Ezra, Ernest and a Valentine’s Do-Over

Ernest Hemingway lost a valise containing valuable original manuscripts–or so the story (maybe apocryphal) goes. Ezra Pound assured him the stories were in his head and the rewrites would make them better.

This makes me feel better any time I lose something that requires a do-over.

We were invited to a friend’s birthday party December 30. I wanted to give C. a knitted hat, but with too little notice, holiday projects, and travel, I didn’t have enough time. By mid-January, around the time we finished the New Year’s cleaning purge, hat and scarf were ready.

When we cleaned the garage we packed Gary’s car for a junk drive. On the Saturday he was taking the load, he planned to go to a rehearsal for a play C. is in, so I put the gift bag in his car to give to her. You can probably see where this is going.

Next day I saw C. and asked if Gary had given her the bag. Her blank look made my heart sink. I told her it was probably in Gary’s car, but a search confirmed my fears–it had gone to the junk drive. I told C. “Some day we’ll laugh about this, but right now I may cry.” I took the blame, telling my husband I should have called his attention to the bag and reminded him to hold onto it.

Coincidentally, C. knew the people running the drive and she contacted them to see if had turned up, emailing me several pictures of really pretty hats and scarves that were not the ones I made, which makes you wonder how many hand-knit items end up in junk drives.

Tonight we are going to the Valentine’s performance of “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” (for which I designed the post card and poster)

I’ll finally give the replacement gift to C. I like to think I made them better this time. The first scarf was a little too wide and not long enough.

Ezra would approve

 

 

 

 

 

We have had the coldest winter I remember in the 30+ years I’ve lived in Austin. Today’s forecast high is 83 degrees F. As I told C., just in time for warm weather. Maybe we’ll have another cold snap, and there’s always next year.