My dad is in the hospital. Well, technically, he's home as of noon today. He went in Sunday night with chest pressure and a headache, and ended up yesterday in the CVICU with a hematoma and a stent (and a lot of stuff happened in between, but we won't get into that now). The good news is that he is okay and he got in in time to avert a heart attack (one artery was 99 percent blocked over an inch-plus). The bad news is that he has another artery blocked about 66%, and will likely have to repeat the angioplasty in a month or so.
The whole situation was kind of surreal. I had been through the scenario twice before with my father-in-law, so I knew what to expect and could reassure my family about what would happen. So while I was confident that my dad -- an Energizer bunny of a man who keeps going and going and going and... -- would come through the procedure okay, I was trying to deal with the realization that I'm entering a new stage in my life, and this is likely only the first in a long string of visits to the emergency room, the hospital, and the ICU.
Of course, spending two days in the hospital should have afforded me a ton of time to knit, and in fact, it did. But I didn't get as much done as I would have hoped (isn't that always the case?). I did finish the back piece of "Sally's favorite summer sweater" and it is so boring that I could not imagine jumping right into the front. So instead I started on a simple diagonal belt made with 24K that I admired at my LYS, Yarn Dogs. It's quite cute, but on size 7 needles, it's going to take a while!
Anyway, the repetitive nature of SFSS and the 24K belt were enough to calm my nerves -- especially when I dosed up with a shot or two (or six) of KnitCast, my favorite podcast (in fact, the only podcast I listen to). Marie Irshad's smooth British radio voice just soaks into my skin and soothes me. If you haven't listened yet, give it a shot. She's awesome. I particularly enjoyed her interview with Stefanie Japel of Glampyre Knits who was just so entertaining and down-to-earth without being boring or affected. Yea, Stefanie!
Well, my mind's a bit scattered today, but I will say that knitting can soothe the savage soul. Or something like that.