- Five days on the road now
- Currently in Georgia, tomorrow in a state park in Florida, in Panama City
- Been pretty chilly
- Tour director says if we stay in the rv it has to be without water
- Pipes freezing etc.
- Mommy doesn't do no water
- So it's been road side Comfort Inns because they take multiple dogs no problem
- Have Miss Daisy with us and Birdie, my son's dog who is on to relocation in Austin
- At night I go and walk the treadmills in the hotel "exercise rooms" to unkink
This is the team as documented by the tour director whenever I leave the room at night:
- No need to ever ask me why I have a dog
- Who says older women are invisible?
- Do you know it is possible to order a significant amount of fabric on an iPhone with a dog wrapped in a blanket on your lap
- With a pillow on that lap
- The blanket and the pillow and the head under my elbow is so someone can pretend she is not where she is
- Hang on guys
- We're parking soon and Benny is at the other end of this trip Birdie
- You just hang on
- Listen
- Whatever are the Big Four going to do?
- Four pattern companies now owned by one entity
- So many patterns that already look identical
- I am waiting for the call
- Even got my phone plugged into the front of the car just in case
- Waiting for them to call and ask me what to do
- You'd help me out
- Well, I would say, maybe you can start with the instructions
- Like stop telling new sewers to staystitch knit necklines
- Or make basting stitches and ease in sleeves in T shirts
- Try writing the word serger in
- And stop listing "faille" as a suggested fabric on the back
- You don't even remember what that fabric is
- Admit it
- And how about not having all the coats unlined so a sewist has to figure that out herself
- If Google doesn't stop changing sewist to sexist
- I may just have to stop Googling
- That would show them
- I'm going to be adding to the list all night in my head
- Of what the Big Four should do
- In case they find where they put my number
- My husband did a DIY security system
- An iPhone and thermometer pointed at the front door from the inside
- He gets an alert when someone moves and he checks it out
- Did that man duct tape this to my china cabinet
- Don't even have to ask
- Best not to picture that
- So far we can report that the relatives are coming and going
- As expected
- Some are studying in the quiet
- Some sleeping over after concerts
- Is that mail on the table?
- Decided he isn't going to respond to the alerts any more
- Turns out home security is a violation of privacy
- Do you know that instead of packing enough underwear
- I packed enough fabric to make enough underwear
- I am pretty sure I am going to get a cowboy hat in Texas
- Miss Scarlett says sure Babs just don't say my name out loud when you wear it
- She is growing up
- Kind of too bad
- Her sister and brother will think I am beyond cool
- 6 and 3 are good ages
- Gee I love these trips
- Except the no kids part
- Apart from that every minute of it
- The truck stop where they pack up six rolls with two chicken pot pies to go
- Two days' supper out of that one meal
- The fact I know every place a dog can pee between the giant plastic peach in Georgia and the Canadian border
- Seeing other's peoples homes flash by my window
- What are their stories?
- This week it was 25 years since my wonderful dad died
- On the exact anniversary the phone rang
- He won a prize from the gas company
- His name is still on the bill
- A quarter of a century later he is still lucky
- A sign says my mother
- Of course this is dad
- Kind of comforting
- Next week going to fly back to Winnipeg for her 90th
- Having a party
- Here's a list of my friends she said
- Over a 100 people
- Turns out nearly all can come
- We are renting extra coat racks
- You've been to Winnipeg in January?
- Those policemen on Portage Avenue still wear buffalo coats?
- If they do we are going to need those coat racks
- I think we had better roll some extra sandwiches too
- We are all wearing fascinators
- Google it if you are too young
- And if you are still Googling
- Not out in protest
- Haven't worn a fascinator since we put on white gloves for church
- And felt particularly fasicinating
- About 800 years ago when I was 8
- Apparently 90 feels the same as 8
- Kind of comforting too
- And to finish, another picture
- The one I told my daughter I wouldn't show
- She's far away right
- Jalie's wonderful pyjama pattern on Christmas morning in some nice thick flannelette
- Pretty beautiful daughter for someone who was up early with three kids I thought:
- I never looked this good when it was me