Disasters with yarn: And none of it was yarn

I had this whole entry planned out in my head--it was called "and half of it was yarn" and it was all about the last few days. The things I had in mind were: Some new yarn I bought, progress on the shrug, my answer to a question proposed for a luncheon I was invited to ("bring an item from your shelf or wall and be prepared to share why it is treasured with the group") and My velcro project.

Sadly, I feel like the day is waning and dinner must be made soon, so I'm going to table three of those and just go with the last one.

I run. I would say avidly, but not um expertly. Let's call me an advanced beginner. And when I run, I like to have my gear: my fitbit, my road id, my heart rate monitor, my ipod, and my phone. I should figure out how to combine the ipod and the phone, but that's neither here nor there. Lately, I've been leaving my phone behind because while I can hang everything else off my body, I have no solution for my phone. I have an armband and while I feel like my arms are flabby, they must in actuality be tiny because I can strap that thing on all the way to the end and it still slides off my arm. As you can see, the sticky part of the velcro is only at the end, so if you pull it far enough, there isn't soft stuff for it to hang on to.

Anyway, today, I learned that sometimes you need your phone, even if it is just to feel safe. You see Every time I run or walk, I notice people who didn't learn to drive the way I did. I learned--stop before the crosswalk (marked or not), look for pedestrians and bikes, proceed into intersection as needed to see cars coming. I learned to do the same for crossing your sidewalk pulling into or out of your driveway or any parking lots---LOOK for pedestrians or bikes on the sidewalks. Every day though, I see multiple incidents of:

(and yes, I realize that as a pedestrian, I look like I'm pretty far away, but she never ever stopped before rolling into the crosswalk AND she was on her phone the entire time--I'm not suggesting she wait for me but really--she could have seen traffic coming from behind the crosswalk. I was a little afraid taking this until I realized she too was on her phone-- I don't think she ever saw me--despite my getting to the corner as she pulled out.)

I didn't pick on this ONE person, this was just the first of no less than 6 incidents I saw just like this on my 1/3 mile walk to get my girls from school. 6. And it makes me mad. Today I hollered at one while I was running (earlier in the day than the picture I took), he hollered back and we ended up having a screaming match. So... while I have vowed not to ever let another ahem bad driver ahem make me lose my cool so effectively, I also decided maybe I had better start carrying my phone every time I run. Which means--time to make the armband fit my scrawny (and yet oddly flabby) chicken wings.