“No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,/ No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, – November!â€? -Thomas Hood

I’m having a difficult time remembering the last day I saw some sun poking through these heavy November clouds. I know it was sunny early on election day, but it didn’t last long because it was overcast by the field hockey game. What a huge contrast from the glory days of October. October was so nice that I forgot about the dreary days to follow.

My November started on a cloudy day in Vermont. It was a week ago when LFG and I loaded up my van to head to Brattleboro for the Southern Vermont Fiber Fest. We had a pretty good day! I liked selling my fibers at an event — it was nice to get out and meet people and chat fiber. The morning was pretty busy with the foot traffic slowing a bit after lunch. We had tables in the back, right in front of all the American Legion flags actually.

There were quite a few vendors there selling all sorts of fibery things fromspinning fiber to yarn to hats to sweaters and jewelry. A very pretty table belonged to Cheryl Flett from Cheryl Avenue. She had gorgeous felted items including vessels, necklaces, bracelets, and a whole troupe of Santas.

She has an etsy shop at www.cherylavenue.etsy.com in case you would like to see more.

After the Fiber Event, LFG and I returned to her home for some dinner and rest before we headed back to Brattleboro for the Witches Ball. Even though she didn’t win the scariest costume prize, I think that she had the scaries costume of all – at least I kept having little fright attacks every time I looked at her! Yes — you guessed it! She went at Sarah Palin and she was good too. In order to gain entry to the ball we had to explain her away as being the “Wicked Witch of Alaska.” The Ball was a great time. A few highlights include belly dancing, LED hula hooping, dream analysis, some pretty good wine from South America, and Tarot Card reading. Here is a photo of us (which I just stole from Spinning Spider Jenny’s blog) followed by LFG’s solo performance as S.P.

Sunday was my driving home and recovery day though I did stop at the Brattleboro Coop to stock up on some healthy groceries and later in the afternoon we made our first attempt at making homemade mozzarella cheese.

Monday. Hum, I forgot what Monday was for. That was the day before the election and I must have gone to work. Oh, yes, now I remember. I made salad in the morning for K’s Pasta dinner and then went to work. Was it sunny on Monday? I don’t think so. Would that be 3 days of clouds and rain thus far in November?

Tuesday. Election day! My dad and I went to the polls. It was sunny! My mom worked at the polls all day so we saw her there doing her thing. Her job was to directed people to the correct line (as our town has a split district) and to answer any questions. She loves that stuff. Her “day job” is a food demonstrator so you can imagine she is all sorts of people person. I went to work early so that I could make it to K’s field hockey game at 2. Her team won their league and they are now in the state tournament. K is even getting to play in these games. She has come a long way since the beginning of the season.

I still have to master the art of taking good field hockey photos and the weather was bleck, but here she is number 7! Next week they play in the state semifinals!

Wednesday. What a crazy (and cloudy) day. It was my first “catch up” day at home and my list was long. I didn’t even turn on my computer. I did all sorts of things like changing out the summer/winter clothes, making yogurt, vacuuming, doing some of the more obscure laundry like winter coats. I was cruising. I was happy. I had all the TVs on in my house so I wouldn’t miss a moment of the news and another opportunity to see a tear-jerking moment (The View, did you see The View?). Then in the early afternoon, my mom calls. and my dad is sick. I quickly took a shower and headed next door. When my dad gets a fever, it means a trip to the ER, so we called the ambulance and they took him to our local hospital. After a few hours there he was sent to Hartford.

Thursday. Thursday we waited to see if they could find out what was wrong with my dad. I thought that it might be a return of the past infection he had picked up when he had his heart valve transplant but my mom insisted it was different this time. It was cloudy and rainy. I had lunch with a couple of Mad Knitting friends which was very nice and then I went to work. I was tired and it was 82 degrees at the library. 82 degrees is too many for me and did I say that I was tired? It was a long night.

Friday. Cloudy again. I went to my first Library conference. It was a day of seminars just for support staff. It was good and I learned a bit. My favorite session was reader’s advisory. Dave drove me and when he picked me up we went to Hartford to see my dad. My mom had talked to Dave earlier in the day and we knew his diagnosis. Ehrlichiosis. My mom was right, it was different this time. If you don’t know, Ehrlichiosis is a tick borne disease which can cause mild to severe symptoms. My dad, guess what: severe. When we arrived at the hospital, his fever was starting to break but he was pretty out of it. It was a difficult visit, a difficult ride home, and a difficult night.

Saturday. Yet still cloudy and rainy. The girls and I started the day by watching Josie and Pussycats. Odd movie. Then cleaning and then friends over. We have double the female teen/tween population in our home for the night. Now, I’m writing this never ending blog entry and trying to make arrangements to get K to Hotchkiss School for field hockey practice tomorrow. She has field hockey practice an hour away from home in the opposite direction of Hartford Hospital. So far the only ride I have found is with a senior and as a freshman mom, I’m not sure if I’m ready for that yet. The report on dad is that he is doing much better today after starting his treatment and was even sitting up in a chair for a while! Maybe I’ll sleep tonight.

I believe that leaves the sun tally at 0.5 days or 6%. November is not my month.

I’m not really that late, just a little late, and it is mostly due to my intense disdain of things having to do with packing.  Yesterday, I went through all my fibers and other products to put on the prices and other finishing touches, it is the personal packing that really gets me!  Anyway that stuff is all boring, here is the fun stuff- some of the rovings coming with me to Vermont today!

I made an inventory sheet for tomorrow and I have 83 items that I am bringing with me. They include roving, yarn (even some undyed), fiber batts, hats, and tie dyed shirts.  I hope if you are in the area you will stop by.  I have about 40 little samples to hand out too.  Well, I guess just in case you haven’t been here lately, I should add that tomorrow is my first fiber event!  I’m going to be selling my Spincerely yours, stuff at a table with my sister, LFG and Cathy from IBIWISI Alpacas at the Southern Vermont Fiber Event in Brattleboro, VT.  You can click here for more information.

Besides the fiber event, I’m looking forward to spending the weekend with my sister. Tomorrow night we are going to a “Witches Ball” with her lovely fiber friends.  I threw some stuff in a bag that will hopefully assemble itself into a costume with her help.

IHA is staying home and playing Mr. Halloween tonight.  Mostly, that involves shuttling children around.  He may actually end up putting on more miles that I do on my way to VT!  This is all good though as he is a much better Halloween parent than I am.  Just the thought of them eating all that candy puts me in a really bad mood.  I do wish you all an excellent weekend though and I won’t bore you anymore with my Halloweenie ba-humbugism!   If I don’t see you Saturday at “The Event,”  I’ll see you around the blogs (and ravelry, and facebook…) next week!  Happy Halloween and Happy Fall Back!