed scarves in their chosen colors:

Ginger's

Scout's

Piper's

I'm So Incredibly Moved; Thank You

Celebrating a birthday when you are my age can be a day of quiet reflection.

Here, in LyndaLand, my little coral-colored phone rang all day and into the late evening of the next day. More than fifteen of my cherished ones called. Half a dozen sang. I am blessed beyond words to be so loved. This pile of thank you's went out to show how incredibly grateful I am to everyone who reached out to me this week.

Piper and Ginger stopped by with the most amazing gifts: They wrote letters describing our relationships and how important we are to one another. Full page, hand-written, from deep within their hearts; accompanied by drawings of us. I am touched on a level so intense it's difficult to write about it and keep my emos under control.

* * *

Typing is problematic right now: I had thumb surgery just over a week ago and am immobilized for another month. I have never learned to type with one hand. Have you ?~!

Trapeziectomy for those who want to look it up to see what Dr K did to me. Supposed to relieve the intractable pain I was suffering. We'll see. The first five days post-op were a bitch. It's better now-less painful, still cumbersome.  At this point, the right thumb will not be getting its surgery any time soon.

Since washing the mop of hair was impossible with this thumb situation, I had it cut off by my dear dear Laurel. Now I can wash it and brush it myself. Thanks, Laurel.

Much love and many thanks to all my buds, 

you made my 60th the Best Birthday ever !~!

The Most Recent Projects in LyndaLand

Some months back, in a shopgoodwill.com box were ten skeins of a two-tone brown merino wool from Bingo Chinè 50 gms, 80 meters per skein. I used nine of them, holding one in reserve for future repairs or alterations to the garment, to create a long, wide scarf for myself.

I used my largest long loom-48 pegs-and knitted a twisted stockinette piece that wrapped all the way around the loom without connecting so the piece lays flat, one layer only.

Final measurements 16 by 92 inches. It feels so incredibly soft and just puddles when I lay it down !~!

* * *

It has taken months, during which I crocheted a blanket for my friend Jean...

* * *

...and finished a quilt that Scout's great-grandma started before she died in 2012.

Scout Makes a Blanket for Herself

One can never have too many blankets. Especially here in Northern California where it's cold most of the time.

Scout made one for herself the other day:

Spring Blooms

Irises, potatoes and kidlets grow wild.

We couldn't be prouder!

Hi.

These last couple months have been incredibly awakening for me, and I just don't mean like now at 0300 and unable to sleep in anticipation of the daily savagely mendacious Twitter storm from our Incompetent-in-Chief. I mean on a deeper political scale than I have ever before felt it necessary to engage.

Nixon resigned on my way to my high school part-time job. That was the last time I felt this way. (had pencils been discovered yet way back then?)

We are many, the worried. With good reason. Our very varied ways of life and livelihoods are at stake with the Loon-in-Chief and his group of billionaires. Oh yeah, and his family. Nepotism returns in ways we have not witnessed since.... I can't recall. You?

Republican congress members loudly proclaim it's a travesty not to hold confirmation hearings on Gorsuch (for Supreme Court Justice for life) after they pulled their anti-Obama shit for YEARS and blocked Merrick Garland's hearings for double digit months. Ballsy bastards, aren't they?

Not a one of them should be re-elected.

On other topics, I am learning loom knitting and have many hats already to my credit. I started a merino wool blanket this week; 880 yards of a gorgeous brownish-purplish two-tone stunner of a color. Pics to follow when there's a bit to show you.

The girls are growing up so fast: six, seven and eight already and doing such fascinating activities: karate, writing, finger crocheting and learning to loom knit, reading and producing backyard plays, helping take care of the ten-month old who wants to run with the big kids already. He sure enjoyed today's sunshine out in the grass playing with flowers and CatCat.

Scout will be seven this summer.

Here she's a just few months past two. With solidly formed opinions.

I've crocheted a dozen pussy hats: sold a few, donated a few, wear a few. Had labels printed and sew one into each of my unique creations. I love the meme and feel such tremendous pride for the sea of pink, eared headgear I see at every public event these days.

Grab Who? By What ?~! Oh. Please.Try. It.

May that misogynistic abuser get the message and may he see our hats in his disturbed dreams. I hope he's terrified of what he has generated with his loose mouth and looser morals & behavior. I hate that s.o.b. He's ruined so much so quickly....

My favorite sign of the current times won't load, so here:

First they came for the Muslims...

and we said, 

"Not this time, Mother Fuckers!"

Amen.

Thank You, Ms Streep, for Speaking from Your Heart to Mine

Meryl Streep took her opportunity on the world stage to express her sadness and outrage at the actions of the President-elect after he publicly mocked a reporter with a disability.

These are her words:

There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. There was nothing good about it. But it was effective, and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. 

It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life.

I have spent much of my life working with people with disabilities, including ones like the reporter appears to have. There is no doubt in my mind that the mocking was intentional and the denial prevarication of the highest order. Denial-we're going to be seeing a lot of that coming up...

Michael J Fox has been publicly mocked for his disability too. Same type of person doing the mocking, remember? Wouldn't want that asshole to be my president either.

Thank you, Ms Streep, for saying in a public forum what so many of us have felt in our hearts.

You have become an even bigger hero of mine.

Cat Blanket Makes it to the Big Bed

The Cat decided that she wasn't so fond of the blanket.

So, Ormond bought six more skeins, I crocheted for several more days and now it's big enough to cover our queen-sized bed. I have slept under it for the last few nights and it is glorious. It breathes due to the extended Single Crochet stitch that I used thruout. It is warm and conforms; fabulously different from the fleece blanket I have been using since 2012.

CatCat's loss is my gain.

Silly kitty.

Wyatt practices with his hammer. I miss you, Little Guy.

Crocheting a New Blanket for CatCat 2.0

First time I have used fuzzy, thick blanket yarn, I am falling in love with how quickly it works up and its softness.

Bernat brand, variegated browns with an olive green accent it is so much the color of the cat that I couldn't do anything with it but make her a blanket for the Pooh couch which she shares with the Littles.

At present she is asleep on the table here in the living room window; I prefer she not get atop the tables but since her couch is being manipulated by me every few hours as I check blanket's size, I guess she can get away with this behavior for now.

Last evening just before sundown I began to crochet.

Here it is completed covering the small couch she likes:

Will she use the new bedding or continue to sleep elsewhere !~!