Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

2025, hobbies

My Sweater

Posted on October 26, 2025October 25, 2025 by nancyb422

I’ve been knitting on and off for about 25 years. I’m a little messy at it and have been known to make a sweater and immediately unravel it, wash the yarn to unkink it, and put it away.

I finally found a sweater with directions I thought I could handle. It is knit from the top down, which is my favorite because I don’t have sew anything together! That’s where I’m really messy!

It starts at the neck, you put in markers to indicate sleeve and front/back and then as you knit you make increases. Sometimes for front and back of each marker and sometimes one or the other, and at the same time are adding stitches for something else. All before it’s joined in the round! I had to write out each round on a piece of paper to make sure I got it straight.

What I also love about knitting from the top down is I can accurately determine how long it is in body and arm length. I have the shortest torso and arms around.

It’s funny though, the closer I get to finishing a project the slower I go because I’m afraid it’s going to be crap!

I was really happy when I tried this on after binding off the sleeves and knitting the collar trim. The yarn was a little thick and scratchy but once I washed it (in the machine on hand wash), it really softened up and it stretched a little but measured up pretty good when I set it down to dry.

I’ve started another in a nice dark blue DK yarn that I have a bounty of. I had a sweater in the same yarn but it got a hole and I didn’t know how to mend it so, I threw it out!

I like knitting because it keeps me busy while watching tv.

2025, leisure time

Saturday Morning

Posted on October 25, 2025 by nancyb422

I love sitting in my comfy family room chair on Saturday mornings drinking my two medium sized cups of coffee reading emails and watching the crazy birds at the window feeder. Today, they are particularly out of control –

Usually the birds sit on the roof above, but we’ve added a little “eyebrow” over the window which initially confused the birds but now they wait their turn on the side supports or the roof of the pergola. Or float in mid-air waiting their turn.

We have all the common birds of Connecticut: the house finch, tufted titmouse, northern cardinal, blue jay, mourning dove, field sparrow, and probably more. The cardinal family is particularly bossy, the mourning dove barely fits but can’t resist, and the blue jay is messy, and sometimes will allow smaller birds to share their space.

When it gets quiet at the feeder it’s usually because of this –

We’ve seen feathers around once or twice but I do love cats so it’s hard to hate him! When he’s elsewhere in the yard, he will give you that cat stare but meet up with him in the road and he will happily lay down and give you his belly to pet!

2025, Memories

38 Years of Life Together

Posted on October 12, 2025 by nancyb422

On October 10th, my husband and I celebrated the second of two anniversaries that were life changing for both of us.

38 years ago, on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend, I boarded a plane from Hartford Connecticut to my new home in Castro Valley California.

My boyfriend/future husband and I met on May 2, 1987 in the Monteiro Bay Jamaica airport. A girl from Connecticut and a guy from California who both made last minute plans for the same week at the same resort. What better place to meet than the back of a box truck selling beer, followed by a 2-1/2 hour bus ride to Negril separated by an aisle and a row with some flirting going on. How did we know?

Following the end of the week, we lived on letters and phone calls, a long weekend encompassing 4th of July, a family wedding reception in Connecticut, and a week long visit to California to become engaged and plan my move.

The day came quickly, and I said my goodbyes to my dad and twin sister at the gate and I boarded the plane.

2025, biking

My New Ride

Posted on September 27, 2025 by nancyb422

I have to go back to my last bike ride to explain my “new ride”.

We headed out on with friends for a ride on a beautiful Friday morning, September 12th. We met at the covered bridge in Colchester and headed out for a ride I’ve done before. It’s a good ride and I enjoy it the most out of the 3 different routes I’ve done.

It has packed dirt, country roads, paths through woods, and ferocious up and down hill, rocky forest roads.

There was a section the first time I rode that had huge puddles and I had to make a sharp turn between two trees that I didn’t make and fell into a tree! I didn’t get hurt just very muddy! Coming out of that section there is a steep, rocky (very rocky!) hill that I walked my bike up.

It was still muddy with huge puddles but I was able to ride up the hill! It wasn’t until I got to the top that I realized it was THAT hill. I did a little happy dance when I got off the bike. This is my favorite ride of all I’ve done and one along the shoreline is another favorite.

My bike, a Salsa Confluence, is a good bike but it’s designed more for roads and bike paths. There are no shocks in the handlebars and unfortunately the death grip I have on them along with bumping along over the rocks is wrecking my hands!

So….we decided to upgrade me to a Specialized bike because it comes in my size and it has shocks in the handlebar stem which will make it less painful going downhill over rocks. I hope!

Now I just need to sell my Salsa!

2025, life

My Lucky Day!

Posted on September 20, 2025 by nancyb422

Today I drove up to my college, Annhurst College in Woodstock, Connecticut for my 45th class reunion. I wrote about it here for a prompt on “what colleges have you attended?”.

It was a lovely hour and a half drive, part highway, part back roads. Once I got there, I checked in and then took some time to walk around the grounds which is now the South Campus for Woodstock Academy.

*I love that the building is called Annhurst Hall!*

I will tell you more about the day with pictures later but you want to know what made it my Lucky Day?!

My ticket was the first of ALL the raffle tickets pulled! I picked the BIGGEST basket there. All the items were from Maine – maple syrup, coffee, crackers, pancake mix, popcorn, potato chips, jam, soap – it was so heavy!

Then, just before lunch, I was getting ready to put the basket in my car so I could pull my chair closer to the table and then said they were drawing the 50/50 raffle. I set the basket by the door and sat down.

MY TICKET WAS CALLED! It was the first year they did this raffle. I won $175.00! Everyone was saying, “What?! She won again?”

It must have been that Holy Spirit shining down on me today. Or maybe because I was sitting next to a “Daughter of the Holy Spirit”? 😁 That was the order of nuns at our school, and I was sitting next to my former boss in the Admissions office, Sister Gertrude 😁

Whatever caused it, I felt truly blessed by my prizes and to be with the incredible women (and a few men) in the room today.

2025, life

Fri-yay!

Posted on September 19, 2025September 19, 2025 by nancyb422

I was so happy when I heard our weather forecaster mention the moon and Venus so close together this morning. I made sure to look up when I went outside.

I’ve been so good about NOT documenting my every trip outside but this morning brought me such joy

I love to capture the brilliance of the sunrise but the sun through the trees as it comes up is so special too. Many trees in our neighborhood are HUGE because they’ve been there in the 64 years I’ve been here.

I’m grateful for the trees and my neighborhood. It’s such a special place!

2025, life

Never Say Can’t

Posted on September 18, 2025 by nancyb422

The ant and the rubber tree plant, the flower (or weed?) growing out from the crack in the sidewalk, and this single lavender bud growing on a plant winding down.

All not taking can’t be done for an answer.

2025, Dreams, life

Interpreting Last Night’s Dream

Posted on September 15, 2025September 14, 2025 by nancyb422

Actually, it was a dream from early morning after I woke up at normal weekday time but fell back to sleep. That is when I usually have the strangest dreams!

Here’s what happened:

I’m somewhere with a group of people and there is another group of people (women) in another room. A young girl, Beth, is going to be performing(?) and I’m not sure how I feel about her. I don’t know how old I am in the dream.

I leave the table and when I come back, there is something, like a small poster, rolled up and secured with tape with Beth’s name on it. But not the shiny scotch tape, the matte kind that I think is for presents? Anyway, of course I have to open it! Inside there is a motor vehicle violations ticket and I think, “haha what did she get herself into?”, only to realize it’s a joke ticket designed to surprise her from the people she is with in the other room. They couldn’t have it delivered to the table she’s at, so put it on my table.

I roll the ticket back into the poster but now have no way to secure it because the tape won’t re-stick! Oh no! I leave with the poster in hand to find some tape, none….can I find an elastic band? I find one – it breaks. What about ribbon? I think I have ribbon somewhere. I find it but I can’t tie it without someone to hold it and no one is there. What do I do?!

I roll it super small. It’s all grubby and the edges mangled. I bring it to the table, only to realize everyone has left and her party is going to wonder what happened to it!

I run out to give it to her telling her I found it and yes, this is what it looked like when I found it!

Then I woke up….

My initial thoughts are feelings of jealousy and my “curiosity killed the cat” curiosity. Feelings of being left out, and lying to avoid confrontation.

Could it have anything to do with the fact I succumbed to yes, curiosity and read some Facebook posts and comments that irritated me!

Any thoughts?

2025, Gardening, life

Sunday Morning Walkabout

Posted on September 14, 2025 by nancyb422

Oh this weather!

The angle of the sun coming up over the trees and the subtle changes in the leaves just screams, “Fall is coming!” I don’t hate it. As a lover of sweater weather and “the chill behind the heat”, I’m here for it.

This morning I did a little walk around the yard and I noticed how one side of the steps is getting a little more Sun Love than the other side and it’s popping. One rose bush is budding all over the place and this little purple plant is blooming still while its other side of the steps counterpart is brown and sad.

This plant is part of the honeysuckle family (caprifoliaceae) of flowering plants. There are four “clades” (group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor – hey! Like genealogy) above the family name. The Genus is Scabiosa but the common name for members in the genus is Pincushion Flowers. (Wikipedia).

Thinking about honeysuckles, we had a tree in our yard and would pluck the flowers, pull the center out (like the little pincushion piece), and taste the (supposed) honey at the end. Was it really? I have no idea, I’m sure our dad told us it was!

Take a close look at the blooming and post bloom and you see the little “needles” sticking out.

“Scabiosa” makes you think of scabs right? How about Scabies? That’s because the herb’s traditional usage as a folk medicine was to treat scabies, an illness that causes a severe itching sensation. (Wikipedia)

In my need to limit my social media footprint (facebook and instagram), I’ve stopped taking daily morning pictures of my short walk from the house to our garage workout room but weekends give me time to really enjoy my yard.

In the vegetable garden, the okra Just Keeps Producing! My husband slices it length wise, mixes it with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasts it to a golden crunch.

I’m looking for at least 2 more months of backyard wandering.