I knit mainly in three places:
1) at home, while simultaneously watching (listening) to the TV or listening to a podcast
2) at SnB on Monday nights (I missed last week but I’m going tonight!)
3) in my car before work and during lunch break.
The past couple weekdays, I’ve found a new knitspot in one of the parking lots at the mall, down the street from my work. Normally I parked by the road but I didn’t like how many cars would go by, not to mention the public transit trolleys that *promptly* drove past every 5 minutes or so (though it was interesting to note their punctuality). So I found a new spot, it’s a little out of the way of traffic but not entirely secluded.
This morning I was sitting in my new spot, happily relistening to the latest L&V episode, when I noticed one of the grounds maintenance guys drive past on his John Deere riding mower.
ok, I see this guy every weekday. He usually drives past and I only see him for a minute or so. One time, several weeks ago when I used to park in *another* parking lot, I saw a girl chain her bicycle to a sign or tree or something by the parking lot. Mr. Riding Mower went up to her, and I literally heard them from several hundred yards away, arguing. I gathered that the gyst of the argument was that he was telling her she wasn’t allowed to leave her bike there, and she was saying that she worked at the restaurant across the street so she had to leave her bike, or something. They stood there for 10 minutes or so having their argument. Eventually, he rode away and after that, she unchained her bike and left.
So flash forward to this morning and me knitting on my sock. I saw Mr. Riding Mower ride *really* close to my car. As in, park next to me, albeit crookedly. More like pull up close to my car. I thought, great, what’s he going to do, tell me I can’t park here? Write me a citation?
So he gets out of his seat and doesn’t come over to my car, even though he’s RIGHT next to it. He walks onto the grassy area, looks at some tree trunks (???), glances over at me (yes I was watching, just to make sure he didn’t have some weapon or something; I was alone, after all, and even made sure my doors were locked JUST in case). He then walks a few paces over to ANOTHER tree and stares at the base of its trunk for a few seconds.
ok, at this point it’s obvious he’s not really looking at anything, so I get ready to move my car when he walks over to it. Whenever I sit by myself like that, I only leave the windows down a couple inches because I am uber paranoid. So he walked over to my side and says something like, “oh you’re ok parked here…you’re not in my way.” And I just said, oh ok. Then he got back on his mower and rode away. ???
ok, A) either he just wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing something illegal in my car all by myself early in the morning, or B) he wanted to play mall security and try to order me off the parking lot, which of course he ended up not doing. I did notice, however, that he saw me knitting my sock while he was talking, but he didn’t say anything about it. And if I was so “ok” being parked there, why didn’t he just ride on by? Why’d he stop and feel it necessary to SAY so? Oddness. The whole thing was odd, and not a little creepy.
I wish I had a more ideal place to sit and knit in the mornings, and now I’m thinking that the mall parking lot is not-so-ideal. Maybe I should migrate somewhere more well-populated, like the Wal-Mart parking lot down the street, or something. 
Wouldn’t want Mr. Riding Mower to think that he can drop by EVERY morning and disrupt my peaceful knitting, or something. eek.
Posted: August 27th, 2007 under Knitting, My So-Called Life.
Comments: 7
Remember this? This is my first stash photo EVER. It’s from September 2005. My *entire* stash fit into one basket.
