Checkin' My Shoulder For An Angel.

Having been raised in a somewhat half-hearted Congregationalist tradition, I am not sure who the patron saint of Sheep might be. We were sort of more invested in who was going to be working the baked bean supper and annual craft fair. And, given a recent run of bad luck, I was pretty much pooh-poohing the idea anyway. Well, truth be told, the "bad luck" is really more the result of a few well-intentioned, but ill-timed decisions on my part. Nothing serious, but enough to keep me occupied for the past month or so.

I may be rethinking my position on the whole "luck" thing, though.

The plan yesterday was as follows: Go to work. Leave at 2:45. Go to Job #2. Work some more. Grocery shop. Go home. Normally I stay at school a bit later, but I have the luxury of choosing between two different schedules and tend to pick the earlier departure time on Fridays so that I can get to the office a bit earlier. Yesterday, though, I had a staff member out sick and needed to stay later to cover the classroom. It was only 20 minutes or so, but I was mildly disgruntled. This was bad.

Except it wasn't. My staying the extra few minutes meant that when a brief, but major. storm ripped through the area (complete with reported funnel cloud) I was safe within the school rather than on the road. This was good!

Except it wasn't. The storm, in it's short, little life-span, managed to tear up the area quite handily and there was enough damage that my route home was littered with large trees and detours. I was another 20 minutes over my usual commute time trying to get through. This was bad.

Except it wasn't. Had I followed the original plan outlined at the beginning of the day and not been delayed by missing staff, Mother Nature and closed roads I would have been on the Maine Turnpike just in time for a 30 car pileup. It was, hands down, the worst accident scene I've ever witnessed. In the best case scenario, The Sheep would have no vehicle at this writing. Worst case? Let's not even discuss it...

I'm not even going to complain about the fact that an hour commute to my office ended up taking two and a half. I'm good...

Of course, this incident has sparked yet another raging debate between my Rational Mind and Hysterical Mind who seem to be getting more blog time than the knitting these days. Rational Mind is viewing the whole matter as a series of lucky coincidences and advocating that we be appropriately grateful and get on with our lives. Hysterical Mind is currently vacillating between two possible courses of action, the first being that we have used up a lifetime's worth of luck in one day, should don full body armor and never leave the house again. The other is a sort of half-formed theory that we are indestructible and should quickly go out and purchase tights, cape and mask so that we might begin immediately saving citizens from runaway trains and tax collectors.

Rational Mind and I are both somewhat frustrated by the amount of time we have had to spend trying to explain to Hysterical Mind the concepts of self-determination and the limits of the human body. It's been something of a long day...

Knitting continues on the Chevron Stripes Towel today despite my pondering the meaning of life and all. I am fairly close to the half-way mark but am making no promises with regard to an end date on this one. As much as I have enjoyed the actual pattern, I'm finding that my available needle choices are making the whole process a bit uncomfortable to knit for any length of time. Eventually, I will wander out and purchase something that is more conducive to the whole thing. For now, though, I'm stuck with what I have. As long as I don't attempt to knit on this project for extended periods, I'm good.

I'm not pushing my luck on much of anything for a little while here. We're going to let the mojo build back up a bit before we take any unnecessary risks...knitting or otherwise!

SA