Bonus Feature

Yesterday Oscar didn't have to be at work until 12:30, so we got up at our usual time and spent a few hours exploring our new neighborhood. One of the first things we did was visit the fitness center.

Summit Fitness Center, Canton, Michigan

 The good news is that if I pick my path carefully, I can use the manual wheelchair to access the facilities. I cannot wheel myself up even a small degree of incline without risking permanent damage to my ill-healed hernia repair. Right now my weight lifting limit is just under 10 pounds. If I damage the remaining muscles that will plummet to 2 or 3 pounds. My primary doctor is also an internist who was able to warn me about this limit before damage was done. The surgeon that did the repair told me my limit was 20 pounds, and did not change it after my healing was botched. Again, I am so very grateful for my current doctor.
Anyway, the good news is a path exists. The bad but far from catastrophic news is that my endurance is lower than I have ever felt before. Remember before all this happened I used to hike up and down mountains for 12 hours at a time every weekend when I lived in Japan. It was somewhat of a disheartening reality check to fully understand how my overall strength has waned. Given my fibromyalgia I will need to be careful not to over do things, but after moving to the new apartment I will be using my manual wheelchair inside all day. That combined with making trips to the workout center with Oscar as back up should allow me to regain some of my stamina. We will begin attending the center in September.

Then we clocked the distance between the center and what will be our new front door. It was a bit over 4 miles, but a huge swath of it was without sidewalks.. thus being able to use the manual chair to travel in the van became very important (the ramp is too small for my electrical chair, which means I am unable to get it back on the ramp without someone spotting me. (there is 1/4-1/2 inch clearance on each side.) With the manual chair I can load myself up, drive to the center, work out, load myself back up and drive home.
At our current home there is no place I can park the van and access the ramp with the manual chair, so the handicapped parking at our new place opens up tons of opportunities for me to go around on my own. We need to get the van's brakes fixed, and I need to choose places without carpeting so I can get around easily but in essence, with the change of address great freedoms which have been lacking for a decade become possible.

As we drove around our new apartment complex I noticed some people with patios like ours have flower beds! This means the management is amenable to minor landscaping... this means we can have the huge overgrown shrubs that block our sunshine totally removed, and replace them with raised flower beds of a height I can reach them from my chair... this means I can GARDEN!!!!!!!!!!! and !!!!!!! for good measure.
Oscar and I will discuss what to plant over the winter, but just the thought of being able to dream about what to put in means that I will have a very cheerful winter indeed!. There is also lots of inside sunshine so I can have some flowers and herbs in the house, too. That I will start soon after we move in.

While driving back in the direction of current-home, we clocked the distance to Ikea and Michael's Crafts... less than half a mile! There is a short 1/2 block stretch where there is no sidewalk, but in good weather I can use the electrical chair on the grass and still get there. There is a cross walk over the only street I need to get across. (Yes Lynnie, I promise I will put a rhinestone studded whirligig on the back of my chair to increase visibility, even though I am really a lot bigger than a bicycle. :-} )

Before heading home we stopped at our local Coleman's which is a vegetable and fruit 'stand' (actually more of an open air building) There we picked up Romaine Lettuce and Asparagus that had been cut that morning  as well as some HUGE radishes and some lovely scented strawberries for Oscar. They also were displaying their (mostly) annual bedding plants. I took the opportunity to shoot some photos with my phone, and dream a bit. The double flowered impatiens reminded me that I used to take cuttings of that same variety and grow them over the winter to plant each spring (bottom photo, lower right hand corner.)Maybe I'll pick up a pot of them before they run out so I can start that tradition again... Something new to bring to our home along with an ivy plant I have had since February.

Progress is Promising

 Oscar and I spent much of the weekend delving into old boxes and an antique trunk full of memories, sorting and making decisions. It was rough, especially for Oscar who encountered the flag from his dad's funeral, the box he used for soap box derby (packed with dog tags and other Daddy memories) as well as his wedding ring from his first marriage. He lost his wife Kell so very young. All I could do was be there, listen and give hugs.
I am so proud of him. He took breaks from the intensity when he needed them then dove back in until we were finished. I know he is very glad that he was able to get through it. We plan to make a shadow box with some of his dad's things, and use some antique razors in a small bathroom display.
We also kicked around some ideas for displaying his favorite baseball-styled hats where they will be easy to use as well. Our goal is to find a way to display his collections and mine so that we can enjoy them more.
He has chosen some favorite tshirts loaded with memories that we will secure around squares of styrofoam and  mount to the wall. He also has a HUGE collection of many-sided dice made from interesting materials. I am brainstorming some kind of easily accessible display system where he can change out his favorites at will, and enjoy them much more than he can now while they are packed away in a tackle box.
Having greatly reduced our library, we will have more shelf space for such things.
Granted, our idea of library reduction may still be a lot of books for someone else.
We have:
My knitting/crochet/design/craft books
Oscars brewiana books
Our ethnic/religious/research/historical collection (including a 2-volume Oxford English Dictionary which we may sell.)
A really great collection of cookbooks, especially some antiques and some community cookbooks containing recipes our relatives contributed.
A few books that named me in the dedication (yes, I was and am delighted!)
Some 'Keeper' Magazines that need to be put in binders.
The books I am currently reading, and those waiting for reviews.

I imagine we will have books in just about every room :-}
We also (sparked mostly by Oscar) think we have figured out where Oscar can have a workspace in front of a sunny window in the main room yet able to be hidden when guests come.
I will also use the same general space for parking my electric wheelchair.
It involves (eventually) getting him a desk that folds up to look like a wardrobe or cabinet combined with something like a movable Shoji screen that will allow light through yet hide my chair from view.
Of course all that might change but it is very enjoyable thinking about it.

My job this week is to clean and bubble wrap framed items, including several photos of interesting relatives to hang in the hallway of the new place, which we will call the 'Rogue's Gallery'. Going through those photos was lots of fun, Oscar, his dad and his grandpa all have the same wicked twinkle in their eyes :-} I might also begin wrapping some small fragile dishes ready to pack.

I am coping better than I was late last week. Having a new home with freedom to come somehow makes the time spent in this home a bit more difficult. It helps tons to spend a little time planning how I hope to arrange our new home, and especially to think about the sun-filled windows and what plants we can grow inside and out.

Free Lozenge Stitch 10" Block Pattern

I like the wavy effect of this stitch pattern.

This subtly textured triangular lozenge pattern is
“… a traditional Italian knitting pattern of some antiquity.” (1st Treasury of Knitting, B. Walker)

Requirements:
-#7 needles
-80 yards Worsted weight yarn (sample used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed in ‘Indigo Heather’)
-2 stitch markers
-Gauge: 4.5 stitches per inch after blocking, in pattern stitch.

Designed for the requirements of Wool-Aid (www.wool-aid.org)

Free Swedish Blocks 10" Square pattern

I realized I have two other free afghan block pattern downloads that I have yet to blog! (bad blogger, no ampersand) This one is for a pattern called Swedish Blocks, again from one of Barbara Walker's wonderful Treasuries of Knitting books. It is quite a bit simpler than the Gateposts block, but interesting enough to keep me from getting bored while I knit. (A fate to be avoided whenever possible.)
The pattern is available HERE

Requirements:
-#7 needles
-80 yards Worsted weight yarn (sample used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed in ‘Indigo Heather’)
-2 stitch markers
-Gauge: 4.5 stitches per inch after blocking, in pattern stitch.

Designed for the requirements of Wool-Aid (www.wool-aid.org)

Free Thermal Stitch 10" Block Pattern

I have another pattern download for free on Ravelry, again made to fit Wool-Aid requirements.
I really like the simplicity of this stitch, so much so that I am knitting a 34" around sweater for Wool-Aid using mostly this stitch pattern. I have seen it by a few other names, and used in many pattern books, but it reminds me of long thermal underwear so that is the name I use.

The pattern is available HERE

Requirements: 
-#7 needles 
-80 yards Worsted weight yarn (sample used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed in ‘Indigo Heather’) 
-2 stitch markers 
-Gauge: 4.5 stitches per inch after blocking, in pattern stitch.

Happy Oscar Day

Oscar started his new job yesterday and came home glowing. He was treated with trust and respect (SO different from his former job) and was even encouraged to help guide a new student through their orientation. He did a wonderful job, to the point that the student wrote a message to the liaison expressing his satisfaction with Oscar's work. (!)  All the uncertainty of the past year was made worth it by the sight of Oscar's joy when he came home last night.

Surprise Resident

Oscar has been busy clearing out our garage with the help of our neighbor, Joe.
They encountered a hidden resident today, a Nursery Web spider that measured a just shy of 3 inches from end to end. Now that may not be big for warm places like jungles and parts of California but it is plenty big for Michigan! It was the talk of the neighborhood, and people kept coming up to look at the photo while it was still in the camera. Oscar had a good time telling his tale to young and old :-} At first we thought it was a wolf  spider but they only grow to a max of 1.2 inches or thereabouts. Anyway, whichever kind it is, it was BIG!

It's Official, We Have a New Home

Through serendipity, Oscar walked in to the complex where we will be living just a few hours after a completely ADA compliant apartment became available. The person who handles such things told him it is the first time an accessible apartment has been available to someone other than an existing resident of the complex, as most folks stay there a long time.
Yesterday we submitted our application and were officially approved. The apartment needs about 40 days of work to get it ready for us (the previous tenants literally dropped off the keys the same day we were approved) which will mean we will take ownership exactly when we wanted to, around July 1st. This gives us enough time to save some money from Oscar's first few checks and start our new life with a nice monetary cushion.
It also gives us all this time before July to pack, and two more months to shift our belongings and make certain we have everything we need, and only those possessions we love move with us. No more 'misc' boxes packed hastily for sorting later, this will be a thoughtful, deliberate rebuilding of our living space.
Some of my favorite things about the apartment:
-the main living areas including my 8' X 9' patio has a southern exposure, meaning I can make a garden's worth of plants in pots as well as having plenty of sun even in winter.
-there is a fairly large storage area off the patio where Os can keep his tools
-there are MILES of sidewalks that wind around the landscaping so I can get out of the house every single day on my own.
-the complex is very near stores like Ikea and Michael's Crafts, close enough I can take my electric wheelchair. By myself.
- The pool and jacuzzi in the complex have a gentle set of steps with a sturdy hand rail, so Oscar and I can go swimming and 'jacuzzi-ing' together. If I can find someone to move my chair after I reach the handrails, I can go swimming by myself, too.
-we will be living within 10 minutes of our dear friends Amanda, Scott, Sean and Isabella. (YAY! Godmother time!)
- the craft/study/workout room has plenty of space for both Oscar and me to work.
-it has room to utilize a set of Duncan Phyfe table and china cabinet my parents gave me and have been keeping until we found our home (they are likely reproductions, but made more than 100 years ago).
-I can also refurbish and rebuild a bookcase my great grandpa Kreider made to use in our new, spacious living room.
There are lots more things I look forward to, and I am sure I will find even more.
(the photo above is of the common room in the clubhouse... it has artwork featuring a sheep. For a knitter like me, that is a sign from God :-} )

My Kind of Guy

Seeing as it is taking me 3 days (so far) to recover from apartment hunting on Saturday, Oscar set forth today with a list of appointments I made with a marathon telephone session yesterday. We may have found not just a place that will 'do' but a very lovely new home. It is not finalized yet (still waiting to hear back on what floor covering choice I could make) but the complex itself is accessible and beautiful with lots of sidewalks I can use to enjoy the grounds, and coffee shops and stores likely close enough to get to on my own, too. Plus it is near our favorite local library. Just need to figure out if we can get the up-front money together in time.
Anyway, Oscar really came through, tramping all over the place with camera and mini-recorder for notes.
He is a very unique and special guy. I found some photos in my older files on my computer and got quite a laugh from the 'many faces of Oscar'. He is a joy :-}

Adventures in Home Seeking

Yesterday Oscar and I visited an apartment complex which is one of the few to state on their website that they have accessible apartments.
(We later learned more complexes have units, we just need to call around.) Back to our visit yesterday, we met with a lovely and charming employee and were let into a pleasant space with plenty of wheelchair room (provided we can remove the accordion-pleat closet doors that are a pain to maneuver in a chair).  In fact all the employees we encountered were pleasant, helpful and caring.
The ground floor apartment even had a lovely window vista of a corner of the property with only trees and grass within view, behind the patio.
Of course the door leading to the patio had a deep sill, impossible to roll any wheels over. Then there was the wall-to-wall deep pile plushy carpet, also a pretty big barrier to try and wheel around through. (sort of like hiking through thigh-high grass). The final nail in the coffin was the discovery that the building providing the only access to the much-touted heated swimming pool, 24-hour fitness center and 'community' room with big fireplace, wifi and comfy seating was totally inaccessible to wheels. No ramps, high door sills, 2-foot wide path edging around a pop machine to reach the 24-hour door (bordered by a 4 inch drop into soft ground). Yeah. We'll keep looking. We will be sure to communicate with the management that the reason we won't be gracing their establishment is their lack of ADA compliance in the public areas (and the plush carpeting in the accessible apartments. Can you say "Duh!"?.

Oscar Meets Tony Kanaan

Oscar is a volunteer for the Belle Isle Grand Prix. After a brief (3 year!) hiatus the race will be back on Belle Isle in Detroit this June. Last night was the Grand Prix Volunteer Association Kick Off party with guest speaker Tony Kanaan. As you can see from the photo, Oscar was thrilled :-} Oscar currently volunteers in the food service tent, but was invited to join the folks in On Track Services for next year :-}

On the way to the store... BIMBO BEAR!

Oscar's New Job!

Yes, you read my title correctly, Oscar begins his new job as a Mentor/Instructor for New Horizons on May 21st. And yes, the Otter Household is celebrating!

Sincere thanks to all of you for your support over the past 13 months, your words of encouragement helped more than I can clearly express.

Here's a photo of Oscar in his new suit :-}

Revised Cloud Pattern - photos

Just a quick update, Oscar had the penultimate interview for a job today, we find out tomorrow if he makes it to the final step. It is tailor made for Oscar's love of learning and teaching.

Mostly, though this post is to show you the photos of a redesigned pattern, one of the first I ever published. The yarn originally used was discontinued and I took the opportunity to 1. re-write the pattern so it has two options, one ruffly one not and 2: knit it up in two different yarns.

Here are the photos. As soon as I have a clear minded morning I will get some new patterns up! :-}