Blizzard!!

So the blizzard of December 2010 has come and gone.
With DH still recovering, it was up to DD#2 and me (mostly DD#2) to keep a path cleared for Rocky. She set an alarm for 3 am to dig- and could not open any door!
A pictorial story of what we found today when we awoke.





Our only hope, until the guy with the snowplow we hired comes:

Needless to say, DH did not make it to the surgeon's office this morning (bit of a concern, since his recovery is going a bit slower than it should). Intrepid DD#2 managed to squeeze out through the garage, where the snow wasn't piled as high. She dug a path and led Rocky out and back to the house.

On the knitting front, I finished the body of DH's Aran vest; it's blocking as I type. Also finished is one Twining Leaves Lace sock. Today is a good day to do the second one; wouldn't want a case of second sock syndrome now, would we? No indeed.

On a more personal- and sad- note, yesterday my brother told me that my mother is now in hospice care at home. I've been wrestling emotionally with my mother's decline for nearly 2 years now, but it doesn't get any easier. The daughters and I have plane tickets to see my family in LA in 3 weeks. I may go out there sooner. LA never seemed so far away as it does now.

Back from the West Coast

We're back. LA rocked and rolled during last week's magnitude 7.2 quake (courtesy of the Laguna Salada fault). You could surf in my brother's swimming pool, the waves were that high. But look at the view along my parents' walkway (above). And this is the sidewalk in front of my brother's house:

Hard to resist, eh? This was the first time in 30-odd years I found myself thinking about living again in California (lived there twice; moved from there twice). But when the earth trembles, I stop sleeping. And when I stop sleeping, I remind myself about all the reasons not to live in LA.
Thank you readers who sent wishes for my parents. I appreciate the good thoughts. My mother has age-related degeneration, and unfortunately will only get worse. My father, thank G-d, is doing better.

On the knitting front, my sister-in-law was enchanted with the Shetland Triangles shawl. My 5 year old niece now wants one, in pink (of course), with beads (naturally). Any excuse for me to buy more yarn (as if I need excuses, right?).
Carefree's parts are done; I need to put them all together and pick up/knit the neckline stitches and it is done. To keep myself sane during the flights, I bought some wooden circular needles and started another Evelyn Clark shawl out of some Jamieson's Shetland fingering weight (Spindrift) I had in stash. I have no idea who will get it. Too bad it's blue (official name of color is Twilight). Evenstar needs to have clues 4 and 5 knitted; today would have been a good day to get a move on except my house was looking very neglected. So I cleaned it: Three bathrooms. Polished silver. Waxed furniture with hard wax. My hands asked for a break after that. I'll take photos the next chance I get (I have about 150 photos from LA to upload, annotate, crop, and fiddle with first).

I'll leave you now with one more shot of LA: down the block from my parents' house.