300

With this one, I have now posted 300 times to this blog. By my count I started about 650 days ago, so that makes just slightly less than a post every other day, even with a couple of decent-sized gaps in there. My numbers don't compare to Margene's, but I'm happy with them.

Except the part where I planned this post to happen a few days ago and it didn't doesn't make me happy. My ISP has had a few issues lately, including that several-day outage in December. As part of the fix they and the phone company have a program to change out a bunch of stuff for their DSL connections. Plus they had a big maintenance session planned. None of that went as well as hoped. In the past week we had, I think, four outages of our connection lasting from several hours to a day and a half. On the plus side, I think they learned that a web site no one reads routinely does not make the bed forum with which to notify customers of a planned service outage that will make it impossible for them to see said site. And that one person's middle of the night is another's prime work/web surfing/product shipping/research hours so it really helps to know of a planned outage ahead of time, especially when it lasts much, much longer than planned.

So,on something completely different, last Tuesday I rode that same bus, this time with my current sweater project. Since I spent the ride there and back picking up stitches to knit the neckband with the major part of the sweater still crammed in the knitting bag, I don't think many people on the bus had a clue what I was doing. But I got something I often procrastinate about done and done well enough to make me happy on the first try.

Then I set it aside until today. My hands got overworked at Madrona ( surprise, surprise) and needed some rest. And I had a pile of stock analysis I needed to do this week, despite not having a reliable Internet connection or a decent crystal ball. Fortunately, I had a stack of hard-copy analyst reports and Value Line charts to keep me occupied. Some of us actually find this stuff interesting.

I'm guessing I lost a few of you back there, but did you know there is a Ravelry group for knitters who make their living through some form of economics? (It's not very active right now - I guess everyone's busy with other things right now.) I met another Karen , who knew a friend of my friend Karen who was also at Madrona and over our Three Karens Who Knit lunch she mentioned the group. There really is a group for just about anything on Ravelry, including Knitters Named Karen.

Besides, pretty soon most of you will know more than you ever wanted to about economics if you don't already. You can start with the old joke about how if you put five economists in the same room they'd come up with six theories to explain current conditions - one wouldn't be able to make up his mind. Or my favorite, the one about how if you laid all the economists end to end they wouldn't reach a conclusion. Those are the kinds of jokes Economics professors told their classes in 1975. We needed the laugh then, too.

I took today off to clear my brain and to knit. My sweater now has both a neckband and a sleeve. Tomorrow it may have two sleeves, or at least one and a half. And I should have something to share besides my opinions on oil pipeline Master Limited Partnerships.

Comments

[akabini]

Congratulations!
(It's all about the numbers sometimes, in more ways than one.)
I've enjoyed every single one of the 300 - so let's hear it for 300 more!
Oh, and thanks for the lovely distracting sweater picture, right when I needed it. Master Limited Partnerships? Zowie. Think I'm glad I majored in literature.

[Vicki]

Happy 300!!

[Karen B.]

Three hundred is a pretty respectable number, Karen. Congratulations on reaching this milestone.

Having known some economists in my day, I really appreciate the jokes :o)