Saturday, May 27, 2017

Of hairdressers, horses, and other misfortunes

I go to see a hairdresser about once a month for a haircut and a touch up. At first, several months in Florida Keys away from my regular stylist seemed like a challenge to me. Then I discovered a salon in 15 minute walk from our place and promptly made an appointment there. After learning who I was and where I lived my new hairdresser asked a little bit unusual question : “So, what did you do with the stables?”
You see, the previous owners of our new property had horses and stables for the above mentioned horses.  At the moment of purchase these stables were already old and dilapidated. We don’t have any horses and didn’t need stables. On the contrary, we needed some space for a new house. So the stables were razed to the ground like all other old structures to make space for the new construction. I explained all this to my new hairdresser and thought that the topic of horses and stables was closed for good.  Yet, next time when I came for my regular haircut/touch up session, he asked again: “So, what did you do with the stables?”
I was a little surprised but then thought that he’d probably forgotten everything about our last conversation and said: “There are no stables anymore. They were razed to the ground"  
-  How come? – he asked with genuine surprise on his face. 
 - Because we don’t have horses, - I decided to be patient and explain the whole thing one more time.
If you think that it was the last time this topic came up in our conversations you are mistaken. He asked me the same question again and again; he kept asking it every time I saw him last year. And every time I restrained myself from a snarky or funny answer, didn’t even dare to roll my eyes – after all the guy was responsible for my hair – and repeated the same answer: “No more stables on our property… Because we don’t have horses.”
This year I was hoping not to hear about stables and horses again. In vain. We spent in Florida 7 months, and every time I went for a haircut I felt like in this old movie Groundhog Day – same questions, same genuine surprise. My Floridian hairdresser is a professional and he sees a lot of people on regular basis. He is used to have a small talk and remember pretty well all basic information about his clients (his memory about all other facts of my life is perfect). I don’t know why he cannot stop asking me about the stables and horses.
After a while I started dreading my monthly visits.Yet, every time I was too afraid to tell him anything back, even something along the lines: “I thought we covered this before” or “ I already told you that we don’t have stables because we don’t have horses”. I know. I am a coward.
Anyway, the reason I am writing all this is that I’ll be back to Florida eventually and am not sure what to do about the stables/horses situation. Here are the possibilities:
1)  Find another hairdresser (that would be farther from our place, and more time consuming)
2) Tell him that we did keep the stables and wait for his reaction. If he tells me something like “But you told me that you’d gotten rid of them” I could say “Then why do you ask?"
3) Tell him that we kept stables for zebras or giraffes that we are going to breed.
Which one from these answers should I chose? Any thoughts or suggestions? I would really appreciate your help in the matter.
In knitting news, I have nothing to show. Why? Because apparently when I move houses I become extremely distracted. Last year I was making my Blue disaster cardigan and it was such a disaster because I didn’t pay attention. 
This year I started making Pearls by Helga Isager from Rowan Fine Tweed. The pattern is amazing – very simple and clear. Yet, I didn’t have much time to really sit down and knit, so I kept knitting here and there till suddenly, when putting all parts of the sweater together, I discovered that the yarn that I was using was either from different dye lots or just different hues.
Imagine my devastation – the sweater was almost finished and I absolutely loved the result.
I couldn’t make myself unravel this garment. Instead I finished it and decided to dye it some dark color to cover the color variations. That is why I have nothing to brag about today. Because my wonderful, amazing, great creation died a sudden death during the process of dying. The yarn didn’t want to change color and just started disintegrating.  The whole thing ended up in a garbage bag. RIP, Pearls.  And now, after having tried it on, I want it really bad, and I want it in white!!!
Meanwhile, I turned 54, did some gardening and got all red, itchy, and scratchy from poison ivy, went to Boston, visited the famous Harvard University, came back, and started a new project. In that order.
 My 54th birthday - since there is nothing to celebrate, I didn't celebrate.
Boston is amazing, I'd love to be back and spend more time there.
I am not a big fan of gardening. We don't have much of a garden in Pennsylvania, just two flower beds. Not many flowers. Mostly beds. A lots of poison ivy though. 
My next project - a Japanese pattern. It is mostly ribbing and you know how much I love ribbing. So I had to make it. Hopefully, I'll have more success with this one. Yet, one never knows...