This morning was errand day chez moi. After passing a not-so-great night trying to sleep with a headache that finally went away at 9:30am, I got my butt in gear and headed out to run the errands. All went well at the first stop, so I hopped back in the car and was off to Stop #2…and was nearly run off the road by some person in a Camry. He attempted a lane change when I was half way past him in the next lane. You see, he didn’t want to have to wait the 30 seconds it was going to take for the TTC bus in front of him to make a pick up, so he veered over into my lane, without turning on his blinker (or turn signal, depending on where you are in the world.) I stomped on the brakes and honked my horn at him. And what did I get? Nothing, not even a flash of his own brake lights when he realized that there was someone in his way. Zippo. He finished his lane change, and then proceeded to cut off the TTC bus because he had to turn left at the next intersection. Moron.

I finished my errand at Stop #2 and carried on to Stop #3. That proceeded uneventfully, and I turned the car towards home.

At a certain point the traffic slowed down, and I noticed that there was a gentleman in a beat-up car who wanted to move out of the parking spot on the side of the road and come into my lane of traffic. Since we were pretty much stopped at this point, I came to a full stop and waved him in. Mind you, he did not have a blinker on, however he gave me a thank-you wave and pulled in front of me into traffic. I started to take my foot off the brake as traffic had started up again, when suddenly this woman in an SUV parked right next to me suddenly lurches out towards me!

I stomp on the brake again and lean on the horn. “What the hell?” I thought to myself.

She turns to look at me through her side window and motions that she’d like to come into the lane too. At this point she might as well since I’m already stopped and she’s evidently going to come out anyways, so I wave her over. As she’s about halfway into her turn, I again take my foot off the brake since she should be straightening out and moving smoothly into my lane of traffic. And I stomp on the brake again.

This stupid idiot is actually doing a u-turn right in front of me! She wants to go in the opposite direction!

I lean on the horn again, and start yelling at her through the windshield (as any of you who have driven with me know, I do suffer from a bit of road-rage, and will typically yell at most people, but this was just plain dangerous!) I make a blinker motion with my hand, as well as mouth the words “blinker” to her, which is plainly easy to figure out even through a windshield. At this point even the guy in the car behind me is honking, wondering what the hell was going on. The woman in the SUV has now stopped in front of me, and is asking me “what? what did I do?”

Now people, I know we all sometimes make a bone-headed move when in a motor vehicle, I freely admit this, but at this point in this type of situation, why the hell is she actually stopping to talk to me? I mean, she’s trying to do a u-turn (illegally, I might add), why is she stopping? She’s now blocking traffic in one direction, and partially blocking the other lane. Go for cryin’ out loud.

She keeps asking me “what? what did I do?” as she finally completes her bloody u-turn, and even stops so that our side mirrors are facing each other, and she actually rolls down the window. I didn’t even want to bother dealing with this moron, who obviously doesn’t know how to drive, so I just went forward and left her there. My lane had finally cleared, so I was going to carry on back home.

I laughed about it all the way home, because it was just so absurd. One of my rules for the idiot drivers out there is “If you’re going to do a bone-headed move, at least have the courtesy to use your blinker at some point so I know where you’re going so that I can stay out of your way.” This would have been a perfect day for that to be enforced, because I’m sure this wasn’t the only instances of no-blinker-itis that happened around the city.

I have now been knitting for the past 3 hours trying to erase the memory of all this driving craziness.

Yes, there you have it. An artsy photo of the Feather and Fan Shawl I’m knitting up. Want another photo? Here you are…

And one more for the road…

Yes, it’s true! I have started knitting again. Well, that’s not exactly true. I’ve been knitting like a mad fiend on the log cabin blanket for my cousin’s son since about March, but I’ve been trying to find a new project to start knitting, and was uninspired for the longest time. Until my sister reminded me last week that I should check out my queue on Ravelry.com, and when I did, I remembered the Everlasting Bagstopper! So I pulled out some crafter’s cotton and cast on last weekend. The casting on was funny, as I was engaging in some drunken knitting with my sister & one of her Internet knitting buddies (but we were actually all in the same place here in Toronto.) Those two ladies do all sorts of funky and advanced things like purses, sweaters n’ such. So I sat there staring at my yarn as my maple latte cooled in front of me, and I was thinking “how in the hell do I cast on?” I couldn’t remember, for the life of me. But then Carol & Ramona reminded me, and I was on my way.

I ended up doing the bottom piece “wrong”, in that the pattern called for garter stitch, but I had written down “garter stitch (knit/purl)”, which is of course stockinette, not garter. But that’s okay, cuz I actually like having a “flat” bit on the bottom. So I’ve been busy knitting away on the sides, enjoying myself tremendously. Look, here are some photos!

And another:

Of course with all this knitting I have started to develop some new callouses on my fingers, as this one requires some more manoeuvering to get all the yarn overs and k2tog done. But I’m enjoying myself immensely.

And it’s serving to distract me from the fact that the last log I knit on the log cabin blanket was actually backwards AND on the wrong end of the blanket! *sigh* So I had to frog the log off, turn the blanket around, and flip it over, and now I’m trying to knit that one as fast as I can since I’m really sick of the green yarn. But it’s coming along nicely. I’m wondering if I’ll finish off the cones of yarn before Labour Day or not…guess only time will tell.

No, before you get all excited and wonder if I found a stitch n’ bitch over here on the West coast, I didn’t. But I did see a cute little yarn shop in Edgemont here in North Van whilst taking the bus over to the city. I stopped in on the way back, and it’s a cute little shop with a ton of nice yarns. It’s called Urban Yarns.

I am sure missing the FO I’m making for my Italian relatives right now, as I couldn’t bring it with me on the plane since it’s far too big. Do you want to know how much I’m missing knitting? One of my calluses has actually started to “soften”, and it’s only been 6 days since I knit! Aahh-eee! Don’t worry, I’ll be back and knitting by Sunday, so all will be well with the universe then. Tee hee.

Yes, you read that correctly. I have been knitting! In an effort to get the Italian presents started, I started knitting the Oink (that’d be the Object in Question….okay, spelled a little incorrectly, but I thought I’d have some fun here.) I can’t actually tell you what it is that I’m knitting since it’s a p-r-e-s-e-n-t for someone, but I can show you some up close and personal photos that will act as proof that I am knitting.

Proof Number One:

Proof Number Two:

And finally, Proof Number Three:

Aren’t those purdy colour choices? All the colours in the rainbow…okay, maybe not, but there’s 5 of the 7 in there. :-)  But don’t ask me what it is yet, cuz I’m not tellin’!