Busy, Busy, Busy

Bundles of Yarn
art print for sale at art.com

I'm busily hooking away at that gift I mentioned previously. I'll be able to say more about it after our gift exchange day Sunday. If I finish it that is. If I don't, it may become a birthday gift instead.

Meanwhile, I'm remembering previous Christmases and the general frantic tension of the days leading up to them and that led me to think of the poem I'd written on one such Christmas week and I thought I'd repost it tonight along with its explanation from my Monday Poetry #28 offering of two years ago:

Coverstory

by Joy Renee

Sorry, this poem does not relate.
I’m running a little bit late.
It’s already half-past eight
And I’ve got still to do
Many stitches times two
And the wrapping of seven plus four.
It’s got to be ready to go out the door
Not a minute later than one.
And I’m afraid I won’t get it done.
If I continue to fiddle
With riddle and rhyme
I am sure to run out of time.
So I’ll have to forgo my remarks
On the silliness of making
A thing for protecting
Worth more than that which it guards!

############

This poem was written in 94 or 95 to slip into the gift bag with a needle-pointed book cover for a paperback which I had been frantically putting in the last stitches on the morning our gifts for Ed's family were being picked up by his brother as they left the Longview area on their way to Phoenix, Oregon. We didn't get to go that year as Ed couldn't get off work, nor did we have a reliable car.

To see more of my poems go to the Poem Portal which is a post I update with Titles and links whenever I add a new poem. It's been over a year since I've written a new one tho. It's been on my mind to get back to poem writing ever since I updated my hard copy portfolio the first week of December with the twenty-some poems that existed only on Joystory and/or my hard drive.

I'm slowly getting my desktop on Ed's laptop swung around to my liking. I was able to download my licensed copy of WhizFolders Pro, my primary note organizer and early draft ap, directly from their site by signing in to their customer support area. So now it has all the bells and whistles not included in the trial version. Like spellcheck, a thesaurus and embedded objects including active spreadsheets.

I'm so glad I managed to get all my writing and other text based files backed up Sunday before the screen of my laptop gasped its last. I just wish I hadn't fiddled so long shuffling images and folders full of images around trying to figure which thumb drive to put what in. That's how I spent the last four hours of the screens life as it flickered and wobbled and dimmed. The last time I backed up the image files it took over two hours.

Ed's extended family living locally are gathering at a Chinese restaurant tomorrow late afternoon or evening. Our gift exchange isn't until Sunday evening after Ed's brother and wife arrive from Toutle WA. Yes the same ones who were in that accident in Montana last week that totaled their van.

I will be trying to squeeze in time with several books that were due at the library Tuesday that didn't get taken back because Ed was too exhausted to make a special trip over. There are more books due early next week too. I won't be finishing with many. If any. Besides the holiday prep and family stuff going on over the next several days, I also have to start preparing for my trip to Longview the following weekend--tentatively planned for Friday or Saturday.