I’ve eluded to a tough summer. It was bad. I lost one of my best friends since college in July. My Dad’s cancers were deemed terminal in early August and he entered hospice. At the end of September, he passed. I’ve been back and forth to Florida 4 times since early August; its about 950 miles each way. This past week, I had to help my mom close up the Florida place and drive my Dad’s car back up north. I flew to Orlando and took the city bus across town to the Amtrak station, then had her pick me up 10 minutes from her house. It was WAY faster than driving, and about the same price.

Even though I had to wake up at 2:30 in the morning, I was at my Mom’s place by 4 pm. I got a lot of knitting and reading accomplished waiting and traveling. My wait times were longer than my actual traveling hours!

We left my Mom’s place on Monday, headed to my Aunt and Uncle’s house, 12 hours away (about an hour north of Myrtle Beach). We were finally off I-95, and a little under 2 hours away from my Uncle’s house when the day got… Interesting.
Someone headed in the opposite direction, hit a deer. It CORKSCREWED across the road on the ground. I saw it out of the corner of my eye, coming out of the pitch darkness. It passed behind the car I was driving, and SQUARELY under the front of my Mom’s car- RIGHT BETWEEN the tires. There was NO WAY for her to have avoided this deer. We pull over, in the super dark South Carolina night (it was about 9 pm). Her airbag deployed, but she is otherwise unharmed. A guy pulls over to check up on us (and maybe scope out the dead deer). He waits with us for 3 HOURS while we sort out AAA and a tow truck. We finally get to my Uncle’s at 1:30 in the morning.

Tuesday we intended to spend in North Carolina anyway, a bit of a reprieve from the drive. Instead of just hanging out, we made a ton of phone calls about the car. But did manage to go to the beach for an hour. It was cold. I made arrangements to fly home on Wednesday, instead of drive to her house and have my family pick me up on Thursday. She’s leaving her car at my Uncle’s in the interim- all things considered, the damage isn’t THAT bad. My Uncle says its fixable, and the insurance appraiser agrees. She doesn’t want to go find a new car, she wants HER CAR drivable. She still has my Dad’s car she can drive, but is not thrilled because it sits lower to the ground than hers and getting in and out is more difficult for her.

But now, I’m FINALLY home and plan on staying as such for as long as possible. I have been able to finish some patterns on my trip. Knit: Wet Your Plants (socks), Mitty Mitt Mittens, Flow Drop (hat). Crochet: Cozy Neighborhood Vibes (cowl). SO I can FOR REAL start releasing them. Its going to be a busy couple weeks with patterns- so STAY TUNED.