My latest Cardi - nearing the finish line!

Over the weekend, I finished the "knitting" part.  Now comes the scary part - cutting the "steek".

Two strands of lace-weight held together, and every six rows, an added strand of pumpkin silk.  You wouldn't believe how lucious this feels, so warm and so light!  Down the middle is a line of embroidery floss, marking the center of the steek.  On either side, the fabric needs to be stabilized with maching stitching so that the whole thing doesn't unravel when cut.

Up-close of the steek.  The entire sweater is stockinette stitch, so the knitting was lovely and repetitious.  I'm a little worried about the button band - I have so little yarn left.

Today, two coats of greyish-blue paint goes up on the office walls, then later this week, all the Safe-From-Harm window glass goes in.  Hopefully everyone can get back in their office space by Friday, though the security doors are still a week away.

Today..........May 27

The other night, storms were brewing pretty fast and Gary was doing DIsaster Work in Joplin.  I looked across the room and spotted my power chair and wondered how the dogs and I would survive.  I decided that at 250 pounds, the chair might resist the wind, so I toyed with the idea of sliding the seat belt of the chair through the dog's collars and clipping it around myself.  We would ride out the storm together.  Thankfully, that idea never had to be tested. 

However, it made me think about the definition of disabled.  So many, many of our clients are waiting for the Disability Ship to come in to port, yet they seem to be able to hop around town fairly freely.  They can get in the car, run to Walmart, dash into the store between the raindrops, and visit around town all day.  And I have to wonder, are you  really disabled?  To me, disabled is mentally strapping your dogs to your wheelchair in the hopes of saving them because there is no way on earth you will be able to get down in your very safe basement without the help of a very large, very burly football player.  Disabled is being 80 years old, and confined to a Nursing Home bed, knowing that you will die in the storm if no one moves your bed to a safe place.  Disabled is being dependent on a respirator when the power goes out.

Disabled is not wanting the government (read: me, the taxpayer) to support you for the rest of your life because you don't want to get up to the sound of an alarm. 

The storm roared past us, and destroyed Joplin.

The contractors are taking a 4-day holiday weekend, so the work has stopped for the time being.

Our "New Normal"

Thank you to Jena for this picture.  Our canteen arrived on-site 45 minutes after the tonado hit Joplin.  Our teams have been workeing around the clock since that time.  It is cold, wet work, and today may be the first day since the storm that it won't be raining all day.  Something like this really rearranges your priorities.

Construction Moving Along - but will be delayed....

So, it appears that the construction of the offices will be delayed another week, due to the holidays next week and some electrical difficulties.  But the guys are doing a great job and have worked hard to keep things clean and functioning in the middle of all the chaos.  Here are some pictures from last night:

Standing in Matt's office, looking into waiting room.  Mud going on!

Standing in Matt's office, looking west into my office.

Standing IN my office, looking east into Matt's office.  Cut-aways on far wall are going to be security windows in Gary's office, looking into both Matt's area and the waiting room area.

Sent to us via FEMA - it does speak volumes.  Though people really are generous at times like this, sometimes their gifts become difficult to distribute.  Cash really is best right now.

Today..........May 24

Firstly, I want to point out that 7 months from today, we are done with Kettle Season for another year.  CAN I GET A WITNESS???

Second...........as you will see in the photo above, I now have a window opening and even more recently, DRYWALL!  Today, they are taping and sanding, soon we will see a little paint going up.  All the electrical is done, including the buzzers for the entry way.  And everyone who visits, clients, Board members and visitors all love the cute little waiting room.  It will even have cable TV!

They will share my new office with me - they are very happy for so many windows.  More opportunity to bark at people walking by to our store.

I invented this sweater - made up the pattern and hoped it would fit.  It does.  And today it is 84 degrees, much too warm for a sweater vest.

I hemmed the bottom with picot and the front and sleeves with icord - in officer's red, of course!  Do you think this would pass for "official"???

Haven't seen Gary in 3 days - he's spending his time in Joplin these days.

Today..........May 18

Looking through my "security window", into Matt's office.  Beyond: waiting area and foyer.  I'm really excited about this new direction - rather than just simply pay bills for people, we will have an opportunity to help people learn to use the resources that they already have appropriately.  It's mentoring at its highehst level.

Our Knit-Along, a Cable Sampler Scarf.  After three mis-fires, I finally made some progress.  Each week we will be given a new stitch pattern and when completed, there will be 7 stitch pattern sections.  It's a fun project, because we are all using different yarn and needles, so everyone's looks a little different.

Construction Progress

Gary cleared out of his office to make room for Matt to work there.  Taping the cables and cords to the floor.  Gary's office will get two security windows into the waiting room and Matt's office.

Covering the copy machine - it will stay in place, and this area will become the work room.  It will be adjacent to my office.  My existing office will become a conference room, and at Christmas, the Kettle Coordinator's office.

Our existing office area is just one huge space with stuff all around the walls.  A lot of wasted space, and no privacy for the caseworker.

The walls are starting to go up - this area will be my office - and it will have security windows that open to the caseworker and the waiting room.  AND SUNLIGHT!!!!  I have been with the Army since 1995, and have NEVER had a window.  In fact, three times I have had the office that was built as a Maintenance Closet on the blueprints.  *whine*

Existing Big Space.  Caseworker desk in foreground.  This will be enclosed, with waiting room in front and my office behind.

Outline for Gary's Security Windows.  Gonna be pretty dusty for awhile.

Took a break yesterday to do some quilting with the Home League.  And today, our Girard group is starting Cable Sampler Scarves.  I LOVE creative days!

Designing my own vest (for uniform wear)

cast on - later ripped out and changed

copies of the charts used to design

facing, picot turning row, navy outside started

hem stitched in place - wrong side

hem from teh right side - maroon picot edging showing

newest socks being blocked.  LOVE THEM!

Today, we start the office remodel - while trying to work in the same space.  I will track our progress here with lots of pictures! It is all very exciting.

Creative Energy run amok

I have a book filled with charts of numbers, and a few vague directions, and four skeins of inexpensive yarn.  I have this outrageous idea that there is simply not enough stress in my life, so I am going to design and knit my own navy-blue sweater vest to wear with my uniform.  (It's not stressful enough, I have to knit on a DARK color!).

I will post pictures from time to time of the sorry mess, and with any luck, I will actually create something that is wearable!

More to come.

New Vision

Those of you who know me well, know that all my life I have tried to do what I needed to do in spite of my disability.  And sometimes, it wasn't too pretty.  (I remember one time trying to fast-dance at a college dance where my mother was in attendance.  Afterwards she quietly reminded me that I "didn't need to do EVERYTHING").  So there are days when I get so frustrated with the New Welfare, that says that all you need to do is get someone to veryify you as "disabled" (and I use that term very loosely), you will never have to look at a clock again, and the rest of the world is now responsible for your wealth and happiness.

So it is with great pleasure that we are investigating and developing a new program (for us) called the Representative Payee.  It's a way of helping those receiving government funds to use them appropriately so as to give them a consistent way of live, instead of moving from crisis to crisis.  As charitable funds dry up, this will simply be the BEST way to help those folks.

And I am thrilled, excited and hopeful.  It will be a lot of work, and it won't be easy.  But I believe it IS the best I've ever been involved in!

One picture is worth a thousand words...

Up close of the shawl I'm working on.

My cardigan - attaching the sleeves.  The center is a "steek", meaning I will slice up the middle to make it into a cardigan.  Scaaarrry!

My Mother's Day project - before.  He's been gasping like an old man with terminal COPD.

During the process - you have never heard such wailing.

After - no more gasping in the heat.  Now, he's just hiding in his crate.

My latest socks - I absolutely love the color AND the yarn.  It's slightly stretchy - which has its' own challenges while knitting.  One has to learn all over how to adjust tension.

Looking Through the Window Glass

Yesterday I took myself shopping at Hobby Lobby in Joplin, partly because I was a bit lonely with Gary away (again!) and partly because Hobby Lobby has electric doors, important when you are getting around in a wheelchair.  I rolled confidently up to the door, and stopped short when I couldn't find the slap-pad.  After a few moments of disappointment, I discovered it, hidden behind a trash can.  Ever try to move a trashcan in a wheelchair?  Not easy, AND you look ridiculous.  So anyway, I muscled it out of the way and slapped the pad.  Hmmm.  Slapped it again, harder.  Still nothing.  Then I felt it.  Rain drops.  Drat, drat, double drat.  The stupid door wouldn't open, and I was gonna get soaked, probably short out my wheelchair and end up dying by the side of a trashcan with my hand just barely touching the pad.  Dramatic, I know. 

I looked up, and into the lobby (you know the one, filled with cheaply made, but pretty cool, furniture pieces) and saw an elderly woman at the far end.  And I realized at that moment that this is kind of the story of my life some days - looking through the glass at life, but unable to really touch it, and always hoping for the kindness of strangers while at the same time angry that I need it.  She did, in fact, see me, and read the situation instantly.  She shuffled all the way across the lobby and let me in, mumbling under her breath, and then mustered as much righteous indignation as her frail body could hold and went to find the manager.  I expect he got an ear-full about that "poor crippled woman caught in the rain because you failed to fix the door!"  I sure didn't want to be the manager at that moment.

So anyway, I tooled around the store, found the yarn and bought  two skeins of the most luscious mercerized cotton.  Now again at home, I am happily creating a lovely, lacy shawl with an intricate stitch pattern.  And I am now on the OTHER side of the glass. 

**sigh**