What a Hoot

I'm waiting for the UPS man. The UPS man should be bringing me a box. In that box, should be a cord. That cord should, and it better, fit into the back of my laptop. We have been sans laptop for just a few days, but it seems like an eternity. You see, I usually use the laptop to update this blog, because the monitor on our pc is old and getting dim. In fact, I can't really tell how the photos (taken by a camera whose batteries are threatening to die at any moment, by the way) on the last several posts actually look on a non-old, dim, crusty monitor. So, I am waiting for the UPS man.

The Honda Hoot came to town yesterday. What is that, you ask? It's an annual event that the Honda company organizes for people who own Honda motorcycles. They've been coming to the Smokies for several years now, and stay in Knoxville. They come, by the thousands, from all over the country, to ride in this truly gorgeous area. They get to choose from several different activities over the course of four days. We're on the list. Around seven or eight hundred of them descended on our town at around 11:00 yesterday morning. They got to sight-see and partake of a big 'ol country dinner catered by the only "real" restaurant in town, which has the best food for miles around here. The town makes it into a mini festival for them, complete with local vendors, speakers from historic state and national parks, and demonstraters. That's me!

I had a good time, I met some very nice people, and got to share something I love with other people who were actually interested in what I was doing. I've heard other spinners say that they get more interest from men when they spin out in public. It's funny, but somwhat true. Though I had plenty of women stopping by, the men seemed to linger longer. They were interested in the mechanics of the wheel, what made what happen and each step it took to get from sheep to finished product. The women commented more about the softness of different fibers and how they wished they could spin or knit. I met a very nice father/daughter combo from California who were riding together on one bike. The daughter was a pretty, elfin-like girl, with pixie-like, dark hair and big eyes. She has leukemia and taught herself to knit from a book during a lengthy hospital stay. Some folks came back a couple of times to check on my progress (how full my bobbin was). One man came back and asked if I sold any of my skeins, because he thought handspun would make a nice gift for his mother back home, who is a knitter. I hadn't planned on it, but I managed to find a couple I could part with. It was really nice. I was set up next to a high school lad who was drawing caricatures. I didn't realize that they still made teenaged boys so nice! What a great kid. We helped each other out, and when I wasn't looking, he had drawn a caricature of me and hung it up behind him to advertise his business! Lucky for him it was cute and not unflattering.

So today, though I was thinking about dyeing some silk,I think the most I'm going to do is knit, spin and think about what to make for dinner, before I have to sing tonight. Yesterday, was leftovers of the totally countrified supper I made the night before. Soup beans, cornbread, cole slaw, fried chicken and fried green tomatoes! Yumm-ay! Tomorrow I have a leeetle gig at a leetle local radio station.

Oh, have you seen this? I saw it awhile back and thought it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It's a glass spinning wheel, in motion, on YouTube! Incredible!

Do kitties get the blues?