Thinking In And Out Of The Box

The sun made a return today after days 'n days (or at least what seemed like days 'n days..) of rain.  However it was a weakly sort of sun, tentative even.  It felt rather watered down and seemed fearful that, at any moment, angry hordes of raindrops were going to attack.  I wasn't impressed.  And, quite frankly, it was too little, too late to have any impact on the headache that's been simmering in the back left corner of my brain for the last few days.  (a combination of allergies, low pressure systems and what can only be described as the weirdest sleeping patterns ever exhibited by a human being in recorded history)  

The headache came out to laugh at the sun's attempt at making an appearance.  In deference to its rather cavalier attitude towards what I might want to do with my day, I opted to stay home tonight rather than head down to Chicks With Sticks.  The Summer Of Compensatory Knitting Socialization (S.O.C.K.S.) program is rigid given that it is designed to reinstate social skills lost during the winter months in a relatively short period of time.  But it is not so unforgiving as to disallow sick days.  A little ibuprofen, some caffeine and maybe some hot compresses on the sinuses and I'll be as good as new.  

Besides, I really should be spinning anyway...

There has been a little stash enhancement at Casa de Sheepie, you see.  That Cathy...she's a marvel.  Even while cleaning up the last of the tornado evidence, putting down new floors that are quite impressive by any standards and reinventing the world of day lilies as we know them, she still finds the time to box up some fibery goodness to send eastward!  I don't quite know how she manages it all, frankly.  But, I'm not going to question it too much because I like that she does!

Lookee what I found in the mailbox today!

If that's not an embarrassment of riches, I don't know what is!

There's some of the "Firecat" (Rambouillet) that she is currently spinning and which I admired to the point of drooling on my keyboard when she posted pictures.  She also included some faun Shetland, a Karakul/Rambo blend, a little of that Alpaca/Silk combo that makes a spinner weak in the knees and rounded out the box with a healthy heaping of the Shetland when she feared that it wasn't quite full enough.  Can you stand it?????  Even my headache was impressed enough to fall back a few notches.

Another factor in my Nasty Noggin situation may very well have been the fact that Prometheus, The Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty has been rather "evident" today.  I spent more time than is good for any mother coaxing him out of cupboards where he was playing with the toxic cleansers, gathering up the refrigerator magnets that he thought might look better swept on the floor and hoisting him down from the top of that same refrigerator where he was lurking in hopes of finding someone upon which to pounce.  I couldn't imagine how he might react to the idea of a box in the house...especially one that contained fluffy sheep hair.

True to form, he did caper over to assist with the opening of the package and the fiber was given a thorough examination.  Given his devotion to yarn that is trying to knit itself into The Thing That Will Never Grow Up To Be A Sweater, I had some concerns.  These proved to be very much unfounded.  Sure, he was interested in the wool.

In the end, though...

He preferred the box.

SA