time

As the 2005 year draws to a close, I find myself thinking quite a bit about time.  Mostly because I have so very little of it to spend on fibery pursuits these days.  Abraham Lincoln once said that, "Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend".  Ah yes, and one should do so wisely.

One of the most interesting articles that I have read lately, was about the Leap Second that will be added to the world's clocks at midnight on the 31st of December 2005.  The original article that I read, mentioned the Tusnami of 2004, and how it had altered the rotation rate of the Earth, enough to cause an adjustment in the way the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) determines it is required to keep Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).  Futher reading into this subject provided for a few interesting hours of research and mind boggling thoughts.  I found a bulletin that was addressed: "To authorities responsible for the measurement and distribution of time"....and thought, wow, this is serious stuff.  I was happy to have it come to my attention that I would be getting another second to spend, and pondered ways to best use it...but then realized how many minutes I had spent thinking of ways to spend my second wisely.  I came to a conclusion that underscored what a good friend of mine once observed about me in the seventh grade...and that is, that I could never determine the shortest distance between two points.  Hummm....

So, anyway, I will be sure to adjust my timepieces properly, and advise you to do the same.  Since I do not own and GPS parafanlia, and most of my clocks are wound, this should not take to much time. (heh heh).

I have been working on making these felted footies for several members of the family.  They are cozy wool slippers, knit up and then felted in the washing machine.

The pattern works up very quickly, and you can carry several strands of yarn, on some large needles.  I brought the pattern at Countrywool.  I can make one of these footies in about 2 and 1/2 hours or by my time calulations 9,000 seconds.

In closing for the year, and in all seriousness....don't forget to go outside at midnight and look for Sirius.  It will be directly overhead, wishing you a Happy New Year.