The buzz of chainsaws and sound of hammers (putting up fallen fences) is a constant background noise to life right now, at least when it's not raining. It's freaking raining again. I feel so awful for the people with the trees on their houses - like Charley wasn't bad enough, to add insult to injury they've had a few more inches of heavy rain in the hole in the roof. I'm feeling even more lucky after I walked Murphy one block in a different direction and saw a tree on a neighbor's roof. Lots of trees are down, even in my "lucky" neighborhood, they are blocking roads and sidewalks, but thanks to the wonder of underground utilities we have electricity and cable. As one of the neighbors said, she felt guilty buying frozen stuff in Publix today, next to people who were in search of ice and grateful for the store's A/C. It just occurred to me that I don't know if my office building has power or not, I assume it has, so I'll show up for work tomorrow.

I've almost finished the blue Constant Companion with the Shrek Green stripes - I can't decide if I love it or hate it, but right now I love it. It's just funny how it started out as this vision of a soft, Monet-like color scheme, yet while I was knitting it said "Screw Monet, I want Shrek!" It's mostly blue with three Shrek-green accent stripes, I think it will be classy but not too loud. At least I hope so. I'm on the first of the endless I-cord straps, it should get felted by Wednesday. Maybe by Wednesday there will be enough natural light to take pictures.

Boy's car wasn't seriously damaged by the falling trees, just scratched, he considered it all a great adventure - he and his friends stood outside drinking beer and watching the eye pass overhead. His little old house rode out the storm in fine shape, it survived Donna 44 years ago, we figured it could do this too, and it did.

Meanwhile, up in Tally Girlchild and her friends are moving into the townhouse, and she absolutely loves it - the guys are doing all the heavy lifting and she's organizing and putting away and making detailed shopping lists for supplies. The house sounds great - new carpet, new appliances, an icemaker in the fridge, it's a house, not the crapola student rental stuff she's lived in for three years. I'm glad she gets to spend her senior year in civilization. And even more glad that she's splitting expenses with two roommates and it will save me money.

Oh, and just for Amie - Girlchild met and fell in love with the most adorable pit bull this weekend, it belongs to a friend of hers. Some idiot woman got a very expensive, high quality purebred dog and proceeded to chain it up in the yard and neglect it for the first 7 months of its life. He hadn't even had any shots, was fed adult food instead of puppy food, and it's a minor miracle he didn't die of heartworms, rabies, distemper or simply malnutrition before being rescued.

I'm sorry, people who do this to dogs should be put in jail - if they'll do it to an animal, they'll leave Grandma helpless in her bed. Laziness and casual cruelty are seldom directed only at animals. Anyway, her friend rescued the dog and it is a testament to the true character of the pit bull that today he is a total baby/big wuss/gentle teddy bear. Girlchild reports she had an 80 lb. pit bull on her lap, nibbling on her ear - he loves women (despite his horrible experience with his first mommy) and he's impeccably behaved and so well socialized, he's a beautiful sweet dog. Such sweet, intelligent dogs, with such bad reputations because morons who don't deserve to own a gerbil take a big powerful protective dog and then neglect it and make it unhappy and fearful and defensive. Then they are baffled when it jumps a neighbor's child - "He never done nuthin' like that before!" And the breed gets a bad reputation, which makes vicious morons who want nasty dogs get them and make more of them nasty, and on and on it goes. It's happened to just about every big breed, any dog can become mean and nasty. I've even met nervous nasty Goldens, and I'd have said that was impossible.

Yorkies have bad reps as nervous, nippy, nasty little yapperdogs, because people screw them up. People who have had bad experiences with Yorkies always act like Murphy is some sort of wonder dog - he's not, he's a normal Yorkie who was raised to be a dog. He's still all terrier - he's stubborn, he's bossy, he'd love to be in charge, but I won't let him live the "It's Good to Be King" lifestyle he truly feels is his birthright. We have regular refresher lectures on "I'm the human, you are the dog." He doesn't actually believe this is true, but when he's told to shut the hell up and knock it off, he shuts the hell up and knocks it off - for a while. He's sweet, social, friendly to every living creature he encounters, he's a happy dog without a nervous bone in his body. Dogs and people have inherent personality traits, but environment shapes them into either functional members of society, or...not.

I'm planning to go see Girlchild and the new house over Labor Day weekend, and since I have been very very good on my Yarn Diet, I will make a stop at Fay's Needlecraft Boutique on Apalachee Pkwy, fer sure. Bags and bags of yarn, ceiling high, oh yeah! The last time I went there, a year ago, I was unprepared and didn't have any idea what to select from the riches spilling off every shelf. Now that I know better I will go with a plan and spending money. I'm thinking lush poncho stuff. I have lots of yarn in my stash but it's mostly "practical" - good for basic sweaters and charity knitting, but very lacking in lush handpainted luxuries for shawls and ponchos and the like. Must adjust the stash.