Hurricane Force Winds

We had a big storm yesterday with high winds - well over 100 kph at times. It was considered a Level I hurricane in some areas. It reminded me of a hurricane I lived through as a child while living in Mexico with my family. It was too noisy to sleep so I sat up most of the night with my mom, watching the horizontal rain, green with shredded vegetation.  I don't remember feeling afraid as my parents remained calm and our house was solidly built with bricks and concrete. The only damage we sustained was some broken windows which enabled the entry of rain. The storm petered out a couple of days later as it moved inland. I remember my dad and our maid squeegeing water out the front door. Fortunately all our floors were waterproof terrazo so no permanent damage was done.

Yesterday's storm reminded me of that but it was much shorter - only a few minutes - and although the rain was horizontal at times, it wasn't green. We didn't get the hail that some other areas did. Our power and phone lines are buried in this neighbourhood so the falling limbs from trees as old as 40 years didn't cause any damage that way. Our power only flickered but we never lost it completely.

After the storm, when the rain stopped and the sun came out, I went to a nearby grocery store. The power was out but they were still admitting shoppers. Only emergency lights were on and it was pretty dark - it felt somewhat dystopian. All the refrigeration cases were covered either with wet cloths or plastic so it was hard to see what I was looking for. I did find most things and was able to check out - the registers and cash terminals were working, of course. The other store I went to was not in a power outage area.

At home, we have a gas range and barbecue with a side burner so if we lost power for any length of time, we'd still be able to heat up stuff. As I write this, several of my friends in our region are still without power almost 24 hours later and one town, Uxbridge ON, has declared a state of emergency.

We are grateful for our water-tight, cozy home.

Last night I watched 'Operation Mincemeat' on Netflix. I do have a thing for Colin Firth, after all. I got quite a bit done on my scrappy handspun sweater. I'm more than halfway to the underarm - 16" from the bottom edge.

I don't have enough of the main colour so about halfway through the ball.The handspun I mentioned in the previous post was too thin so I switched to another bunch (left).  It's not plied as tightly but is almost the same colour as the one on the right and I have three hanks of it which should allow me to complete the sweater.

The rest of the first main colour will be used on the sleeves which will be knit cuff up, then  joined with the body. Then the yoke is knit to the neck, continuing alternating with the other colours in the same sequence. The nubbly texture will smooth out a bit with blocking but will never be as smooth as mill-spun yarn. 

The fabric is so soft and squishy. It's going to be so light and cozy.

I started a Wildflower Hearts scissor case with the mystery silk thread and was not pleased with the coverage I was getting with the single strand in the filigree part. I have abandoned that project and will use the fabric for something else.

Oh yeah, I learned how to do something new from YouTube the other day - how to change the batteries in watches. I had two watches that were dead and Skip had a favourite watch that needed a new battery. He's owned it for over 40 years. It's analog and has big readouts for the day and time. Once I figured out how to remove the backs (kitchen knife under the right spot), 

the correct battery numbers were determined and I ordered them on Amazon (between $3 and $6 each) as well as watchmaker's tweezers. They arrived within two days. We already owned the teeny weeny screwdrivers. My 30+ year-old Armitron Peanuts Gang watch is ticking again as is Skip's old Seiko.

Not sure when I'll wear it, though, as I'm quite attached to my Apple Watch 6.

It always amazes me what one can learn on YouTube.