Lansing is crawling toward spring. I enjoy every small discovery.

I went for a walk less than a week ago. There was the most wonderful birdsong coming from a tree above me. I strained to see…

It was a male cardinal telling the world about his location. I could listen to that song forever!

(He was so far away that my small but lovely camera could only get this blurry photo. The tree is at least 3 stories tall. I had to try, anyway. Better than a concert, really! He’s a star in my world.)

I have been contemplating my strengths/weaknesses lately. It seems that the intense parts of me are both my best parts and my most handicapping parts, alternately.

I don’t quit easily. I am loyal. I can be loyal when it is no longer appropriate. I can push toward a goal even when the goal has become unwise.

These are just truths. The longer I live, the longer I understand that these statements describe two sides of the same coin.

For example, tough people can forget to ask for help. Sometimes friends want to help others (including tough folks), it makes them feel great to connect and feel useful. However, in some situations tough and solo is the only way out, no time to get help even if others are willing.

A very small version of a good way my “I don’t quit easily” side works, is illustrated here. Brian bought me flowers. I love carnations. They were very fresh when he got them, and carnations have good longevity for cut flowers anyway.

Three weeks later, they looked like the first photo here. I might have tossed the bunch, but I noticed how happy the one particular flower at bottom left was looking.

I found a small vessel that would welcome the few flowers which were still going strong. About 80% of the flowers were tossed out, as was appropriate. The other flowers lasted almost another week. We had nearly a month of carnations while the snow was still on the ground.

This time, my tendency to stick things out was a plus. Don’t you agree?

On March 7, the day was so gorgeous I took a walk. This was the day I found a tiny blooming flower in my yard.

There is a school near our home. I decided to go on the swing set for a while. I have always loved swings, though it seems that an adult body is never going to be comfy in a sling seat!

I slowed down my swing and sat there for a while, watching kids play basketball, younger kids climb the equipment, and a mommy walk a couple of dogs. I had an impulse to take a few photos, and held the camera out with my right hand. The angle could not have been better, just look at all that red lined up so nicely!

For the knitters, I am wearing a “Bloom Shawl” by friend Trish Bloom. It was knit in the original yarn, Noro Blossom. This yarn was discontinued but there is a very similar yarn now offered by Noro which really works well. LOVE this design.

I’m holding a Chippy sock, still in progress, in my hand. It is earmarked for my new niece (who is a tiny thing).

Here are a few other photos of the area. Remember, this was the same day I had a flower blooming. We definitely have a warm spot on our own lot. Most of the area looked white like this!

I found three places on my almost-two-hour walk, which had large areas of grass rather than snow. One was my own south-facing side yard:

The other big one was another corner lot, another south-facing area. I see a trend.

I feel lucky. I am *not* a winter girl. To be gifted with one of the very few patches of green, is a real delight. To find a flower the first week of March? Incredible. Lucky me.

My friend Susan Hensel lives in Minneapolis now. She was the one who inspired both my “Fabric of Friendship” feltmaking performance/display, and my knitted Self-Portrait.

I met Susan years ago in Mid-Michigan (does anyone in Lansing remember “Wyrd Sisters” in Okemos?). She and two other partners had an artspace called “The Art Apartment” in East Lansing (where my feltmaking show was hung).

Susan now owns a gallery in Minneapolis, and has continued her shows called “A Reader’s Art” which are incredible, mind-bending art books. This will be her 10th year for the show. If you know anyone near Minneapolis, please let them know about this.

Susan Hensel Gallery presents

Help us celebrate! Opening reception March 12, 7-9pm To see a full list of exhibitors, please visit:susanhenselgallery.com Also don’t miss! A special poetry reading hosted by Georgia Greeley w/ members of the Laurel Poetry Collective: April 16th, 2010. 7 p.m.

Here she is:

There seem to be no affiliated leaves with this bloom, though there are myrtle groundcover leaves not too far away. Must be myrtle/periwinkle, though at this angle she sure looks like a tiny morning glory!

Most of the neighborhood is covered in snow. Around sidewalks and homes, there are areas thawing slowly. When I walk outside, there is a constant sound of water flowing into the drains.

Our south side yard seems to have a “microclimate” that I only saw three times on my walk. There are patches in a few yards where the whole thing is melted for some reason. It’s only on the middle of our side yard, where things are clearly warmer.

Five blocks away:

We are not done with winter yet. There are always at least a few flakes of snow in the air, in April. But a few melting days can make a woman feel tall again!

It has been about a week of sun/melting during the day and freezing at night. This is perfect. The mildew has not taken hold yet because of the frost at night.

Today I opened both the front door and the back. Our house is rather small and there is a straight line of airflow between the two. There are no bugs out yet, so even with no screen on the  back door, I gave us fresh air inside. I’m delighted.

Does anyone remember the mid-70’s John Denver album “Rocky Mountain High?” I remember he had a “song cycle” about the seasons. There were four songs titled with our normal four seasons. Then there was a “tune…” no words, just mood… entitled “Late Winter/Early Spring.” I almost never connect with instrumentals, but this one captivated me and I would play it repeatedly.

Today, on my walk through my neighborhood, I had an inner soundtrack going, with Late Winter/Early Spring. Kids, dogs, bikes, basketballs… young couples, babies in strollers. Snow melting, water flowing into drains rather loudly. It is a good day in Lansing.

Our family just increased by one. I’m now an aunt, again.

The little girl is merely 5 lb 8 oz as of Wednesday. She is a week old today, Saturday. The sweet girl is well and beautiful, and the parents are glowing. (Tired, but glowing.)

I have made a point of not knitting for Brian’s side of the family. There are so many people, and I don’t want anyone to feel left out. I can not possibly knit for everyone and still run a business that has to do with knitting.

But this week I broke my resolve. I know these parents very well and I adore them. The world needs more families of this commitment and caliber.

Here is the result of my weak moment:

(Chippy Socks for Kids. Size Infant-0. Debbie Bliss Rialto and Filatura di Crosa Zara. Size 2 US Brittany Birch needles.)

No, I do not have a photo of the baby. I will have to ask permission to borrow one someone else took before I put up any images. Trust me: she is delicious to look at. I’m in love and I haven’t even met her.

Brian just got a new camera. He was testing it out while I was working, laptop on the couch. He got this photo.

Somehow, only a tiny bit of the real mess and all of the color in my world, got into the photo. This was not staged. Welcome to a good, quiet, working moment… in my pleasant, modest life.

Let’s play that game where kids find things in a drawing:

Cup o’tea in mug gifted to us by Midwest Ukefest/Indianapolis
Hot water bottle for warm feet (hiding)
Bobbins for spinning wheel
Christmas lights
Heftone Bass
Quilted pillow by Sis-in-Love, Jane
Handknit lap blankie by Sis-in-Love, Diana (almost hiding)
Blanket from beloved Mexico
Blanket from beloved Ethiopia

Did I say “Cup o’tea?” Did I say “New laptop which I love?”

Did I say “Beloved hubby who is behind the camera?”

It is really, truly a good life, if you notice the little things. All these little things (and more) add up to a doozy of a satisfying life, for me.

Here is a photo of the daffodil buds I saw Monday. I took this photo about noon on Wednesday. As a point of reference, this is a photo taken in the same session (the view which was behind me when I took the above photo):

And this is a photo out the window of my front door, taken immediately after I took the above shot (notice the rare and beautiful hint of blue in the sky):

I am not a winter person, though I was born at the end of November and many of my ancestors lived in Norway and Sweden. Last year, the winter seemed to go on forever, even though we visited Florida for a week in February.

This year… no vacation, but it just was not as brutal somehow. I am grateful.

And the buds promise that things are changing, at least in one tiny microclimate in my yard. I think I am going to make it!

I went for a walk with friend April on Monday. We walked along the side of my house, where I do not often walk before dark.

For some reason, I noticed that there were a few inches around my house before the snow started. Apparently a little melting has been going on lately, and I saw actual green growing plants (mostly weeds, I will take what I can get on the first week of March).

We took a few more steps and I looked a little further in the same melted patch. I could not believe it! Not only daffodil shoots coming up through the soil, but a bud glowing yellow through it. It was close to the ground, but it was a bud.

I did not have my camera on our walk. Tuesday I left in a big hurry and did not get home before sunset.

However, you have my word. Michigan had at least one daffodil bud growing on Monday, March 1. The photo here is that same plant, blooming in a previous year.

We usually get at least one day with a few snowflakes, in April. Very occasionally we get a big storm in April.

But last year I showed photos of blooming flowers in my yard, on March 24. Let us hope that this year it will be at least that good. Crossing fingers!

Brian and I decided to go out to dinner. We stopped at the office supply store to buy my TurboTax program on the way there.

I’d run out of hair conditioner that day. I realized we were a few doors down from Target, and we could run in there and get what I needed quickly, before going to dinner.

The conditioner was on sale for $0.87, which came to $0.92 with tax. Our cashier said he had never seen anyone spend less than a dollar. It was a new experience for me, definitely.

As we left the store, I heard a college-aged girl say “That’s the least money I’ve ever spent here at one time!”

Me: I just spent ninety-two cents.

She: I suck.

We chuckled all the way to the restaurant.

As I work on my taxes for 2009, I sometimes need to look up a photo from the past year (I make photo images of all my checks that I deposit, rather than making paper copies for my files). I found these photos as I worked. This is a TWX/Telex machine just like one I used 30 years ago.

The first full-time job I had, I started in January or February of 1981. I worked for an appliance parts wholesaler, doing data entry 40 hours a week. Because it was wholesale, a few people did a good variety of jobs. I was very lucky that the office at the time I started, was one big room with desks everywhere. I could hear everyone (purchasing, finance, sales) make telephone calls, decisions, fix problems, make customers happy.

A Fish Out of Water

I came from a background where not only my parents were both educators, but most of my friends’ parents worked in some sort of academic setting. I was not at all familiar with business (although my grandfather and my uncle both owned newspapers in Minnesota, far from my world).

However, somehow I found myself with a secretarial certificate, sort of by accident. I could type, though slowly, but I never looked at my fingers and I typed numbers as well as letters. It was a time when there was little work available in Lansing. I was a bad waitress but I could still make more waiting tables than many of the desk jobs available to me.

It’s All in the Numbers

I pretty much got the wholesaler  job when they asked me to sit at an IBM Selectric typewriter and type the numbers from the phone book. I don’t think they even checked my work. I sat there and typed without looking at my hands. They knew that if I didn’t look, I’d improve with both speed and accuracy.

They needed me to type all day, 40 hours/week. I typed over 4000 invoices a month, plus orders, purchasing, receiving orders into the computer database, and other tasks. It was a cleaner job than waiting tables, with more regular hours. I entered the 8-5 workforce.

Pre-DOS/PC Computing

At this job, we had a Xerox Diablo computer. This preceded the IBM/DOS personal computer by a handful of years. The machine itself was about the size of a desk. It had 10″ boot disks, and the monitor/keyboard were all part of the desk/machine itself. There was a dot matrix printer which stood on the floor and fed tractor-feed paper (most of the time, invoices in 3 parts). (Click this link to see an image, can’t believe I found one!)

There was also a huge metal box, connected with a wire cable over an inch diameter (not shown in image linked above). It held the data disk. In order to back up at night, we had to open the box like a car trunk, unscrew the disk out, put a new one in, copy data to the extra disk, then remove that and put the main one back in. There were 4 disks in all. I am sure they were pricey things, though they no doubt held very little data by today’s standards.

Clunky but Effective Telex

Next to that machine sat two TWX/Telex machines. The more modern one (it had a pushbutton dialing pad) was owned by a major appliance manufacturer, and we used it only to order parts from that manufacturer. The other one was owned by my employer, an older one with a dial (it looked nearly identical to the one in these photos). We ordered from assorted other parts suppliers on that one.

The technology was evolved from the old morse-code telegraph system, and by WWII there were banks of telex operators using typewriter keyboards to send messages as quickly as technology would allow. The machines I used had built-in modems which would connect our machine directly to a computer at the parts supplier.

We would enter an order in a very specific format, and the numbers would be fed into the system, with no human on the far end. With the one supplier, we would get parts sent out the next day if they fit a certain criteria.

How the Gizmo Worked

How this actually worked, was that you had a ticker tape, a very strong and rigid/smooth paper tape, which got punched with basically a binary code (hole or no hole, off/on) as you typed. Each keystroke took one row of tape.

The keys you typed on with your fingers, were manual. You had to throw each key hard and strong, or that tape would not be perforated properly. (You can imagine how hard it was for me to get used to “quiet” computer keyboards after that training.)

No Room for Mistakes

We sometimes had dozens of line items to type. You typed a quantity, a space or a comma, and then the part number. To start a new line, you had to both hit the line feed key and the carriage-return key.

For the dedicated manufacturer-owned machine, we could not make one typo or the order would fail. If you made a single stroke that was wrong, you had to start over typing the order. That manufacturer had numbers only, no letters or hyphens. An order might look like this in the middle:

1,350020
2,240020
5,123456

The paper printout could be feet long, with enough numbers on a page to make your mind numb. If you blew a single keystroke, you started over. The tickertapes were often twice as long as I was tall. It was stressful work. (I did figure out how to fix a non-dedicated-machine tape but had to pretend I wasn’t breaking “the rules” even when saving my employer’s time/money by doing it.)

Beep, Beep, the Modem Song

After you made the tape (at right in photo above), you ripped off the tape and put it in a tape reader which interpreted the perforations and sent them as data through a phone line. You dialed the number of the part supplier’s machine, and when it indicated it was ready, you pushed a button to tell it to start reading the tape. It made a horrible racket!

You didn’t know how things had gone until the tape was read and the other computer sent you a message (which printed on your paper), that said it was received properly. More stress. Mind you, I needed this job SO badly that I just did whatever they needed me to do. It was not about having fun or liking the work. It was about being grateful for income, and I was.

Photo Luck

I took the above photos through a plate glass window at the ATT (formerly Michigan Bell) building on N. Washington, in downtown Lansing. There is a “history of phone communication” museum in the building. That is, there are items there which once were open to the public.

Now nobody watches the space, and so we can not go inside any more. Luckily, this piece was in the window where I could photograph it as I walked by on the sidewalk.

How about You?

Anyone else out there ever use a 10″ floppy disk? Anyone else out there do any TWX/Telex work? I think we are becoming rare birds.

My father died in 1973. He was a statistician and he did his calculations with a slide rule. He said he would buy a pocket calculator when they went under $500 and fit in a pocket. No luck for him. My brother bought one in ‘75 which fit the bill.

And now I have an iPod Touch. It surfs the web in my hand. It runs a lot of programs, has a built-in calculator and surely there are available apps that would do what dad did with his slide rule. For less than those 1973 calculators.

I *SO* wish I could give my dad a Touch for his birthday, you know? He would LOVE it.

Sailing into the Future

I think we are past Dick Tracy’s amazing image/telephone watches, now. It’s good to remember where we came from.

I think I need some.

Despite the sign, I found nothing on the shelves called “control” anything. Wouldn’t it be handy if one could really buy such a thing?

I live in Lansing, Michigan, USA. I love the community. I don’t love the snow. The longer I stay here, the longer I think I’ll stay. However, in February/March I always consider changing my mind, at least for a fleeting moment or two.

Kid Adventure

Tuesday night Isabel (5 years old) and I tried to make a snowman. It had been warm enough during midday to have sticky snowman-making snow. By the time we got outside, it was too cold for such ideas. I chased her in circles in 6″ (15cm) of snow in her backyard until my legs were tired and my hands cold.

She played with some molds she has that make snow bricks. It was not fully successful, but she enjoyed quantity over quality and was content.

Luckily for me, we went out at twilight. We could not stay out too long, because we just could not see much after a little while. (Photo below is her on the swingset in full snow gear, in near darkness. Love this child!)

I wouldn’t trade that time for anything. Except maybe sticky snow and a snowman on top of the rest.

More Adventure

Wednesday it was another melty-sticky day. My friend Barbara said she made a snowman during the day, I was happy for her.

The roads were worse, it seems, Wednesday than even Monday (when so many schools were out for snow days). One of the main highways on the way out of town, was closed up tight at 3pm… just as state workers started to trickle out of town. It took me 30 minutes to go about 4 miles, normally a 6-7 minute drive. Crazy.

1-2-3 Rescue

I started my day stuck in my own driveway. My bug is usually better at snow than you might imagine.

I am a skilled and experienced driver. I have decent tires, and as long as the snow is not taller than the underbelly of my car, I can get around if I am cautious.

Here is a photo of my car/driveway on Tuesday morning. I got out just fine after taking this photo. We got a few more inches by Wednesday noon, when I attempted to go pick up a friend.

Wednesday morning somehow there was sheet ice under my wheels in the driveway. It does not help that our drive is made of earth rather than pavement, so there are little dents where the tires rest in the driveway (it’s a very short drive, there is little wiggle room).

Plan A: I tried to back out, with the reasonable assumption that I could do it just as I had Tuesday. I could not edge half an inch out of that icy low spot. I’m pretty darned good at winter driving, but I could only spin my wheels.

Plan B: I shoveled a lot of snow from anywhere near the car, and then got two thick pieces of dry cardboard from the house (thank goodness I had not taken out the recycling yet). I put the cardboard behind the front tires, as close to the tires as possible. Still, I could not get a half inch of traction to get on the cardboard so I could move.

Plan C: The big guns, so to speak. We have “salt” which is the kind which supposedly does less damage to soil and cement than regular salt. It’s also grainy like colored fish gravel. We do not use salt unless things are desperate. I was desperate.

I tossed a handful of salt in front of/in back of my tires. Fortunately, since the weather was a little warmer than freezing, the salt could take hold rather quickly. I was able to back out. Whew!

My Own Princess Charming, Today

I love being able to say “I rescued myself.” It is a powerful phrase. However, don’t think for a minute that the part where I figure out how do do the rescue is much fun. Today, no fun at all.

But I did it. I rescued myself. Score 1 for Lynn!

Friend Cynthia and Friend/Shop Owner Rae checked over my Olympic-Season sweater project Tuesday. We all 3 see the same thing. The fabric of one piece is different, in texture and gauge, from the other. Both are the same yarn and the same exact needles used. One is smoother, with a smaller gauge. One is fuzzier and gives larger stitches on the same needles.

Rae says there was more than one shipment of that yarn to her shop over the years she carried it. Clearly the reason my swatch was a smaller gauge than the sweater, is that I used an old lot for the swatch and for the second piece of the sweater. Here is how much I’ve completed thus far (before stopping on a dime, yesterday, when I saw the mismatch):

The newer yarn (for which I have two extra 100gm balls, no shortage) is fuzzier and fluffier. It’s the same number of yards per pound but it is knitting at a fatter gauge than the one “oddball” from which the swatch came. Sigh.

Thank goodness the colors match almost exactly. I have made the decision to make the tighter-gauge piece be the back of the sweater. If I sit on it a lot, maybe it won’t stretch out as much being the firmer gauge, I can only hope.

What I will do is what others sometimes do when they have color mismatches in dye lots. Starting now, I will alternate two rows of one ball, then 2 rows of another, until I run out of the oddball. Then I will continue with the new ball, which will match the front and sleeves.

It just does not look different enough to rip and restart. I guess it’s like an ice skater who falls and continues their program. It is not 100% but continuing is part of being an Olympian. Or that’s how I’m justifying it today, anyway.

Here is a comparison shot. The top piece is what I have 7 balls of. It’s fluffier and fuzzier, and the gauge ended up bigger. The bottom piece, can you see that it’s just plain smoother? The stitches are definitely smaller, though for some reason the “garter rib/pearl rib” makes the gauge over the stitch pattern less different than knit stitch compared to knit stitch.

For the record, if this were a sample that the public would see, especially if I designed it? I’d rip and re-do. However, this is something for me to put in my closet and wear. Someone else designed it. You might say my “name” is not on it. Compromise is in order.

Here is a photo of the two yarn balls next to one another. Can you see that the top one is less fuzzy, more shiny? I think the colors are very, very close, but the textures are quite different.

Live and learn. Back to the needles…