all over the place

danger! danger! will robinson!
I began this post 4 or 5 hours ago and was happily typing away when my laptop got extremely hot. To hot to touch. Then it stopped working. We managed to remove the battery and disconnect everything and I made an emergency call to the computer guy who suggested I buy a fan at Walmart. Then remembered that HP had sent a notice a few months ago. Something about a battery recall...and danger...and fire. Uh,oh. Once I saw, in a Napa Valley gallery, an old typewriter with flames rising from its platen - I imagined how my laptop would look as flames engulfed it. Not a pretty sight. So now I'm safely typing away on my cheap/reliable netbook and hoping things will turn out okay. Tomorrow is another day.

back to the sea?
My father's greatest joy was fishing and he kept a little hand written sign pinned over his desk:

red sky at night, sailor's delight

red sky at morning, sailor take warning

I remembered it at dawn this morning when the eastern sky was ablaze. I didn't think it applied to the southwest mountains the way it did for northeastern waters, but by afternoon our gorgeous balmy weather had turned to a cold gusty tempest with skudding clouds and fading sun.

over the top?
Preparing for Santa Fe tomorrow for a visit with a friend and a showing of some handknits. It forced me to open the box I've been tossing finished socks into all year. Twenty-one pairs! It seems I'm already prepared (sockwise) for the Yuletide Fair at end of November.

To Do lists are cluttering up the desk and kitchen table and Ron is watching a Dracula movie and maybe I need to join him and use it as an excuse to settle in, get scared, and finish the mate of the single sock I photographed on the Pacific beach two weeks ago. Where did the time go? When will I return? Too many questions tonight. Too much uncertainty.

the attention we pay to the small, often mundane tasks of life
can make the difference between a life of drudgery and a life of joy
(slightly paraphrased from Bernadette Murphy, Zen & the Art of Knitting)